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Bringing together a global team, this stimulating volume provides fresh perspectives on choice, a key notion in systemic functional linguistics.
List of contents
Introduction: choice in contemporary systemic functional theory Lise Fontaine; Part I. Choice: Theory and Debate: 1. Meaning as choice M. A. K. Halliday; 2. The teleological illusion in linguistic 'drift': choice and purpose in semantic evolution David G. Butt, Alison Moore and Kathryn Tuckwell; 3. Choice and language variation: some theoretical reflections Maria Freddi; 4. Grammatical choice and communicative motivation: a radical systemic approach Carl Bache; 5. Semantic options and complex functions: a recursive view of choice Lise Fontaine; 6. Choice and choosing in systemic functional grammar: what is it and how is it done? Robin P. Fawcet; Part II. Cognitive and Neurolinguistic Views on Choice: 7. Systemic networks, relational networks, and choice Sydney Lamb; 8. The twin paradoxes of unconscious choices and unintentional agents: what neurosciences say about choice and agency in action and language Elissa Asp; 9. A neurocognitive interpretation of systemic functional choice José María Gil; Part III. Linguistic Constraints on Choice: 10. There-constructions as a choice for coherence in the recent history of English Ana Elina Martínez-Insua; 11. Picking an argument: politicians' choice of persuasive strategies Geoff Thompson; 12. A dynamic view of choice in writing: composition as text evolution Michael O'Donnell; Part IV. Cultural and Contextual Constraints on Choice: 13. Choice, system, realization: describing language as meaning potential Ruqaiya Hasan; 14. 'Choice' in relation to context: a diachronic perspective on cultural valeur Claire Urbach; 15. Material action as choice in field Wendy L. Bowcher; 16. 'I'll manage the context': context, environment and the potential for institutional change Tom Bartlett; 17. Towards a study of the differences between formal written English and informal spoken English Margaret Berry; 18. Genre-driven constraints on semantic choice Víctor M. Castel; Part V. Interpreting Choice: 19. Choices in analyzing choice: methods and techniques for register analysis Elke Teich; 20. 'Register-idiosyncratic' evaluative choice in congressional debate: a corpus-assisted comparative study Donna Miller and Jane Johnson; 21. Not exactly black letter law: emergent choices and textual symbolic design in Athenian legal-political oratory Astika Kappagoda; 22. Interlanguage lexicogrammatical fossilization or not? That's an SFL-related question from the viewpoint of choice Pedro Henrique Lima Praxedes Filho.
About the author
Lise Fontaine is a Lecturer in the Centre for Language and Communication Research at Cardiff University.Tom Bartlett is Senior Lecturer in the Centre for Language and Communication Research at Cardiff University.Gerard O'Grady is a Lecturer in Language and Communication at the Centre for Language and Communication Research in Cardiff University.
Summary
Bringing together a global team of well-established and up-and-coming linguists, this stimulating volume provides fresh perspectives on choice, a key notion in systemic functional linguistics. Taking an interdisciplinary approach, it covers a range of linguistic viewpoints, informed by evolutionary theory, psychology, sociology and neuroscience.
