A Neurocognitive Interpretation of Systemic-Functional Choice

JOSÉ MARÍA GIL

Choice: Critical considerations in Systemic Functional Linguistics.

Cambridge University Press

Lugar: Cambridge; Año: 2015; p. 179 - 204

In the third edition of AN INTRODUCTION TO FUNCTIONAL GRAMMAR, Halliday and Matthiessen write that each system (or moment of choice) contributes to the formation of structure. They do not suggest that there is conscious choice here, because those moments are analytic steps in the grammar construal of meaning. But they do affirm that the relation between semantic choice and what goes on in the brain (Halliday & Matthiessen, 2004:24) will be found in the book PATHWAYS OF THE BRAIN, published by Sydney Lamb in 1999. In a suggestively complementary way, Lamb (2006:208) proposes that it is likely that the work on discourse analysis by Halliday can be accepted as scientifically valid "as it reflects a concern for reality and is based on conceptions that can be accommodated into the neurocognitive conception". Since the compatibility of Systemic Functional Linguistics and Neurocognitive Linguistics has been widely accepted, the purposes of this chapter are to show how the two theories and their notational devices are related to each other, and to determine how neurocognitive relational networks contribute to understanding what systemic choice is and what it involves.