51st International Systemic Functional Congress (ISFC 2026)

Biography:
Beatriz Quiroz is Associate Professor in Language Sciences at the Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile (PUC-Chile), where she teaches and supervises undergraduate and postgraduate students in Linguistics. Her current research, informed by Systemic Functional Linguistics (SFL), focuses on developing a text-based and functionally oriented description of lexicogrammatical systems in Chilean Spanish, with special emphasis on system-structure relations. Her broader interests include functional language description, functional language typology and the various interactions between grammar and discourse. Relevant publications include the edited book Interpersonal grammar: Systemic Functional Linguistic theory and description (co-edited with J.R. Martin and G. Figueredo, CUP, 2021), and the monograph Systemic Functional Grammar: a text-based description of English, Spanish and Chinese (co-authored with J. R. Martin and Pin Wang, CUP, 2023).

Abstract:
This workshop explores the role of paradigmatic relations within the current architecture of Systemic Functional Linguistics (SFL), which conceptualises language as a semiotic system organised into networks of contextually motivated systems of choice (Halliday, 2014; Matthiessen, 2023)  

The session will begin by examining the place of paradigmatic relations in relation to the notion of choice in SFL. The conceptual origins of these relations will be traced back to twentieth-century European linguistics, highlighting key contributions from Saussure, Hjelmslev, and Firth. The workshop will then discuss paradigmatic relations and their connection to meaningful choice within the SFL framework, emphasising their central role in integrating major theoretical dimensions such as stratification, metafunction, and rank. 

Next, the focus will shift to system networks as the privileged means of modelling the paradigmatic organisation of language in SFL. This includes an overview of the main conventions for network drawing (Martin & Wang, in press). Participants will engage in axial argumentation (Martin et al., 2020), also referred to as 'axial rethink' (Matthiessen et al., 2018), through the systemic analysis of pronouns in English, Spanish, and Chinese (Martin et al., 2023). Discussion of structural realisation will then lead to constituent analysis in SFL, using minimally bracketed flat trees that display richly layered function and class labels across the rank scale. Participants will review the criteria used in structural analysis for different units, and finally, constituent analysis will be linked back to the relevant lexicogrammatical systems. 

The workshop integrates both theoretical and practical components, offering participants the opportunity to apply the principles discussed to targeted exercises in systemic and structural description, with cross-linguistic comparisons among English, Spanish, and Chinese. 

Overall, this workshop aims to provide participants with a comprehensive understanding of the axial dimension within the SFL architecture. This will be achieved through familiarity with: (i) the interplay between system and structure in the language potential available to speakers; (ii) the distinction between categories that belong to a general theory of language and those that are particular to the account of choice relations in a given language (Halliday, 1992/2003); and (iii) the practice of paradigmatic reasoning in descriptive work (Martin et al., 2023; Matthiessen, 2024).