Semantics and the ‘etymological fallacy’ fallacy

Abstract

Halliday and Matthiessen (Halliday, M.A.K., & Matthiessen, C.M.I.M., 1999. Construing Experience through Meaning: A Language-Based Approach to Cognition. Cassell, London & New York) is a significant work on language and linguistic theory. It deals with the construal of human experience as a semantic system, from the perspective of systemic-functional linguistics (sfl), the theory that has grown out of Halliday's work over the past four decades. In this review article I look at the variety of linguistic interests and applications that the book addresses. The review is followed by a general discussion of the way the theory expands and enhances our view of language and how it reconnects language and society in the grammar. I examine some reservations about the terminology, and give some specific detail of sfl analysis. The discussion is set in the context of a wider debate, initiated by Roy Harris, about the scope of linguistic inquiry, its methods and sphere of influence. I outline some critical concerns voiced by Harris and consider some points of congruence between what Harris demands of linguistics and what Halliday has achieved, with the aim of seeing how sfl might satisfy some of Harris's criteria for integrational linguistics. My overall concern is to draw attention to aspects of Halliday's linguistic theorizing that enable us to achieve a fuller picture of language than has hitherto been possible.