Syntagmatic and Functional Context of Pauses During Writing: A Hallidayan Perspective

Studies on the writing process through the analysis of pauses, highlight a link between content formulation and linguistic units. From a text linguistics perspective, particularly Systemic Functional Linguistics (SFL), this relationship becomes even more apparent. This study investigates the location and duration of pauses in relation to syntagmatic units and their functional roles using an SFL-based framework, answering: (1) In what syntagmatic and functional contexts do pauses occur during the process of writing? (2) How does the length of pauses vary in different syntagmatic and functional contexts during the process of writing? (3) How do the frequency and length of pauses during writing vary because of interactions between their syntagmatic and functional contexts? Using keystroke logging, the writing process of 20 adult native English speakers composing argumentative essays was recorded. Findings suggest key syntagmatic and functional units prompt pauses, signaling decision-making moments and cognitive effort in generating a coherent text.