Language as Social Semiotic

The book by the British-Australian linguist M. A. K. Halliday (1925-2018), who developed systemic functional grammar, is a fundamental and controversial contribution to sociolinguistics and an enrichment of the limited number of Czech translations of classic works of theoretical linguistics. Even forty years after its first publication, it remains a key theoretical work to which one can return as a living foundation, inspiring new readers either directly or through its critical reflection. The essays in this book were written between 1972 and 1976 and published separately, mostly in thematic anthologies. The book was first published in 1978 and provides a good account of Halliday’s transition from theoretical linguistic semiotics to its practical applications. In the individual studies, the author elucidates, amongst other things, his conceptual shift from de Saussure’s view of language as a social phenomenon to his own interpretation of language as social semiotics, in which he understands language as a product of a social process. He elaborates on the ideas of a functional approach to language and the development of language in the individual, and examines language as a social structure that interprets our entire experience and participation in it. Halliday also explains the basic elements of social semiotics, defines key concepts such as text, situation, register, code, variation and change, and attempts to establish a general sociolinguistic theory.