A systemic functional analysis of multisemiotic biology texts 4

Text 1: biology: cell biology: molecular cell biology: cell cycle: cell division: M phase: Mitosis:…; major reading material to be used in conjunction with attending lectures, doing exp

CHAPTER FOUR RESULTS OF LINGUISTIC ANALYSIS

4.1 The Institutional Context for the Language of Tertiary Biology

If text and context in general are intricately interdependent, in a relation of realization, language of school science and its context are no exception Certain lexicogrammatical patterns are the realization of certain contextual variables, both of the context of situation and of the context of culture (see Section 2.3 above; cf Section 3.2.1 above) It is therefore crucial to understand what the institutional context of school science is if we want to understand better the language features As Veel (1997: 162; original emphasis) points out,

An account of the language of school science must therefore do more

than document genres and their grammatical features Many

institutional factors affect the types of meanings that can be made and

the value accorded to these meanings … To make sense of the way

particular texts and particular grammatical patterns occur in school

science, and why they occur in a particular order, it is essential to

consider what is distinctive about texts within their particular

institutional context

4.1.1 The Context of Situation of the Biology Texts

In describing the contextual configurations, we need to exercise discretion as to the delicacy level needed That is, a particular category can be described along a scale of delicacy, from least delicate to most delicate (indicated in Section 2.1 above) In the

following descriptions, the ellipsis “…” is used to indicate that the category can be further moved down the delicacy scale

Field of discourse Text 1: biology: cell biology: molecular cell

biology: cell cycle: cell division: M phase: Mitosis:…; major reading

material to be used in conjunction with attending lectures, doing experiments and taking part in other activities: …

Text 2: biology: biochemistry: macromolecules: carbohydrates: …;

major reading material to be used in conjunction with attending lectures

and tutorials: …

Text 3: biology: cell biology: cell cycle: cell division…; major reading

material to be used in conjunction with attending lectures, doing experiments and taking part in other activities:…

Tenor of discourse Expert to novices, i.e first- or second-year

university undergraduates (Text 1), freshman (Text 2), or pre-university

students (Text 3), with some though not much background knowledge

in biology: …; social distance: near maximum, with experts dominating

and students subordinate, the latter under pressure to pass exams at the

end of the semester:…

Mode of discourse Language role: constitutive and ancillary (with a

lot of non-linguistic graphic elements)…; channel: graphic (marks on

paper)…; medium: written…

Though not represented by the above description, lecturers play an important role in the selection and use of the biology texts First, the students do not select and buy textbooks by themselves, nor do the textbook authors normally have any personal contact with the students and influence their choice It is the lecturers under whom the

students study that recommend the purchase of a particular textbook In the case of the biology texts to be analysed here, the lecturers strongly encourage the students to buy their own copies Second, the lecturer, rather than anyone else, guides the students through the textbook in class The lecturer emphasizes and de-emphasizes relevant parts of the textbook, in a sense transforming it, the process of which is impossible if the student works with the text on his or her own Third, the lecturer sets standards of pass or fail Through the examination system, the lecturer’s authority as the expert or the representative of the expert, or at least as the primary knower, is fully displayed and maintained (cf Luke, de Castell and Luke 1989: 251-252; 257-258)

4.1.2 The Context of Culture of the Biology Texts

The context of culture of a textbook is the whole of a school as an institution that gives meaning to the individual activity that takes place (See Section 2.3.2 above) What follows is concerned with the curriculum design for biology students selecting Text 1

as their textbook1, in particular, with the development of scientific method in the students

The time allocation of a course specifies how a teacher / student spends the course time and gives us a brief indication of what it is that the student is expected to

do and achieve from the course It is also an indication of the institutional context for the language of school science in that it provides information about what the student

does in addition to what he or she reads It also shows what it means to be trained as a

scientist or what a science person should be able to do A summary of the time allocation of all the Level 1000 (first-year) and Level 2000 (second-year) biology

courses offered in the Department of Biological Sciences at NUS is presented in Table 4.1:

Practi-& % )

Tutorial hours

11,

Level

1000

285 (54.2%)

142 (27.0%)

71 (13.5%)

4 (1%)

22 (4.2%)

2 (0.5%)

Key: C.A = Continuous Assessment

Table 4.1 A summary of the time allocation in Level 1000 and 2000 courses2

As we can see from the Table, practical classes account for 27.0% and 39.5%

of the total contact hours of a Level 1000 / Level 2000 student’s learning life, respectively This suggests strongly that a biologist in training should develop hands-

on skills as well as acquire a body of knowledge Some portion of what he or she reads or hears in lecture hours has to, at some point, be related to what he or she reads

or hears and manipulates in the laboratory, and vice versa In the words of a biology

instructor, “biology is an experimental science” (interview with BL 2262 instructor)

If we look at the historical development of biology over the past centuries, we can immediately see the critical role equipment and experiments played in the knowledge the scientific community has accumulated As noted in Alberts et al (1994: 139),

“[w]hat we can learn about cells depends on the tools at our disposal, and major advances in cell biology have frequently sprung from the introduction of new techniques”

Therefore in training a biologist, a balance between theory and practice should

be struck The philosophy behind the incorporation of lectures and practical classes into the biology curriculum is that the student needs to understand and observe the scientific method as well as acquire a body of factual information accumulated in previous investigations The scientific method may include: observation (made either directly by the senses or indirectly with the help of “instruments, such as light or radio telescopes, light or electron microscope and cathode ray oscilloscopes, which act as extensions of our senses” (Taylor et al 1997: 951), hypothesis, experiments, results and interpretation, and finally, theory and laws The cultivation of the scientific method explains much of what a student does and reads

