Subliminal construal of world order clause by clause

Hierarchy of control in 'Noah’s Ark'

Authors

  • Christian M. I. M. Matthiessen The Hong Kong Polytechnic University

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.1558/lhs.34710

Keywords:

verbal art, systemic functional linguistics, stylistics, literature for children, construal of experience, world order, ideology

Abstract

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 of control that is part of the order of the world. The analysis is based on the system of transitivity of the experiential grammar of the clause; this system is the resource for construing quanta of change in our experience of the flow of events as a configuration of a process, participants directly involved in this process and less directly involved, attendant circumstances.

Author Biography

  • Christian M. I. M. Matthiessen, The Hong Kong Polytechnic University

    Christian, M. I. M. Matthiessen is Chair Professor of the Department of English, the Faculty of Humanities at the Hong Kong Polytechnic University. He has degrees in linguistics from Lund University (BA), and from UCLA (MA, PhD).

References

Birch, D. and O’Toole, M. (Eds). (1988). Functions of Style. London: Frances Pinter.

Butt, D. G. (1984). The Relationship between theme and lexicogrammar in the poetry of Wallace Stevens. Macquarie University: Ph.D. thesis.

Carter, R. (2004). Language and Creativity: The Art of Common Talk. London and New York: Routledge. https://doi.org/10.4324/9780203468401

Finkel, I. (2014). The Ark before Noah: Decoding the Story of the Flood. New York: Doubleday.

Halliday, M. A. K. (1971). Linguistic function and literary style: An enquiry into the language of William Golding’s ‘The Inheritors’. In S. Chatman (Ed.), Literary Style: A symposium, 330–368. New York: Oxford University Press. Reprinted in M. A. K. Halliday (2002), Linguistic Studies of Text and Discourse. Volume 2 in the Collected Works of M. A. K. Halliday (edited by J. J. Webster), Chapter 3: 88–125. London and New York: Continuum.

Halliday, M. A. K. (1982). The de-automatization of grammar: from Priestley’s ‘An Inspector Calls’. In J. M. Anderson (Ed.), Language Form and Linguistic Variation: Papers dedicated to Angus McIntosh, 129–159. Amsterdam: Benjamins. Reprinted in M. A. K. Halliday (2002), Linguistic Studies of Text and Discourse. Volume 2 in the Collected Works of M. A. K. Halliday (edited by J J. Webster), 126–148. London and New York: Continuum.

Halliday, M. A. K. (1985a). An Introduction to Functional Grammar. London: Edward Arnold.

Halliday, M. A. K. (1985b). Dimensions of discourse analysis: Grammar. In T. A. van Dijk (Ed.), Handbook of Discourse Analysis. Volume 2, 29–56. New York: Academic Press. Reprinted in M. A. K. Halliday (2002), On Grammar. Volume 1 in the Collected Works of M. A. K. Halliday (edited by J Webster), Chapter 10, 261–286. London and New York: Continuum.

Halliday, M. A. K. (1988). Poetry as scientific discourse: The nuclear sections of Tennyson’s ‘In Memoriam’. In D. Birch and M. O’Toole (Eds). Functions of Style, 31–44. London: Frances Pinter. Reprinted in M. A. K. Halliday (2002), Linguistic Studies of Text and Discourse. Volume 2 in the Collected Works of M. A. K. Halliday (edited by J. J. Webster), Chapter 5: 149–167. London and New York: Continuum.

Halliday, M. A. K. (1990). New ways of meaning: A challenge to applied linguistics. Greek Applied Linguistics Association, Journal of Applied Linguistics 6 (Ninth World Congress of Applied Linguistics Special Issue): 7–36. Reprinted in M. A. K. Halliday (2003). On Language and Linguistics. Volume 3 of Collected Works of M. A. K. Halliday (edited by J. J. Webster), Chapter 6: 139–174. London and New York: Continuum.

