Halliday's Theory Of The English Language

Improved Essays
It is impossible to get through a single day, without encountering language, whether it be written or spoken. Therefore, it is crucial to possess a comprehensive knowledge of how language works. It is important to not only know what words mean, it is also necessary to understand how words and phrases are strung together to make coherent sentences. This helps in comprehending the meaning of a text overall. Hence the study of linguistics is vital for understanding the ins and outs of the English language. According to Toolan, “appropriate linguistic terms and descriptions can articulate an inward understandings of the working of a language” (iix).
Amongst the numerous elements of the English language, there are terms called models of language.
…show more content…
Firstly, there is Malinowski in 1923 who categorised language into pragmatic and magical categories (Halliday,15). With pragmatic additionally split into active and narrative and relating (15). Whereas ‘magical’ was a term to label the language used in religious and spiritual activates or ceremonies (15). Secondly, in 1934 Karl Buhler divided langue into three groups, expressive language, conative language and representational language (15). Expressive language was used to referrer to language relating to the speaker, conative language was used for language directed at the recipient and representational language covered language that elated to the rest of the world …show more content…
That is the essential nature of a functional approach.” (Halliday and Hassan, 23).It is the field, tenor and mode that gives the audience context to what the text is about and how it fits into the social context it was created in. Consequently, now that a basic explanation of the field, tenor and mode has been given, this essay will examine a passage from Jane Eyre to put these functions into practise.
In chapter 24 of Jane Eyre, the majority of the text is a conversation between Jane and Mr Rochester. The mode of the passage is a novel. However the mode could also be seen as a written dialogue between two characters. In particular, it can be detailed further that the mode is that of a Victorian novel. This can be seen by the social cues in the dialogue This is straightforward enough but the field and tenor is more

Related Documents

  • Superior Essays

    As I sat down trying to decide what to write this analysis paper on, I couldn’t fight the urge to write it about Bertha Mason Rochester and the narrator from “The Yellow Wallpaper”. There are so many similarities. A misunderstanding husband traps each of them, they themselves are trapped, they are stuck in their own minds which drive them mad, and so much more. These similarities include the use of a gothic tone, a sense of male superiority, mistreatment of space, and the mental instability of women. In this paper I will analyze Charlotte Perkins Gilman’s “The Yellow Wallpaper” and Charlotte Brontë’s Jane Eyre and how two women battle their psychological behavior.…

    • 1869 Words
    • 8 Pages
    Superior Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Literature is often a vehicle for social change; nowhere is this more evident than the novel Jane Eyre by Charlotte Bronte. Demonstrating the issues of Victorian Era England, Jane’s journey inspired the masses in Britain and began to further the growth of feminism. In the same vein, Ralph Ellison’s novel Invisible Man is an expansion on the topic of equal rights among those with different skin color. The purposeful recreation of many similar themes, as well as similar results, cements Ellison’s novel Invisible Man a place among Jane Eyre as one of the novels that will stand the test of time.…

    • 1110 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Superior Essays

    An important factor in today’s civilization and culture is language. The ability to be literate is a privilege and a necessity in a world that relies on common speech, systematic administration and communication through writing. English has been a vital part in today’s society within hundreds of cultures worldwide; however, English has not always been as popular or familiar to those who speak it in the modern world. Indeed, like most things in a constantly changing world, the English language has undergone multitudes of changes and has spread from continent to continent. To understand the way people speak currently would require a deeper look at how it developed and what influenced the changes that has shaped modern English.…

    • 2154 Words
    • 9 Pages
    Superior Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Language is one of few things that makes human differ from the rest of the animals. There are roughly 6,500 spoken languages in the world today, and all of them consist of sound, and meaning which paired up by grammar. Every language has a grammar, regardless of how simple or how complicated they are, when you compare them with each other. You can roughly group grammar into 2 types, prescriptive and descriptive. Just like what Steven Pinker wrote in his The Language Mavens, prescriptive rules are “the rules people learn in school, it prescribes how one ought to talk,” whereas descriptive rules “describes how people do talk.”…

    • 689 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    In the novel Jane Eyre by Charlotte Bronte, Jane Eyre’s life is filled with the struggles of everyday life as her journey through Gatesgate, Lowood, Thornfield, Moor House/Marsh End, and Ferndean forces her to learn the bitter sweet experiences which help her grow from being an immature adolescent into a mature adult woman. Each of these locations have an important significance, a lesson learned, and a thorough description of the natural world that makes these settings extremely important as they reveal Jane’s true sense of being and her finding out her true individuality in the world; as well as their impact on Jane’s life as they embody a specific phase in her existence, and their uninterrupted result in her change as a human being.…

    • 170 Words
    • 1 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Decent Essays

    Throughout the novel "Jane Eyre", the author creates the feelings of constraint and imprisonment the main character perceives. The author uses smiles, point of view, and imagery to convey these feelings to emphasize the characters emotion. The author utilizes imagery to depict scenes in the novel to function as clear images. The author states in line 5, "...a rain so penetrating..." to describe the motion in which the rain fell.…

