Michael Halliday - Grammar Quotes

2 Sourced Quotes

View all Michael Halliday Quotes

… 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 organization of the grammar system is also functional in character.

Michael Halliday

Traditionally, grammar has always been a grammar of written language: and it has always been a product grammar ['Product' is here used as one term of the Hjelmslevian pair process/product.] A process/product distinction is a relevant one for linguists because it corresponds to that between our experience of speech and our experience of writing: writing exists whereas speech happens.

Michael Halliday