What Fawcett Means By 'Lexicogrammar'

Fawcett (2010: 37-8):

In using the term "lexicogrammar" here, then, I am starting from the concept that a grammar is a 'model of language' (which is not the way that Halliday uses the term "grammar") and I am then incorporating into it, by prefixing it with "lexico", Halliday's important point that 'lexis' must be integrated with 'syntax' (or 'grammar') in any such model. But I have to point out that this is a hybrid term that does not correspond to Halliday's normal use of the term "lexicogrammar" — and, having made the point that the model must include lexis (and indeed intonation and punctuation), I shall normally use the shorter term "grammar" in the rest of the book, when referring to the concept of a model of the sentence-generating component of language.

Blogger Comments:

[1] To be clear, for Fawcett, a grammar is a model of language in which lexis is integrated with syntax — hence "lexicogrammar" — and which also includes intonation and punctuation.  When normally using the term 'grammar', however, he is only referring to the sentence-generating component.

[2] Halliday uses the term 'grammar' as shorthand for 'lexicogrammar' (wording), and locates its systems on a level of symbolic abstraction (stratum) between semantics (meaning) and phonology (sounding).  For Halliday, it is the grammar that construes (intellectually constructs) the semantics.  Halliday & Matthiessen (2014: 22, 10):

Grammar is the central processing unit of language, the powerhouse where meanings are created …

The clause is the central processing unit in the lexicogrammar — in the specific sense that it is in the clause that meanings of different kinds are mapped into an integrated grammatical structure.

[3] This is potentially misleading, since, for Halliday, syntax is not equivalent to grammar, but merely one aspect of it — modelled as the rank scale.

Misrepresenting Halliday On 'Form' [1]

Fawcett (2010: 37):

However, there is a problem about using the term "lexicogrammar" (or indeed "grammar") in a sense that includes the level of meaning. The problem is that Halliday has explored two different positions on the issue of what we might call 'levels of meaning', and when he uses the term "lexicogrammar" it is typically in a sense where it is equated with the level of form, such that this is in a relationship of realisation to the level of "semantics". (See Sections 4.6 to 4.9 of Chapter 4 for a full account of Halliday's two positions, and for the reasons why I think that his first position is greatly preferable.)

Blogger Comments:

[1] This is misleading in a way that supports Fawcett's stance.  Even before developing Systemic Functional Grammar, Halliday (2006 [1961]: 39) defines his theoretical levels as follows:

The primary levels are form, substance and context. The substance is the material of language: phonic (audible noises) or graphic (visible marks). The form is the organisation of the substance into meaningful events: meaning is a concept, and a technical term, of the theory. The context is the relation of the form to non-linguistic features of the situations in which language operates, and to linguistic features other than those of the item under attention: these being together “extratextual” features.

With the development and substantial elaboration of Systemic Functional Grammar, Halliday (1985) distinguishes between function and form on the lexicogrammatical stratum, with form modelled as the rank scale, from clause to morpheme, and with the choice of rank as the entry condition to the functions available at that rank.  In later editions, as if to answer misunderstandings like those of Fawcett, Halliday & Matthiessen (2014: 49) explain:

Being a ‘functional grammar’ means that priority is given to the view ‘from above’; that is, grammar is seen as a resource for making meaning — it is a ‘semanticky’ kind of grammar. But the focus of attention is still on the grammar itself.

[2] Fawcett's "full" account will be examined in detail in the critiques and clarifications of Sections 4.6 to 4.9 of Chapter 4.

What Fawcett Means By 'Grammar'

Fawcett (2010: 37):

At this point I should clarify the sense in which I am using the terms "grammar" and "meaning". Let us take "grammar" first, since it is used in the caption for Figure 4. In "Categories", "grammar" was the name of a subcomponent of the level of form, but here its meaning has been extended in two ways. The most obvious is that a grammar now includes a level of meaning as well as a level of form. Thus a 'grammar' is essentially a model of the sentence-generating component of a full model of language and its use. The second extension — which is less obvious — is that the term "grammar" is regularly used as a short form for "lexicogrammar".

Blogger Comments:

[1] Contrary to the implication, this "extension" of the meaning of 'grammar' to 'lexicogrammar' is not Fawcett's.  It appears in Categories of the Theory of Grammar (Halliday 1961), where lexis is conceived as most delicate grammar.  Halliday (2004 [1961]: 54):

The theoretical place of the move from grammar to lexis is therefore not a feature of rank but one of delicacy.  It is defined theoretically as the place where increase in delicacy yields no further systems;

[2] To be clear, Fawcett stratifies grammar into meaning and form, whereas Halliday locates meaning in semantics, and distinguishes between grammatical functions and grammatical forms (the rank scale).  Crucially, it is the distinction between semantics and lexicogrammar that allows Halliday to account for grammatical metaphor in his model.

Fawcett		Halliday
(lexico)grammar	meaning	meaning	semantics
		function	lexicogrammar
	form	form

Fawcett's Introduction Of The Term 'Instance'

Fawcett (2010: 36n):

In the past SF linguists have usually referred to instances as "instantiations". But since we need the term "instantiation" to refer to the relationship between the 'potential' and the 'instances' that it generates, as here, it is preferable to use a different term for the 'product' of the 'process' of instantiation. Hence my introduction here of the term "instance". Note that some SF linguists (e.g., Matthiessen & Bateman 1991) have used the term "actualisation" in place of "instantiation". One reason for preferring "instantiation"' to "actualisation" is the fact that English has the corresponding noun "instance", which can be used to distinguish the 'product' from the 'process'. It is this pair of terms, then, that is used in the present theory.

Blogger Comments:

This is misleading.  The term 'instance' was "introduced" in Categories Of The Theory Of Grammar (Halliday 1961: passim), and many subsequent publications, such as Halliday (1978 [1974]: 40), Halliday (1977: 54) and Halliday (1987:152).

On 'The Main Components Of A Systemic Functional Grammar'

Fawcett (2010: 36):

The diagram in Figure 4 brings together these two pairs of concepts to define the four components that are essential for modelling any semiotic system. It provides a framework for thinking about language in terms of (1) the potential and (2) the many possible instances of that potential, and to do so at the two levels of (a) meaning and (b) form. The four components of the model are defined by the intersections of these two pairs of concepts. 

Blogger Comments:

On the one hand, Figure 4 presents a flow chart for text generation by computer, not a systemic functional model of grammar.  It is also inconsistent with SFL theory in that it presents the architecture of the theory in terms of interactions between modules instead of relations along dimensions; see Halliday & Webster (2009: 231).

On the other hand, Figure 4 is internally inconsistent.  Firstly, the 'potential' column presents realisation rules as the form that realises the system of meaning.  To be consistent with the level of meaning, the level of form would need to be a 'system network of choices in form'.  To be consistent with SFL theory, the realisation rules would need to be located in the system of meaning.

Secondly, the 'instance' column presents structure as the form that realises features of meaning.  That is, it presents the axial relation between paradigm (features) and syntagm (structure) as a stratal relation between meaning and form.

Thirdly, the 'form' row presents structure as an instance of realisation rules as potential.  That is, it presents the axial relation between paradigm (realisation rules) and syntagm (structure) as a relation of instantiation between potential and instance.

Any theoretical advantages afforded by such inconsistencies need to be demonstrated, and their value weighed against their consequences for the theoretical architecture as a whole.