Michael Halliday (linguist)

Linguist, teacher

• Born: April 13, 1925
• Place of Birth: Leeds, Yorkshire, England
• Died: April 15, 2018
• Place of Death: Sydney, Australia

Education: University of London, Peking University, Lingnan University, Cambridge University

Significance: Building on his lifelong interest in the structure of languages, Michael Halliday developed the systemic functional linguistic model of language. He described grammar and language structure as a series of systems that developed to fulfil the needs of language users. He stressed this idea over the importance of grammar rules and guidelines.

Background

Michael Alexander Kirkwood Halliday was born on April 13, 1925, in Leeds in Yorkshire, England. His father was an English teacher who had a passion for grammar and plays from the Elizabethan era. His mother was a French teacher who frequently spoke and sang in the language at home. As a result, Halliday grew up with an ear for the tones in language. He developed an interest in traveling to China because of a story that he heard as a young boy. Throughout his childhood and teenage years, Halliday nurtured his interest in languages by studying literature and the way language was used in storytelling. His interests led him to attempt his earliest studies in linguistics, or the scientific study of the intricacies of language such as its sounds and meanings and how words come to represent different concepts and items.

In the early 1940s, it became apparent to British leaders that the country was going to end up at war with parts of Asia. The government developed a program to teach handpicked citizens how to speak various Asian languages. In 1942, Halliday signed up for the program; he showed that he had the ability to discern rising and falling tones necessary to become fluent in the Chinese language. At the age of seventeen, Halliday began studying the language. Eventually, he became fluent and later taught the language. Understanding the intricacies of Chinese grammar increased his interest in linguistics.

After completing his military service in 1947, Halliday returned to school to complete a degree. He continued his studies in Chinese. Through a special grant program for former service members, Halliday pursued a degree from the University of London while taking classes at Peking University. He taught English in Peking University's English department while completing Chinese classes in the Chinese department.

In 1948, Halliday completed the degree requirements for his undergraduate degree at the University of London and completed his final examination on Chinese history from 500 B.C.E. to the present along with modern Chinese. He then received a job in China with the Chinese Industrial Cooperative. While in a remote part of China, Halliday received notice that he was granted a scholarship for postgraduate work in London. He instead arranged to study contemporary Chinese dialects at Lingnan University in China.

During this time, Halliday experienced periods of danger because of Communist incursions into the areas where he was living, working, and studying. At least once, he narrowly avoided being trapped in an area that was taken over by Communists. Eventually, he arranged to return to London to study linguistics with J. R. Firth, a fellow resident of Yorkshire. It was at this point that Halliday began to develop his ideas about the systemic functional model of linguistics.

Life's Work

Throughout the 1950s, Halliday taught at a variety of higher learning institutions in England, Scotland, the United States, and Australia. Working with Firth and others, he developed the systemic functional model of linguistics. First publicized in a paper written in 1961, the model emphasizes the function of language in social situations and the relationships that are created between language and its function in society. According to Halliday, the meaning of words, the sounds that make up words, and the way words are put together to form useful meanings are more important than artificial constructs of grammar for understanding the importance of language.

Halliday also spent a great deal of time studying how children learn language. In 1975, he outlined seven key functions children have for language: instrumental, the use of language to convey needs ("more juice!"); regulatory, the use of language to direct others ("hold me"); interactional, the use of language to form relationships ("I love you!"); personal, the use of language for personal expression ("Me happy!"); heuristic, using language to learn ("Why is the sky blue?"); imaginative, using language to share created thoughts, stories, jokes, etc.; and representational, using language to share information and facts.

His work with children allowed Halliday to show his systemic functional model of linguistics in action. He pointed out that children have no understanding of grammar, often ignore its rules, and still manage to convey their needs and thoughts. He believed that formal grammar could be learned later after the child has already mastered using language for self-expression. Therefore, Halliday suggested that people could learn how language developed over time by seeing how children learn to use it. The functional system came before the formal system of rules that govern grammar.

During his life, Halliday published several books outlining his theories and ideas. These includeIntonation and Grammar in British English(1967), Explorations in the Functions of Language(1973), and An Introduction to Functional Grammar (1985).

Impact

Halliday's early love for language allowed him to develop the systemic functional linguistic model of language. The model stressed the importance of language in social situations to convey one's needs and thoughts over the importance of learning grammar rules. He was able to use this theory to account for the way children learn and use language, people acquire a second language, people use language in science, and language is taught in schools. His contributions to linguistics have inspired a new generation of linguists to further study his theories and the systemic functional linguistic model.

Personal Life

Halliday married Ruqaiya Hasan, a British India-born linguist, in 1967. They had one son, Neil. The family lived in Sydney, Australia, for many years. Hasan died of lung cancer in 2015 and Halliday died in 2018 at the age of ninety-three.

Bibliography

Almurashi, Wael Abdulrahman. "An Introduction to Halliday's Systemic Functional Linguistics." Journal for the Study of English Linguistics, vol. 4, no. 1, 2016.

The Bloomsbury Companion to M.A.K. Halliday. Edited by Jonathan J. Webster, Bloomsbury, 2015.

Halliday, M.A.K. "Towards a Language-Based Theory of Learning." Linguistics and Education, vol. 5, no. 2, 1993, pp. 93–116.

Jones, Alan. "Michael Halliday: An Appreciation by Alan Jones." International House Journal of Education and Development, ihjournal.com/michael-halliday-an-appreciation. Accessed 9 May 2017.

Lowe, Mark. "Michael Halliday at 80: A Tribute." International House Journal of Education and Development, ihjournal.com/michael-halliday-at-80-a-tribute. Accessed 9 May 2017.

"Michael Alexander Kirkwood Halliday (*1925)." English Language and Linguistics Online, www.ello.uos.de/field.php/TheoryModelMethod/MAKHalliday. Accessed 9 May 2017.

Nordquist, Richard. "Systemic Functional Linguistics (SFL)." ThoughtCo., 24 Mar. 2017, www.thoughtco.com/systemic-functional-linguistics-1692022. Accessed 9 May 2017.

"Professor of Linguistics, Ruqaiya Hasan, Leaves Widely Respected Intellectual Legacy." Sydney Morning Herald, 22 July 2015, www.smh.com.au/comment/obituaries/professor-of-linguistics-ruqaiya-hasan-leaves-widely-respected-intellectual-legacy-20150722-gihsf9.html. Accessed 9 May 2017.