Editing Michael Halliday (section)

==Studies of grammar==

=== Fundamental categories ===
Halliday's first major work on grammar was "Categories of the Theory of Grammar", in the journal ''Word'' in 1961.<ref name="Halliday, M.A.K 1961. pp. 241"/> In this paper, he argued for four "fundamental categories" in grammar: ''unit'', ''structure'', ''class'', and ''system''. These categories are "of the highest order of abstraction", but he defended them as necessary to "make possible a coherent account of what grammar is and of its place in language"<ref>Halliday, 1961 "Categories of the theory of grammar". ''Word'' 17(3); in Halliday, 2002. ''On Grammar'', Vol. 1 in ''The Collected Works'', p. 41.</ref> In articulating unit, Halliday proposed the notion of a ''[[rank scale]]''. The units of grammar form a hierarchy, a scale from largest to smallest, which he proposed as a ''sentence'', ''clause'', ''group/phrase'', ''word,'' and ''morpheme''.<ref>Halliday, 1961, "Categories of the theory of grammar". ''Word'' 17(3); in Halliday, 2002. ''On Grammar''. Vol. 1 in the ''Collected Works'', p. 45.</ref> Halliday defined structure as "likeness between events in successivity" and as "an arrangement of elements ordered in places".<ref>Halliday, 1961 "Categories of the theory of grammar". ''Word'' 17(3); in Halliday, 2002. ''On Grammar''. Vol. 1 in ''The Collected Works'', p. 46.</ref> He rejects a view of the structure as "strings of classes, such as nominal group + verbalgroup + nominal group", describing structure instead as "configurations of functions, where the solidarity is organic".<ref>Halliday, M.A.K. 2005, ''Studies in English Language'', Introduction. Vol. 7 in ''The Collected Works'', p. xvii.</ref>

===Grammar as systemic===
Halliday's early paper shows that the notion of "[[Linguistic system|system]]" has been part of his theory from its origins. Halliday explains this preoccupation in the following way: "It seemed to me that explanations of linguistic phenomena needed to be sought in relationships among systems rather than among structures – in what I once called "deep paradigms" – since these were essentially where speakers made their choices".<ref name=Meaning>Halliday, M. A. K. forthcoming. "Meaning as Choice". In Fontaine, L., Bartlett, T., and O'Grady, G. ''Choice: Critical Considerations in Systemic Functional Linguistics'', Cambridge University Press, p. 1.</ref> Halliday's "systemic grammar" is a semiotic account of grammar, because of this orientation to choice. Every linguistic act involves choice, and choices are made on many scales. Systemic grammars draw on [[system networks]] as their primary representation tool as a consequence. For instance, a major clause must display some structure that is the formal realisation of a choice from the system of "voice", i.e. it must be either "middle" or "effective", where "effective" leads to the further choice of "operative" (otherwise known as 'active') or "receptive" (otherwise known as "passive").

===Grammar as functional===
Halliday's grammar is not just ''systemic'', but ''systemic functional''. He argues that the explanation of how language works "needed to be grounded in a functional analysis since language had evolved in the process of carrying out certain critical functions as human beings interacted with their ... 'eco-social' environment".<ref name=Meaning /> Halliday's early grammatical descriptions of English, called "Notes on Transitivity and Theme in English – Parts 1–3"<ref>M.A.K. Halliday, 1967/68. ''Journal of Linguistics'', 3.1, 1967; 3.2, 1967; 4.2, 1968. In Halliday, 2005, ''Studies in English Language'', Vol. 7 in ''The Collected Works''.</ref> include reference to "four components in the grammar of English representing four functions that the language as a communication system is required to carry out: the experiential, the logical, the discoursal and the speech functional or interpersonal".<ref>M.A.K. Halliday, 1968. ''Journal of Linguistics'', 4.2, 1968; in Halliday, 2005, ''Studies in English Language'', Vol. 7 in ''The Collected Works'', p. 145.</ref> The "discoursal" function was renamed the "textual function".<ref>Halliday, M.A.K. 1970. "Functional Diversity in Language as seen from a Consideration of Modality and Mood in English. Foundations of Language", ''International Journal of Language and Philosophy'', 6, pp. 322–61; in Halliday, 2005, ''Studies in English Language''.</ref> In this discussion of functions of language, Halliday draws on the work of [[Karl Bühler|Bühler]] and [[Bronislaw Malinowski|Malinowski]]. Halliday's notion of language functions, or "[[metafunctions]]", became part of his general linguistic theory.