Systemic Functional Linguistics As Practice And Development Of Wittgenstein’s Philosophy Of Language

Both concerned with the study of language, linguistics and philosophy of language are intrinsically bonded and it is always possible for them to benefit from each other and develop together. But in the academic circle, there has long existed the phenomenon of "Two pieces of skin" in the study of philosophy of language and linguistics, referring to the lack of communication and cooperation between these two fields of study, which is a blockage to the development of the study of language as a whole. Many Chinese scholars, therefore, advocate the integration of the two subjects.Answering the call of this academic advocation, this dissertation sets out to analyze and compare the thinking and theories of Wittgenstein, a philosopher of language and Halliday, a linguist, from the three perspectives of grammar, language and society, as well as language and cognition. Based on the framework of the relation among language, mind and reality, and focusing on topics of grammar, semogenesis(meaning-creating), context, categorization and constructivism, this dissertation systematically illustrates how Wittgenstein’s views on language directly or otherwise provides philosophical basis for Halliday’s theories on the one hand, and how Halliday’s Systemic Functional Linguistics actualizes and develops Wittgenstein’s philosophical thinking on language on the other. The reasons for choosing these two scholars to focus and compare are as follows:on the one hand, the later Wittgenstein’s attention to the use of language had played an important role on the appearance and development of functional linguistics; on the other, Halliday’s exploration of the meaning of language and the relation between language and reality has bestowed his theories with a strong sense of philosophy of language. This mutual connection is further demonstrated in shared research thinking such as "the opposition to strict delimitation" and "underlying the normativity of language".The discussion of this dissertation is meant to be a first step of inquiry into the integration of these two fields of study, and this attempt can be understood in two senses: specifically speaking, the comparison of these two scholar’s thinking and theories can deepen exploration into such core issues of language as the essence of grammar and the nature of meaning, and offer multi-dimensional perspectives for their clarification—— these issues cannot be analyzed comprehensively should they be surveyed unidirectionally either from the stance of philosophy of language, or linguistics. Broadly speaking, this study can shed light on the integration of philosophy of language and linguistics as a global academic undertaking:first, the key to integrating these two subjects consists in bringing to light the philosophical relevance of linguistic theories, which will beneficially add to the unidirectional introduction of philosophical theories to linguistics, rendering possible the mutual influence and penetration between the two subjects; second, the integration requires at first admitting and finding out the differences between the two subjects in terms of their research objectives and methodology, and then choosing those topics of language with ontological and epistemological significance in which they both take interest as points of departure.