Saturday, 28 December 2013

The Main Problem The Grammarian Has Had To Contend With

Halliday (2008: 85):
For the grammarian (and I should say, by the way, that by “the grammarian” here I understand one who works in lexicogrammar and semantics: the systems thinker on the content plane), the problem has been one that is very simple to state: namely lack of data. The grammarian has never had access to the data that are needed for construing an adequate theory.