Christian M.I.M. Matthiessen

University of International Business and Economics · Linguistics

This paper investigates how experience of change is construed as meaning by analysing the lexicogrammatical patterns associated with the notion of ‘social transformation’. Through the experiential system of TRANSITIVITY, we analyse instances of the verb ‘transform’ and the nominalization ‘social transformation’ from the COCA corpus. We found two co...

This study examines the dynamics of PROJECTION, the grammar of quoting and reporting, in Dagaare (Niger-Congo: Mabia). The study reveals that verbal, mental, and relational processes project other clauses in Dagaare. Projection is encoded by a versatile particle (kɛ́) that serves as: (i) a nexus marker between projecting and projected clauses; (ii)...

This paper explores the accessibility and visibility of Systemic Functional Linguistics (SFL) in academic and professional contexts across languages, academic profiles, and disciplines through a questionnaire-based study. Developed by M.A.K. Halliday, SFL offers a unique, appliable approach to linguistics, positioning language as a resource for mea...

Applied linguistics and theoretical linguistics began to drift further apart in the 1960s. There were obviously many reasons for this, including the need to support the wide range of strands of applications at the time; for example, (machine) translation studies were included since the institutionalisation of translation studies as a distinct disci...

Unlock Your Potential with Our Master's Programme – Pre-Registration Still Open! Looking to deepen your knowledge of SFL, or embark on an exciting academic journey? We are still accepting pre-registrations! 🌟 Why Choose this Master's Degree? World-class faculty Fully online Covers both theory and applications Competitive fees Pre-registration wi...

This paper argues for the value of system networks as a diagnostic tool in L2 writing education. We report on an investigation of Chinese students learning to write in English over a period of a year in Year 9 of high school, characterizing their choices in the system of modality in different writing tasks over that period, and we also report on an...

While approaches informed by Systemic Functional Linguistics (SFL) have been widely applied to the field of language education since the 1960s, the idea of the system embodying the meaning potential of language in context, represented as a system network, could be used to make a much more significant contribution to second language (L2) or foreign...

Three decades ago, M. A. K. Halliday, the founder of systemic functional linguistics (SFL), presented a paper to AILA in Greece entitled 'New Ways of Meaning: A Challenge to Applied Linguistics' (Halliday, 1990), which introduced the notion of an ecological study of language (Fill and Mühlhäusler, 2001). In this seminal paper, Halliday emphasizes t...

Systemic Functional Linguistics (SFL) is a usage-based theory of language, founded on the assumption that language is shaped entirely by its various functions in the contexts in which it used. The first of its kind, this book advances SFL by applying it comparatively to English, Spanish and Chinese. By analysing English alongside two other, typolog...

Literature for children is often designed to stimulate imagination through variants of the “real” world that we inhabit, expanding their potential for construing different possible worlds – variants that include imaginary characters like animals with human traits or toys that are somehow animated and conscious. Here we will examine one version of M...

https://youtu.be/ptVRFJIKf8g

Published: https://journal.equinoxpub.com/LHS/article/view/23599

This paper is an exploratory description of the lexicogrammar of violence — of the resources provided by the lexicogrammar of English for construing our experience of violence as wordings alongside other domains of experience that are difficult to come to terms with such as pain and emotion. We give particular attention to the lexical resources wit...

This chapter briefly sketches Christian Matthiessen’s life and work since the late 1970s. We first introduce the training that Christian Matthiessen has received at Lund University in Sweden. Then we report on his experiences of studying linguistics at University of California, Los Angeles. His Ph.D. thesis on text generation and the influences on...

In this chapter, we first discuss Christian Matthiessen’s interest in studying language typology. Then we characterize systemic functional typology, relate language typology to its neighboring areas, recommend Christian Matthiessen’s descriptions of Akan lexicogrammar and phonology and investigate the way of interpreting Joseph Greenberg’s work fro...

This chapter is the final part of the interview on Systemic Functional Linguistics (SFL) and translation. We first comment on some works by various scholars, including Roger Bell, Mona Baker as well as Basil Hatim and Ian Mason. Then, we suggest some theoretical developments needed, highlight the developments in different parts of the world, and po...

