James Robert Martin (born 1950) is a Canadian linguist. He is Professor of Linguistics (Personal Chair) at The

University of Sydney The University of Sydney (USYD), also known as Sydney University, or informally Sydney Uni, is a public university, public research university located in Sydney, Australia. Founded in 1850, it is the oldest university in Australia and is one o ...

. He is the leading figure in the ' Sydney School' of

systemic functional linguistics # * Systemic functional linguistics (SFL) is an approach to linguistics, among functional linguistics, that considers language as a social semiotic system. It was devised by Michael Halliday, who took the notion of system from J. R. Firth, hi ...

. Martin is well known for his work on discourse analysis,

genre Genre () is any form or type of communication in any mode (written, spoken, digital, artistic, etc.) with socially-agreed-upon conventions developed over time. In popular usage, it normally describes a category of literature, music, or other ...

appraisal Appraisal may refer to: Decision-making * Appraisal (decision analysis), a decision method * Archival appraisal, process for determining which records need to be kept, and for how long * Project appraisal, comparing options to deliver an objectiv ...

, multimodality and educational linguistics.

Biography

Jim Martin was born in

Canada Canada is a country in North America. Its ten provinces and three territories extend from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean and northward into the Arctic Ocean, covering over , making it the world's second-largest country by tota ...

in 1950. He studied linguistics with Michael Gregory and Waldemar Gutwinski at

York University York University (french: Université York), also known as YorkU or simply YU, is a public research university in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. It is Canada's fourth-largest university, and it has approximately 55,700 students, 7,000 faculty and staf ...

(

Glendon College Glendon College is a public liberal arts college in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. Formally the federated bilingual campus of York University, it is one of the school's nine colleges and 11 faculties with 100 full-time faculty members and a student po ...

), with H.A. Gleason and Peter Reich at the

University of Toronto The University of Toronto (UToronto or U of T) is a public research university in Toronto, Ontario, Canada, located on the grounds that surround Queen's Park. It was founded by royal charter in 1827 as King's College, the first institu ...

, and with

Michael Halliday Michael Alexander Kirkwood Halliday (often M. A. K. Halliday; 13 April 1925 – 15 April 2018) was a British linguist who developed the internationally influential systemic functional linguistics (SFL) model of language. His grammatical descri ...

and

Ruqaiya Hasan Ruqaiya Hasan (3 July 1931After government birth records were lost in Pratapgarh, Hasan's mother re-registered Ruqaiya's birthdate as 3 July 1931, slightly earlier than her real birthdate, to enroll her in school earlier. – 24 June 2015) was a p ...

at the

University of Essex The University of Essex is a public research university in Essex, England. Established by royal charter in 1965, Essex is one of the original plate glass universities. Essex's shield consists of the ancient arms attributed to the Kingdom of Es ...

, UK. In 1977, Halliday invited him to the newly founded Linguistics Department at the University of Sydney, where he has been based ever since. Martin was elected fellow of the

Australian Academy of the Humanities The Australian Academy of the Humanities was established by Royal Charter in 1969 to advance scholarship and public interest in the humanities in Australia. It operates as an independent not-for-profit organisation partly funded by the Austra ...

in 1998, and awarded a Centenary Medal for his services to Linguistics and Philology in 2003. His research interests include

systemic functional grammar Systemic functional grammar (SFG) is a form of grammatical description originated by Michael Halliday. It is part of a social semiotic approach to language called ''systemic functional linguistics''. In these two terms, ''systemic'' refers to ...

, discourse semantics, register,

multimodality Multimodality is the application of multiple literacies within one medium. For example, understanding a televised weather forecast (medium) involves understanding spoken language, written language, weather specific language (such as temperature s ...

and

critical discourse analysis Critical discourse analysis (CDA) is an interdisciplinary approach to the study of discourse that views language as a form of social practice. CDA combines critique of discourse and explanation of how it figures within and contributes to the exi ...

, focusing on

English English usually refers to: * English language * English people English may also refer to: Peoples, culture, and language * ''English'', an adjective for something of, from, or related to England ** English national id ...

and

Tagalog Tagalog may refer to: Language * Tagalog language, a language spoken in the Philippines ** Old Tagalog, an archaic form of the language ** Batangas Tagalog, a dialect of the language * Tagalog script, the writing system historically used for Tagal ...

