Introduction to

Lexico-Grammar
Lexico-grammar
Lexis
(Vocabulary
)

Grammar

the interdependency of lexis

(vocabulary) and grammatical structures
(syntactic constructions, morphological
paradigms)

It is an intermediate level of
coding, which allows the
meaning potential of a Lexico-grammar
language to expand
 It is for language to have
an unlimited creative
potential (to make
INFINITE MEANINGS The answer is through
So, how to meet this
from FINITE EXPRESSION INTERMEDIATE LEVEL OF
demand?
UNITS: LEXICO-GRAMMAR!
•For language to mean new things
•For language to mean anything

The Demand We Make

of Language? by Lexico-grammar
PROVIDING MEANS to
Those
arrange different
MEANS But, HOW??
GRAMMATICAL
include:
STRUCTURES to MAKE
DIFFERENT MEANINGS

EXTENDING
LANGUAGE &
SIMULTANEOUS
MEANINGS
 Extending Language
 Techniques that can be done involve:

using the grammatical

combining existing
repertoire of the
words in novel ways to
coining new words language in an
represents the new
untypical, 'creatively
meaning
different' way.

The weather is really hot in a class. One of the students talk to

For Instance another student who sits the closest to the window. The
“It’s getting intention of conveying message is that he wants her to open the
really hot in window.
here. I cant Typically, either interrogative or imperative mode is applied,
concentrate”
“Can you open the window?” or “Please open the window.”

Yet, it can be conveyed in untypically

This pattern of using non-typical structures to declarative mode which is supposed to give
express meanings in ways that can be sensitive information, instead.
to contextual constraints is known as
GRAMMATICAL METAPHOR
 Simultaneous meanings in language
 For grammar to make more meanings, to create, and also to mean more than
one thing at a time, by:
simply arranging existing signs in different ways

or using existing structures in atypical ways

For Instance

Nana (said with a falling tone): provides an answer to the

The single lexical item ‘Nana’. question Who did it?'
Different intonation in the actual use Nana (said with a rising tone): asks the question
of ‘Nana’ will give not only ideational 'Who's there? Is that you, Nana?'
meaning of the person called ‘Nana’, Nana (said with an almost level tone): means that the
but also simultaneously an speaker had not finished giving information,
interpersonal meaning of 'how I am there was someone else, that Nana is part of list
relating to Nana'.
Nana (said with a falling then rising tone): means ‘I’m
annoyed with you, Nana'
Nana {said with a rising then falling tone): means
‘That's outrageous, Nana'
Another Instance  “Nana fed the cat.”
There are three kinds of meaning that can be made
simultaneously.

Nana Fed the cat

Participant: Actor Process: Material Participant: Goal

Subject Predicator Object

Theme Rheme

Ideational Interpersonal
meaning meaning Textual meaning
In this material The clause with the clause attempts to
process, Nana and structure Nana as convey “this is a
cat as participants Subject, fed as message about Nana”.
involved and fed as Predicate and the cat Nana is the Theme or
the process involved. as object gives departure point for
declarative meaning this message, by
giving information. putting Nana in first
 Principles of Grammatical Analysis:
Units and Constituency
 A number of different kinds of units are related to each other through constituency
— smaller units make up bigger units, and bigger units are made up of smaller
units.
 Let’s take a look at this units and criteria of graphological expression!

A ranked constituent analysis or Units Criteria used to identify units

Rank Scale
Paragraph Double spacing
for orthographic representation in
English Sentence Full-stop
Constituent  units at each level are Comma-unit Comma
made up of one or more of the units at Word Spaces
the level below. Letter Smaller spaces
Ranked  organized in terms of
biggest to smallest.

A ranked constituent analysis, or rank scale, indicates that the letter is the
ultimate constituent of writing, it is the smallest unit here.
Establishing the constituency hierarchy for the lexico-grammar is an important
first step in examining grammatical structure.
 Constituent of the content plane
 In establishing rank scale of lexico-grammar, consider language as
meaning. And, another task is to find out:

what are the In a passage, here are the meaningful units

largest and the ranging from largest to smallest
smallest units of
meaning that we
can distinguish?
Units of Meaning Ortographic signals
Text Paragraph
Meanwhile, sentence is
Sentence the largest grammatical Capital letter/full stop
unit
Clause Comma (often colon, semi-colon)
The text as a whole is Group/phrase Comma
a semantic unit
Word Spacing
which is constituted
of a number of Morpheme No signal (except that we tend to
different-sized units break words at morpheme boundaries
of meaning when we need to hyphenate at the
end of a line)
 Grammatical constituent: rank scale
Since TEXT does not belong in the lexico-grammatical rank scale
and SENTENCE cannot represent both written and spoken expressions,
we need to establish again RANK SCALE at the LEXICO-GRAMMATICAL
STRATUM in SYSTEMIC APPROACH, which can be seen as follow.

Clause and Clause Complex are on the same

rank because the relationship between clauses in
Clause – Clause Complex
clause complex is not a constituency
relationship, but logical structure, relationship of
interdependency.
Group/Phrase

Each unit on the rank scale relates to the other units Word
through constituency, and each carries patterns of a
different kind that requires a different structural
description
Morphemes
Techniques in Describing Structures
which are Made up of Grammatical Constituents

BRACKETING

 involves taking the largest grammatical constituent then dividing it into

the units which make it up at each rank.
 graphical presentations in the form of brackets or tree diagrams
 To simply put it simply, the steps of minimal bracketing analysis are as
follow.