In another sense, the issue of the scientific method extends beyond the mastery

of a method; it is also the cultivation of scientific behaviour The student is expected

to think and behave scientifically An analysis of laboratory instruction will enable us

to appreciate that the student is expected to be no more than a physiological organism that performs certain tasks It matters not who the student is; what matters is what type

of behaviour is accepted and acceptable in the laboratory You have to be a scientific

man / woman Here is one paragraph from BL 1102 laboratory instruction3

During the Laboratory Period

1 Exercise caution at all times – for the protection of yourself and the

equipment Careful laboratory habits are the best prevention against

personal injury, breakage, and damage to valuable equipment DO

NOT HURRY!

2 Report to the teaching assistant any personal injury or damage to the

equipment

3 Maintain order and decorum in the laboratory at all times

4 Do not hesitate to consult with your teaching assistant when in need of

help

5 Chemicals or procedures that are potentially dangerous will be noted in

the exercise description Consult the teaching assistant if you have any

questions about the proper handling of chemicals or safe use of

equipment

Textually, the Themes of the clauses in the paragraph mostly fall on the verbs,

“Exercise”, “DO NOT HURRY!”, “Report” and so on This means that the text is mainly concerned with what the student needs to do

Interpersonally, most of the clauses are in the imperative MOOD The author

of the instruction is instructing the student as to the appropriate behaviour He or she

is entitled to the right and the power to do so and, accordingly, the student is in a subordinate position, under an obligation to follow what the teacher demands As well, clauses that are in the declarative MOOD are not modalized For example, the clause “Careful laboratory habits are the best prevention…” simply presents a proven fact, absolute truth

We could go on describing the meanings in the paragraph in greater detail, but even such a cursory analysis reveals the author’s major concern, that is, the development in the student of the scientific method and behaviour And reading such clauses, the student assimilates all strands of meaning and undergoes character

transformation; he or she is expected to form the right habits, the right behaviour, and the right way of thinking and doing Seen from a critical perspective, however, what is

at play here is clearly the hegemony of science discourse in the student’s life and in the lives of ordinary citizens at large, supported by “the ever-growing control it [science discourse] affords over the material environment (over physical and biological resources) – through technology” (Martin 1998: 11) Text, material world, science and

technology, educational institutions and teachers thus conspire to position the student

as a subordinate, or repress him or her

4.2 Ideational Meaning: Technicality in Biology

This section falls into three sub-sections In Section 4.2.1, I present the experiential meaning selections made in the biology texts, those for PROCESS TYPES and those for CIRCUMSTANCES In Section 4.2.2, I discuss the logical meaning and Section 4.2.3 is concerned with some thematic patterns (Lemke 1990) that occur in Text 1

4.2.1 Experiential Meaning

4.2.1.1 Process Types

The frequencies of process types in the biological texts are presented in Table 4.2 Examples of the process types follow All examples are from Text 1 unless otherwise noted4

Material process: Cl 71 It starts to assemble toward the end of mitosis,

Relational: intensive: attributive: Cl 2 The duration of the cell cycle

varies greatly from one cell type to another

Relational: intensive: identifying: Cl 46 Chromosome condensation

marks the end of G2 phase

Relational: circumstantial: attributive: Cl 13 In a typical mammalian

cell the whole of M phase takes about an hour

Text 1 Text 2 Text 3 Process

Key: Circum = Circumstantial

Table 4.2 Frequencies of process types

Relational: circumstantial: identifying: Cl 185 Kinetochore assembly

depends entirely on the presence of the centromere DNA sequence:

Relational: possessive: attributive: Cl 34 the cell would not have time

to double its mass

Relational: possessive: identifying: Cl 162 The next stage in mitosis

involves the positioning of the replicated chromosomes…

Verbal process: Cl 27 As we discuss in Chapter 18,

Mental: cognition process: Cl 134 you should assume // that…( Text 2)

Mental: affection process: Cl 796 The greater sweetness of artificial

sweeteners surprises many people; (Text 2)

Mental: perception process: Cl 384 although they cannot be seen

Existential process: Cl 287 In most cells there is one gap phase (G1)

between M phase and S phase

Behavioural process: Cl 338 (see Figure 16-10)

As we can see in Table 4.2, the three texts differ in their selections of process types While in Text 1 material processes account for 61.1% of all the instances of processes, clearly standing out as the most frequent process type, in Texts 2 and 3 relational processes, which account for 48.0% and 42.1% respectively of all the instances of processes, outnumber the material process (and any other process type) This difference in the frequencies of process types redounds with the difference in the field of discourse discussed above For instance, Text 1 introduces the topic of cell division, what happens when the cell divides into two, hence the higher frequency of material process clauses, whereas Text 2 is concerned with biochemical molecules, carbohydrates in particular, the structure, function and reactions of carbohydrates, hence the higher frequency of relational processes All three texts, however, have one

feature in common: material and relational process clauses combined make up more than 80% of all the instances of processes in each text, while the other process clauses such as mental process clauses are much more infrequent in all three texts This indicates that the texts are mainly concerned with actions and happenings and establishing relations of attribution and identification between participating entities In the remainder of this sub-section I discuss each of the major process types: material, relational, mental, existential, verbal and behavioural processes

is, biologists are charged with “doing” whereas what is observed under the microscope

or elsewhere is termed “happening”, the criterion being what type of Actor the entity belongs to, a scientist or a biological entity such as a cell Within the happening I further classify simple and metaphorical happening A simple happening is construed minimally by an unconscious biological entity (what Halliday and Matthiessen (1999: 182) call a simple thing) and a process, and a metaphorical happening by a nominalized process (what Halliday and Matthiessen (1999: 60) term as a macro-participant) and a verbal group A summary overview of the types of material process and their distribution in the texts is presented in Table 4.3

