Michael Alexander Kirkwood

Halliday(oftenM.A.K. Halliday) (born 1925) is

a Britishlinguistwho developed an
internationally influential grammar model, the
systemic functional grammar (which also goes
by the name ofsystemic functional linguistics
[SFL]).

In his early work, known as scale and

category linguistics, Halliday devised four
categories (unit, structure, class, and system)
and three scales (rank, exponence, and
delicacy) to describe language.
He also did work on intonation (Intonation
and Grammar in British English, 1967) and on
discourse analysis (Cohesion in English, 1976).
His later theory, sometimes called systemic
linguistics, was that language has three functions:
ideational, interpersonal, and textual.

The impact of his work extends beyond

linguistics into the study of visual and multimodal
communication, and he is considered to have
founded the field ofsocial semiotics. He has
worked in various regions of language study, both
theoretical and applied, and has been especially
concerned with applying the understanding of the
basic principles of language to the theory and
practices of education.

Def.: The study of the relationship

betweenlanguageand its functions in social
settings.
In systemic functional linguistics (SFL), three strata
make up the linguistic system:
-meaning (semantics),
-sound (phonology),
-wording or lexicogrammar(syntax,morphology,
andlexis).
Systemic functional linguistics treatsgrammar as a
meaning-making resource and insists on the
interrelation of form and meaning.

According to Halliday (1975), language has developed

in response to three kinds of social-functional 'needs.
The first is to be able to construe experience in terms
of what is going on around us and inside us.
The second is to interact with the social world by
negotiating social roles and attitudes.
The third and final need is to be able to create
messages with which we can package our meanings in
terms of what is NeworGiven, and in terms of what
the starting point for our message is, commonly
referred to as theTheme.
Halliday (1978) calls these language
functions(metafunctions), and refers to them
asideational, interpersonal and textual functions.

Halliday proposes a linguistic theory:

Semantics: the speaker does not choose between
forms but between meanings.
Functionalisms: The language is organized by
functions, it is functional because the organization
of the system becomes on the base of the
functions of the language.
The language in use : those options become in
context.

The speaker has a meaning potential that it

updates when it chooses by some of them when
producing a text in a specific situational context.
Every time we produce a text we are choosing
from a set of options that provides the linguistic
system. Each user of the language makes his
elections within the grammar, in contexts of types
of situation.
What is the registry?
Registry is called to the adjustment of the text to
the context. It is the variety of language
determined by the communicative situation.
The users consider the variables of field, tenor and
way to carry out their elections from the system.

Which are the primary functions of the

language?
Ideational: the language organizes our
experience and aid to conform our vision of the
world.
Interpersonal: the language serves to establish
and to maintain relations social, to determine
communicative rolls, social groups and to
consolidate the identity of the speakers.
Textual: the language offers to the users
appropriate means to create coherent messages
or texts.

Halliday vs Chomsky
Halliday is always courteous and circumspect when referring
to Chomsky: he only hints at their differences. Nevertheless,
it becomes clear from the hints that their theories of
language differ radically. Chomsky believes that language is
innate, Halliday believes that it is learned. Chomsky believes
that all human beings possess a grammatical programme
hardwired into the brain, Halliday does not he believes that
grammar mirrors function and is mastered through
experience. Chomsky believes in Universal Grammar:
Halliday does not. Chomsky believes that language exists
separately from experience, Halliday believes that language
only develops through experience of other people and the
world around us. Chomskys theory is Cartesian in other
words: mind exists separately from matter; Hallidays ideas
are Darwinian in other words: language and the mind obey
the same laws as all other aspects of reality. Chomskys
theories are metaphysical: Hallidays are scientific.

http://www.slideshare.net/petitlutin/general-linguistics-1
http://www.studyplace.org/wiki/Halliday_Function_of_Langua
ge
http://ihjournal.com/michael-halliday-at-80-a-tribute
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Michael_Halliday#Grammar_as_s
ystemic