Icke satsformade meningar i ett systemisk-funktionellt perspektiv
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.54337/ojs.globe.v20i1.11643Resumé
The aim of this article is to suggest and discuss how non-clausal fragmentary expressions in Swedish medical records can be analyzed from a systemic perspective, with a broader aim of developing SFL analysis of fragments in general. Fragmentary expressions are here defined as “semantically, discursively and pragmatically stand-alone constituents which are equivalent in propositional meaning, force and communicative function to a full clause” (Fernández-Pena, 2021: 140). In practice, this comprises sentences lacking a subject, a finite or both, such as following examples from Swedish medical records:
- Lätt släpigt tal.
Slightly drawling speech.
- Inga tecken på infection.
No signs of infection.
- Pat trött.
Patient tired.
In my ongoing PhD project on Swedish medical records (Smålander, 2026, fc), these fragments constitute as much as 80 % of all sentences. However, Scandinavian handbooks on SFL give little or no indication on how to analyze these fragments textually, interpersonally or experientially (Andersen & Holsting, 2025; Holmberg & Karlsson, 2006; Holmberg et al., 2011; Maagerø, 2005; Salomonsson, 2022). Hallyday and Matthiessen (2014) suggest that exophoric ellipses are textually Rheme, and that mood elements can be left implicit in spoken language, since intonation signals speech function (Halliday & Matthiessen, 2014: 194). However, they do not state if this is applicable to written discourse, and this sentence type is not at all mentioned in the experiential chapter. In this exploratory article, I suggest that non-clausal fragments:
- are mainly, but not always, rhematic and new,
- can be experientially analyzed as leaving participants and/or relational processes implicit, or as downgrading form clause to group,
- function as different speech functions depending on punctuation, just as intonation can signal mood.
These suggestions apply to non-clausal fragments in Swedish medical records but should be transferrable to other types of discourse as well.
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