本书是世界两大主要语言学派之一的系统功能语言学的创始人韩礼德创作的《韩礼德文集》第3卷《论语言和语言学》，收集了韩礼德20世纪60年代至90年代30多年间发表的19篇论文，对普通语言学进行的研究，继承、发展和建立了科学的语言学研究理论。

本书收集了韩礼德20世纪60年代至90年代30多年间发表的19篇论文，分为三个部分：语言作为一门学科的地位；语言学与语言；作为社会意义学的语言。每一部分前面编者都做了简单的介绍，包括论文发表时的背景、宗旨、主要论点。论文集最后有附录，题为：系统理论。如果想对这个学派的情况有一个大致的了解，建议初学者可先阅读这一部分。韩礼德还专为论文集写了导言，题目为：人类语言的建筑。

Preface

Acknowledgements

Introduction: On the "architecture" of human Language

Professor M. A. K. HaUiday

PART ONE: THE PLACE OF LINGUISTICS AS A DISCIPLINE

 Editor's introduction

1 Syntax and the consumer (1964)

2 Grammar, society and the noun (1966)

3 The context of linguistics (1975)

4 Ideas about language (1977)

5 Language and the order of nature (1987)

6 New ways of meaning: the challenge to applied linguistics (1990)

PART TWO: LINGUISTICS AND LANGUAGE

 Editor's introduction

7 A brief sketch of systemic grammar (1969)

8 Systemic background (1985)

9 Systemic grammar and the concept of a "science of language" (1992)

10 Language in a changing world (1993)

11 A recent view of "missteps" in linguistic theory (1995)

12 Linguistics as metaphor (1997)

13 Is the grammar neutral? Is the grarnnarian neutral? (2001)

PART THREE: LANGUAGE AS SOCIAL SEMIOTIC

 Editor's introduction

14 The functional basis ofhnguage (1973)

15 Towards a sociological semantics (1972)

16 The history of a sentence (1992)

17 The act ofmearfing (1992)

18 On language in relation to the evolution of human consciousness (1995)

Appendix: Systemic theory (1994)

Bibliography

Index