新世纪人文论坛之一百三十八
题目： Investigating the functional and aesthetic values of a text: a Systemic Functional perspective （系统功能语言学与语篇分析）
嘉宾：香港城市大学 Jonathan Webster 教授
时间：10月9日19:00—21:00
地点：学术交流中心三号会议室
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嘉宾简介：
Jonathan Webster是香港城市大学翻译及语言学系教授、该校“韩礼德语言研究智能应用中心”的主任。Webster教授是一位在国际语言学界具有广泛影响的学者，曾经出版《语篇语言学》等专著多部，发表论文百余篇，主编《韩礼德文集》等20多部文集。近年来，Webster教授结合修辞结构理论（RST）和系统功能语言学理论研究成果，将语言学理论与人工智能方法相结合，探索视觉与语义之间的互动关联，在国际多模态话语研究和语言学领域产生了较大影响。
讲座内容：
Language provides the grammatical resources necessary for not only for talking about our experience of the world around us and what is going on inside us, but also for communicating our attitudes toward and expectations of those with whom we are interacting. By means of my 搇ochtext攍och, no matter whether it be long or short, spoken or written, literary or conversational, I participate in an act of interpersonal exchange, communicating my sense of my own identity, my world view, my interpretation of experience.
Perhaps because he is a language teacher turned linguist, M.A.K. Halliday has been able to maintain a perspective on language that is grounded in how we actually use language to construe reality and enact social relationships. Halliday's Systemic Functional Theory, which prioritizes the study of function over form, provides the theoretical and methodological basis for investigating ‘the aesthetic and functional values that differentiate one text from another, or one voice from another within the frontiers of the same text’ (Halliday Collected Works, Vol. 2, chapter 6, p.187).
Taking a variety of texts by way of illustration – including extracts from Steve Jobs’ commencement speech at Stanford University; Donald Tsang's (former HK Chief Executive) speech at Harvard University's John F. Kennedy School of Government; Malala Yousafzai's UN speech; selected speeches of US President Barack Obama; and the speeches given by President Hu Jintao and President Obama at the official White House welcome on the occasion of President Hu's official state visit – I will discuss how the resources of language contribute to meaning-making, and address the question of why some speeches win acclaim for their eloquence, while others receive criticism.
