Description
This book is the first to provide a systemic functional interpretation of the grammar of Japanese, describing it as a resource for making meaning rather than as a set of formal rules. It offers a general overview of all the major systems of Japanese grammar, covering the three major functions of language - the ideational, the interpersonal and the textual functions. The account of the grammar of Japanese is based on extensive corpus material and throughout the book the account is shown at work in Japanese discourse analysis.
In addition to the general aim of presenting an account of the grammar of Japanese as a resource for making meaning, the book is also intended to extend our understanding of the semiotic potential of Japanese, and of language in general, for making meanings, taking into account both grammatical and lexical resources and linking them in a unified description of the lexicogrammar of Japanese. This contribution relates directly to current interest in the construction of knowledge, both as a cognitive phenomenon and as a discursive one, and in the modelling of language-based human intelligence.
Table of Contents
Volume 1:
Preface
Notations and Symbols
1. Language as a Semiotic System
2. Overview of the Resources of Japanese Lexicogrammar
3. Textual Grammar of Japanese
4. The Interpersonal Grammar of Japanese
Volume 2:
5. Experiential Grammar of Japanese
6. Ideational Grammar of Japanese: Logical Metafunction
Bibliography
Index
Author(s)
Kazuhiro Teruya, Kazuhiro Teruya is Assistant Professor in the Department of Chinese and Bilingual Studies, The Hong Kong Polytechnic University, Hong Kong.
Christian Matthiessen, Christian M.I.M. Matthiessen is Chair Professor and Head in the Department of English at The Hong Kong Polytechnic University, Hong Kong.
Reviews
"...Stimulating reading... it is undeniable that with this book Teruya has laid the foundation for further research on Japanese within the framework of Systemic Functional Grammar. This is no mean achievement"
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"SFG has been overwhelmingly applied to the description of the English language, and many of its features seem to be intricately bound to the peculiarities of the English language structure (Halliday also had profound knowledge of Chinese, which is, however, in crucial respects a language structurally similar to English). Thus, Teruyo undertook a formidable intellectual challenge in applying the theory to a language, which is not only genetically unrelated but also structurally very different. No substantial description of Japanese in SFG existed before…This book will doubtlessly be a guideline for all future researchers who might follow Teruya in taking a SFG approach to Japanese."—Heiko Narrog, Tohoku University, Japan, The Linguist List, 2008
Heiko Narrog,