Introduction: text generation as an application. Part 1 Text generation and systemic linguistics - opening the exchange: the model of text generation in natural language processing the development of text generation in relation to systemic linguistics the exchange between linguistics and text generation. Part 2 Systemic linguistics and text generation - the basic theoretical framework and two computational instantiations dimensions and categories of systemic theory the theoretical framework in action - generation with a systemic grammar two examples of constructive accounts for generation. Part 3 Up to and beyond the limits of the basic framework: metafunctional refinements stratal extensions - the environment as seen for lexicogrammar.