scale-and-category grammar

A LINGUISTIC theory devised by the British linguist M. A. K. Halliday in the early 1960s in which the STRUCTURE of LANGUAGE is seen as an intersecting set of scales and CATEGORIES operating at different LEVELS. Several levels of organization are recognized. At the level of SUBSTANCE, the physical DATA of speech or writing are defined in PHONIC or GRAPHIC terms. The organization of substance into linguistic CONTRASTS is carried out at the level of FORM, GRAMMAR and LEXIS being the two main subdivisions. PHONOLOGY is seen as an ‘inter-level’ connecting the level of substance and form. CONTEXT is a further ‘inter-level’, connecting the level of form with the extralinguistic SITUATION. Linguistic analysis in this view proceeds by establishing four theoretical ‘categories’ – UNITS, STRUCTURES, CLASSES and SYSTEMS – and interrelating these by the ‘scales’ of RANK, EXPONENCE and DELICACY. (This use of ‘scale’ should not be confused with that found in phonology, in relation to STRENGTH values.) In the late 1960s, parts of this approach were superseded by a SYSTEMIC MODEL of analysis.