Academic formalisms : Toward a semiotic typology

This chapter extends the functional language typology developed in this book toward a functional semiotic typology. It illustrates this by exploring four key academic formalisms used in academic discourse—(1) system networks and tree diagrams in linguistics, and (2) algebraic mathematical symbolism and nuclear equations used in physics. Although at first glance the formalisms look considerably different, the chapter shows that certain aspects of their organization is remarkably similar. From the perspective of register (in a particular field), they each construe significantly different meanings oriented to their particular disciplinary environments. But from the perspective of their structural (syntagmatic) organization in the grammar, they display a significant similarity by virtue of their functionality in relation to language. More broadly, this comparison of academic formalisms is used to suggest a means through which Systemic Functional Semiotics can build a semiotic typology that moves beyond relatively common-sense classifications of semiotic resources such as ‘image’ and ‘symbolism,’ and into a considered comparison that allows for multiple perspectives from various components of the Systemic Functional theoretical and descriptive architecture.