This book proposes a radically new account of clefts in English. Since the 1960s, functional as well as formal linguists have generally restricted clefts to constructions with an identifying matrix (it-clefts) and have claimed that they only code information structure. Clefts are assumed to unpack a simple proposition into a focus – presupposition structure. In this book, the authors reject these theoretical-descriptive assumptions, arguing instead that clefts form a field comprising it-clefts, there-clefts and ‘have’-clefts. They show that, like any other construction, clefts compositionally code propositional semantics, onto which a great variety of prosodically coded focus patterns may be mapped. The authors fundamentally challenge the existing approach by entering the debate with an in-depth account of the neglected specificational and presentational there-clefts, offering the first systematic data-based study of their grammatical and prosodic features. While the study is restricted to English, its findings have significant cross-linguistic relevance. This book will be of interest to students and scholars of Functional, Cognitive and Formal Linguistics, Corpus Linguistics, and usage-based study of grammar and prosody.

The Routledge Handbook of Systemic Functional Linguistics brings together internationally renowned scholars of systemic functional linguistics (SFL) to provide a space for critical examination of the key tenets underpinning SFL theory. Uniquely, it includes description of the three main strands within contemporary SFL scholarship: Halliday's Introduction to Functional Grammar, Martin's discourse semantics and Fawcett's Cardiff Grammar.In five sections and thirty-eight interdisciplinary chapters, this is the first handbook to cover the whole architecture of SFL theory, comprising: the ontology and epistemology of SFL; SFL as a clause grammar; lexicogrammar below the clause, and SFL's approach to constituency; SFL's vibrant theory of language above the clause; and SFL as a theory of praxis with real-world applications. With a wide range of language examples, a comprehensive editors' introduction and a section on further reading, The Routledge Handbook of Systemic Functional Linguistics is an essential resource for all those studying and researching SFL or functional grammar.

The Routledge Handbook of Systemic Functional Linguistics brings together internationally renowned scholars of systemic functional linguistics (SFL) to provide a space for critical examination of the key tenets underpinning SFL theory. Uniquely, it includes description of the three main strands within contemporary SFL scholarship: Halliday's Introduction to Functional Grammar, Martin's discourse semantics and Fawcett's Cardiff Grammar.In five sections and thirty-eight interdisciplinary chapters, this is the first handbook to cover the whole architecture of SFL theory, comprising: the ontology and epistemology of SFL; SFL as a clause grammar; lexicogrammar below the clause, and SFL's approach to constituency; SFL's vibrant theory of language above the clause; and SFL as a theory of praxis with real-world applications. With a wide range of language examples, a comprehensive editors' introduction and a section on further reading, The Routledge Handbook of Systemic Functional Linguistics is an essential resource for all those studying and researching SFL or functional grammar.

David Brazil's pioneering work on the grammar of spoken discourse ended at A Grammar Of Speech (1995) due to his untimely death. Gerard O'Grady picks up the baton in this book and teststhedescription of usedlanguageagainst a spoken corpus. He incorporates findings from the last decade of corpus linguistics study, notably concerning phrases and lexical items larger than single orthographic words and ellipsis. He demonstrates theadded communicative significance that the incorporation of two systems of intonation ('Key' and 'Termination') bring to the grammar. O'Grady reviews the literature andcovers the theorybefore moving on to a practical, analytic section. His final chapter reviews the arguments, maps the road ahead and lays out the practical applications of the grammar. The book will be of great interest to researchers in applied linguistics, discourse analysis and also EFL/ESL.

This stimulating volume provides fresh perspectives on choice, a key notion in systemic functional linguistics. Bringing together a global team of well-established and up-and-coming systemic functional linguists, it shows how the different senses of choice as process and as product are interdependent, and how they operate at all levels of language. Taking an interdisciplinary approach, it covers a range of linguistic viewpoints, informed by evolutionary theory, psychology, sociology and neuroscience, to produce a complex but unifying account of the issues. This book offers a critical examination of choice and is ideal for students and researchers working in all areas of functional linguistics as well as cognitive linguistics, second-language acquisition, neurolinguistics and sociolinguistics.

This stimulating volume provides fresh perspectives on choice, a key notion in systemic functional linguistics. Bringing together a global team of well-established and up-and-coming systemic functional linguists, it shows how the different senses of choice as process and as product are interdependent, and how they operate at all levels of language. Taking an interdisciplinary approach, it covers a range of linguistic viewpoints, informed by evolutionary theory, psychology, sociology and neuroscience, to produce a complex but unifying account of the issues. This book offers a critical examination of choice and is ideal for students and researchers working in all areas of functional linguistics as well as cognitive linguistics, second language acquisition, neurolinguistics and sociolinguistics.

David Brazil's pioneering work on the grammar of spoken discourse ended at A Grammar Of Speech (1995) due to his untimely death. Gerard O'Grady picks up the baton in this book and teststhedescription of usedlanguageagainst a spoken corpus. He incorporates findings from the last decade of corpus linguistics study, notably concerning phrases and lexical items larger than single orthographic words and ellipsis. He demonstrates theadded communicative significance that the incorporation of two systems of intonation ('Key' and 'Termination') bring to the grammar. O'Grady reviews the literature andcovers the theorybefore moving on to a practical, analytic section. His final chapter reviews the arguments, maps the road ahead and lays out the practical applications of the grammar. The book will be of great interest to researchers in applied linguistics, discourse analysis and also EFL/ESL.