Text 1 Text 2 Text 3 Type

Table 4.3 Sub-types of material processes

Examples of each type of material process follow They are taken from Text 1 unless otherwise noted

Simple happening: Cl 20 During S phase5 (S = synthesis), the cell

replicates its nuclear DNA

Metaphorical happening: Cl 277 and, as a consequence of

decondensation, gene transcription is able to resume

Doing: Cl 154 Later the root tips are removed, (Text 3)

As is clear from Table 4.3, simple happenings are the most frequent sub-type of material processes in all three texts and are felt to bear the bulk of the task of explaining to the students what happens in the phenomena in question For instance, in Text 1, the simple happenings centre around in interphase: (chromosome) “replicates”, (cell) “grows”; in prophase: (chromosomes) “condense”, (the mitotic spindle)

“assembles”; in prometaphase and metaphase: (nuclear envelope) “breaks down” and

(chromosomes) “move to the metaphase equator”; in anaphase: (the paired chromatids)

“separate” and “are each pulled to the spindle poles”; in telophase: (the two sets of daughter chromosomes) “arrive at the poles of the spindle” and (a new nuclear envelope) “reassembles around each set” – mitosis is complete; and in cytokinesis: (the cytoplasm) “is divided in two by a contractile ring” and (two daughter cells) “are created” These processes form the core of the cell cycle, without which an adequate description of it is impossible This is the basic semantic pattern of cell division, the basic kinds of relationships between cell components and how they change in the cycle (see Section 4.2.3 below for a discussion of thematic patterns in Text 1) Material processes of this sub-type play a major role in setting up these basic relationships For example,

Cl 188 Once the nuclear envelope has broken down, (Text 1)

The metaphorical happenings involve the use of grammatical metaphor of types 2i and 12i or 9 (see Table 2.1 above) That is, a process is transformed into a nominal group (type 2i) and a semantically empty verb (what Wignell et al (1993: 159) call “a dummy process”) such as “undergo”, “occur”, “carry out” is used to indicate that such

a process exists or takes place (type 12i), or a verb expressing conjunction (i.e relationship between processes) such as “stimulate” is used to indicate that one process causes, precedes, follows and so forth another (type 9) For example,

Cl 215 tubulin loss continues (Text 1)

Cl 419 (chromosomes) undergo active movement (Text 1)

Cl 960 The binding of an inducer molecule… alters the tertiary

structure of… (Text 3)

The last sub-type of material process is concerned with the construction of doings from the standpoint of biologists and biological students, what these people do

There are two major types of things that biologists are engaged in, handling the biological materials (e.g specimens, instruments) and handling inscriptions (photographs, figures, diagrams) Verging on the mental process is another group of material process that describes the process of obtaining evidence for some ideas

Biological material handling Text 3 includes an account of the procedure to carry out an experiment and this sub-type of material process clusters around this portion of the text (Cl.s 148-204) For example,

Cl 154 Later the root tips are removed,

Cl 155 fixed,

Cl 156 stained

Cl 157 and macerated…

This clause complex instructs the student what to do with the experimental material

As well, the biological material handling process also occurs in experimental recount (Martin 1993b: 193), where descriptions of some aspects of an experiment serve not to instruct the student reader what to do but to support some conclusion and the focus is

on theory construction rather than carrying out an experiment For example,

Cl 516 Samples were removed

Cl 517 and the DNA extracted

Cl 518 and centrifuged …(Text 3)

On the borderline with the mental process there is a sub-type of material process that describes how scientists seek evidence for some hypothesis or obtain results from an experiment; for example,

Cl 1005 Since 1961, … further evidence has accumulated which has

helped to… (Text 3)

Inscription handling In addition to the instruments and samples, biologists or students create and handle photographs, diagrams, molecular models and so forth Quite a number of material processes in the texts describe the inscription-related activities Latour (1990) terms the transformation from the physical material to its semiotic trace as “inscription” and holds that such symbols for the material world are powerful means to convince

Text 2 allocates quite some space explaining the conventions about how a diagram of a carbohydrate molecule is drawn and how it is interpreted (34 clauses) For example,

Cl 111 Each figure starts with the triose at the top (Text 2)

Cl 197 Rotate the bond between C4 and C5 (Text 2)

Likewise, in Text 3, scientists are also described to handle the inscriptions For example,

Cl 50 If the chromosomes are cut out from a photograph such as fig

23.1

Cl 51 and lined up according to size, (Text 3)

Whether in the form of material handling or in the form of semiotic or inscription handling, biologists are actively participating in the process of understanding and transforming nature They want to bring about better crop yield, fight disease in human beings, and so forth Just a mere understanding of how things work in nature is far from enough; biologists are interested in transforming, intervening and creating

