"The Way To Use A System Network"

Fawcett (2010: 298-9):

The system network corresponds to the top left box in Figure 4 (in Section 3.2 of Chapter 3). The way to use a system network is to 'traverse' it, starting with the leftmost feature. Whenever an 'and' bracket is encountered, all the systems to its right must be entered, so that the pathway through the network typically becomes a set of branching pathways.

When you have completed a traversal of the network, you will have collected a selection expression of semantic features such as:

[thing, count, plural, student, nearness to performer, un-near].

Notice that features are typically written in square brackets, to show their status as features. This output from the network corresponds to the top right box in Figure 4 (in Chapter 3) — i.e., it is an instance of this little lexicogrammar's meaning potential.

Blogger Comments:

 [1] Reminder:

[2] To be clear, in SFL Theory, the creation of text does not involve the traversal of a network. A system network sets out how features are related to each other, and does so in terms of logico-semantic relations:

• enhancement: condition (entry condition) 
• extension: alteration (disjunction)
• extension: addition (conjunction)
• elaboration (delicacy).

It is only the focus of attention of a viewer of the network that makes such a traversal.

[3] To be clear, a selection expression constitutes a bundle of features, either as potential or instance. For example, the phonological selection expression [voiced, bilabial, stop] specifies (is realised by) the phoneme /b/, whether as potential, or as instance in text.