Tuesday 3 January 2017

Text

Halliday & Matthiessen (2014: 43):
The basic unit of semantics is the text — language functioning in context, an instance of the semantic system.


Blogger Comment:

Note that this new addition to IFG by Halliday's reviser, Matthiessen, blurs the distinction between 'text' as a unit of the semantic stratum and 'text' as an instance of a linguistic system.  Most importantly:
  • the theoretical notion of 'text as semantic unit' is not restricted to the instance pole of the cline of instantiation, and 
  • the theoretical notion of 'text as instance' is not restricted to the semantic stratum.

It will be seen that this blurring compromises the discussion that follows.