“be” and the Attribute [different, etc] are fused into one element as another Process

“differ” and so forth For example,

Cl 733 It differs from DNA in possessing the pentose sugar ribose

instead of…(Text 3)

Cl 905 (Text 3) expresses a similar meaning to [be different] but in a different and more complex lexicogrammatical configuration Cl 905 reads:

Cl 905 Despite this, cells in a multicellular organism show a wide

variation in structure and function (Text 3)

This clause is highly metaphorical The key to the metaphorical transformation lies in the shift from the verbal group “vary” to the nominal group “variation” (grammatical metaphor type 2i) and concomitantly the addition of the verbal group “show” (similar

to grammatical metaphor type 12i, but with the additional meaning of ‘be seen’, mental: perception)

In addition to the description of the attributes or class-membership of simple entities, intensive: attributive processes can also have as their Carrier nominalized processes or aspects of the nominalized processes For example,

Cl 279 …mitosis is complete (Text 1) (nominalized process:

The most common definitions take the form of “be called”, “be known as”, “be referred to as” For example,

Cl 69 Monosaccharides and disaccharides are also called sugars (Text

2)

Another fairly common type of definition is the equation-like “Term = Class + Differences”, where = takes the form of “be” or “refer to” For example,

Cl 116 Mitosis is the process by which a cell nucleus divides to

produce two daughter nuclei containing identical sets of chromosomes

to the parent cell (Text 3)

Cl 351 Independent assortment refers to the fact that the bivalents line

up independently… (Text 3)

Variants to the above two common forms of definition exist For example,

Cl 63 The name oligosaccharide is loosely used for any saccharide

larger than a monosaccharide but smaller than a polysaccharide (Text

2)

Cl 542 Mendel would therefore have defined a gene as a unit of

inheritance (Text 2)

In addition, many of the terms defined in the texts are highlighted typographically, for

example, in Cl 116 (Text 3) quoted above, the term “mitosis” is in italics

The other type of intensive: identifying clauses do not define; they set up Token / Value relationships, entity or process and its role, significance, function, etc The verbal groups employed for this purpose include “act as”, “be”, “indicate”

“prove”, “reveal”, and so forth For example,

Cl 283 The presence of this equilibrium has been proved by the

mutarotation and oxidation experiments described next (Text 2)

Cl 335 because the sugar is the reducing agent in the oxidation

reaction….(Text 2)

Cl 289 The onset of M phase is signaled by the formation of a mitotic

spindle (Text 1)

Cl 419 Post mortems carried out on the dead mice always revealed the

presence within their bodies of live capsulated forms (Text 3)

In Text 3 the intensive: identifying process is also used to set up the genetic code, “[the] rules by which the nucleotide sequence of a gene, through the medium of mRNA, is translated into the amino acid sequence of a protein” (Alberts et al 1994: 225), that is, which nucleotide triplets in DNA or RNA code for which amino acids in proteins Table 23.4 on page 799 in Text 3 lists all the correspondences between the

nucleotide triplets and the amino acids Eighteen intensive: identifying clauses in Text

3 are devoted to setting up this relationship For example,

Cl 700 A triplet of bases in the polynucleotide chain of DNA is the

code for one amino acid in a polypeptide chain (Text 3)

Cl 891 and codes for the protein calcitonin, (Text 3)

(2)(i) circumstantial: attributive The circumstantial relations centre around [location: place], [extent: duration], [cause: reason] and [manner: means]

[location: place] For example,

Cl 195 As kinetochores on sister chromatids face in opposite directions (Text 1)

Cl 124 – the – OH group is on the right side of the Fischer projection

(Text 2)

[extent: duration] For example,

Cl 13 …the whole of M phase takes about an hour (Text 1)

[cause: reason] The verbal groups realizing [cause: reason] include “result” and “be responsible for” For example,

Cl 401 which is responsible for the formation of maltose (Text 2)

Cl 830 Two problems result: (Text 2)

Cl 18 This is because they are responsible for the transmission of the…

(Text 3)

[manner: means] For example,

Cl 14 The difference is in the way in which the units of glucose are

joined together (Text 2)

(2)(ii) circumstantial: identifying In all three texts, the circumstantial relation

of [cause: reason] predominates in this sub-type of identifying clauses In Text 1, 16

out of the 24 circumstantial: identifying clauses, or 66.7%, are concerned with [cause: reason], in Text 2, 39 out of 42, or 92.9%, and in Text 3, 68 out of 82, or 82.9%, are concerned with [cause: reason] And the identifying [cause: reason] is realized in a variety of forms, as shown in the examples below:

Cl 185 Kinetochore assembly depends entirely on the presence of the

centromere DNA sequence (Text 1)

Cl 394 The phosphorylation of the lamins at prophase helps trigger the

disassembly of the nuclear lamina (Text 1)

Cl 643 Incompatible antigen-antibody combinations can result in death

on transfusion.(Text 2)

Cl 584 The α (1 → 4)- glycosidic linkages of amylase … prevent the

formation of extended chain conformations (Text 2)

Cl 910 … the principal reason for the reduction may be that diets high

in fiber are generally low in meats and fats (Text 2)

Cl 615 In many cases, these tasks are accomplished by a process called

cell recognition, (Text 2)

Cl 426 Removal of the polysaccharide capsule … had no effect on

transformation, (Text 3)

