In this volume, Professor Halliday describes the Chinese language system in terms of categories of grammar, lexis, and phonology, in both medieval and modern Chinese, Putonghua and Cantonese. This lays the foundation of his systemic-functional framework in general linguistics. His pioneering work on probabilistics in Chinese grammar and his observation of grammatical metaphor herald the heyday of contemporary corpus linguistics and text linguistics. Michael Halliday has proved himself worthy of the honour to be recognized as one of the most influential linguists today, and to be ranked along such great names in Chinese scholarship as B. Karlgren, H. Maspero, Chao Yuenren, Luo Changpei, Wang Li, and Lü Shuxiang.

Hu Zhuanglin, Tenured Professor, Peking University

An initiative greatly to be welcomed.

IH Journal

The papers selected in this volume show that Halliday has made a comprehensive study of Chinese language. The volume is of great value not only to linguists who are interested in studies of the Chinese language but also to those who are keen on language teaching and cultural communication.

Discourse Studies

A major enterprise comparable to a grand retrospective of the paintings of some prominent artist of a distinctive school.

Roy Harris, Times Literary Supplement