Cardiff Symposium 2017

Influences and Opportunities

In honour of Professor Robin Fawcett

January 12-13 2017

The Cardiff Symposium – Influences and Opportunities – was organised in order to celebrate not only Professor Robin Fawcett’s 80^th birthday but also to acknowledge the huge contribution he has made to Systemic Functional Linguistics and to linguistics at Cardiff University. In the spirit of what it was like to spend time with Robin at Cardiff University, we decided to host an event that prioritizes discussion and exchange. I’ve put together an annotated version of our programme with a few photos as a record of the event.

This event was possible with the help and support of the Cardiff School of English, Communication and Philosophy and we are grateful to the School for both financial and moral support.

We have put together a growing archive of books and papers related to the Cardiff model of language, often referred to as the Cardiff Grammar – you can find it here.

The slides and/or handouts related to each talk described below will be added as they become available.

The talk by Prof Chris Butler was recorded and you can view it below – [jump down to the video]

To jump down to the Slides for the computational linguistics session, click here

Day 1, Jan 12^th

12:30pm – 2pm: Lunch – Aberdare Hall

2pm – 4pm: Workshop on system networks

Chair: Lise Fontaine

We held a two-hour session on system networks. The discussions in the workshop on system networks were very intense but positively so. They were also very productive. We spent two hours in small groups discussing and debating specific questions related to system networks including what role they have (or should have) in the theory, how they are used (or can be used), what counts as evidence and their place in the future of SFL.

4.00 – 4.30: Coffee break

You might wonder why I’m including the coffee break in this record of the symposium – well, it’s because it featured the wonderful cheesecakes by The Cheesecake Diary – White Chocolate & Lime Cheesecake, Strawberry & Chocolate Cheesecake, and Cucumber & Chocolate Cheesecake.

4.30 – 6.00: Plenary lecture

Chair: Gordon Tucker

Influences and opportunities in the development of the Cardiff Model of Language and its Use : a personal and communal story covering past, present and future

Robin Fawcett

Robin gave a very interesting account of his career development with a beautiful analogy from geology science. Following his talk, he was presented with a Japanese translation of his book, Invitation to Systemic Functional Linguistics (3rd edition), which Hiroshi Funamoto translated for Robin himself. It took him two years to complete this. It is a beautiful volume and he has very kindly donated a copy to us for our library.

7.00pm: Dinner reception at Y Dosbarth / The Classroom