Experimental Function Operations in Systematic Grammar by Michael Halliday and Author's Intention (Surat Al-Anfal as a Model)

Dahhan, Zahra; Mottaghizadeh, Eisa; Parvini, Khalil

doi:10.22059/jalit.2024.377089.612839

Experimental Function Operations in Systematic Grammar by Michael Halliday and Author's Intention (Surat Al-Anfal as a Model)

Document Type : Research Paper

Authors

zahra dahhan ¹

Eisa Mottaghizadeh ²

Khalil Parvini ³

¹ PhD Student of Department of Arabic Language and Literature, Tarbiat Modares University. Tehran, Iran

² Professor of Department of Arabic Language and Literature, Tarbiat Modares University, Tehran, Iran.

³ Professor of Department of Arabic Language and Literature, Tarbiat Modares University. Tehran, Iran.

https://doi.org/10.22059/jalit.2024.377089.612839

Abstract

Halliday's functional theory is one of the important theories in the systematic vision. According to Halliday, meaning is divided into three sections, each of which complements the other. Halliday expressed it as the three functions of language: the experiential function, the communicative function, and the textual function. In the experiential function, we express our experiences in relation to external reality, and language becomes a mirror of life. The experiential function is one of the functions that represent to us the miniature and tested experiential model of external reality. But does the author have a role in stating his intention in relation to this reality? The important thing in Halliday's approach is the issue of choosing between different meanings; that is, in his use of language, he believes in the importance of the linguistic possibilities that language itself provides, and they go back to the author/writer who chooses a meaning instead of a meaning from among the unlimited and multiple possibilities of language according to the text he writes. As Halliday sees it, the possibility of language is the possibility of meaning. Therefore, this study seeks to analyze the six operations of the experiential function in Surat Al-Anfal and to clarify the author's position and role in choosing their type, because the meaning and content of the text are involved in choosing the type of the six operations. (i.e. material, mental, relational, behavioral, verbal, and existential). The question posed in this study is: What are the most and least employed operations and their effectiveness in clarifying the author's intention in Surat Al-Anfal? The research method in this descriptive analytical article is to analyze Surat Al-Anfal according to Halliday's experimental function and apply its six operations to the surah to reveal its relationship with the author's intention and his role in choosing the operations and their meanings. The study concluded that the material operation contains the highest percentage of employment compared to the rest of the operations; as the number of repetitions reached 40 percent compared to the rest of the operations in this surah, and this shows the material mentality of the pre-Islamic society that accepts tangible reality more than abstract reality. As for the contemporary addressee, employing this operation here makes it easier for him to conjure up the war image and represent the historical reality, even if a time has passed that exceeds 1400 years, so life emerges before him and the image is drawn for him with its terrain and he witnesses the revival of the Battle of Badr with its material features and it lives again and again in his mind.

Keywords

هالیدی

الوظیفة التجربیة

العملیات

قصدیة المؤلف

الأنفال

Subjects

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