First, the clause is bracketed into the

phrases/groups which make it up

Then, each group/phrase is

bracketed into the words that
it up
 For Instance

The little girl has spent so much time in others’ shoes.

 ANALYSIS:
The clause in bracket:
((the)(little)(girl)) ((has)(spent)) ((so)(much)(time)) (in)((other’s)(shoes))

The little girl has spent so much time in others’ shoes

 EMBEDDING
Or RANK SHIFT

 a way of boosting the content of a clause, by exploiting the clause's potential to

recycle through the ranks.
 sometimes a clause constituent seems to be a complex structure in itself, so this
technique deals with bracketing of clause complex including embedded clauses

For Instance The little girl who is reading the poetry book has been sitting on the bench for hours.
 ANALYSIS:
The initial bracket for the clause:
(The little girl who is reading the poetry book)(has been sitting)(on the bench)(for hours).

It reveals that it contains another clause within the nominal the

nominal group. (The little girl who is reading the poetry book)
Here we have a unit of one rank (phrase/group) being made up
of a unit of the rank above (clause).
Thus, we deal with this by simply working through the minimal
bracketing of the embedded clause.
  ANALYSIS:
(the)(girl)((who)((is)(reading))((the)(poetry)(book)))

The girl who is reading the poetry book

Another Instance
To be empathetic means to have experienced various emotions.
 ANALYSIS:
(((to)(be))(empathetic))(means)(((to)(have)(experienced))((various)(emotions)))

To be empathetic means to have experienced various emotions

 LABELLING

 more powerful technique in describing grammatical structures than the previous

technique
 by attaching labels to the nodes of our structural trees so that the bracketing
becomes very much more useful
Rank Form/Class Labels
 There are kinds of labelling we need toFormal
know: finite, non-finite,
clause
• classifying item in dependent clause,
terms of class group subordinate clause,
membership relative clause
word prepositional phrase,
• at word rank, adverbial phrase, nominal
Functional sometimes referred group . . . etc.
Rank Function Labels • classifying item in to as the parts of noun, adjective, article,
Clause Main clause, Qualifying clause,
terms of its role speech. adverb . . . etc.
Projected clause, etc.
Subject, Finite, Object, Agent, • function labels tell
Group Actor . . . etc. what grammatical
Deictic, Classifier, Thing, Head,
function an item is
Word Modifier . . . etc.
performing relative
 MULTIFUNCTIONALITY OF CLAUSE
CONSTITUENTS

 The lexico-grammar enables us to mean more than one thing at a time.

 In nearly all cases the constituents of the clause are playing more than one
functional role at a time.
 The systemic approach that seeks to describe these distinct levels of
functional organization, is considered as MULTIFUNCTIONAL approach to
language.

As a result, in clause analysis, there are

THREE SETS OF FUNCTIONAL LABELS to
describe clause structure,
to reveal how the clause is a simultaneous
realization of ideational, interpersonal and
textual meaning.
  In analyzing Subject, there is a fusion of three different functional roles, as
explained before
The psychological subject: The grammatical subject: The logical subject:

'of which something is

'the concern of the message' 'doer of the action'
the information that is the predicated’
the constituent that actually
'point of departure' for the the term used is SUBJECT
carries out the process.
message. the term used is ACTOR
the term used is THEME
(Participant)

is when there is a fusion or conflation of

An unmarked case roles: the constituent which plays the role of
Subject also plays the role of Theme and of
Example of Actor
unmarked case

Nana fed the cat

(i)Theme Rheme
(ii) Subject Predicate Object
(iii)Participant: Actor Process: Material Participant: Goal
 Three different 'subjects’ played by different
constituents within the clause
 Example: A heartfelt letter her homeroom was sent by the valedictorian

A heartfelt letter her homeroom teacher was sent by the valedictorian?

(i)Complement Subject Finite Predicator Adjunct

(ii) Beneficiary Material Actor
(iii)Theme Rheme

each kind of subject is from different constituent: the point of departure

for the message is a heartfelt letter, while the grammatical subject is her
homeroom teacher, with the valedictorian as the doer of the action.

In Interrogative Mode “Did the valedictorian send her homeroom teacher a

heartfelt letter?”

Did the valedictorian send her homeroom teacher a heartfelt letter?

(i)Finite Subject Predicator Complement Complement

(ii) Actor Material Beneficiary Range

(iii)Theme Rheme
Three types of configurations of functions

How is language structured to enable interpersonal meanings

to be made?
• Explore how different Mood structures allow clauses to realize different
interpersonal meanings in text.
How is language structured to enable ideational meanings to
be made?
• describe how different Transitivity structures allow clauses to realize different
experiential meanings in text.
How is language structured to enable textual meanings to be
made?
• examine how different Theme structures allow clauses to realize different textual
meanings in text.
 Descriptive Grammar and
the Notion of ‘Appropriacy’
 an objective, nonjudgmental description of the
What does Descriptive
grammatical constructions in a language
Grammar mean?  an examination of how a language is actually
being used, in writing and in speech.

What does descriptive It examines the principles and patterns that

grammar do with underlie the use of words, phrases, clauses,
language? and sentences.

by making statement and

How? assessment about appropriacy
or inappropriacy

Degree of appropriaricy is not in terms of arbitrary statements about

inflexible grammatical ‘rules’, but as statement about grammar as a set of
CHOICES for USE in CONTEXT.