The Performance of Theory: Scholarly Power and the Systemic Dynamics of Meaning
In academic communities, it is often not the most rigorous theories that circulate with the greatest force, but those that are backed by the strongest interpersonal charisma, institutional leverage, and symbolic capital. In such contexts, theory can become less a domain of cumulative insight and more a stage on which expertise is performed, affiliations negotiated, and legitimacy managed. The performance of theory, in other words, is not merely about conveying meaning—it is about crafting and controlling social meaning.
A recent seminar by J.R. Martin provides a vivid case study in how these dynamics operate. In a series of rhetorical moves, Martin positioned himself as both insider and outsider to the Systemic Functional Linguistics (SFL) tradition. He began by asserting that An Introduction to Functional Grammar (IFG) is not as foundational as it is often assumed to be. To illustrate this, he used a visual metaphor in which the book shrank in size—an image that symbolically diminished the textual centre of Hallidayan theory in order to elevate the broader, and implicitly superior, body of work that Martin himself represents.
This rhetorical sleight of hand does more than just challenge Halliday’s centrality in theory; it performs a re-centering of authority. By visually displacing Halliday’s IFG, Martin signals not just theoretical departure, but an ongoing redefinition of what the field values as foundational. His work becomes the emergent core of the discipline, even as he distances himself from the foundations it was built on.
Martin then presented a dense comparative analysis of Korean and Tagalog clause structures, which, though undoubtedly demanding in its detail, functioned less as an invitation to collective understanding than as a performance of unassailable expertise. By delivering his analysis at a level of complexity that far exceeded what could be absorbed or critiqued in real time, Martin reinforced his authority through opacity. The grammatical material itself became a form of interpersonal meaning: it was not shared or elaborated upon, but deployed as a signal of his command over the field. The implicit message is clear—understanding is secondary; what matters is the display of competence.
Towards the end of the seminar, Martin referred, with a smirk, to the inevitable presence of "anal attentive grammar nerds" in the field—a comment that superficially acknowledged the value of grammatical rigour while simultaneously trivialising those most committed to it. This was not just a dismissal; it was a strategic form of inoculation. By preemptively characterising critics as pedantic, he shielded his work from scrutiny, positioning himself as above reproach. Anyone who might challenge the intellectual pretensions of his presentation was already relegated to the status of an irrelevant figure in his theatre of expertise.
Finally, Martin reframed Halliday, IFG, and the English language itself as “iconised” and thus burdensome—paralleling their dominance with the coloniality of English in the world. In doing so, he recast the foundational elements of SFL not merely as limited or outdated, but as oppressive: obstacles to be overcome in the pursuit of his preferred theoretical trajectory.
These rhetorical strategies are not isolated; they are enabled and sustained by a broader ecology of scholarly power. Within this ecology, meanings are not only construed through theoretical systems; they are instantiated through performances of credibility. Institutional roles provide the scaffolding; interpersonal alignment grants access; the accumulation of symbolic capital licenses the redefinition of boundaries.
Martin’s seminar, like his abstract before it, foregrounds a systemic contradiction: a theory that was designed to foreground meaning as social is now being wielded to consolidate authority through selective abstraction. Grammatical delicacy, far from being celebrated, is re-coded as pedantry. Foundational texts are reframed as constraints. Theoretical rigour is subordinated to rhetorical flexibility.
What this reveals is not just a shift in focus, but a shift in function. Theory, here, is no longer what is most delicately meant. It is what is most effectively managed.
In such conditions, the role of critical scholarship is not merely to defend theoretical traditions, but to analyse the interpersonal and institutional conditions under which theory is produced, performed, and perceived. To critique a theory is one thing; to understand how it is performed as a source of authority is another. And it is this second task that becomes especially urgent when the symbols of a tradition are being repurposed to secure a position that is no longer accountable to its founding logic.
It is only by tracing the flows of power through the systems of meaning that scholars can reassert the value of theoretical clarity over interpersonal theatre—and re-establish the conditions under which intellectual rigour might be restored to the centre of the field.
