El lenguaje no es un mero reflejo metaforico de la realidad social ni un ingrediente expresivo de esta: es el vinculo semiotico que produce y renueva los significados culturales, los mensajes complejos de un aqui y un ahora historicos. Los ensayos de M. A. K. Halliday reunidos en este volumen reflejan una indignacion a fondo dentro de este abigarrado fenomeno.
"Learning a language is to know how to mean, in society".
This is a must read for anyone who would like to know about sociolinguistics. It is a classic in the field.
Halliday doesn't only describes, characterises language as a system, and its components semiotically, and semantically. But he also dicusses language teaching methods, language and education.
I think Goodreads need to correct the hopefully orthographic - rather than conceptual - mistakes (yes... more than one) in the book's title. It is quite painful to bear.