In this chapter, we examine some conceptual issues in Systemic Functional Linguistics (SFL). We first interpret the meaning of “systemic” and “functional”. We then examine the phases of development of SFL and comment on the different names of the theory in the course of its evolution. We also discuss the theoretical aspects of SFL, delineate the te...

This chapter first summarizes the contributions of Systemic Functional Linguistics (SFL) to computational linguistics. It elaborates on Martin Kay’s Functional Unification Grammar, highlights the achievements of the Penman Project on text generation directed by William C. Mann and comments on the influences from computational linguistics on SFL. Th...

This article provides an illustrative and necessarily selective review of scholarship in systemic functional linguistics (SFL) since the 1960s, examining two major strands of application within the institution of education: teacher education and writing development. We explore properties of SFL that have been significant in this institutional setti...

In this chapter, we first place cognitive systems within the four orders of systems in Systemic Functional Linguistics (SFL). Then we discuss how cognitive linguistics can be approached within the SFL perspective, and differentiate between the knowledge-based approach and the meaning-based approach in studies on language and the brain. We also cove...

Chapter 3 continues the discussions on Christian Matthiessen’s life and work started in Chap. 2. We first highlight the works that Christian Matthiessen produced during when he was in Australia. Then we discuss the Ph.D. students that he supervised there and the motivations of relocating to The Hong Kong Polytechnic University. We also report on th...

In this chapter, we first elaborate on the significance of applying Systemic Functional Linguistics (SFL) to translation studies. We also discuss various topics on SFL and translation, including the linguistic turn in translation studies, differences between prescriptive and descriptive studies in translation and Matthiessen’s own works on translat...

This chapter, as a sequel to the first part of the interview on translation in Chap. 8, further examines issues related to Systemic Functional Linguistics (SFL) and translation studies. We discuss the acceptance of the term “systemic functional translation studies” in academia. Then, we comment on the contributions made by various scholars, includi...

This book features a collection of 10 interviews with Christian M.I.M. Matthiessen, who is a key figure in Systemic Functional Linguistics (SFL) and has collaborated closely with M.A.K. Halliday since the 1980s. As noted by Professor Chang Chenguang, Editor of the M.A.K. Halliday Library Functional Linguistics Series, “this collection of interviews...

This chapter discusses Christian Matthiessen’s early experience in linguistics and his motivations for working with Systemic Functional Linguistics (SFL). It also sheds light on the interaction between SFL and other schools of linguistics in the European and American traditions, and indicates the distinctive contributions of SFL to linguistics.

In this article, I explore the functional varieties of language, i.e. registers (or genres), used in different school subjects and university disciplines, examining the ranges of registers used in a selection of subjects and disciplines - their registerial profiles. I draw on Giovanni Parodi’s research into registerial profiles of university discip...

This paper presents a systemic-functional contrastive analysis of an original English text – a chapter, ‘The Land of Shadow’ from J. R. R. Tolkien’s The Lord of the Rings – and its Spanish translation, ‘El País de la Sombra’, focusing on the shifts in translation of representations of motion and of saying. These two realms of experience provide an...

Erich Steiner, as a leading scholar in systemic functional linguistics (SFL), has been involved in various important strands of research on SFL and translation. is transcript is based on the second part of the interview during his visit to Hong Kong. We continue to discuss the application of SFL to translation, covering topics like SFL and other fu...

Christian M.I.M. Matthiessen is Chair Professor of the Department of English, the Faculty of Humanities, at the Hong Kong Polytechnic University, where he is a member of the PolySystemic Research Group. He has degrees in linguistics from Lund University (BA) where he also studied Arabic and philosophy, and from University of California, Los Angeles...

With the development of systemic functional linguistics (SFL) in China in the fourth decade, the appliability of SFL has received more and more attention, especially in the area of translation studies. As one of the leading scholars in SFL, Christian M.I.M. Matthiessen has interpreted the definition of translation in systemic functional terms, defi...

Michael Halliday’s argument for the value of ‘trinocular vision’ in linguistic research has particular relevance to the observation, exploration and description of register. Taking each semiotic dimension relevant to the characterisation of register by turn, I begin by discussing Halliday’s proposition. I then proceed, using the metaphor of cartogr...