Cl 230 This explains how plants and fungi which lack centrioles also

make spindles from microtubules (Text 3)

In addition to [cause: reason], the texts also feature [location: time], [location: place], [definition] and so forth, which are illustrated briefly below

[location: time] For example,

Cl 43 Carbohydrates are precursors for the biosynthesis of proteins,

lipids, and nucleic acids (Text 2)

Cl 626 binding is followed by the release of enzymes by the sperm cell

(Text 2)

[location: place] For example,

Cl 758 Ribosomes are the sites of protein synthesis (Text 3)

[definition] For example,

Cl 15 The period between one M phase and the next is called

interphase (Text 1)

(3)(i) possessive: attributive Halliday and Matthiessen (1999: 145-146) distinguish three types of extension (i.e possessive relation): composition (meronymy), possession and association The differences between these three sub-categories can be illustrated by a simple example, that of a computer The composition

of a computer is its constitutive parts such as monitor, keyboard, hard disk and so on, and its possession refers to the legal owner, who has bought it and hence has access to

it The association of the computer may refer to its importance to some research work

or secretarial work

In the texts analyzed here, composition and association predominate Composition ranges from most concrete part-whole relation to most abstract properties

of some entity Examples of the concrete composition:

Cl 182 Each duplicated chromosome therefore has two kinetochores

(Text 1)

Cl 42 For example, fruit flies have only eight chromosomes, (Text 3)

A more abstract type of composition constructs some properties, structures of an entity

or its relationship with some other entity, for example:

Cl 339 The two ends of a microtubule… have different properties

(Text 1)

Cl 215 The α- anomer of D-glucose has a trans relation between the –

OH at the hemiacetal carbon (C1) and the – CH2OH at C5 (Text 2)

It is not only biological entities but also nominalized processes that can serve as the Carrier in the possessive: attributive clauses In the latter case a long process is decomposed into a number of small steps For example,

Cl 8 The eucaryotic cell cycle is traditionally divided into four stages

or phases (Text 1)

In the association sub-type of extension, some entity is said to have (be associated with) some functions, benefits or roles For example,

Cl 55 Monosaccharides, the simplest saccharides, have important

biological roles themselves (Text 2)

Cl 127 In theory, each of the D-saccharides in Figures 10.1 and 10.2

has a corresponding mirror-image enantiomer, (Text 2)

(3)(ii) possessive: identifying Like the possessive: attributive processes discussed above, the possessive: identifying processes are categorized into those dealing with composition, possession and association, out of which only the first and last sub-types figure in the texts

[composition] This semantic category can be realized in a variety of lexicogrammatical patterns The verbal groups that realize composition include

“contain”, “be composed of”, “consist of”, “be made up of” “be divided into” and “be part of” Again, the part-whole relation may be between an entity and its constitutive parts or properties or between a process and its constitutive stages For example:

Cl 19 …it is divided into the remaining three phases of the cell cycle

(Text 1)

Cl 51 The wood used to build our houses, the paper on which this book

is printed, and the cotton in our clothes are largely composed of

cellulose (Text 2)

Cl 650 Cancerous cells do not possess this inhibition of growth (Text

2)

[association] The verbal groups realizing association include “require”,

“include” and “involve” For example,

Cl 162 The next stage in mitosis involves the positioning of … (Text

or animal, but also the processes, mechanisms and qualities In describing processes and qualities, the semantic junction of the happening or quality and thing is essential This gives rise to numerous technical terms, which include systemic dead metaphors that cannot be readily unpacked, such as “mitosis”, “cell division”, “active transport” and many instantial metaphors At the same time the logico-semantic relations between processes are sometimes verbalized, for example, from “because” to

“contribute to” This nominalization of processes and qualities and verbalization of logico-semantic relations are complex lexicogrammatical configurations and may cause difficulties for non-native speakers of English

“discover” and “find out” Alternatively, they may simply put forward a hypothesis For example,

Cl 420 On the basis of these results Griffith concluded (Text 3)

Cl 876 It was discovered that…(Text 3)

Cl 547 From his studies of chromosome mapping in Drosophila

(section 24.2) Morgan postulated (Text 3)

On the other hand, [know] may simply take the form of “know”, “understand” or

“see” For example,

Cl 554 We now know (Text 3)

Another sub-type of the mental cognitive process is [to think] or [consider] For example,

Cl 65 Most biochemists consider (Text 2)

Cl 206 You can recognize the hemiacetal carbon as the carbon…(Text 2)

When the textbook authors intend to emphasise something, they use imperative forms

of mental cognitive processes, such as “note”, “recall” and “remember” For example,

Cl 103 Note (Text 2)

Cl 186 Recall from Section 6.6 (Text 2)

Mental perceptive processes This sub-type of mental processes occur only in Text 1 (4 instances) and Text 3 (11 instances) The semantic category of [see] in the sense of noticing something using one’s eyes forms the overriding theme For example,

Cl 29 individual chromosomes cannot be seen very clearly in the

period between divisions, (Text 3)

Another theme is to enable one to see, [to show] For example,

Cl 1118 Photographs of meiosis are shown in figs 23 12-14 (Text 3)

Mental affective processes This sub-type of mental processes occur only in Text 2 (3 instances) and Text 3 (3 instances) For example:

Cl 4 they are worried that she is not gaining weight (Text 2)

Cl 406 Griffith was interested in developing a vaccine… (Text 3)

