ABSTRACT
This paper revisits the register variable field in systemic functional linguistics (SFL), in relation to the concept of ‘semantic density’ in Legitimation Code Theory (LCT). In registers of SFL working with a stratified model of context, field is traditionally approached from an ideational perspective – as a set of activities orientated to some global institutional purpose, including the classification and composition of items involved in these activities and their associated properties. From an SFL perspective, LCT takes a wider view of related phenomena, taking into account, for example, the values attached to these ideational meanings. In response to this challenge, re-interpretations of the specialised meaning construing disciplinarity are proposed here, taking into account ideational, interpersonal and textual metafunctions and thereby highlighting technicality, iconisation and aggregation respectively. The term ‘mass’ is suggested as a cover term for these resources. The paper contributes to an ongoing dialogue between SFL and LCT in relation to research on secondary school History and Biology discourse in Australian schools, an increasingly productive exercise in transdisciplinary research.
