Descripción:
The title of this book, The study of language beyond the sentence, may prove misleading for anyone acquainted with Halliday’s Functional Grammar, so a preliminary clarification seems necessary. For Halliday, «beyond the clause» means the metaphorical modes of expression, more specifically, metaphor, metonymy and synechdoche as forms of lexical variation stemming from the semantic relation of elaboration, extension, and enhancement (Halliday 1985:ch.7). Thus «beyond» is understood as «outside the scope of» or «apart from» the clause. In a different way, the meaning of «beyond» here is «outside» and also «above».

Following the conventional representation of the levels of language description as the steps of a ladder, texts have been traditionally situated «above the sentence». Halliday avoids the term «sentence» but uses «clause complex» with a similar meaning. Consequently, in the section «above the clause», he analyses the clause complex. To continue this prepositional note, cohesion, the distinguishing feature of texts, is placed «around the clause». Finally, intonation and rhythm are displayed simultaneously with other constituent structures, so they are presented «beside the clause».
- DE INTRODUCTION


CONTENTS:

List of abbreviations......13
Preface......15
Acknowledgements......17

1. Text grammar and discourse analysis......19

2. Textual components......47

3. Cohesion and coherence......77

4. Thematic and Information Structures......105

5. From text grammar to discourse analysis......131

6. Speech act theory......154

7. Conversational implicature......181

8. Discourse analysis......205

9. Conversation analysis......227

10. Theories of politeness......241

References......265
Index......271