Existential Processes

Existential processes can be expressed in a variety of lexicogrammatical patterns, as shown below

“there is (are)” The Existent in the existential process can be an entity or an event For example,

Cl 287 In most cells there is one gap phase (G1) between M phase and

S phase (Text 1)

Cl 49 In humans there are about 100000 different genes (Text 3)

“be present, absent, possible, available, etc.” For example,

Cl 173 D-fructose and D-mannose also are present in some

polysaccharides (Text 2)

Cl 267 If Figure 10.3 is available for reference, (Text 2)

“exist, occur, predominate ” For example,

Cl 235 D-Fructose and other ketohexoses also exist as cyclic hemiacetals (Text 2)

Cl 129 The D-sugars predominate in nature (Text 2)

Cl 240 Modified centrioles also occur at the bases of cilia and flagella, (Text 3)

“be found”6 For example,

Cl 128 but these L-saccharides are rarely found in nature (Text 2)

Verbal Processes

The verbal processes occur less frequently in Text 1 than in the other texts, both in the actual number of occurrences and in the percentages in the total ranking clauses in each text (see Table 4.2) The verbal processes can be grouped into four categories, exemplified by “describe”, “prove”, “propose” and “show (visually)” The first three sub-types differ in the level of truthfulness claimed for the proposition presented In

“prove” we have something that is definitely true because of the existence of evidence

or valid argument, in “propose” we have something that may probably be true because

it fits the evidence considered (Collins Cobuild Dictionary 1995: 1321), while in

“describe” we are presented with some detailed information about something (in the texts analyzed often for pedagogic purposes) The last type “show (visually)” refers to

a picture, diagram, table, etc giving some visual information about something

“describe” This category comprises various sub-categories, exemplified by the verbal groups “describe”, “discuss”, “explain” (in the sense of describing something so that it can be understood), “summarise”, “see” and so forth For example,

Cl 10 In 1879 Boveri and Flemming described the events… (Text 3)

Cl 346 This is best explained by means of a diagram (fig 23.16) (Text

3)

Cl 699 The main features of the genetic code are summarised below

(Text 3)

Cl 217 As we shall see later in the chapter, (Text 2)

The Collins Cobuild Dictionary (1995: 1500) explains that “[s]ome writers use see in

expressions such as we saw and as we have seen to refer to something that has already

been explained or described” In Cl 217 (Text 2) quoted above, this usage of “see” to refer to what has been explained previously in a book has been extended to also refer

to something that will be described The original sense of “see”, i.e you notice

something using your eyes (Collins Cobuild Dictionary 1995: 1500), a mental

perceptive process, has entered another realm, that of verbal process

“prove” The verbal groups employed to express “prove” in the texts include

“prove”, “reveal”, “demonstrate” and “show” For example,

Cl 227 These experiments show… (Text 1)

Cl 311 The oxidation reaction demonstrates (Text 2)

Cl 908 Epidemiological evidence suggests (Text 2)

“propose” This category occurs only in Text 3 and can be discussed in terms of the amount of thought given to what is proposed On the one hand there is “propose”, presenting a theory or explanation after much thought For example,

Cl 4 The cell theory was first proposed by Schleiden in 1838… (Text

3)

On the other hand we find “suggest” or “state”, where it is not clear how deeply the Sayer has pondered over what he or she puts forward The verbs used include

“suggest”, “state”, “declare” and “argue” For example,

Cl 608 Crick argued (Text 3)

Cl 726 In 1961 two French biochemists, Jacob and Monod, suggested (Text 3)

“show (visually)” The verbal groups used include “show”, “represent”, and

“indicate” For example,

Cl 110 Figures 10.1 and 10.2 show the D-aldoses and D-ketoses (Text 2)

Cl 233 Even when saccharides are represented by open-chain structures, (Text 2)

“naming” In addition to the above categories Text 2 also features “naming” The reason for this is that every organic molecule has to be given a name and the student must learn the rules of naming chemical compounds Verbal process clauses are used for this purpose For example,

Cl 488 … enzymes are generally named

Cl 489 by using the prefix of the name of the compound undergoing reaction

Cl 490 and adding -ase as a suffix (Text 2)

Behavioural Processes

These can be discussed under three headings: “investigate”, “examine” and “see”

“investigate” To investigate into something constructs the image of groups of scientists or students engaged with trying to find out more about something The verbs used in the texts are “investigate”, “learn”, “study”, “compare”, “classify” and

“deduce” For example,

Cl 93 Classify each of the following monosaccharides (Text 2)

Cl 8… to investigate the structure of the cell… (Text 3)

Cl 363 Therefore mitosis and meiosis I only are compared in table

23.2 (Text 3)

This category fuses the material process and the mental cognitive process It is like the mental cognitive process in that “investigate” means to know more about something However, it has more in common with the material process and hence behavioural process in that:

(1) Like a material process, “investigate” is carried out on purpose and with attention and requires conscious effort or energy input (Halliday and Matthiessen 1999: 132)

(2) the unmarked present tense for “investigate” is present in present, and

(3) it does not project – for example, we can not say “He and his colleagues are investigating // that the accident happened at midnight” but we can say “He and his colleagues think // that the accident happened at midnight” (Halliday 1994: 139; Halliday and Matthiessen 1999: 141-142; Martin et al 1997: 108-110)

It is apparent that this professional behaviour of investigating or researching is fundamental to the progress in science and technology

