"This collection of papers shows the extraordinary range of Halliday's textual analyses, his sharpness of perception and his delicate touch in reconciling subjective perceptions of a text and objective patterns found in it. From the "stylistics" controversies of the sixties to the highly sophisticated descriptions of ordinary texts in the nineties, Halliday has consistently led the way to a greater understanding of the way language works." Professor John Sinclair, Tuscan Word Centre, Italy.

The papers in Linguistic Studies of Text and Discourse focus on the application of systemic functional grammar to the analysis of texts. Presenting detailed analyses of texts, ranging from the highly-valued writings of William Golding, J.B. Priestley, Alfred Lord Tennyson, and Charles Darwin, to texts of a more everyday variety, including a fund-raising letter and part of a doctoral defense, Halliday explores the power of grammar to create meaning, and to change our lives for better or worse. Not only are the analyses interesting for what they reveal about the texts under investigation, but also instructive in the practice and methods of systemic grammar analysis.

Professor M. A. K. Halliday (b. 1925) was Foundation Professor of Linguistics at the University of Sydney until his retirement and has taught as a Visiting Professor around the world. As a self-styled 'generalist' he has published in many branches of linguistics.

Jonathan J. Webster is Head of the Department of Chinese, Translation and Linguistics at the City University of Hong Kong.