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ASFLA NEWS
Please send us your news
and photos so we can
celebrate our
achievements and keep
everyone up to date on
whats happening in our
field of social semiotics, in
Australia and
internationally.
[email protected]
In this issue
Photos from the Halliday Symposium and Appraisal Symposium
Upcoming events
Visiting professor from Vietnam
Message from the President Pauline Jones (on behalf of the ASFLA
executive)
2015 was off to a good start with the symposium celebrating
Michael Hallidays 90th birthday. The event was a great success with
stimulating speakers, attendees from near and far, and good food
and drink (as the photos on pages 2 and 3 will show). Our sincere
thanks to Fran Christie, Jim Martin, Geoff Williams and Yaegan
Doran for their energy and organisation, and to all who
participated.
Thank you also to Peter White and Lexie Don for hosting another
successful Appraisal symposium at UNSW. From all reports, some
fascinating work was presented. ASFLA collaborated with ACU to
bring Professor Nguyen Van Hiep to Sydney during this week. It was
an important visit for both Australian and Vietnamese SFL scholars
and signals the growing interest in SFL among Vietnamese linguists
and language educators.
And the activities continue. At USyd, the Friday afternoon
research student classes with Jim Martin and the seminar series
organised by Sue Hood from UTS have been happening again this
semester.
Garry Collins and Lindsay Williams have announced an extension
to the Call for Papers for ASFLA 2015 until April 17th. Please
check out the feast of abstracts from the plenary speakers at
http://www.asfla2015.org. With its themes of linguistics,
literature and verbal art, it promises to be an interesting
conference.
On the international front, Sally Humphrey has organised the
Educational Semiotics Symposium, Aachen on July 25th under the
umbrella of the ISFC 2015 Institute. Registration for the symposium
can be done together with Congress registration at
http://www.isfc2015.anglistik.rwth-aachen.de. Early bird rates for
the congress are available until May 31.
So, heres to another busy productive time for the ASFLA
community. Our gratitude to Trish for helping keep us in touch via
the newsletter.
Pauline Jones
President
ASFLA
Australian Systemic Functional Linguistics Association
Newsletter April 2015
Please let us know if you have any news
that should appear on these pages or if
you have any ideas about what youd like
to see: [email protected]
Trish Weekes, Editor
ASFLA 2015
is coming!
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On Tuesday February 17, 2015, the Systemic Functional
Linguistics community gathered to honour the renowned linguist,
Michael Halliday and to celebrate Michaels 90th birthday. The
event, hosted by the Department of Linguistics at the University of
Sydney, attracted 140 students and colleagues.
The gathering was chaired by Peter White and opened by Nick
Enfield (the newly appointed Chair of Linguistics); it featured
keynote presentations by scholars inspired by Hallidays thinking (J
R Martin, Clare Painter, David Butt, Geoff Williams, Frances
Christie and Christian Matthiessen), in talks addressing functional
language typology, language development, the science of meaning,
social class and semantic variation in relation to melanoma,
language in education and the ongoing evolution of Hallidays
theory.
The day concluded with a reading of greetings from around the
world, a birthday cake, celebratory drinks and nibbles.
It was an energising and moving day as those attending reflected
on the impact of Hallidays work on their thinking about language
and the ways his ideas changed their research and practice across a
diverse range of fields.
Thanks to Jim Martin for the report
Halliday symposium a celebration in his 90th year
Speakers and honoured guests: Christian Matthiesen, Geoff
Williams, Frances Christie, Ruqaiya Hasan, Michael Halliday, Jim
Martin, Clare Painter and David Butt
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Happy snaps from
the Halliday
Symposium (with
thanks to Lexie Don
and Ernest
Arkerejola).
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The appraisal Symposium, organised by Peter White and Lexie Don,
was held at the University of New South Wales on
February 18 19, 2015 and offered the opportunity to engage with
evaluative meaning-making from a variety of different
perspectives. The organisers of the symposium provided an
environment which encouraged participants to share ideas, ask
questions and further interrogate the model.
A wide range of approaches to evaluative meaning making was
evident in the presentations. The opportunity to hear Professor
Susan
Hunston present an outsiders view into appraisal was
particularly
valuable, as was the opportunity to hear about the use of
appraisal in
contexts as varied as analysis of video games, other
languages
(Vietnamese, Chinese), school discourse, academic discourse,
multimodal contexts (typography, blogs, online news,
television,
clothing), verbal communication and sports analytics.