- with special reference to the transdisciplinary fields of educational linguistics,

forensic linguistics Forensic linguistics, legal linguistics, or language and the law, is the application of linguistic knowledge, methods, and insights to the forensic context of law, language, crime investigation, trial, and judicial procedure. It is a branch of a ...

and

social semiotics Social semiotics (also social semantics) is a branch of the field of semiotics which investigates human signifying practices in specific social and cultural circumstances, and which tries to explain meaning-making as a social practice. Semiotics ...

. His books include a major description of discourse semantics, ''English Text'', an outline of appraisal theory with Peter White, ''The Language of Evaluation''; and with David Rose, a guide to discourse analysis, ''Working with Discourse'', a guide to genre theory, Genre Relations: mapping culture, and an introduction to the genre-based literacy pedagogy of the ‘Sydney School’, Learning to Write, Reading to Learn. The first 2 of 8 volumes of his collected papers were published in 2010.

Contributions to linguistics

Major contributions by Jim Martin to linguistic theory and practice include discourse semantics, genre, appraisal and the educational linguistics of the Sydney School. Discourse semantic theory (set out in English Text, Working with Discourse and The Language of Evaluation) describes the organisation of texts with respect to the three metafunctions of language - interpersonal, ideational and textual. Interpersonal discourse systems include NEGOTIATION, by which speakers enact exchanges in dialogue, and APPRAISAL, by which speakers and writers negotiate their attitudes. Ideational systems include IDEATION, by which they construe their experience as activities involving people and things, and CONJUNCTION, which connects events and organises texts in logical sequences. Textual systems include IDENTIFICATION, by which the identities of people, things and places are introduced and tracked through discourse, and PERIODICITY, which organises discourse in waves of information at the scales of the text, phase (paragraph) and clause. In developing discourse semantic theory, Martin was particularly influenced by H.A. Gleason's stratificational linguistics,

's text semantics, and

. The genre theory of the Sydney School describes genres as 'staged, goal-oriented social processes'. In functional linguistics terms they are defined as a recurrent configuration of meanings, that enact the social practices of a culture. Genres are related and distinguished by recurrent global patterns, such as sequences in time, complicating events, explaining processes, describing things, or arguing for a point of view. They are also distinguished by recurrent local patterns, such as the narrative stages Orientation^Complication^Resolution, or the exposition stages Thesis^Arguments^Reiteration. Martin's work on genre initially emerged from educational research from 1979, describing the types of texts that students are expected to write in school. It has since been expanded by many scholars to map genres across a range of cultural contexts, and is the starting point for analysis of texts and design of literacy education interventions. In addition to the textbook Genre Relations, a brief introduction is given in Rose 2012 Martin's key contribution to educational linguistics is the genre-based approach to language education. Genre pedagogy is based on a principle of 'guidance through interaction in the context of shared experience', influenced by research in child language development by

and Clare Painter. In practice, teachers guide students to deconstruct the organisation and language features of model texts, and then jointly construct new texts in the same genre, using the text organisation and language features identified in the deconstruction. Sydney School research in genre and discourse semantics outlined above is a foundation of the pedagogy, and associated teacher training programs. Genre pedagogy is now institutionalised in school syllabi across Australia and Indonesia, and is increasingly applied internationally. In addition to the textbook Learning to Write, Reading to Learn, a brief introduction is given in Rose 2010. More recently Martin has been working in the field of multimodality, focusing on children’s picture books. A jointly authored book, with Clare Painter and Len Unsworth is in press. He has also begun work in forensic linguistics, working with Paul Dwyer and Michele Zappavigna on restorative justice, youth justice conferencing in particular. A collection of their papers is in preparation as Volume 8 of his Collected Works. Martin has also been involved in recent years in interdisciplinary works with Karl Maton's Legitimation Code Theory.Martin, J. R., Maton, K. and Doran, Y. J (eds) (2020) Accessing Academic Discourse: Systemic functional linguistics and Legitimation Code Theory, Routledge.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Martin, J. R. Systemic functional linguistics 1950 births Living people Canadian expatriates in Australia University of Sydney faculty York University alumni University of Toronto alumni Linguists from Canada Alumni of the University of Essex 20th-century Canadian male writers 21st-century Canadian male writers Fellows of the Australian Academy of the Humanities Canadian expatriates in England

Biography

Contributions to linguistics

See also

References