Systemic Functional Analysis

Systemic functional analysis is the procedure of analyzing texts through the lens of M. A. K. Halliday's systemic functional linguistics, which holds that every clause simultaneously makes three kinds of meaning. The analyst works through a text clause by clause, examining its ideational meaning (who does what to whom, through the transitivity system of process types and participants), its interpersonal meaning (how the clause enacts a relationship, through mood and modality), and its textual meaning (how it is organized as a message, through theme and rheme). These three metafunctions together let the analyst show, in fine grammatical detail, how a text construes experience, negotiates social roles, and packages information.