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"Language... is a range of possibilities, and an open end set of options in behavior that are available to the individual in his existence as social man. The context of culture is the environment of an…"

"the linguistic features which are typically associated with a configuration of situational features - with particular values of the field, mode and tenor."

"embodies all use of language to express social and personal relations, including all forms of the speaker's intrusion into the speech situation and the speech act."

"Michael Halliday at 80: A Tribute"

"We should not, perhaps, take it for granted that a description in terms of a formalised model, which has certain properties lacking in those derived from models of another kind, will necessarily be th…"

"Traditionally, grammar has always been a grammar of written language: and it has always been a product grammar" A process/product distinction is a relevant one for linguists because it corresponds to …"

"It is part of the task of linguistics to describe texts, and all texts, including those prose or verse, which fall within any definition of literature and are accessible to analysis by the existing me…"

"The human sciences have to assume at least an equal responsibility in establishing the foundations of knowledge."

"Saussure took the sign as the organizing concept for linguistic structure, using it to express the conventional nature of language in the phrase "l'arbitraire du signe". This has the effect of highlig…"

"I see it as part of the development of the field. I would always emphasize how much I share with other linguists: I've never either felt particularly distinct or wanted to be distinct. I never saw mys…"

"The grammatical system has … a functional input and a structural output; it provides the mechanism for different functions to be combined in one utterance"

"The text is a product in the sense that it is an output, something that can be recorded and studied, having a certain construction that can be represented in systematic terms. It is a process in the s…"

"The theme is what is being talked about, the point of departure for the clause as message, and the speaker has within certain limits the option of selecting any element in the clause as thematic."

"First, it is transmitted physically, by sound waves traveling through the air; secondly, it is produced and received biologically, by the human brain and its associated organs of speech and hearing; t…"

"A child learning his mother tongue is learning how to name; he is building up a meaning potential in respect of a limited number of social functions. These functions constitute the semiotic environmen…"

"The interpersonal function is the function “to establish, maintain, and specify relations between members of societies"

"… language has evolved in the service of particular human needs … what is really significant is that this functional principle is carried over and built into the grammar, so that the internal organiza…"

"A physical system is just that: a physical system. What is systematized is matter itself, and the processes in which the system is realized are also material. But a biological system is more complex: …"

"Any text in spoken English is organized into what may be called 'information units'. this is not determined by constituent structure. Rather could it be said that the distribution of information speci…"

"M.A.K. Halliday Website"

"In the relative orientation of different social groups towards the various functions of language in given contexts and towards the different areas of meaning that may be explored within a given functi…"

"Foregrounding, as I understand it, is prominence that is motivated"

"is set of meanings, the configuration of semantic patterns, that are typically drawn upon under the specified conditions, along with the words and structures that are used in the realization of these …"

"It is this that enables, and disposes, the child to learn the lexicogrammar: since the system is organized along functional lines, it relates closely to what the child can see language doing as he obs…"

"What makes learning possible is that the coding imposed by the mother tongue corresponds to a possible mode of perception and interpretation of the environment. A green car can be analysed experientia…"