Presenting the seminal works of Professor M A K Halliday, this third of the ten-volume series includes papers that explore different aspects of language from a systemic functional perspective. The papers are organized into three sections; and there is also a work entitled 'On the "architecture" of human language'.

Introduction - On the 'Architecture' of a Language by M. A. K. Halliday; Part One: The Place of Linguistics as a Discipline; 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; Part Two: Linguistics and Language; 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?; Part Three: Language as Social Semiotic; 14. The Functional Basis of Language; 15. Towards a Sociological Semantics; 16. The History of a Science; 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.