ABSTRACT

This chapter analyzes the place of Systemic Functional Linguistics (SFL) against two different backgrounds, which offer two different but related perspectives on the theory. It investigates the stance of SFL amongst structural-functional language theories, first identifying the spectrum of present linguistic functionalism. The chapter focuses on structural-functional theories, that is, SFL, the Dutch Functional Grammar and Role and Reference Grammar. It considers SFL from the following two perspectives, Ray Jackendoff's Parallel Architecture and Ronald Langacker's Cognitive Grammar. The chapter explores the systemic ambition of SFL, first by evoking General System Theory in its relationship to cybernetics, and then by pointing to the genesis of linguistic systems in the theory of emergent grammar. In short, Langacker views Cognitive Grammar as construing differentiated lexicogrammatical systems from universal cognitive features by weighting cross-cultural preferences. The chapter ends with a brief reflection on the systemicity of SFL.