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A systemic functional-corpus approach to mapping generic structure

Illustrated through sermonic discourse

ORCiD logo with link | Research Centre of the Slovenian Academy of Sciences and Arts (ZRC SAZU)
Published online: 6 February 2026
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https://doi.org/10.1075/rs.24007.biz
Abstract
In systemic functional linguistics (SFL), register is understood as the product of the interplay among context, meaning, and grammar. While various methodological approaches have explored this relationship, few studies demonstrate how corpus methods can enhance the explanatory power of SFL’s multi-stratal model of register. This paper presents a corpus-assisted analysis of contemporary Slovenian Catholic sermons, using Hasan’s model of register as the analytical framework. A small, specialized corpus of televised sermons was compiled, grammatically annotated, and analysed using computational tools that generated discourse semantic patterning graphs. The analysis focuses on visualizing semantic shifts and structural movements within and across texts to identify genre-relevant structures. The findings are interpreted in terms of ethical reasoning and argumentation, highlighting distinctive generic features of the texts. Beyond genre-specific insights, the study offers a methodological contribution to genre analysis by demonstrating how linguistic inquiry can be grounded in semantic criteria and operationalized through corpus tools.
Article outline
  • 1.Introduction
  • 2.Background
    • 2.1Hasan’s Notion of Register/Genre
    • 2.2Previous research on sermons
  • 3.Analytical framework: Genre in SFL and message semantics
  • 4.Data and methods
    • 4.1Positioning the sermon within the SFL genre framework
    • 4.2Building the corpus
    • 4.3Grammatical annotation of corpus and semantic feature tagging
    • 4.4Graphical modelling of semantic configurations
    • 4.5Cross-textual synthesis and functional patterning
    • 4.6Empirical generalisation and genre structure
  • 5.Analysis and discussion
    • 5.1The description of functional elements
      • 5.1.1Introduction
      • 5.1.2Scriptural event
      • 5.1.3Contemporisation
      • 5.1.4Scriptural background
      • 5.1.5Conclusion
    • 5.2Generic Structure
  • 6.Conclusions
  • Acknowledgements
  • Notes
  • References
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