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In this issue

Photos from the Halliday Symposium and Appraisal Symposium

Upcoming events

Visiting professor from Vietnam

Message from the President Pauline Jones (on behalf of the ASFLA executive)

2015 was off to a good start with the symposium celebrating Michael Hallidays 90th birthday. The event was a great success with stimulating speakers, attendees from near and far, and good food and drink (as the photos on pages 2 and 3 will show). Our sincere thanks to Fran Christie, Jim Martin, Geoff Williams and Yaegan Doran for their energy and organisation, and to all who participated.

Thank you also to Peter White and Lexie Don for hosting another successful Appraisal symposium at UNSW. From all reports, some fascinating work was presented. ASFLA collaborated with ACU to bring Professor Nguyen Van Hiep to Sydney during this week. It was an important visit for both Australian and Vietnamese SFL scholars and signals the growing interest in SFL among Vietnamese linguists and language educators.

And the activities continue. At USyd, the Friday afternoon research student classes with Jim Martin and the seminar series organised by Sue Hood from UTS have been happening again this semester.

Garry Collins and Lindsay Williams have announced an extension to the Call for Papers for ASFLA 2015 until April 17th. Please check out the feast of abstracts from the plenary speakers at http://www.asfla2015.org. With its themes of linguistics, literature and verbal art, it promises to be an interesting conference.

On the international front, Sally Humphrey has organised the Educational Semiotics Symposium, Aachen on July 25th under the umbrella of the ISFC 2015 Institute. Registration for the symposium can be done together with Congress registration at http://www.isfc2015.anglistik.rwth-aachen.de. Early bird rates for the congress are available until May 31.

So, heres to another busy productive time for the ASFLA community. Our gratitude to Trish for helping keep us in touch via the newsletter.

Pauline Jones

President

ASFLA

Australian Systemic Functional Linguistics Association Newsletter April 2015

Please let us know if you have any news

that should appear on these pages or if

you have any ideas about what youd like

to see: asflanews@gmail.com

Trish Weekes, Editor

ASFLA 2015

is coming!

2

On Tuesday February 17, 2015, the Systemic Functional Linguistics community gathered to honour the renowned linguist, Michael Halliday and to celebrate Michaels 90th birthday. The event, hosted by the Department of Linguistics at the University of Sydney, attracted 140 students and colleagues.

The gathering was chaired by Peter White and opened by Nick Enfield (the newly appointed Chair of Linguistics); it featured keynote presentations by scholars inspired by Hallidays thinking (J R Martin, Clare Painter, David Butt, Geoff Williams, Frances Christie and Christian Matthiessen), in talks addressing functional language typology, language development, the science of meaning, social class and semantic variation in relation to melanoma, language in education and the ongoing evolution of Hallidays theory.

The day concluded with a reading of greetings from around the world, a birthday cake, celebratory drinks and nibbles.

It was an energising and moving day as those attending reflected on the impact of Hallidays work on their thinking about language and the ways his ideas changed their research and practice across a diverse range of fields.

Thanks to Jim Martin for the report

Halliday symposium a celebration in his 90th year

Speakers and honoured guests: Christian Matthiesen, Geoff Williams, Frances Christie, Ruqaiya Hasan, Michael Halliday, Jim Martin, Clare Painter and David Butt

3

Happy snaps from

the Halliday

Symposium (with

thanks to Lexie Don

and Ernest

Arkerejola).

4

The appraisal Symposium, organised by Peter White and Lexie Don, was held at the University of New South Wales on

February 18 19, 2015 and offered the opportunity to engage with evaluative meaning-making from a variety of different

perspectives. The organisers of the symposium provided an environment which encouraged participants to share ideas, ask

questions and further interrogate the model.

