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Central to the approach of Systemic Functional Linguistics is the idea that language is used to perform certain social functions in the world (Fowler 1991: 69). Hence SFL focuses on how language as a system of communication is used as a tool for social and ideological purposes. This approach is therefore relevant to the current study, which aims to describe the ways in which the visual medium of cartoons as a form of communication takes part in this ideological structuring of discourse.

At the core of SFL lie two perspectives on language. These are articulated as the three

“strata” and the three “metafunctions” of language (Martin & Rose 2003: 3). These concepts will provide a vocabulary with which to describe the way in which the HIV/AIDS related texts function critically in the social world. Each of these concepts will be discussed under its own heading below. Another concept from SFL that is relevant to the current study is that of ‘appraisal’. It will be discussed in 2.4.3.

2.4.1 The three strata of language

Because SFL is concerned with language as a social tool, it subdivides the spectrum between the social world and language as a grammatical system into three levels called “strata” (Martin & Rose 2003: 3). These are the strata of:

1. “social activity”, which represents the culture and social interaction of people.

This stratum is realised in the strata of:

2. “discourse” as socially regulated systems of meaning, which in turn is realised in the strata of:

3. “grammar”, which represents the specific expression of meaning in a physical medium.

None of these strata fully constitute each other. That is, discourse is not only grammar; just as social activity is not only discourse (Martin & Rose 2003: 4). Rather, each of the more abstract strata is said to be “realised” in the strata below it.

2.4.2 The three metafunctions of language

In SFL, (Halliday, in Fowler 1991: 69; Martin and Rose 2003: 3) language is said to perform three general functions, called the “metafunctions” of language. These are the ideational, interpersonal, and textual functions respectively, and describe three levels at which one may look at any given text to illuminate the way in which it functions within the social world (Martin & Rose 2003: 6). These concepts will provide a vocabulary for talking about the way that both the visual and verbal modes are used by authors in their construction of critical texts.

In their study of the visual medium that will be discussed in section 2.5, Kress and Van Leeuwen (1996: 40) also adopt the framework of the three metafunctions.

Importantly, they claim that these functions are “not specific to the linguistic,” and so I consider their use in the present study of cartoons as merited. Each of the metafunctions will be discussed briefly under its own heading below.

2.4.2.1 Ideational function

According to Halliday (in Fowler 1991: 69), language serves the function of expressing content or ideas, or as Kress and Van Leeuwen (1996:40) put it, any representational system is able to “represent objects and their relations in a world outside the representational system”. It expresses the speaker’s experience of both the external world and the internal world of experience, cognition, emotion, perceptions, and actions – including linguistic actions such as speaking and understanding.

2.4.2.2 Interpersonal function

Language also functions as a mediator of relationships between people; for example between the author and the reader in any communicative situation, and any third parties being talked about. Through language an author is able to relate to another person through speech acts such as “informing, questioning, greeting, and persuading” (Fowler 1991: 69) as well as express his evaluations, comments and attitudes towards things, including the reader himself and any third parties.

This function of language is relevant to the present study because of its focus on criticism. In a critical text, a speaker or author tries to present a certain evaluation or opinion of a second or third party through the use of language. In this sense the author is using language to establish interpersonal relationships between himself and his reader, and between his reader and a third party being criticised. For more on this

“evaluative” aspect of language, see the section on appraisal in section 2.4.3.

2.4.2.3 Textual function

Language also has as one of its functions the creation of texts (Fowler 1991: 69), which is the level at which discourse is constructed and negotiated. Texts are described by Kress and Van Leeuwen (1996: 41) as “complexes of signs which cohere both internally and with the context in and for which they were produced”. An author is able to create a text that serves an ideational and interpersonal function, and a reader is able to recognise and interpret such a text.

In media discourse, these texts are available to a large audience and so can have a large influence. They can also be stored indefinitely, so that their potential to reach new readers rarely if ever diminishes.

Analysis of the textual function is relevant to the current study since I will be analysing two different kinds of texts based on different modes. The question of how these two different types of texts go about fulfilling the ideational and interpersonal function is important for the critical aspect of this study. This is fundamentally a question about the textual function of these modes.

2.4.3 Appraisal

According to Martin and Rose (2003: 16) appraisal is concerned with evaluation in texts, specifically the way in which “attitudes ... are negotiated in texts ... and the ways in which values are sourced and readers aligned.”

In critical texts such as the ones in this study, the authors are engaging in acts of appraisal, in the sense that they are, “evaluating things, people’s character and their feelings” (Martin & Rose 2003: 17).

Appraisal is an aspect of the interpersonal function of language (Martin & Rose 2003:16), since it is concerned with communicating an author’s beliefs and opinions about something to his readers, and in so doing affect the social strata.

2.4.4 Multimodal Discourse Analysis

According to Martin and Rose (2003: 255), Multimodal Discourse Analysis (MDA) entails “going beyond linguistics into social semiotics and taking into account as many modalities of communication as we can systematically describe.” The current study will take this approach with regards to the visual and verbal mode, in the sense that I shall consider not only the visual aspects of the cartoons, but also how the verbal elements such as labels and speech bubbles that are found almost without exception in the political cartoons interact with the visual. I will seek to describe the role that they play especially with regards to the conceptual metaphors in the texts.

One such way, discussed in section 2.6, is where the source domain is not realised visually, but rather evoked by the presence of a verbal label, as when a wolf is drawn with the label “AIDS” on its body. The metaphor AIDS IS A WOLF is thus evoked by an interaction of the visual and verbal mode, and the analysis is therefore not merely of one mode or the other, but is fundamentally a multimodal analysis. As the data analysis will reveal, it turns out that multi-modality plays a key role in evoking conceptual metaphors in this way in cartoons, as will be discussed in detail in section 4.9.