    • 247 Words
    • 1 Pages
    Decent Essays
  • Improved Essays

    1.0 – Introduction According to Bloomsbury International (2014), “Approximately one new word is added to the English language every two hours and around four thousand new words are added to the English dictionary every year.” Language is a way for people to communicate with those around them, sharing notions and conventions of those from the same cultural backgrounds and spreading this so others can learn (Corder, 2013). The way language is communicated varies depending on the environment and context involved; it can be spoken, written, and gestured using signs and signals (Gee & Hayes, 2011). Language is multi-dimensional with over seven thousand living languages spoken worldwide today (Lewis et al., 2016)…

    • 2288 Words
    • 10 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Contrasting Conflicts

    • 917 Words
    • 4 Pages

    Three varying authors from the 1800-time period write entirely diverse novels, with two of the authors even sisters. Jane Austen’s “Emma”, Charlotte Bronte’s “Jane Eyre”, and Emily Bronte’s “Wuthering Heights” have varying characters and contrasting conflicts; yet, there are many similarities among the chapter one novels. Every novel has characters, relationships, and conflicts that entice the reader to keep turning the page. This is best acquired by presenting major character conflicting relationships in the first chapter. Jane Austen’s novel theme is love that many relate to on many levels, Charlotte Bronte’s novel centers around a child’s abusive point of view, and Emily Bronte’s eerily produces an awkward relationship between landlord and…

    • 917 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    We're all born with the same basic neurology. Our ability to do anything in life, whether it's learning a new skill, cooking a meal or doing business, depends on how we control our nervous system. So, much of NLP is devoted to learning how to think more effectively and communicate more effectively with yourself and others. Neuro is about your neurological system. NLP is based on the idea that we experience the world through our senses and translate sensory information into thought processes, both conscious and unconscious.…

    • 968 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Pygmy Language

    • 1102 Words
    • 4 Pages

    Language is an essential part of everyday life. What Darwin called ‘the sweet music of our species’ has in fact had a vital role in the establishment of the human as ‘the dominant species’; language creates a strong connection within all members of the same social group and allows to convey a virtually infinite quantity of information, involving both concrete and abstract concepts, as well as past, present and upcoming events. Biologically speaking, this is has been and still is a huge advantage over all other species, for which efficiency and variety in communication are fairly limited - if present at all. A language that can be considered such, has five main properties: it is symbolic, since it is based on the combination of symbols of various kind, which are arbitrary and represent concrete and abstract ideas; it is structured, since said combinations of symbols have to follow syntax and grammar rules, in order to be correctly understood; its final goal is to provide meaning, as each symbol activates the respective mental representation; language is also generative, as the symbols can be…

    • 1102 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Great Essays

    The novel falls in the category of romantic and sentimental novels. In the first three chapters of the novel, the mastery of Jane Austen ensures that every situation and incident of the story contains subtle satire and irony. The author employs a transparent style and reveals the personalities of the characters through the use of direct speech. In the first three chapters, Jane Austen maintains an adequate distinction between the narrative and conversational tone of the novel. She illustrates unique artistic quality and presents her characters truthfully.…

    • 1181 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Great Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Clark (1996) suggests language can be viewed as something physical and that language is a material object. Gee & Hayes (2011) state that language is both social and individual and is something we use in distinctive ways. Language is varied and aligns with the current culture of each individual.…

    • 1758 Words
    • 8 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Great Essays

    An effective way that a novel becomes timeless is through the social change that the story may prompt. Once a book influences thought or action, its validity and relevance increases. During the Victorian Era in which Jane Eyre takes place, women were forced by society into becoming simplistic and conforming without rebellion. Instead of allowing individuality and expression, men tended to suppress the freedom and personalities of females. To this day still, the lack of female empowerment in a patriarchal society takes prevalence.…

    • 1483 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Great Essays
  • Great Essays

    Language And Literacy

    • 2167 Words
    • 9 Pages

    Language and Literacy for teachers Assessment 1 Thesis A child’s language development is intertwined with all other areas of their development and therefore it plays an integral role in their cognitive and intellectual growth. Introduction Language is an abstract set of principles that specify the relationship between a sequence of sounds and a sequence of meanings. Everyday life constitutes and intrinsic part of the way language is used.…

    • 2167 Words
    • 9 Pages
    Great Essays
  • Great Essays

    Gender Issues In Jane Eyre

    • 1955 Words
    • 8 Pages

    The novel Jane Eyre by Charlotte Bronte emerged in the mid-nineteenth century when women were defined by strict social and gender expectations. The novel tells the story of Jane, a young orphaned girl, who grows to be a rebellious, independent thinker that follows her heart regardless of what society expects of her. She faces multiple difficulties due to the oppression of her opinions and the Victorian era’s gender ideals, but refuses to conform or be submissive towards the men in her life. The novel is told in first person, which allows readers to see the narrator’s thoughts and feelings. Jane takes control over the novel through her influence on the reader’s perceptions of events with her direct and authoritative tone.…

    • 1955 Words
    • 8 Pages
    Great Essays