the ISFC39 Proceedings - International Systemic-Functional ...

Papers from the 39th ISFCAn SFL analysis of existential clauses in research articlesJosé DURÁNUniversidad de Buenos AiresPalestina 830. 1ºA (C1182) ADH Ciudad Autónoma de Buenos Aires. Argentinajoseduranlinguist@yahoo.com.arAbstractExistential clauses are rather infrequent in language—representing just 3–4% of all clauses within discourse(Halliday & Matthiessen 2004), which seems to be the reason why they have apparently not been given enoughattention within SFL (Hannay 1985, Davidse 1992, 1999). Still, existential clauses fulfil a significant function incertain genres such as the introduction of main characters at the beginning of narratives. The typicality of theexpression Once upon a time there was an X in fairy tales and fables has probably led to the association ofexistential clauses with a presentational function (Downing 1992). Presumably however, existentialconstructions have adopted further functions in their wider use in other formal genres such as the ResearchArticle. To my knowledge, however, there do not seem to exist any corpus-driven studies of existentialconstructions within SFL so far. The aim of this paper is therefore to conduct a thorough quantitative analysis ofexistential clauses with overt expletive there in Research Articles in English. Two-hundred and twenty-fiveResearch Articles will be scrutinised for existential clauses in order to examine the Mood element, the presenceof processes other than be, the nature of the Existent and its premodification, the grammatical metaphors presentand the rhetorical effect of the process chosen by academic writers. The corpus has been driven from ResearchArticles on Linguistics published by University College London between 1994 and 2010, from which a total of5,599 existential clauses have been obtained.1 IntroductionThe grammar has to create a form of discourse forreasoning from observation and experiment, drawinggeneral conclusions and progressing from one step toanother in sequences of logical argument. (Halliday1999:123)Existential clauses in English are different from all other English clauses since they do notportray a participant Subject. Rather, their Subject is the dummy expletive there devoid ofsemantic meaning, while the only participant chosen by an existential process is found afterthe process itself. Within the taxonomical circle of processes in English, existential processesare described as in-between material and relational processes. They combine the semioticpower of material processes of happening describing events in the outer world with that ofthe realm of abstract relations expressed by relational processes. From a functionalperspective, existential clauses play a fundamental role in certain registers such as thepresentational function in the setting or orientation of narratives. Apart from this introductoryfunction, Hyvärinen (2008) argues that existential clauses make a contribution to themanipulation and interplay between distance and closeness in discourse. In academicdiscourse, the meaning potential of existential clauses presumably makes them highlyeffective in the writing of research articles. However, there seems to have been no corpusdrivenstudies on the use of existential clauses in academic genres. The aim of this paper istherefore to conduct an analysis of existential clauses in Research Articles in English. A totalof 225 Research Articles on Linguistics published by the University College of Londonbetween 1994 and 2010 have been scrutinised for existential clauses making up a corpus of5,599 existential constructions.111