Negotiating the interpersonal metafunction in Bukusu Bible: A systemic functional grammar approach

Abstract

The main thrust of this paper is to examine the meaning generated from Mark chapter 8:1-38 through the lens of Systemic Functional Grammar theory. The argument raised in this paper is that language comprises resources for constructing meaning through functional grammar. The objective of this study is to; investigate the mood categories that define interpersonal metafunction in Mark 8:1-38. The study is organized into context of events at the desert, after crossing the sea and Bethseida demonstrating that Systemic Functional Grammar theory is context specific. In view of this, interpersonal metafunctions in clauses organize messages into mood and residue components with the former occupying the initial clause positions while the latter taking the final position. Still the mood is parsed into the subject and predicator while the residue is organised into adjunct and complement. It is with the backdrop of this objective that the study found out that the language constructs mood through declarative and interrogative. In this study, Jesus fed 5000 people and healed the blind man as evident in declarative and interrogative mood. The contextual nature of the discourse at Bethsaida between Jesus and his disciples after feeding the multitude is constructed through declarative and interrogative moods. The messages of assurance and hope are revealed through declaratives when Jesus fed people. The study unveils aspects of doubt concerning sincerity of Jesus getting a meal to feed the multitude in the desert. The mood evident at Bethsaida revealed Jesus’s supernatural power to heal the blind.