“examining” This category is a visual equivalent of investigating, that is, it means “looking at something carefully” If someone is examining an object, he or she must have some reason for doing so and thus he or she is engaged in some

“investigation” For example,

Cl 150 Chromosomes can normally be observed only during nuclear

Cl 80 (see, for example, alternation of generations in chapter 2) (Text 3)

Cl 141 Refer to Figures 10.1 and 10.2 for the structures of the

compounds (Text 2)

Finally, in Text 2 we have three instances of “visualizing”, trying to imagine

what something is like by forming a mental picture of it (Collins Cobuild Dictionary

1995: 1869) For example,

Cl 380 We can visualize the formation of the glycosidic linkage as

dehydration between… (Text 2)

An additional point to make about the process types is that various process types coordinate in the texts, in other words, no single process type is used throughout

For instance, in Cl.s 18-20 (Text 1), Cl.s 18 and 19 are relational clauses, and Cl 20 a material process describing what happens in one phase of the longer interphase:

Cl 18 Interphase, however, is a very busy time for the cell,

Cl 19 and it is divided into the remaining three phases of the cell cycle

Cl 20 During S phase (S = synthesis), the cell replicates its nuclear

DNA, (Text 1)

I conclude the discussion of the process types in the biology texts by summarizing their functions in Table 4.4

Material • what happens under the microscope or elsewhere

• what biologists do in the laboratory

• how biologists construct / handle inscription

Relational • (intensive: attributive) biological entities / nominalized

processes as Carrier

• (intensive: identifying) defining; setting up Token and Value relation between entity / nominalized process and its role, function

• (circ.: attributive) place, duration, cause of cell components / nominalized processes

• (circ.: identifying) naming; setting up circ (mostly causal) relationship between nominalized processes

• (possessive: attributive) setting up part-whole and subclass relation among entities; decomposition of a process into its component parts; association between entity / process and its role, benefits

class-• (possessive: identifying) setting up part-whole relation; decomposition; accompaniment or involvement

more information about a topic can be found

• proving or proposing a hypothesis

• linking the linguistic modes of meaning to the linguistic modes

non-Existential • either entities or nominalized processes as Existent

Behavioural • scientific behaviour such as investigating, studying and

The frequencies of various types of Circumstances are summarized in Table 4.5

Key: comp = comparison; Contgy = Contingency; Accomp = Accompaniment

Examples of various Circumstances follow All of them are from Text 1 unless otherwise noted

Extent: distance: Cl.150 in all directions

Extent: duration: Cl 3 every 90-120 minutes

Extent: frequency: Cl 93 once each cell cycle

Location: place: Cl 106 to opposite poles of the cell

Location: time: Cl 407 During interphase

Manner: means: Cl 353 (The DNA is stained) with a fluorescent dye

Manner: quality: Cl 56 (…are) rapidly (disassembled)

Manner: comparison: Cl 337 (Monosaccharides,) like all hemiacetals,

(are converted into acetals…) (Text 2)

Cause: reason: Cl 389…as the result of two separate forces

Cause: purpose: Cl 403…for clarity

Cause: behalf: Cl 139 For each of the following pairs of compounds,

(indicate) (Text 2)

Contingency: condition: Cl.37 in some special circumstances

Contingency: concession: Cl 431 Despite this evidence (many

scientists still refused to accept…) (Text 3)

Contingency: default: Cl 186 in the absence of this sequence

Accompaniment: comitative: Cl 417 (… starts abruptly) with the

breakdown of…

Accompaniment: additive: Cl 246 (… the cell organelles become

evenly distributed towards the two poles of the telophase cell) along

with the chromosomes (Text 3)

Role: guise: Cl 108 (Mitosis proceeds) as a continuous sequence of

events

Role: product: Cl 75 (dividing the cell) in two

Angle: Cl.109 (It is) traditionally (divided into five stages.)

Matter: Cl 392 For aldohexoses such as D-glucose, (it is …) (Text 2)

As Table 4.5 shows, the dominant Circumstances are Location: place, Location: time, Manner and Role, together accounting for 90.3% in Text 1, 77.9% in Text 2, and 86.9% in Text 3, of all the instances of Circumstances Location: place is particularly frequent in all three texts The other types of Circumstances, by contrast, are much less frequent in the texts This seems to suggest that the texts are particularly concerned with where, when and to a lesser extent, how and in or into what role, some event occurs Below I discuss each of the major Circumstances in the texts

Location: place

It seems that there are three sub-types of Location: place in the texts: concrete, abstract and inscriptional Within the concrete the distinction between rest and motion (Halliday 1994: 153) applies

concrete space: motion This Circumstance is typically associated with the material process and is often realized by prepositional phrases starting with “to” and

“from” or adverbial groups For example,

Cl 74 (it pulls the membrane) inward (Text 1)

Cl 3 (brought her) to the animal hospital (Text 2)

Cl 553 (D-glucose is cleaved) from the chain ends of glycogen (Text 2)

concrete space: rest This is typically realized by a prepositional phrase with

“in” or “at” For example,

Cl 13 In a typical mammalian cell (the whole of M phase takes about

an hour.) (Text 1)

Cl 771 (There is very little intermolecular hydrogen bonding) between

different amylose helices (Text 2)

Cl 1192 (They are arranged) at right- angles to … (Text 3)

abstract space One sub-type of abstract space is concerned with the change of Role: guise or some aspect of an entity (e.g size) For example,

