On Language and Linguistics

M.A.K. Halliday was Emeritus Professor of Linguistics at the University of Sydney. Professor Jonathan J. Webster is Head of the Department of Chinese, Translation and Linguistics at the City University of Hong Kong. He is also the Managing Editor of the International Linguistics Association’s journal WORD, and the editor of the forthcoming Journal of World Languages (2014).

• Introduction: on the "architecture" of human languageProfessor M. A. K. HallidaySection One: The Place of Linguistics as a DisciplineEditor's Introduction 1. Syntax and the Consumer2. Grammar, Society and the Noun3. The Context of Linguistics4. Ideas about Language5. Language and the Order of Nature6. New Ways of Meaning: the challenge to applied linguisticsSection Two: Linguistics and LanguageEditor's Introduction7. A Brief Sketch of Systemic Grammar8. Systemic Background9. Systemic Grammar and the Concept of a "Science of Language"10. Language in a Changing World11. A Recent View of "Missteps" in Linguistic Theory12. Linguistics as Metaphor13. Is the Grammar Neutral? Is the Grammarian Neutral?Section Three: Language as Social SemioticEditor's Introduction14. The Functional Basis of Language15. Towards a Sociological Semantics16. The History of a Sentence17. The Act of Meaning18. On Language in Relation to the Evolution of Human ConsciousnessAppendix: Systemic Theory

An excellent updated version of Halliday's Systemic-Functional Theory... crucial to understanding Halliday's way of describing, explaining and interpreting language in use