The third volume in the collected works of Professor M.A.K. Halliday, On Language and Linguistics, includes eighteen chapters exploring different aspects of language from a systemic functional perspective. These are organized into three sections: the place of linguistics as a discipline; linguistics and language; and language as social semiotic. In addition, there is a new work from Professor Halliday, entitled 'The architecture of language' in which he focuses on the assumptions or working hypotheses that enabled him to explore important questions about this massive semiotic power called 'language'.

M.A.K. Halliday was Emeritus Professor of Linguistics at the University of Sydney.

Introduction: on the "architecture" of human language
Professor M. A. K. Halliday
Section One: The Place of Linguistics as a Discipline
Editor's Introduction
1. Syntax and the Consumer
2. Grammar, Society and the Noun
3. The Context of Linguistics
4. Ideas about Language
5. Language and the Order of Nature
6. New Ways of Meaning: the challenge to applied linguistics
Section Two: Linguistics and Language
Editor's Introduction
7. A Brief Sketch of Systemic Grammar
8. Systemic Background
9. Systemic Grammar and the Concept of a "Science of Language"
10. Language in a Changing World
11. A Recent View of "Missteps" in Linguistic Theory
12. Linguistics as Metaphor
13. Is the Grammar Neutral? Is the Grammarian Neutral?
Section Three: Language as Social Semiotic
Editor's Introduction
14. The Functional Basis of Language
15. Towards a Sociological Semantics
16. The History of a Sentence
17. The Act of Meaning
18. On Language in Relation to the Evolution of Human Consciousness
Appendix: Systemic Theory