Learning Commons:Centre for Writing and Scholarly Communication/Metalanguage

Terms to Use with Students (Metalanguage)

Context (of situation): The situation in which the communication unfolds; e.g. who is speaking with whom, what is their relationship to each other, and what is being discussed/what request is being made There are also other “levels” of context, e.g., historical, socio-political context.

Genre: There are many different conceptualizations of “genre” In North American New Rhetorical Genre Theory, genre tends to be understood as a combination of context (of situation) + formal features, i.e., recurrent social situations give rise to particular ways of writing, which become solidified over time into recognizable text types; e.g. a lab report or literature review.

Register: Like “genre,” “register” is an umbrella term, operating “above” the level of individual texts – although, unlike “genre,” “register” tends to refer to types of meaning, rather than types of text. Like “genre,” (indeed, like all of the features described here), “register” does refer to options the writer has based on the context in which they are writing.

Coherence: Writing a text in such a way that fits the context/situation. Here, the focus is on how an individual text relates to its surroundings.

Cohesion: Writing a text in such a way that all of the ideas and information appear to be logically related. Here, the focus is on the international organization of the text.

Halliday identified three “metafunctions” of language (i.e, all texts produce all three types of meaning):

TEXTUAL: What kind of text is this? How do its parts hang together? How do you know?

IDEATIONAL: What is the text about? How does it represent reality? How do you know? What is its sine qua non? What are its key abstractions? What examples/details are provided to explain/illustrate them?

INTERPERSONAL: Who is the author? audience? What is their relationship? How do you know? What is the authors’ attitude to their subject matter? How do you know?

Most people only pay attention to “ideational” meaning (e.g., asking a friend what a film was “about”); but knowing that texts make two other types of meaning (whether you intend them to or not) means you can begin to control those other meanings:

Mode refers to the “textual” meaning: What form the language takes (text, in our case) I always encourage students to start here… i.e., identify what kind of text (“genre”) you are dealing with first “Field” refers to the “ideational” meaning What is being written about; the topic, process, etc. (The more specialized the field, the more specific/jargon-laden the language is likely to be)

Tenor refers to the “interpersonal” meaning: how the language is shaped by who is involved in the exchange and their relationships; e.g. the audience for your piece and your persona as a writer