David Rose Confusing The Cultural Context Of Language With Language Variation

David Rose wrote to sys-func and sysfling list on 9 February 2017 at 17:39:

A genre is a recurrent configuration of register variation (field, tenor, mode)

Any instance of a genre will involve recognisable recurrent register configurations

That doesn't mean they recur with exactly the same elements, in exactly the same order

They can vary in field, in tenor, and in mode

John's examples of ‘routines’ are recurrent activity series, which are variations in field. … 

But the configuration is still recognisable to themselves and others as a genre
If it is not recognisable as an instance of one genre, then it must be another genre. 

This model of genre is developed from the work of Hasan, Gregory, Barthes and Bakhtin, that Annabelle’s quote touches on. The major innovation is that context is modelled as a semiotic plane, stratified as genre and register, and realised in language. In this model, what Hasan calls a ‘cultural practice’ is intrinsically a ‘semiotic act’.

Blogger Comments:

[1] The confusions here are multidimensional and build on each other.  In short:

What Rose Says	What SFL Theory Says
A genre is a recurrent configuration of register variation (field, tenor, mode)	A genre is a type of text.  Genre is register viewed from the instance pole of the cline of instantiation.
	The field tenor and mode of a situation type (context) is realised by a register/genre (language)
Any instance of a genre will involve recognisable recurrent register configurations	An instance of a genre/register is a text.  A text realises the field, tenor and mode features of a situation (an instance of context).
That doesn't mean they recur with exactly the same elements, in exactly the same order They can vary in field, in tenor, and in mode	Variation in contextual configurations of field tenor and mode (situation types) is realised by variation in language (registers/genres)

[2] Martin's (1992) use of the term 'activity sequences' confuses what goes on in a text with what goes on in the environment of a text.  Evidence is provided here.

[3] Note that for Martin's model of genre as a system of context, rather than as a text type, an instance of a genre is an instance of context, not an instance of language.  That is, on this model, an instance of genre is not a text.

[4] This is very misleading, since it falsely claims that the modelling of context as semiotic is an innovation of Martin's model.  In SFL, context is the culture modelled as a semiotic system. As demonstrated on this blog and elsewhere, Martin's model confuses context with diatypic varieties of language (registers/genres).