Chrystalla A. Thoma

University of Hamburg

Grammatical metaphor in Greek scientific discourse

n this paper we examine the register of Greek scientific texts according to the tenets of Systemic Functional Linguistics (Halliday & Matthiessen 2001). The aim is to define the grammatical metaphor syndrome “Things and relations” in Greek, which is prototypically expected in these texts. This syndrome entails the transformation of processes (realised as verbal groups) into participants, and particularly entities encoded as “things” (realised by nominal groups) with a relating verb (such as “to be”) connecting them. The ability to use grammatical metaphor is the ability to adapt to the expectancies of the targeted public and socio-cultural context of the register. This syndrome of grammatical metaphor, which is being evidenced in many languages, is purported to have been first invented by Greek philosophers (cf. also Kappagoda 2002). It will be shown that the syndrome persists in Modern Greek and that its realisation is somewhat different to that of English. The scientific texts under examination are taken from the ECI corpus. The general context of grammatical metaphor, its syndromes and its uses, will also be presented in the framework of this presentation.

References:

Halliday, M.A.K. & Matthiessen, C.M.I.M. (2001) Construing Experience through Meaning: A Language-Based Approach to Cognition, Cassel, NY.

Kappagoda, A. (2002) “Happening Things: Grammatical metaphor in ancient Greek”. The Australian Society for Classical Studies. ASCS XXIV 24th Conference and General Meeting.