What Fawcett Means By 'Form'

Fawcett (2010: 39):

We turn now to the level of form — and it is at this level that we require a theory of syntax. The term "form" is used here in a wider sense than that in "Categories" (or indeed any of Halliday's later writings) because it includes, as well as syntax and grammatical and lexical items, components for intonation or punctuation (depending on whether the medium is speech or writing). This is an approach to the concept of 'form' that looks at language 'from above', i.e., intonation and punctuation are here considered to be types of 'form' because, like syntax and items, they directly realize meanings.

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[1] To be clear, in Fawcett's model, content (syntax and grammatical and lexical items) and expression (intonation or punctuation) are located at the same level of symbolic abstraction.  The distinction between content and expression, as different levels of symbolic abstraction, is the fundamental distinction in semiotic systems.

[2] This misunderstands Halliday's 'trinocular' perspective.  On the SFL model, to look at language 'from above' means observing in terms of its function in various cultural contexts.  Halliday (2008: 141):

When we are observing and investigating language, or any other semiotic system, our vision is essentially trinocular. We observe the phenomenon we want to explore — say, the lexicogrammar of language — from three points of vantage. We observe it from above, in terms of its function in various contexts. We observe it from below, in terms of its various modes of expression. And thirdly, we observe it from its own level: from within, or from round about, according to whether we are focussing on the whole or some of its parts.

On the other hand, it is not possible to look at form 'from below' — i.e. as the content of some expression — because form is the lowest level of symbolic abstraction.  There is no lower level from which to look at form.  Halliday & Matthiessen (1999: 504):

A stratified semiotic defines three perspectives, which (following the most familiar metaphor) we refer to as ‘from above’, ‘from roundabout’, and ‘from below’: looking at a given stratum from above means treating it as the expression of some content, looking at it from below means treating it as the content of some expression, while looking at it from roundabout means treating it in the context of (i.e. in relation to other features of) its own stratum.