On Grammar Volume 1 [Hardcover]

For nearly half a century, Professor M. A. K. Halliday has been enriching the discipline of linguistics with his keen insights into the social semiotic phenomenon we call language. This ten volume series presents the seminal works of Professor Halliday.

This first volume contains seventeen papers, including a new chapter entitled 'A Personal Perspective', in which Halliday offers his own current perspective on language and linguistic theory. The first part of the book presents early papers (1957-66) on basic concepts such as system, structure, class and rank. The second part highlights how, over the span of two decades (the 1960s to mid-1980s), Halliday developed systemic theory to account for linguistic phenomena extending upward through the ranks from word to clause to text. The last part, 'Construing and Abstracting', includes more recent work, in which Halliday discusses the issues confronting those who study linguistics, using Firth's description of linguistics - 'language turned back on itself'.

Introduction: A Personal Perspective by M.A.K. HallidaySection One: Early Papers on Basic Concepts1. Some Aspects of Systematic Description and Comparison in Grammatical Analysis2. Categories of the Theory of Grammar3. Class in Relation to the Axes of Chain and Choice in Language4. Some Notes on Deep Grammar5. The Concept of Rank: A ReplyAppendix to Section OneSection Two: Word-Clause-Text6. Lexis as a Linguistic Level7. Language Structure and Language Function8. Modes of Meaning and Modes of Expression: Types of Grammatical Structure and Their Determination by Different Semantic Functions9. Text Semantics and Clause Grammar: How is a Text Like a Clause?10. Dimensions of Discourse Analysis: GrammarSection Three: Construing and Enacting11. On the Ineffability of Grammatical Categories12. Spoken and Written Modes of Meaning13. How Do You Mean?14. Grammar and Daily Life: Concurrence and Complementarity15. On Grammar and Grammatics