Cl 17 (the cell simply grows) in size (Text 1)

Cl 13 (…both the cellulose… and the starch…are made) from glucose

Cl 64 (There is no well-defined demarcation) between oligosaccharides

and polysaccharides (Text 2)

inscriptional space There are two sub-types One is concerned with another part of the textbook or another book This sub-type is closely associated with verbal processes For example,

Cl 27 (As we discuss) in Chapter 18, (Text 1)

Cl 545 (Two possible ways of … are discussed) below (Text 3)

The other sub-type is concerned with a schematic drawing, a table, a photograph and

so on For example,

Cl 40 (as shown) in fig 23.1 (Text 3)

Cl 58 (There are 23 pairs of chromosomes) in fig 23.2 (Text 3)

Location: time

Text 2 has considerably fewer instances and lower percentages of Location: time than the other texts This is because Text 2, unlike the other two texts, which deal with major changes in biological entities, covers the structure and function of carbohydrates

There are two types of Location: time, field time and text time (Martin 1992: 181) Field time refers to a point in some continuous temporal flow, construed in language by reference to some other, commonly accepted point or to some event It is experiential in nature The field time takes two forms in the texts, calendar time and technical time Calendar time refers to the century, decade, year, month, or day in the western calendar while technical time is based on the division of some process into several smaller stages Calendar time appears more frequently in Text 3 than in the other texts since in Text 3 more reference is made to the historical development in the cell theory and the genetics For example,

Cl 4 in 1838 (Text 3)

Cl 554 (We) now (know) (Text 3)

Examples of technical time:

Cl 20 During S phase (S = synthesis), (the cell replicates its nuclear

DNA.) (Text 1)

Cl 847 (“in infancy”) (Text 2)

Field time construed by reference to some event also occurs very frequently in the texts This is typically realized by a preposition and a nominalized process For example,

Cl 211 during the reaction (Text 2)

Cl 395 (but are produced) in the breakdown of the naturally occurring

polysaccharides starch and cellulose (Text 2)

Cl 583 (cellulose is useful) in the industrial manufacture of paper,

group (of type 9), and its two variants (a relational: attributive process and a relational: existential process) The examples quoted above clearly show that in addition to functioning as nominal elements in the “favourite clause type” relational processes, nominalized processes can occur as a Circumstantial: location: time element in any process type, for example, Cl 395 is a material process (cf Halliday’s (1994: 161) brief discussion of the abstract and metaphorical expressions of circumstance) Prepositions such as “in”, “at”, “during”, “on”, and “after” are frequently used for the meaning of “at (or after) the time some event takes place”

In contrast to field time, text time refers to a point in the unfolding of the text;

it is textual or text-forming in nature One cannot express himself or herself all in one clause, paragraph, section, chapter, or volume; he or she may need to refer to other parts of the discourse as well as the very part he or she is engaged in For example,

Cl 77 (We discuss) later (Text 1)

Cl 56 (Both structures are) rapidly (disassembled.) (Text 1)

Cl 28 (stain) intensely (Text 3)

Cl 518 (centrifuged) at 40,000 times gravity, (Text 3)

Cl 1161 (pull homologous chromosomes), centremeres first, (Text 3)

Examples of Manner: quality in processes other than the material are given below

Cl 633 (The term antigen is often used) more broadly (Text 2)

Cl 29 (cannot be seen) very clearly (Text 3)

Cl 48 (indicated) very diagrammatically (in fig 23.2) (Text 3)

How does the Manner: quality characterize the process? In terms of the

lexicogrammar, the above examples show that an adverbial group with -ly adverb as

Head constitutes only one resource; prepositional phrases (as in Cl 518, Text 3) may function as a more flexible, more exact resource to indicate the attribute of the process More flexible because a prepositional phrase does not require a corresponding adjective, as does the adverbial group, to characterize the process; more exact because quantification is completely compatible with prepositional phrases but not so readily with adverbial groups Take Cl 518 (Text 3) for an example An adverbial group such as “fast”, “rapidly” can only give a vague description of the condition of the centrifugation A prepositional phrase, on the other hand, offers a precise description, based on accurate measurement

Manner: means

As with Manner: quality, most instances of Manner: means are associated with material processes The “Means” in the material process falls into two subcategories: with the help of a simple thing or a process / thing By “simple thing” I mean some concrete entity, chemicals or instruments For example,

Cl 222 (…is artificially severed) with a laser beam (Text 1)

Cl 846 (Galactosemia is treated only) by a galactose-free diet (Text 2)

Cl 515 (it branches repeatedly) through α(1 → 6)-glycosidic linkages

Cl 7 (come only from pre-existing cells) by cell division (Text 3)

The process / thing can be further generalized, giving rise to a variant like the following:

Cl 78 (…divide their cytoplasm) by a very different mechanism (Text

1)

Cl 194 (we can visualize…) by the following process: (Text 2)

Examples of Manner: means associated with process types other than material process are given below

Cl 122 (shown) in blue (Text 2)

Cl 342 (You can recognize the acetal carbon) by its attachment to two

ether, OR groups (Text 2)

Cl 94 (can be explained) by reference to fig 23.4 (Text 3)

Role: product

The Role: product in the texts is concerned with the result of some change, either from

a bigger whole to smaller parts, or vice versa, or from one state to another All