Dialogue
amongst participants was encouraged during a forum / panel
discussion on the afternoon of the first day of the Symposium
and
continued through lunch and tea breaks on the second day. It was
a
valuable opportunity to meet with colleagues, debate the model
and its
application to multiple contexts, and push against the
boundaries of
current understandings of how evaluative meanings are made
and
described. Thanks to Erika Matruglio for this report Panellists
at the Appraisal Symposium
EVENTS FOR THE DIARY
ISFC 42
Pre-Congress Institute: 22 25 July 2015 Congress: 27 31 July
2015 Aachen University, Germany Early registration ends 31 May 2015
Regular registration ends 12 July 2015 Registration and more
information: http://www.isfc2015.anglistik.rwth-aachen.de/
https://www.facebook.com/ISFLA
ASFLA
Pre conference institutes: September 28, 2015 Conference:
September 29-October 1, 2015 University of Queensland, Brisbane
Call for papersabstracts due April 17 http://www.asfla2015.org
Systemic Functional Linguistics and Translation studies
13-15 April, 2015 Pusan National University, Peoples Republic of
Korea Registration and more information: [email protected]
Legitimation Code Theory Colloquium
18-19 June, 2015 Cape Peninsula University of Technology, Rhodes
University, University of Cape Town, South Africa
Registration deadline 31st March, 2015
https://sites.google.com/site/lctcolloquium2015/home
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17 April, 2015
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Building relationships with Vietnam In mid February, ACU and
ASFLA hosted the visit of Professor Nguyen Van Hiep, Director of
Institute of
Linguistics, Vietnam National Academy of Social Sciences. The
mission of the Institute of Linguistics is to give advice about
language research and policies to the Vietnamese government which
directly impacts the current National Education Reform project.
Prof. Nguyen Van Hiep attended the Halliday Symposium and the
Appraisal Symposium and was deeply impressed by the robustness of
SFL in language research and language and literacy education. At
the Appraisal symposium, Prof. Hiep provided a historical account
of linguistic studies in Vietnam and the emergence of SFL. In the
conclusion of his talk, he expressed his gratitude to ACU and the
SFL community in Australia for making his trip to Australia
possible. He indicated, "During the last three days attending the
Halliday Symposium and the Appraisal Symposium, I have opened my
eyes and opened my mind. So far, linguistic research in Vietnam has
been very isolated and disoriented. SFL study in Vietnam was in
fact SFG. From now on, I know what the direction for Linguistic
Study in Vietnam is- it is the SFL orientation."
On his return to Vietnam, Prof. Hiep immediately discussed with
his colleagues and senior managers about establishing the Vietnam
Association of Systemic Functional Linguistics within the Vietnam
Linguistic Society and has received approval from them. In one of
the most prestigious peer reviewed linguistic journals by the
Vietnam Linguistic Society, the Language and Life journal, a new
section specifically assigned for SFL research will immediately be
opened. Publications for this section will be bilingual: in English
and Vietnamese.
Prof. Hiep welcomes publications in SFL from Australian scholars
and highly appreciates support from the international SFL community
in the development of SFL research in Vietnam.
Prof. Hiep said to SFL scholars at the Appraisal symposium:
"Vietnam needs your support. If you give us an SFL seed, we will be
responsible for growing it in Vietnam until it fruits". Last year,
in 2014, Prof. Len Unsworth, Dr. Thu Ngo and Dr. Peter White were
the pioneers who came to Vietnam to sow the first seeds. This year,
Prof. James Martin and Assoc. Prof. Susan Hood have generously
agreed to come to Vietnam to present SFL talks at the major Vietnam
Linguistic Conference titled '30 years of Vietnam linguistics
development and reform' to be held in August 2015. Prof. Hiep
welcomes international participants to come to Vietnam for this
conference. Details of this conference will be announced
shortly.
Thanks to Thu Ngo for story and photos
Professor Hiep, Professor Halliday and Thu Ngo at the Halliday
symposium
NEWS
Professor Len Unsworth, Professor Hiep and Thu Ngo