Some Aspects of the Systemic Functional Model in Text Analysis

Abstract

The article presents some aspects of text explanation in the systemic functional model of language. In the systemic functional model text is conceived as a semantic unit created in the process of selection and realization of meaningful choices encoded in words and structures. This implies that in order to uncover what types of meanings are being encoded in the text one has to take into account the lexico-grammatical patterns which realize it. The article treats some of the possibilities for the application of this model in a comparative text analysis involving texts in different languages. As an illustration it presents a comparison of some aspects of the experiential function of two presidential speeches, one in English and one in Slovene. The comparison focuses on the distribution of different process types in both texts.