2.9 Function/Metafunction/Meaning

As noted earlier, functional grammar sees language use in functional, not merely formal, terms. Every act of language use (i.e., grammatical choice) weaves together three functions, or meanings, that Halliday called ideational, interpersonal, and textual. The ideational function relates to the contextual dimension of field. It is further divided into experiential function and logical function. The experiential function represents our experience with and understanding of the world. It enables us to make sense of the richly complex world around and inside us — to identify, classify, categorize, describe, and characterize the objects, events, people, and phenomena in the world. The logical function organizes our reasoning on the basis of our experience. It enables us to set up logical-semantic relationships between one clause and another. The interpersonal function relates to the contextual dimension of tenor. It organizes our social relationships, enabling us to enact our diverse, complex, dynamic, and volatile interpersonal relations and social bonds. The textual function relates to the contextual dimension of mode. It manages the flow of our discourse, helping us create text that is at once cohesive and coherent.

These three functions are not hierarchically ordered; they have equal status and are mapped simultaneously onto the structure of the clause. Because these functions are fundamental properties of language (i.e., they are intrinsic to language), they are often referred to as "metafunctions". And because the functions of language are to make meanings, the three metafunctions are also referred to as "meanings". For this reason, the three terms — function, metafunction, and meaning — are often used interchangeably when discussing language functions.(https://www.daowen.com)