Examining Systemic Theory (Halliday 1993) By Comparing It With Scale & Category Grammar (Halliday 1961)

Fawcett (2010: 81-2):

With these issues in mind, we shall turn now to an examination of the concepts presented in "Systemic theory". Then in Chapters 6 and 7 we shall examine those in IFG. …

Halliday begins "Systemic theory" by reminding us that "systemic theory" is short for "systemic-functional theory", and this establishes from the start that the "systemic" approach to explaining language is one that is inherently oriented to 'function' and 'meaning'. The fact that SFG is a different theory of language from S&C is underlined when Halliday describes it (1993:4505) as "a development of Scale and Category Grammar"; indeed, the encyclopaedia in which "Systemic theory" appears contains a separate article on S&C grammar (Butler 1993a).

The question that we need to ask is: "How far do the seven 'fundamental' concepts of "Categories" (as described in Chapter 2 of this book) coincide with the 'basic concepts' presented in "Systemic theory", thirty-two years later?" 

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To be clear, Fawcett intends to examine one theory, Systemic Theory (Halliday 1993), not in its own terms, but by comparing it with a different theory, Scale & Category Grammar (Halliday 1961).  It will be seen that Fawcett frames the differences between the two theories as shortcomings of the later theory.