Fawcett (2010: 46):
As we saw in Chapter 2, Halliday takes the position in "Categories" that everything within 'grammar' is part of the same level of language, i.e., 'form' 1961/76:53). The four "categories of the theory of grammar" and the three "scales" that relate them were therefore all presented as belonging within 'grammar', and so as all being at the same level of language.
Blogger Comments:
This is misleading in a way that suits Fawcett's later argument. The valeur of 'form' in Fawcett (2010) and Halliday (1961) is significantly different. For Fawcett, the level of 'form' contrasts with the level of 'meaning', as shown in his Figure 4 (p36). For Halliday, on the other hand, the level of 'form' contrasts with the levels of 'substance' and 'context'. Halliday (2002 [1961]: 39):
The substance is the material of language: phonic (audible noises) or graphic (visible marks). The form is the organisation of the substance into meaningful events: meaning is a concept, and a technical term, of the theory (see below, 1.8). The context is the relation of the form to non-linguistic features of the situations in which language operates, and to linguistic features other than those of the item under attention: these being together “extratextual” features. …
Form is in fact two related levels, grammar and lexis.
Context is in fact (like phonology) an interlevel relating form to extratextual features.
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