Halliday, M. A. K. (2005). On matter and meaning: The two realms of human experience. Linguistics and the Human Sciences 1 (1): 59–82.

Halliday, M. A. K. (2013). Halliday in the 21st century. Volume 11 in the Collected Works of M. A. K. Halliday (edited by J. J. Webster). London: Bloomsbury Academic.

Halliday, M. A. K. and Hasan, R. (1976). Cohesion in English. London: Longman.

Halliday, M. A. K. and McIntosh, A. (1966). Patterns of Language: Papers in General, Descriptive and Applied Linguistics. London: Longman.

Halliday, M. A. K. and Matthiessen, C. M. I. M. (2006). Construing Experience Through Meaning: a Language-based Approach to Cognition. London and New York: Continuum.

Halliday, M. A. K. and Matthiessen, C. M. I. M. (2014). Halliday’s Introduction to Functional Grammar. 4th, revised edition. London: Routledge.

Harland, P. J. (1996). The Value of Human Life: A Study of the Story of the Flood (Genesis 6–9). Leiden: E.J. Brill.

Hasan, R. (1984). The nursery tale as a genre. Nottingham Linguistic Circular 13. [Reprinted in R. Hasan (1996), Ways of Saying: Ways of Meaning: Selected Papers of Ruqaiya Hasan (edited by C. Cloran, D, Butt, and G. Williams), 51–72. London: Cassell.]

Hasan, R. (1985). Linguistics, Language and Verbal Art. Geelong, Vic.: Deakin University Press.

Hasan, R. (2007). Private pleasure, public discourse: reflections on engaging with literature. In D. Miller and M. Turci (Eds), 13–40. Language and Verbal Art Revisited: Linguistic Approaches to the Study of Literature. London and Oakville: Equinox.

Hill, M. K. (2016). Noah and the Flood: Genesis 6–11. (Word Translation and Study.) www.TrueBibleStudy.com

Hodge, R. and Kress, G. (1988). Social Semiotics. Cambridge: Polity Press.

Lukin A. (2003). Examining Poetry: A Corpus Based Enquiry into Literary Criticism. Macquarie University, Sydney: Ph.D. thesis.

Lukin, A. (2015). Stylistic studies. In J. J. Webster (Ed.), The Bloomsbury Companion to M. A. K. Halliday. London: Bloomsbury Academic.

Lukin, A. and Butt, D. B. (2009). Literary stylistics. In M. A. K. Halliday and J. Webster (Eds), A Companion to Systemic Functional Linguistics 190–215. London and New York: Continuum.

Lukin, A. and Webster, J. J. (2005). SFL and the study of literature. In R. Hasan, C. M. I. M. Matthiessen, and J. Webster (Eds), Continuing Discourse on Language: A Functional Perspective. Volume 1, 413–456. London: Equinox.

Martin, J. R. and White, P. R. R. (2005). The Language of Evaluation: Appraisal in English. London and New York: Palgrave Macmillan. https://doi.org/10.1057/9780230511910

Matthiessen, C. M. I. M. (1995). Lexicogrammatical Cartography: English Systems. Tokyo: International Language Sciences Publishers.

Matthiessen, C. M. I. M. (2002). Lexicogrammar in discourse development: Logogenetic patterns of wording. In G. Huang and Z. Wang (Eds.), Discourse and Language Functions, 91–127. Shanghai: Foreign Language Teaching and Research Press..

Matthiessen, C. M. I. M. (2006). Frequency profiles of some basic grammatical systems: An interim report. In S. Hunston and G. Thompson (Eds), System and Corpus: Exploring Connections, 103–142. London: Equinox.

Matthiessen, C. M. I. M. (2014). Talking and writing about literature: Some observations based on systemic functional linguistics. The Indian Journal of Applied Linguistics. 39 (2): 5–49. Also in B. Leila and A. S. Rodrigues-Júnior (Eds) (Forthcoming). Estudos e pesquisas em Linguística Sistêmico Funcional [Studies and research in Systemic Functional Linguistics], 3–37. São Paulo: Mercado de Letras.

