Halliday models “context of situation”, those aspects of the
context relevant to the unfolding language event, in terms of
three strands:
– Field: what is being talked about
– Tenor: the people involved in the communication and the relationships
between them
– Mode: what part the language is playing in the interaction (is it
accompanying action or ALL of the action), what form does it take
(spoken or written).
Example: a recipe in a cook book
Field: cooking (ingredients and process of preparing food)
Tenor: expert writer to a learner, learner is beneficiary of the advice
Mode: written, prepared. Text often read as part of process of
cooking.