A wide range of approaches to evaluative meaning making was

evident in the presentations. The opportunity to hear Professor Susan

Hunston present an outsiders view into appraisal was particularly

valuable, as was the opportunity to hear about the use of appraisal in

contexts as varied as analysis of video games, other languages

(Vietnamese, Chinese), school discourse, academic discourse,

multimodal contexts (typography, blogs, online news, television,

clothing), verbal communication and sports analytics. Dialogue

amongst participants was encouraged during a forum / panel

discussion on the afternoon of the first day of the Symposium and

continued through lunch and tea breaks on the second day. It was a

valuable opportunity to meet with colleagues, debate the model and its

application to multiple contexts, and push against the boundaries of

current understandings of how evaluative meanings are made and

described. Thanks to Erika Matruglio for this report Panellists at the Appraisal Symposium

EVENTS FOR THE DIARY

ISFC 42

Pre-Congress Institute: 22 25 July 2015 Congress: 27 31 July 2015 Aachen University, Germany Early registration ends 31 May 2015 Regular registration ends 12 July 2015 Registration and more information: http://www.isfc2015.anglistik.rwth-aachen.de/ https://www.facebook.com/ISFLA

ASFLA

Pre conference institutes: September 28, 2015 Conference: September 29-October 1, 2015 University of Queensland, Brisbane Call for papersabstracts due April 17 http://www.asfla2015.org

Systemic Functional Linguistics and Translation studies

13-15 April, 2015 Pusan National University, Peoples Republic of Korea Registration and more information: juneleetrans@gmail.com

Legitimation Code Theory Colloquium

18-19 June, 2015 Cape Peninsula University of Technology, Rhodes University, University of Cape Town, South Africa

Registration deadline 31st March, 2015

https://sites.google.com/site/lctcolloquium2015/home

5

6

17 April, 2015

7

Building relationships with Vietnam In mid February, ACU and ASFLA hosted the visit of Professor Nguyen Van Hiep, Director of Institute of

Linguistics, Vietnam National Academy of Social Sciences. The mission of the Institute of Linguistics is to give advice about language research and policies to the Vietnamese government which directly impacts the current National Education Reform project.

Prof. Nguyen Van Hiep attended the Halliday Symposium and the Appraisal Symposium and was deeply impressed by the robustness of SFL in language research and language and literacy education. At the Appraisal symposium, Prof. Hiep provided a historical account of linguistic studies in Vietnam and the emergence of SFL. In the conclusion of his talk, he expressed his gratitude to ACU and the SFL community in Australia for making his trip to Australia possible. He indicated, "During the last three days attending the Halliday Symposium and the Appraisal Symposium, I have opened my eyes and opened my mind. So far, linguistic research in Vietnam has been very isolated and disoriented. SFL study in Vietnam was in fact SFG. From now on, I know what the direction for Linguistic Study in Vietnam is- it is the SFL orientation."

On his return to Vietnam, Prof. Hiep immediately discussed with his colleagues and senior managers about establishing the Vietnam Association of Systemic Functional Linguistics within the Vietnam Linguistic Society and has received approval from them. In one of the most prestigious peer reviewed linguistic journals by the Vietnam Linguistic Society, the Language and Life journal, a new section specifically assigned for SFL research will immediately be opened. Publications for this section will be bilingual: in English and Vietnamese.

Prof. Hiep welcomes publications in SFL from Australian scholars and highly appreciates support from the international SFL community in the development of SFL research in Vietnam.

Prof. Hiep said to SFL scholars at the Appraisal symposium: "Vietnam needs your support. If you give us an SFL seed, we will be responsible for growing it in Vietnam until it fruits". Last year, in 2014, Prof. Len Unsworth, Dr. Thu Ngo and Dr. Peter White were the pioneers who came to Vietnam to sow the first seeds. This year, Prof. James Martin and Assoc. Prof. Susan Hood have generously agreed to come to Vietnam to present SFL talks at the major Vietnam Linguistic Conference titled '30 years of Vietnam linguistics development and reform' to be held in August 2015. Prof. Hiep welcomes international participants to come to Vietnam for this conference. Details of this conference will be announced shortly.

Thanks to Thu Ngo for story and photos

Professor Hiep, Professor Halliday and Thu Ngo at the Halliday symposium

NEWS

Professor Len Unsworth, Professor Hiep and Thu Ngo