The English Lexicogrammar of Violence: lexical resources

Christian M.I.M. Matthiessen; Christina DeCoursey

doi:10.12957/matraga.2022.66039

Authors

Christian M.I.M. Matthiessen Distinguished Professor School of Foreign Languages Hunan University Changsha, P.R.C. Guest Professor Beijing Science and Technology University Honorary Professor Australian National University
Christina DeCoursey CamEd Institute Phnom Penh Cambodia

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.12957/matraga.2022.66039

Keywords:

Systemic Functional Linguistics, lexicogrammar, violence

Abstract

This paper is an exploratory description of the lexicogrammar of violence — of the resources provided by the lexicogrammar of English for construing our experience of violence as wordings alongside other domains of experience that are difficult to come to terms with such as pain and emotion. We give particular attention to the lexical resources within the continuum of lexicogrammar, but locate them within the grammatical “schemata” they operate in. Our exploratory account is informed by Systemic Functional Linguistics (SFL). It draws centrally on certain aspects of SFL, including the primary given to paradigmatic organization, the stratification of the content plane of language into semantics (meaning) and lexicogrammar (wording), the organization of the content plane into simultaneous metafunctions, the cline or continuum between the system of language, the overall meaning potential of language, and instances in the form of texts (operating in context), and the diversification of language into different registers (functional varieties) adapted to different types of context. We present an overview of the lexical resources of verbs and nouns, and show how verbs can be classified in their different senses by reference to the grammatical system of transitivity (in particular, process type).

Author Biographies

Christian M.I.M. Matthiessen, Distinguished Professor School of Foreign Languages Hunan University Changsha, P.R.C. Guest Professor Beijing Science and Technology University Honorary Professor Australian National University

É Distinguished Professor of Linguistics na Hunan University. Ele é formado em Linguística pela Lund University (BA), onde também estudou árabe e filosofia, e pela UCLA (MA, PhD), e já ocupou cargos na USC/Information Sciences Institute, na Sydney University, na Macquarie University e na Universidade Politécnica de Hong Kong. Foi Professor Visitante, por exemplo, na Universidade de Hamburgo e na Divisão de Ciências do Cérebro do Instituto RIKEN em Tóquio. Ele é Professor Honorário da Beijing Normal University, Beijing, da Australian National University, Canberra, e Professor Convidado na University of Science and Technology, Beijing.

Christina DeCoursey, CamEd Institute Phnom Penh Cambodia

É Professora Associada no CamEd Institute, em Phnom Penh (Cambodia). Fez seu doutorado na Universidade de Toronto, onde recebeu uma bolsa de estudos do Conselho de Ciências Sociais e Pesquisa do Canadá, e seu pós-doutorado na Folger Shakespeare Library em Washington, DC. Foi Diretora de Programas de Redação na American University na Bulgária e, posteriormente, no Arthur Samy Language Learning Center no Hong Kong Institute of Education. Fundou e dirigiu o Mestrado em English Language Arts da Universidade Politécnica de Hong Kong. Recentemente, foi Chefe de Divisão (Humanidades) na Universidade de Innopolis, na Federação Russa.