A collection of 18 papers exploring different aspects of language from a systemic functional perspective. The papers are organized into three sections: the place of linguistics as a discipline; linguistics and language; and language as social semiotic.

Introduction: on the "architecture" of human language Professor M. A. K. Halliday Section One: The Place of Linguistics as a Discipline Editor's Introduction 1. Syntax and the Consumer 2. Grammar, Society and the Noun 3. The Context of Linguistics 4. Ideas about Language 5. Language and the Order of Nature 6. New Ways of Meaning: the challenge to applied linguistics Section Two: Linguistics and Language Editor's Introduction 7. A Brief Sketch of Systemic Grammar 8. Systemic Background 9. Systemic Grammar and the Concept of a "Science of Language" 10. Language in a Changing World 11. A Recent View of "Missteps" in Linguistic Theory 12. Linguistics as Metaphor 13. Is the Grammar Neutral? Is the Grammarian Neutral? Section Three: Language as Social Semiotic Editor's Introduction 14. The Functional Basis of Language 15. Towards a Sociological Semantics 16. The History of a Sentence 17. The Act of Meaning 18. On Language in Relation to the Evolution of Human Consciousness Appendix: Systemic Theory

The Collected Works of M.A.K. Halliday is a series that brings together Halliday's publications in many branches of linguistics, both theoretical and applied (a distinction which he himself rejects), including grammar and semantics, discourse analysis and stylistics, phonology, sociolinguistics, computational linguistics, language education, and child language development.