The Pre-Congress Institute of ISFC40 Kicks off Today

Last updated:2013-07-08

The Pre-Congress Institute of the 40th International Systemic Functional Congress officially started on July 8th at the School of Foreign Languages, Sun Yat-sen University. The Co-Convenors, Professor Huang Guowen and Professor Chang Chenguang gave welcome remarks respectively. The first-day workshop was taught by Professor M.A.K Halliday and Professor Christian Matthiessen.

The two linguists explored the theoretical foundations of Systemic Functional Linguistics, discussing the implications of each of the three terms “linguistics”, “functional” and “systemic” as they relate to the study of language. They considered how linguistics relates to other domains of human knowledge, and how far linguists can recognize a general science of meaning, or “semiotics”, with language as the prototype of a semiotic system. They also focused on the critical properties of language which enable it to play such a fundamental part in human life, and the application of our theoretical understanding of language to the solution of human problems. Professor Halliday and Professor Matthiessen finally pointed out that students of linguistics should have a responsibility for developing the public understanding of language, so that it is recognized as central to human knowledge and resources are available for educators and other professionals to exploit the power of language in their everyday working practices.

Over 80 participants attended the workshop.