A Systemic-Functional Perspective of Spanish: On the Multifunctionality of the Simple Clause

Abstract

The purpose of this paper is to draw upon well-established tenets of English systemic-functional linguistics in order to explain how the experiential, interpersonal and textual metafunctions of language are manifested in the structure of the simple Spanish clause. Section 1 presents an overview of the main hypotheses within Systemic-Functional Linguistics, emphasizing the role of the multifunctionality principle of the clause. Next, an analysis is made of the basic grammatical problems of the Spanish clause in terms of the experiential and interpersonal metafunctions (in sections 2 and 3, respectively). Section 4 deals with the textual metafunction; finally, section 5 summarizes the main conclusions arrived at throughout the paper and presents a general scheme of the articulation of the three metafunctions on the basis of an exemplar clause.