Describing Language: Form and Function (Collected Works of Ruqaiya Hasan): The Collected Works of Ruqaiya Hasan Vol 5 - Hardcover

Ruqaiya Hasan

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 1904768415 ISBN 13: 9781904768418

Publisher: Equinox Publishing Ltd, 2019

Synopsis

How does one's grammar depend on one's conception of language? In systemic functional linguistics, language is viewed as a meaning potential, thus embracing the view, now supported by contemporary theories of the evolution of human consciousness, that language has evolved in the living of life in society. Using the theoretical framework of systemic functional linguistics, the chapters of this book explore the nature of language, the relations of meaning and society, of form and meaning, and of grammar and lexis. Halliday has referred to the level of lexicogrammar as the powerhouse of language: this is where the resource for creating linguistic meaning resides. But language as resource cannot be adequately described as a set of syntagmatic structures; instead, the primary focus must be on the paradigmatic axis, which after all furnishes the principle for the actualisation of syntagms. Accordingly, aspects of Urdu and English semantics, grammar and lexis are presented here in terms of systemic options, realised as structures.

About this title

About the Author

Ruqaiya Hasan, who died in 2015, was a professor of linguistics who taught and held visiting positions at various universities in England. Her last appointment was at Macquarie University, Australia, from where she retired as Emeritus Professor in 1994. Jonathan J. Webster is Professor, Department of Chinese, Translation and Linguistics, and Director, The Halliday Centre for Intelligent Applications of Language Studies at the City University of Hong Kong. Carmel Cloran, now retired, was formerly Lecturer in English Language and Linguistics at the University of Wollongong.

Edition details

• Publisher: Equinox Publishing Ltd
• Publication date: 2019
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 1904768415
• ISBN 13: 9781904768418
• Binding: Hardcover
• Number of pages: 386
• Editor: Jonathan J. Webster, Carmel Cloran