Analysis of Genre Theory Based on Functional Linguistics of Halliday System

Abstract

A context is realized by language registers, which are regarded as functional and semantic variants of a language. The context is studied as a part of discourse analysis and pragmatics, and along with register, it defines the Systemic Functional Linguistics theory (Halliday, 1994). This study aimed at providing a critical analysis of the application of register theory in the context of Halliday's theory of genre analysis. The study analyzed the application of register theory to genre analysis from the perspectives of domain, statement and language. Through systematic induction and deduction, this study found that the three variables, domain, statement and language, constituted the situational characteristics of a specific context and had an important impact on semantics. The study also concluded that context includes both situation and culture, and the parameters like field, fundamentals and language all belong to situational context, not cultural context; hence, register theory cannot be used to analyze cultural context, despite having a strong explanatory power for situational context. The study recommends to conduct a more comprehensive and accurate analysis of discourse of various genres. The role of context analysis can be further studied from different application situations of the theory of systemic functional linguistics in practice.