ABSTRACT
Second order semiosis' is not restricted to verbal art. Because the theory of grammar is based on meaning, people can deploy analogous resources within transitivity to explore visual representation. This chapter looks more closely at systemic functional principles of system and stratification, focussing on how these work in narratives produced for and by students. It discusses the interpersonal metafunction, dealing with interactive resources of Mood, Polarity and Tagging and then turns to Appraisal to consider how narratives position readers through direct and indirect forms of evaluation. The chapter considers verbal and visual systems and the levels at which they work. For many teachers of Language Arts and English, this is an invitation to enter the dark woods or, to shift metaphors, the open spaces of the 'wild west'. The chapter explains choices in systems using examples from familiar texts. It takes a foray into the more complex regions of grammatical study, investigating aspects of 'how language is organized to mean'.
