Jonathan J. Webster

Over the course of history, humankind has relied on the power of language to impose regularities on experience and bring "the environment more within our power to control." Professor M.A.K. Halliday goes on to refers to this conceptual shifting as "the Knight's move in language." In this joint work, developed in collaboration with the late Professor Ruqaiya Hasan and edited by Professor Jonathan J. Webster, metaphor is used to understand how language manipulates and creates our reality in very real and powerful ways. Whether it is the "art" in verbal art or the "science” in verbal science, through the metaphor-making potential available in language what is being crafted are hypotheses about the world we experience. The semiogenic power of language is so great that it enables us to define "the very basic experience of being human". Halliday adopts Mukarovsky's term "deautomatization" to interpret the grammar in front of you in ways that go beyond its direct relational function. So much scientific theory would not be possible without this semiogenic potential. It is the ability to reconstrue our commonsense version of events into a metaphorical world where things can be observed, investigated and explained. This book highlights the central importance of grammatical metaphor and realigns the connections between the upper strata of meaning and the strata below lexicogrammar.

M. A. K. Halliday is widely regarded as the father of Systemic Functional Linguistics, as well as having contributed important work to fields such as sociolinguistics and language acquisition. This overview will enable readers to understand and appreciate the significance of Halliday's work. Written by Professor Jonathon J. Webster, the editor of the Collected Works of Halliday, this is the definitive clear, concise and accessible introduction to this immensely important linguist.

Whether prose or poetry, how does a text come to mean what it does? A functional-semantic approach to text analysis, such as is illustrated in this book, offers a revealing look at the resources of language at work in the creation of meaning, and a unique perspective on the text as object of study. This collaborative work between M.A.K. Halliday, the founder of Systemic Functional Linguistics, and Jonathan Webster, the editor of Halliday's eleven volume collected works, draws on a considerable body of Halliday's previously unpublished work, including lectures on fundamental concepts in Systemic-Functional Theory, to present a foundational overview suitable to those who are new to the theory and methodology of Systemic Functional Grammar and Rhetorical Structure Theory. Building on this foundation, section two presents the findings from several case studies in text analysis, demonstrating how to conduct detailed functional-semantic analysis of the speeches of Billy Graham, Barack Obama, Richard Nixon, Steve Jobs and Susan Rice. This second section will benefit both beginners and those who have already had some background in the study of linguistics.

Whether prose or poetry, how does a text come to mean what it does? A functional-semantic approach to text analysis, such as is illustrated in this book, offers a revealing look at the resources of language at work in the creation of meaning, and a unique perspective on the text as object of study. This collaborative work between M.A.K. Halliday, the founder of Systemic Functional Linguistics, and Jonathan Webster, the editor of Halliday's eleven volume collected works, draws on a considerable body of Halliday's previously unpublished work, including lectures on fundamental concepts in Systemic-Functional Theory, to present a foundational overview suitable to those who are new to the theory and methodology of Systemic Functional Grammar and Rhetorical Structure Theory. Building on this foundation, section two presents the findings from several case studies in text analysis, demonstrating how to conduct detailed functional-semantic analysis of the speeches of Billy Graham, Barack Obama, Richard Nixon, Steve Jobs and Susan Rice. This second section will benefit both beginners and those who have already had some background in the study of linguistics.

The third volume in the collected works of Professor M.A.K. Halliday, On Language and Linguistics, includes eighteen papers exploring different aspects of language from a systemic functional perspective. The papers are organized into three sections: the place of linguistics as a discipline; linguistics and language; and language as social semiotic. In addition, there is a new work from Professor Halliday, entitled The architecture of language, in which he focuses on the assumptions or working hypotheses that enabled him to explore important questions about this massive semiotic power called 'language'.