Christian M. I. M. Matthiessen was a long-time collaborator and close friend of M. A. K. Halliday, and has co-authored various books with Halliday, some of which have not yet been published. In the second part of the interview, Matthiessen discusses Halliday’s engagement with computational linguistics, provides details of Halliday’s experiences as...

Erich Steiner, as a leading scholar in systemic functional linguistics (SFL), has been involved in various important strands of research on SFL and translation. In this interview, he discusses his motivation of studying linguistics, and introduces his works in different areas, including machine translation in the 1980s, corpora, register, explicita...

Christian M. I. M. Matthiessen was a long-time collaborator and close friend of M. A. K. Halliday, and has co-authored various books with him, some of which have not yet been published. In this interview, he describes Halliday’s wide-ranging linguistic interests, provides details of Halliday’s time in China, discusses the influences of J. R. Firth...

Multimodal analysis of dramatized medical consultations https://youtu.be/NMIXSigO4dw Abstract: Almost three decades ago, M. A. K. Halliday, the founder of systemic functional linguistics (SFL), presented a paper to AILA in Greece entitled New ways of meaning: a challenge to applied linguistics (initially published as Halliday (1990)), introducing t...

Multimodal analysis of dramatized medical consultations

For published journal article, please visit: https://www.researchgate.net/publication/371871969_Revisiting_Halliday_1990_'New_Ways_of_Meaning_The_Challenge_to_Applied_Linguistics'_What_has_Changed_and_What_Still_Needs_to_be_Done

Christian M. I. M. Matthiessen elaborates on the Systemic Functional Linguistics (SFL) approach to register in this contribution to the inaugural issue of Register Studies. He is Chair Professor of the Department of English at the Hong Kong Polytechnic University, where he pursues a scholarly agenda that includes developing the theory of Systemic F...

Christian M.I.M. Matthiessen is a leading scholar in Systemic Functional Linguistics (SFL). Together with William C. Mann and Sandra A. Thompson, he developed Rhetorical Structure Theory, a discourse analytical framework which he has continued to expand and extend using insights from the architecture of SFL. His contributions to SFL are in various...

Matthiessen, C. M., & Law, L. (2019). Dramatised medical consultations: What are they like and how can we use them. International Symposium on Communication in Health Care 2019: The Human Dimension in Medicine and Health Care. Singapore: Nanyang Technological University.

We present a multimodal study of dramatized medical consultations (cf. Turow, 2010), comparing them with actual medical consultations in relation to “patient-centred care” (Matthiessen, 2013; Slade et al., 2015). The breakthrough to scientific medicine starting around the 1830s led to the foregrounding of the “doctor’s gaze”, which is field-orient...

This interview is the eighth session of the series of interviews with Professor Christian M.I.M. Matthiessen. It took place on November 24, 2016 in his office at the Hong Kong Polytechnic University. The aim of the interview is to find out the general perspective of Systemic Functional Linguistics (SFL) and that of Matthiessen on educational lingui...

Christian M.I.M. Matthiessen is a leading scholar in Systemic Functional Linguistics (SFL). Together with William C. Mann and Sandra A. Thompson, he developed Rhetorical Structure Theory, a discourse analytical framework which he has continued to expand and extend using insights from the architecture of SFL. Some of his other contributions are in t...

As a sequel to the first part of the interview on translation, this transcript further explores issues related to Systemic Functional Linguistics (SFL) and translation studies. Christian Matthiessen and Bo Wang first discuss the acceptance of the term ‘systemic functional translation studies’ in academia. Then, Christian Matthiessen comments on the...

As the final part of the interview on translation, this transcript further explores the relationship between the two areas, namely Systemic Functional Linguistics (SFL) and translation studies. Christian Matthiessen and Bo Wang first discuss works by various scholars, including Bell (1991), Baker (1992) as well as Hatim and Mason (1990). Then, Chri...

In this interview, Bo Wang first asks Christian M. I. M. Matthiessen about the significance for applying Systemic Functional Linguistics (SFL) to translation studies. They also discuss various topics including the linguistic turn in translation studies, differences between prescriptive and descriptive studies in translation, and Matthies- sen’s (20...