Matthiessen, C. M. I. M. (2015). Register in the round: Registerial cartography. Functional Linguistics 2 (9): 1–48. https://doi.org/10.1186/s40554-015-0015-8

Matthiessen, C M. I. M. (in press). Transitivity in Systemic Functional Linguistics: achievements and challenges. In Sara Regina Scotta Cabral & Leila Barbara (eds.), Transitividade em linguística sistêmico-funcional e aplicações. Chapter 1.

Matthiessen, C. M. I. M. and Halliday, M. A. K. (2009). Systemic Functional Grammar: A First Step into the Theory. Bilingual edition, with introduction by Huang Guowen. Beijing: Higher Education Press.

Matthiessen, C. M. I. M., Lukin, A., Butt, D. G., Cleirigh., and Nesbitt, C. (2005). Welcome to Pizza Hut: A case study of multistratal analysis. Australian Review of Applied Linguistics 19: 123–150.

Miller, D. R. and Turci, M. (Eds) (2007). Language and Verbal Art Revisited: Linguistic Approaches to the Study of Literature. London: Equinox.

Muka?ovský, J. (1948). The esthetics of language. Extract from Kapitoly z ?eské poetiky, translated by Paul Garvin (1964), A Prague School Reader on Esthetics, Literary Structure and Style, 31–69. Washington, DC: Georgetown University Press.

Oppenheimer, S. (1998). Eden in the East: The Drowned Continent of Southeast Asia. London: Phoenix.

Painter, C., Martin, J. R., and Unsworth, L. (2014). Reading Visual Narratives: Image Analysis of Children’s Picture Books. London: Equinox.

Parker-Shigemura, A. (2011). The New World Order in Genesis 1–9: A Commentary. Bloomington: iUniverse.

Prakasam, V. (1982). Functional Stylistics: Theory and Practice. Patiala: Indian Institute of Language Studies.

Prakasam, V. (1999). Semiotics of Language, Literature and Culture. New Delhi: Allied Publishers Limited.

Rada, E. (1989). Writing about art: a linguistic consideration of art history and related genres. Sydney University: Ph.D. thesis.

Thibault, P. J. (1991). Social Semiotics as Praxis: Text Social Meaning Making and Nabokov’s ‘Ada’. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press.

Toolan, M. (1998). Language in Literature. London: Arnold (Hodder).

Veloso, F. O. D. (2012). Comic books and the construction of reality: A critical approach in the classroom. In C. DeCoursey (Ed.), Language Arts in Asia: Literature and Drama in English, Putonghua and Cantonese, 83–102. Cambridge: Cambridge Scholars Publishing.

Veloso, F. O. D. and Bateman, J. (2013). The multimodal construction of acceptability: Marvel’s Civil War comic books and the PATRIOT Act. Critical Discourse Studies 10 (4): 1–17. https://doi.org/10.1080/17405904.2013.813776

Williams, G. (1998). Children entering literate worlds: perspectives from the study of textual practices. In F. Christie and R. Misson (Eds), Literacy in Schooling, 18–47. London: Routledge.

Williams, G. (2000). Children’s literature, children and uses of language description. In L. Unsworth (Ed.), Researching Language in Schools and Communities. London: Cassell.

Williams, G. (2004). Ontogenesis and grammatics: Functions of metalanguage in pedagogical discourse. In G. Williams and A. Lukin (Eds), The Development of Language: Functional Perspectives on Species and Individuals, 241–267. London and New York: Continuum.

Published

2018-06-15

Issue

Section

Articles

How to Cite

Matthiessen, C. (2018). Subliminal construal of world order clause by clause: Hierarchy of control in ’Noah’s Ark’. Linguistics and the Human Sciences, 11(2-3), 250-283. https://doi.org/10.1558/lhs.34710