Functional Means
Functional stylistics deals with the connections between what Leech
(2008) calls ‘language and what is not language.’ This is concerned with
the semantic function of the formal properties of the language system,
that is, its proposition meaning.
For functionalist, the context of a language event is an important as the
formal features of which it is comprised. Halliday developed the idea that
language has three primary roles or functions which intersect to make
meaning.
Ideational – to express idea and experience (clause as representation)
(cohesion and coherence)
Interpersonal – to mediate in the establishment of social relationships
(clause as exchange)
Textual – to provide the formal properties of language (clause as
message)
Through a functionalist stylistic toolkit that makes use of the ideational,
interpersonal and textual meta functions of language, shed some light on
the context of situation that impels and informs a text’s production and
interpretation. Functional stylistics offers a way of reading between and
beyond a text’s formal properties.
A powerful method for understanding the ways in which all sorts of
realities are constructed through language, stylistics - and particularly
functionalist. Stylistic provides a way of answering the implicit question,
‘what is the point of this text?’