In this article, we investigate verbs of motion in discourse, adding a dimension that has not yet been explored in published literature — viz. the variation in representing motion across different registers. We take a functional- registerial approach and profile the representation of motion through space in four registers, which include six “spatia...

This study examines mood systems in Niger-Congo languages, the largest African language phylum. It draws data from a range of sources, including discourse data from languages that have been analysed closely, namely Akan (Kwa: Tano), Dagaare (Gur: Mabia), Kulango (Gur: Kulango-Lorom) and Ọ̀kọ́ (Benue-Congo: Nupe-Oko-Idoma) and descriptive material o...

In this paper, I will present a text analysis showing the world order that is construed subliminally in a retelling for children, Noah's Ark, of the 'flood story' of Genesis in the Old Testament of the Bible (Genesis 6-9). I will focus on that aspect of world order that is concerned with who or what can act on whom or what - i.e. on the hierarchy o...

In this paper, we focus on contexts where the primary activity is to expound knowledge about general classes of phenomena, either by categorizing and characterizing them or by explaining them based on some theory, ranging from a commonsense folk theory to an uncommonsense scientific theory. Texts produced in such contexts include science lectures,...

Discourse analytic approaches are central to translator training and translation analysis, but have been somewhat overlooked in recent translation studies. This volume sets out to rectify this marginalization. It considers the evolution of the use of discourse analysis in translation studies, presents current research from ten leading figures in th...

Using ethnographic discourse analysis in an Emergency Department in Hong Kong, this study explored the features of doctor-patient interactions in a hospital setting. By audio-recording 10 patient journeys, from triage to disposition, we analyzed the complexity of turn-taking patterns in spoken interactions between patients and doctors, as well as t...

This paper investigates the specific kind of spatial details that are given attention in the construal of motion in different registers. Essentially, we examine six text types from four registers — differentiated in terms of field of activity into enabling, expounding, recreating, and reporting. We use a functional registerial approach developed wi...

Aims and objectives: To understand the challenges that clinicians face in communicating with patients and other clinicians within a Hong Kong trilingual emergency department. Background: Effective communication has long been recognised as fundamental to the delivery of quality health care, especially in high-risk and time-constrained environment...

TUDIES ACROSS THE WORLD have demonstrated that effective communication is funda- mental to the delivery of safe and high-quality health care. However, identifying the direct relationship between effective communication and patient health outcomes that can affect patient safety has proved more problematic. This chapter reports on research into authe...

Background: This study investigates clinicians’ views of clinician-patient and clinician-clinician communication, including key factors that prevent clinicians from achieving successful communication in a large, high-pressured trilingual Emergency Department (ED) in Hong Kong. Methods: Researchers interviewed 28 doctors and nurses in the ED. The re...

This paper presents the outlines of a long-term project concerned with the modelling of context and register along the lines originally drawn by M.A.K. Halliday and Ruqaiya Hasan in Systemic Functional Linguistics (SFL) — thus with “register” in its original sense of a functional variety of language, i.e. the meanings at risk in a given type of con...

Discourse analysis has grown in applied linguistics since the 1970s and its application in translation studies became prominent in the 1990s (Munday 2012, 137). One of the topics in discourse analysis that has been given particular attention by translation scholars is the translation of choices within the textual metafunction, with particular focus...

In this paper, we will report on our ongoing investigation of the realizations in the lexicogrammar of English of rhetorical relations in the semantic organization of texts belonging to a range of different registers. More specifically, we are concerned with different kinds of lexicogrammatical realizations of the rhetorical relations of Rhetorical...

Journal of Interprofessional Education & Practice, 06/2015; 1(2):67. DOI: 10.1016/j.xjep.2015.07.047 The role of communication in healthcare receives increasing attention, yet little research exists that brings together perspectives from interprofessional healthcare researchers and practitioners with linguists and communication specialists. The In...

The launch of RTCFL, Researching and Teaching Chinese as a Foreign Language, under the outstanding guidance by Professor Yang Yanning is truly excellent news for (applied) linguists concerned with crucial importance of Chinese as a Foreign Language and for teachers of Chinese as a Foreign Language — but also for present and future learners of Chine...

