ASFLA NEWS

April 2015

Australian Systemic Functional Linguistics Association Newsletter

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.

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.
asflanews@gmail.com

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 2015
is coming!

ASFLA

In this issue

Photos from the Halliday

Symposium and Appraisal
Symposium

Upcoming events

Visiting professor from Vietnam

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: asflanews@gmail.com
Trish Weekes, Editor

Halliday symposium
a celebration in his 90th year
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

Speakers and honoured guests: Christian Matthiesen, Geoff Williams, Frances Christie, Ruqaiya Hasan,
Michael Halliday, Jim Martin, Clare Painter and David Butt
2

Happy snaps from

the Halliday
Symposium (with
thanks to Lexie Don
and Ernest
Arkerejola).

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

Systemic Functional Linguistics

and Translation studies
13-15 April, 2015 Pusan National
University, Peoples Republic of Korea

Pre-Congress Institute: 22 25 July 2015

Congress: 27 31 July 2015 Aachen University,
Germany

Registration and more information:

juneleetrans@gmail.com

Early registration ends 31 May 2015

Regular registration ends 12 July 2015

Legitimation Code Theory

Colloquium

Registration and more information:

http://www.isfc2015.anglistik.rwth-aachen.de/
https://www.facebook.com/ISFLA

18-19 June, 2015 Cape Peninsula

University of Technology, Rhodes University,
University of Cape Town, South Africa

ASFLA
Pre conference institutes: September 28, 2015
Conference: September 29-October 1, 2015
University of Queensland, Brisbane

Registration deadline 31st March, 2015

https://sites.google.com/site/
lctcolloquium2015/home
4

Call for papersabstracts due April 17

http://www.asfla2015.org

17 April, 2015

NEWS

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."

Professor Hiep, Professor Halliday and Thu Ngo at the Halliday symposium

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
7

Professor Len Unsworth, Professor Hiep and Thu Ngo