Ngo, Hood, Martin, Painter, Smith & Zappavigna (2022: 5):
In this section we introduce the three main theoretical parameters which have shaped our model of paralanguage: axis (the complementarity of paradigmatic and syntagmatic relations), metafunction (kinds of meaning) and stratification (levels of semiosis).
Systemic functional linguistics, as the name of the theory implies, distinguishes itself from other linguistic theories by foregrounding systems as the foundational organising principle for description. Drawing on Saussure’s notion of valeur, it conceives of language (and semiosis in general) as a network of systems (Martin, 2016; Martin et al., 2013a). Each system involves choices (usually two or three) which have structural consequences shaping anything we mean. The relationship between system and structure is referred to technically as axis.
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[1] Here the authors are reminding the reader that Cléirigh's model of body language is the authors' model of paralanguage.
[2] This misunderstands stratification. Strata are levels of symbolic abstraction in semiotic systems. A common feature of the work of Martin and his students is the failure to understand stratification. See, for example, from Martin (1992):
Misunderstanding Stratification And Realisation
[3] To be clear, in devising SFL Theory, Halliday adopted Firth's notion of system and introduced the system network as a way of modelling it. Halliday (2003 [1995]: 433, 434):
The name 'systemic' derives from the term 'system', in its technical sense as defined by Firth (1957c); …
A system is a set of options together with a condition of entry, such that if the entry condition is satisfied one option, and one only, must be chosen; for example, in English grammar, [system] 'mood', [entry condition] finite clause, [options] indicative/imperative. The option selected in one system then serves as the entry condition to another; e.g. [entry condition] indicative, [options] declarative/interrogative; hence all systems deriving from a common point of origin (e.g. [clause]) are agnate and together form a 'system network'.
[4] Here the authors mislead the reader by citing the work of Martin, instead of Halliday, as the source of Halliday's theorising. (The authors (p3) intend this section for readers unfamiliar with SFL Theory.) Plagiarism is defined as the practice of taking someone else's work or ideas and passing them off as one's own.
[5] This misunderstands the SFL notion of axis. Axis is not 'the relationship between system and structure'. Axis is a local dimension of language, whose orders are the paradigmatic and the syntagmatic, the dimensions of which are system and structure, respectively. Halliday & Matthiessen (2014: 32, 20):
This misunderstanding of axis as 'the relationship between system and structure' appears in Martin (2013), where realisation statements on the paradigmatic axis are misinterpreted as expressions of 'axial relations'. See, for example:
Misunderstanding The Dimension Of Axis As A Relation
The Fundamental Misunderstanding Of Axis In This Monograph
Misrepresenting Axis As the Origin Of Metafunction And Rank
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