Michael Halliday - Explorations in the functions of language (1973)

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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 function

Michael Halliday

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

Michael Halliday

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 any particular selection that is made within them... The context of culture defines the potential, the range of possibilities that are open. The actual choice among these possibilities takes place within a given context of situation.

Michael Halliday

[interpersonal meaning] 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

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

Michael Halliday