City University of Hong Kong Dep
Department of Chinese, Translation and Linguistics
Research Seminar
Making Meaning and Making Logic:
A Systemic Functional Approach
Presented by
Dr. Kazuhiro Teruya
University of New South Wales, Sydney, Australia
The Halliday Centre for Intelligent Applications of Language Studies
Date: 12 December 2006, Tuesday
Time: 5:00pm - 6:00pm
Venue: G7619 (Lift 3, 7/F, Blue Zone),Academic Building,CityU
Abstract
Since 1990's, Japanese has been studied rigorously in systemic functional terms in order not only to understand the language per se but also in order to develop language resources that are appliable to a wide range of contexts of linguistic research and development. The development is still partial and ongoing, but such resources have now become available and enabled researchers to carry out language-based projects of research and of development. In this talk, I will explore the creation and enactment of interpersonal meanings in discourse by taking an example of the system of mood and other relevant interpersonal systems such as the system of negotiation by which Japanese language users enact their social roles and relations in varied social contexts. This will then enable us to explore further into other domains of the overall grammatical system: since any creation of meaning is fundamentally metafunctional in origin, the account of one metafunctional realm of the grammar in systemic terms will lead to the discovery of the workings of systems in other metafunctional realm. For example, when we explore the interpersonal systems of the clause, this exploration will also take us into the logical domain of clause complexing, and we begin to see how interpersonal contrasts work together with ideational (experiential and logical) ones to realize different types of logic. Here projection provides a bridge between the interpersonal realm and the ideational one, as we see when we examine the projection of ideas and locutions within the domain of ideational grammar of clause complexing. Where appropriate, reference will also be made to other languages in order to bring out the particular character of the system of mood in Japanese.
Speaker
Dr. Kazuhiro Teruya : born in Koza (currently called Okinawa) City, Okinawa, Japan. Graduated from the University of the Ryukyus, studying at Kokubunka (Department of Japanese language Studies) with the majors in Japanese literature and linguistics. Studied also Chinese and Shuwa (Japanese sign language). In Australia, received an MA in Applied Linguistics in 1996 from Sydney University and a Ph.D. in linguistics from Macquarie University in 1999. During 2000-2005, involved as a visiting scientist in the project “Language-based intelligent systems” led by Sugeno Michio at the Brain Science Institute, RIKEN, in Japan. Invited to give talks and/or workshop at the Tokyo Institute of Technology, Japan (1995), University of Southern Denmark (Udense Campus), Denmark (1999), Centre for English and Foreign Languages, India (2003), City University of Hong Kong (2006), and the University of British Columbia, Canada (2006). Currently one of the global members of The Halliday Centre for Intelligent Applications of Language Studies at City University of Hong Kong .Takes a leading role in the activities of The Systemic Typology Group (STG).
