Problems With Context Stratified As Genre Realised By Register

Doran, Martin & Herrington (2024: 179, 180):

The stratified model of context assumed here is outlined in general terms in Figure 1 – where genre is a supervenient system realised through choices in register (after Martin 1992).

… In general terms, genre models context as a system of staged, goal-oriented social processes realised through register, the latter comprising field, tenor, and mode (Martin 1992; Martin and Rose 2008).

Reviewer Comments:

As previously explained, in rebranding context (of culture) as 'genre', Martin (1992) confuses rhetorical mode (context) with text type (language), which is register viewed from the instance pole of the cline of instantiation. So, from the perspective of SFL Theory, in Martin's model,

• genre is mode realised by field tenor and mode;
• genre is register (text type) realised by register (system sub-potential).