The way we use language is always shaped by and reflects the context in which we are communicating. The communicative challenges and risks in emergency departments arise directly from the unique contextual demands of the emergency department environment. In this chapter, we begin our account of the communication demands of the emergency department...

Two main priorities guide emergency department care. The first is to determine a patient’s diagnosis . The second is to determine whether that patient can be safely treated within the emergency department and discharged home, or whether they need to be admitted for further treatment and supervision in another hospital ward or health-care facility....

In this chapter, we summarize and exemplify the strategies clinicians can use for establishing and developing a relationship with the patient, and give examples. This process involves the patients in their own care. Both the informational (Chap. 5) and interpersonal communication strategies occur simultaneously, but for the sake of description they...

Our analysis of how clinicians and patients spoke, listened, and responded to one another in emergency department interactions shows that two broad areas of communication affect the quality and safety of the patient journey through the emergency department: How medical knowledge and information is communicated How clinician–patient relationships ar...

In this book, we describe the communicative complexity and intensity of work in emergency departments, and against this backdrop, identify and describe the features of patient–clinician interactions most likely to lead to patient involvement, patient satisfaction, and positive health outcomes. We also detail the communication practices that restric...

In this chapter, we start our detailed description of the language used in the interactions, focusing in particular on the medical consultations—the last two activity stages of the patient’s journey. Through a detailed description of the actual interactions, we explore how particular ways of communicating with the patient could jeopardise the quali...

In this book, we have described how organizational and clinician practices and roles in emergency departments manifest in particular communication patterns and interactive styles between clinicians and patients. The central figure throughout the book is the patient, and the central question we have asked is: “How does communication in emergency dep...

In this article, we report findings from the first qualitatively driven study of patient–clinician communication in Hong Kong Accident and Emergency Departments (AEDs). In light of the Hong Kong Hospital Authority’s policy emphasis on patient- centered care and communication in the public hospitals it oversees, we analyze clinicians’ perceptions of...

Introduction This paper reports on research conducted within a Hong Kong (HK) accident and emergency department (AED), which investigated the effectiveness of health care worker-patient communication over the course of patients' journeys from triage to disposition. Methods The research combined qualitative and quantitative ethnographic methods wit...

In this book we describe the communicative complexity and intensity of work in emergency departments, and, against this backdrop, identify and describe the features of patient–clinician interactions most likely to lead to patient involvement, patient satisfaction and positive health outcomes. We also detail the communication practices that restrict...

The Bloomsbury Companion to M. A. K. Halliday is a comprehensive and accessible reference resource to one of the world’s leading and most influential linguists. Born in 1925, Halliday is the figure most responsible for the development of systemic functional linguistics (SFL). The impact of his work extends beyond linguistics, into the study of styl...

In this paper we present linguistic variation in the construal of “space” in different registers. We focus in particular on variation in the lexicogrammatical construal of space across texts belonging to different registers, offering a report based on our exploration of samples of texts operating in different contexts. The registers are differentia...

In this paper, I report on a long-term research project concerned with the elaboration of the description of the system of PROCESS TYPE (within the overall system of TRANSITIVITY), extending this description in delicacy, or degree of detail. I discuss the background to the research and different approaches that have been taken to the development of...

Adopting a longitudinal perspective on teaching and learning language from home through school to working life, this paper bring out the inherent complementarity of teaching and learning processes, showing how parents and teachers serve as mentors for learners by modelling meaning for them in dialogic interaction. The paper begins with a focus on l...

Published in: The International Journal of Whole Person Care. 2014;1:69. DOI: 10.26443/ijwpc.v1i1.69

The focus of this paper is on the doctoral research training experienced by one of the authors and the ways in which the diverse linguistic and disciplinary perspectives of her two supervisors (co-authors of this paper) mediated the completion of her study. The doctoral candidate is a professional translator/ interpreter and translation teacher. Th...

In this chapter, we are concerned with the “hybridity” of registers — the mixture of functional varieties of language operating in different institutional domains [fn1] (with “register” in the original sense of the term in systemic functional linguistics, e.g. Halliday, McIntosh & Strevens, 1964; Hasan, 1973; Halliday, 1978; Matthiessen, 1993, 2013...

Published in: The International Journal of Whole Person Care. 2014;1:69.