Selected Papers


Book Description




On Grammar


Book Description

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'.




Systemic Functional Insights on Language and Linguistics


Book Description

This book features a collection of 10 interviews with Christian M.I.M. Matthiessen, who is a key figure in Systemic Functional Linguistics (SFL) and has collaborated closely with M.A.K. Halliday since the 1980s. As noted by Professor Chang Chenguang, Editor of the M.A.K. Halliday Library Functional Linguistics Series, “this collection of interviews serves as an important reference for scholars and students of SFL. It provides a unique perspective on the theoretical development and future outlooks of SFL, as well as Matthiessen’s own interpretations of the theory. It also enriches our understanding of SFL and is a very useful addition to the series.” Written in an engaging dialogic format, the book paints a vivid picture of SFL thriving among the landscape of general linguistics and of SFL as an important tool now being applied in various areas.




General Linguistics


Book Description

A comprehensive overview of the development of language studies from the ancient Greeks through modern theorists, this book focuses on determining what the enduring issues in linguistics are, what concepts have changed, and why. Francis P. Dinneen, SJ, defines the basic terminology of the discipline as well as different linguistic theories, and he frequently compares underlying assumptions in contemporaneous science and linguistics. General Linguistics traces the history of linguistics from ancient Greek works on grammar and rhetoric through the medieval roots of traditional grammar and its assumption that there is a norm for correct speech. Dinneen marks the beginning of modern linguistics with Saussure's concept of an autonomous linguistic structure independent of socially imposed norms, and he details the theoretical contributions of Sapir, Bloomfield, Hjelmslev, Chomsky, Pike, and others. Dinneen considers the relative merits of the different theories and models, evaluating their claims and shortcomings. A thorough introduction to linguistics for newcomers to the field, this book will also be valuable to linguists, psychologists, philosophers, and historians of science for its evaluations of major theoretical concepts in light of enduring issues and problems in language studies.




Semantic Theories in Europe, 1830–1930


Book Description

It is widely believed by historians of linguistics that the 19th-century was largely devoted to historical and comparative studies, with the main emphasis on the discovery of soundlaws. Syntax is typically portrayed as a mere sideline of these studies, while semantics is seldom even mentioned. If it comes into view at all, it is usually assumed to have been confined to diachronic lexical semantics and the construction of some (mostly ill-conceived) typologies of semantic change. This book aims to destroy some of these prejudices and to show that in Europe semantics was an important, although controversial, area at that time. Synchronic mechanisms of semantic change were discovered and increasing attention was paid to the context of the sentence, to the speech situation and the users of the language. From being a semantics of transformations', a child of the biological-geological paradigm of historical linguistics with its close links to etymology and lexicography, the field matured into a semantics of comprehension and communication, set within a general linguistics and closely related to the emerging fields of psychology and sociology.




Theoretical Inquiry


Book Description

div In the aftermath of debate about the death of literary theory, Austin E. Quigley asks whether theory has failed us or we have failed literary theory. Theory can thrive, he argues, only if we understand how it can be strategically deployed to reveal what it does not presuppose. This involves the repositioning of theoretical inquiry relative to historical and critical inquiry and the repositioning of theories relative to each other. What follows is a thought-provoking reexamination of the controversial claims of pluralism in literary studies. The book explores the related roles of literary history, criticism, and theory by tracing the fascinating history of linguistics as an intellectual problem in the twentieth century. Quigley’s approach clarifies the pluralistic nature of literary inquiry, the viability and life cycles of theories, the controversial status of canonicity, and the polemical nature of the culture wars by positioning them all in the context of recurring debates about language that have their earliest exemplifications in classical times. /DIV




Academic Writing and Genre


Book Description

The focus of this book is the use of genre-based approaches to teaching academic writing. Genre-based courses enable second language learners to integrate their linguistic, organisational and contextual knowledge in a variety of different tasks. The book reviews pedagogical approaches to genre through English for Specific Purposes and Systemic Functional Linguistics to present a synthesis of the current research being undertaken in the field. From this theoretical base, Ian Bruce proposes a new model of genre-based approaches to academic writing, and analyses the ways in which this can be implemented in pedagogy and curriculum design. Academic Writing and Genre is a cutting-edge monograph which will be essential reading for researchers in applied linguistics.




Languages for Specific Purposes in Theory and Practice


Book Description

Languages for Specific Purposes in Theory and Practice is a collection of essays which will appeal to teachers of modern languages no matter the level of instruction. The essays highlight the latest developments of Foreign Language Teaching in the Balkan countries, Eastern and Western Europe and the Middle East. The field of Language for Specific Purposes (LSP) is one of the richest areas of second language research and practice because increasing globalization and changing technologies spawn new modes of intercultural connection and new occasions for second language use. Languages for Specific Purposes in Theory and Practice compasses this burgeoning field by presenting new research and commentary from some of the field’s leading practitioners. This book surveys the approaches and methods in foreign language teaching, such as grammar translation, language evaluation, communication competence, critical thinking skills, communicative language teaching, and the natural approach. Teachers and teachers-in-training will discover in this book a comprehensive survey and analysis of the major and minor teaching methods used around the world. It is addressed to a wide audience that includes Language for Specific Purposes teachers and researchers, although the contents will also be relevant to applied linguists working in other fields. This book contains research studies as well as educational experiences and proposals, presented from different perspectives and backgrounds (both geographical and cultural), all of which are theoretically grounded and with a clear and sound rationale. Readers will find a variety of educational projects and research studies situated in specific educational contexts and in particular geographical locations.