Functions of language in forest resource report genre from a systemic functional linguistics perspective

Abstract

Despite previous genre studies investigating various professional report genres in different contexts, disciplines and languages, professional report genre in forestry discipline remains the least explored, particularly from a Systemic Functional Linguistics (SFL) perspective. To date, limited findings were reported on how Malay language is used in forestry professional context. This study explored the elements that constitute the generic structure potential (GSP) for forest resource reports (FRR) in forestry discipline, how language is used to represent experiential and textual functions and the role of FRR genre. Six FRR written in Malay and three interviews with forestry officers were used as research data in this study. This qualitative genre analysis study utilised SFL analytical frameworks and semi-structured interviews. The findings revealed that FRR is a hybrid genre which constitutes 10 obligatory main elements and 17 sub-elements explicating typical letter and forestry-related genre elements whereby the GSP for FRR takes a linear representation. Besides, the experiential function of FRR genre was used mainly to represent activities performed by forestry officers through the dominant use of Action processes whereby forest areas are seen as the entity most affected by activities taking place. On the other hand, descriptions of forest areas were supplemented mainly through circumstance of Location. Findings on the textual function revealed that FRR genre maintains topic on forest areas as the theme selection, and the overall organisation was established through a derived Theme progression pattern to position specific details of forest areas and its resources. Meanwhile, findings on the role of FRR genre indicated that FRR provides a preliminary observation and information to assist forestry department in deciding future directions and planning of forestry-related matters. The implication of this study centres on how exploration of genre elements, representation of experiential and textual functions and roles can be explored from SFL genre and metafunctional perspective in studying the use of Malay language.