Ideology and the Clause: the System of Transitivity

Abstract

This chapter takes further some of the issues raised so far. Halliday’s idea of language as a network of choices, and therefore of grammar itself as a set of options, leads to a view of grammar as potentially forming coherent world-views. As Knowles and Malmkjaer say,

A writer’s linguistic choices can aid the creation and maintenance of relations of power. This is so whether the writer intends his/her linguistic choices to function ideologically or whether they merely reflect implicit ideology. Furthermore, linguistic choices have to be made, whether or not the writer gives vent to intended, surface ideology. (Knowles and Malmkjaer, 1996, p. 68)