Not who you're looking for? Others named Michael Halliday: Australian linguist (1925-2018) · English painter · Irish cricketer · Northern Irish association footballer (born 1979)
“Any text in spoken English is organized into what may be called 'information units'. (...) this is not determined (...) by constituent structure. Rather could it be said that the distribution of information specifies a distinct structure on a different plan. (...) Information structure is realized phonologically by 'tonality', the distribution of the text into tone groups.”
“Traditionally, grammar has always been a grammar of written language: and it has always been a product grammar" ['Product' is here used as one term of the Hjelmslevian pair process/product.] A process/product distinction is a relevant one for linguists because it corresponds to that between our experience of speech and our experience of writing: writing exists whereas speech happens.”
“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”
“Foregrounding, as I understand it, is prominence that is motivated”
“The interpersonal function [of language] is the function “to establish, maintain, and specify relations between members of societies””
“The theme is what is being talked about, the point of departure for the clause as message, and the speaker has within certain limits the option of selecting any element in the clause as thematic.”
Quotes via Wikiquote (CC BY-SA), each with its original source.
