Michael Halliday

)
A BRIEF
BIOGRAPHY OF
michael halliday
Halliday, also called M.A.K. Halliday (born April 13, 1925, Leeds, Yorkshire,
England) British linguist, teacher, and proponent of neo-Firthian theory who
viewed language basically as a social phenomenon.
Halliday obtained his B.A. in Chinese language and literature from the
University of London and then did postgraduate work in linguistics, first at
Peking University and later at the University of Cambridge, from which he
obtained his Ph.D. in 1955.
In his early work, known as scale and category linguistics, Halliday devised
four categories (unit, structure, class, and system) and three scales (rank,
exponence, and delicacy) to describe language. He also did work on
intonation (Intonation and Grammar in British English, 1967) and on
discourse analysis (Cohesion in English, 1976). His later theory, sometimes
called systemic linguistics, was that language has three functions: ideational,
interpersonal, and textual. Halliday describes language as a semiotic system,
"not in the sense of a system of signs, but a systemic resource for meaning".
For Halliday, language is a "meaning potential"; by extension, he defines
linguistics as the study of "how people exchange meanings by languaging'".
Halliday describes himself as a generalist, meaning that he has tried "to look
at language from every possible vantage point", and has described his
work as "wander[ing] the highways and byways of
language". However, he has claimed that "to the extent that I favoured any
one angle, it
was the social: language as the creature and creator of human society".
Halliday is notable for his grammatical theory and descriptions, outlined in

his book An Introduction to Functional Grammar, first published in 1985. A
revised edition was published in 1994, and then a third, in which he
collaborated with Christian Matthiessen, in 2004. But Hallidays conception of
grammar or "lexicogrammar" (a term he coined to argue that lexis and
grammar are part of the same phenomenon) is based on a more general
theory of language as a social semiotic resource, or a meaning potential
(see systemic functional linguistics). Halliday follows Hjelmslev and Firth in
distinguishing theoretical from descriptive categories in linguistics. He argues
that theoretical categories, and their inter-relations, construe an abstract
model of language...they are interlocking and mutally defining. The
theoretical architecture derives from work on the description of natural
discourse, and as such no very clear line is drawn between (theoretical)
linguistics and applied linguistics. Thus, the theory is continually evolving
as it is brought to bear on solving problems of a research or practical nature.
Halliday contrasts theoretical categories with descriptive categories, defined
as "categories set up in the description of particular languages". His
descriptive work has been focused on English and Chinese.
Halliday rejects explicitly the claims about language associated with the
generative tradition. Language, he argues, "cannot be equated with 'the set
of all grammatical sentences', whether that set is conceived of as finite or
infinite". He rejects the use of formal logic in linguistic theories as "irrelevant
to the understanding of language" and the use of such approaches as
"disastrous for linguistics. On Chomsky specifically, he writes that
"imaginary problems were created by the whole series of dichotomies that
Chomsky introduced, or took over unproblematized: not only
syntax/semantics but also grammar/lexis, language/thought,
competence/performance. Once these dichotomies had been set up, the
problem arose of locating and maintaining the boundaries between them."
Halliday's first major work on the subject of grammar was "Categories of
the theory of
grammar", published in the journal Word in 1961. Halliday's grammar is not
just systemic, but systemic functional.
The final volume of Halliday's 10 volumes of Collected Papers is called

Language in society, reflecting his theoretical and methodological connection
to language as first and foremost concerned with "acts of meaning". This
volume contains many of his early papers, in which he argues for a deep
connection between language and social structure. Halliday argues that
language does not merely to reflect social structure.
In enumerating his claims about the trajectory of children's language

development, Halliday eschews the metaphor of "acquisition", in which
language is considered a static product which the child takes on when
sufficient exposure to natural language enables "parameter setting". By
contrast, for Halliday what the child develops is a "meaning potential".
Learning language is Learning how to mean, the name of his well-known
early study of a child's language development. Halliday (1975) identifies
seven functions that language has for children in their early years. For
Halliday, children are motivated to develop language because it serves
certain purposes or functions for them. The first four functions help the child
to satisfy physical, emotional and social needs. Halliday calls them
instrumental, regulatory, interactional, and personal functions.
Instrumental: This is when the child uses language to express their

needs (e.g. "Want juice")
Regulatory: This is where language is used to tell others what to do
(e.g. "Go away")
Interactional: Here language is used to make contact with others and
form relationships (e.g. "Love you, Mummy")
Personal: This is the use of language to express feelings, opinions, and
individual identity (e.g. "Me good girl")
The next three functions are heuristic, imaginative, and representational,
all helping the
child to come to terms with his or her environment.
Heuristic: This is when language is used to gain knowledge about the

environment (e.g. 'What is the tractor doing?')
Imaginative: Here language is used to tell stories and jokes, and to
create an imaginary environment.
Representational: The use of language to convey facts and information.

Michael Halliday

Uploaded by

Copyright:

Available Formats

Michael Halliday

Uploaded by

Document Information

Original Description:

Copyright

Available Formats

Share this document

Share or Embed Document

Sharing Options

Did you find this document useful?

Is this content inappropriate?

Copyright:

Available Formats

Michael Halliday

Uploaded by

Copyright:

Available Formats

What are the three main functions of language according to Halliday?

What are the seven functions of language for children in their early years according to Halliday?

)

Halliday is notable for his grammatical theory and descriptions, outlined in

The final volume of Halliday's 10 volumes of Collected Papers is called

In enumerating his claims about the trajectory of children's language

Instrumental: This is when the child uses language to express their

Heuristic: This is when language is used to gain knowledge about the

You might also like