The 40th International Systemic Functional Congress Starts Today

Last updated:2013-07-15

The 40^th International Systemic Functional Congress officially started at Sun Yat-sen University today. Over 300 participants from more than 20 countries all over the world attended the congress. Professor Chang Chenguang, dean of School of Foreign Languages, Sun Yet-sen University, chaired the opening ceremony. The ceremony began with a welcome speech from Professor Huang Guowen, Chair of the executive committee of ISFLA, followed by the launch of the M.A.K. Halliday Library and that of a new international, peer-reviewed journal Functional Linguistics. The launch was chaired by Professor Wendy Bowcher. Professor Chang Chenguang gave a brief introduction to the M.A.K. Halliday Library, and then Professor Halliday and Professor Huang Guowen unveiled the library plaque. This was then followed by congratulatory remarks by Professor Ruqaiya Hasan, Professor David Butt, Professor Fang Yan and Professor Jonathan Webster.

The journal Functional Linguistics is sponsored by the M.A.K Halliday Library and published under the SpringerOpen brand. It publishes scholarly articles and reviews in the broad area of functional studies, with a special focus on systemic functional linguistics. The journal aims to provide a platform for the exploration of language and linguistic issues from a functional and meaning-oriented perspective. Professor Cecilia Colombi, Professor Robin Fawcett, Professor Christian Matthiessen and Professor Geoff Thompson made congratulatory speeches at the ceremony.

The opening ceremony was followed by a speech from the special invited guest, Professor Hu Zhuanglin. After that, Professor Halliday delivered a keynote speech entitled “That ‘Certain Cut’: towards a characterology of Mandarin Chinese”.


After the parallel sessions in the afternoon, Professor Ruquaiya Hasan gave a plenary speech entitled The ‘Fixation of Meaning in the Linguistic Sign.

                                               Professor Wendy Bowcher                                                     Professor Ruquaiya Hasan

The congress will last till 19th July. Apart from plenary speeches, there will also be colloquia, workshops and parallel presentations.


Written by: Yan Xiaoqing & Qiu Qing