Cover not available

Article published In: Language, Context and Text
Vol. 6:2 (2024) ► pp.227–261

Get fulltext from our e-platform
JBE logo with link
PDF logo with download linkDownload PDF
EPUB logo with download linkDownload EPUB
authorization required

Halliday, Critical Discourse Analysis and ideology

ORCiD logo with link | Macquarie University, Australia
Published online: 3 December 2024
DOI logo with link
https://doi.org/10.1075/langct.00072.luk
Abstract
While Halliday’s work has been a source of inspiration to the fields of Critical Linguistics and Critical Discourse Analysis, Halliday has never been embraced by either school. This paper reviews the engagement of CL and CDA with Halliday, examining what ideas were borrowed, and what was either rejected or modified beyond recognition. It then examines how and why the key working assumptions in Halliday’s framework — in particular, metafunction, realisation and instantiation — are essential to understanding the empiric, ideological power of language. As humanity heads deeper into its greatest crisis and challenge, a clear-sighted understanding of the power of language is more important than ever. Halliday’s attention to understanding language as a sociological phenomenon makes his theory ideal for linguistic projects trying to deconstruct and understand the force of the most consequential ideologies in human societies.
Article outline
  • 1.Introduction
  • 2.CL and CDA critiques of Halliday
  • 3.Dimensions of language in Halliday’s model
    • 3.1Metafunction
    • 3.2Instantiation: System and instance
    • 3.3Realisation
  • 4.Halliday on ideology
  • 5.Conclusion
  • Acknowledgements
  • Notes
  • References
References (105)
References
Aarsleff, Hans. 1981. Taine and Saussure. In From Locke to Saussure: Essays on the study of language and intellectual history, 356–371. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Bourdieu, Pierre. 1991. The production and reproduction of legitimate language. In John B. Thompson (ed.), Language and symbolic power, 43–65. Oxford: Blackwell.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Chouliaraki, Lilie & Norman Fairclough. 1999. Discourse in late modernity: Rethinking critical discourse analysis. Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
de Melo Resende, Viviane. 2021. Decolonizing critical discourse studies: For a Latin American perspective. Critical Discourse Studies 18(1). 26–42. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
de Saussure, Ferdinand. 1974. Course in general linguistics (Translated by Wade Baskin). London: Fontana/Collins. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
. 2006. Writings in general linguistics. Oxford: Oxford University Press. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Ellis, Jeffrey. 1965. Linguistic sociology and institutional linguistics. Linguistics 3(19). 5–20. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
. 1966. On contextual meaning. In Charles E. Bazell, John C. Catford, M. A. K. Halliday & Robert H. Robins (eds.), In memory of J.R. Firth, 79–95. London: Longman.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Enkvist, Nils E., John Spencer & Michael Gregory. 1964. Linguistics and style. London: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Fairclough, Norman. 1992. Discourse and social change. Cambridge: Blackwell.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
. 1995. Critical discourse analysis: The critical study of language. London and New York: Longman.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
. 2003. Analysing discourse: Textual analysis for social research. London: Routledge. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
. 2009. A dialectical-relational approach to critical discourse analysis in social research. In Ruth Wodak & Michael Meyer (eds.), Methods of critical discourse studies (1st edition), 162–186. London: Sage.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
. 2013. Critical discourse analysis in research language in the new capitalism: Overdetermination, transdisciplinarity and textual analysis. In Critical discourse analysis: The critical study of language, 281–300. Harlow, England: Longman. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
. 2016. A dialectical-relational approach to critical discourse analysis in social research. In Ruth Wodak & Michael Meyer (eds.), Methods of critical discourse studies (3rd edition), 86–136. London: Sage.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Fairclough, Norman, Bob Jessop & Andrew Sayer. 2013. Critical realism and semiosis. In Norman Fairclough, Critical discourse analysis: The critical study of language, 202–222. Harlow, England: Longman. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Fill, Alwin F. 2017. Introduction. In Alwin F. Fill & Hermine Penz (eds.), The Routledge handbook of ecolinguistics, 1–7. New York: Routledge. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Foucault, Michel. 1971. Orders of discourse. Social Science Information 10(2). 7–30. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Fowler, Roger, Bob Hodge, Gunther Kress & Tony Trew (eds.). 1979a. Language and control. London: Routledge and Kegan Paul.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
(eds.). 1979b. Preface. In Roger Fowler, Bob Hodge, Gunter Kress & Tony Trew (eds.), Language and control, 1–5. London: Routledge and Kegan Paul.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Fowler, Roger & Gunther Kress. 1979. Critical linguistics. In Roger Fowler, Bob Hodge, Gunter Kress & Tony Trew (eds.), Language and control, 185–213. London: Routledge and Kegan Paul.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Geertz, Clifford. 1964. Ideology as a cultural system. In David Apter (ed.), Ideology and discontent, 47–76. New York: Free Press.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Ghio, Elsa, Federico Navarro & Annabelle Lukin (eds.). 2017. Obras Esenciales de MAK Halliday. Santa Fe: Ediciones UNL.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Giddens, Anthony. 1993. The Giddens reader. Stanford: Stanford University Press.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Halliday, M. A. K. 1974. Language and social man. London: Longman.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
1977. Explorations in the functions of language. New York: Elsevier North Holland.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
1978. Language as social semiotic: The social interpretation of language and meaning. London: Edward Arnold.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
1985. An introduction to functional grammar (1st edition). London: Taylor and Francis.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
1994. An introduction to functional grammar (2nd edition). London: Routledge.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
1999. The notion of “context” in language education. In Mohsen Ghadessy (ed.), Text and context in functional linguistics, 1–24. Amsterdam & Philadelphia: John Benjamins. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
2002a[1971]. Linguistic function and literary style: An inquiry into the language of William Golding’s The Inheritors. In M. A. K. Halliday, Linguistic studies of text and discourse, volume 2 in the collected works of M.A.K. Halliday, 88–125. Edited by Jonathan J. Webster. London & New York: Continuum.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
2002b[1961]. Categories in the theory of grammar. In M. A. K. Halliday, On Grammar, volume 1 in the collected works of M.A.K. Halliday, 37–94. Edited by Jonathan J. Webster. London and New York. Edited by Jonathan J. Webster. Continuum.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
2002c. Linguistic studies of text and discourse, volume 2 in the collected works of M.A.K. Halliday. Edited by Jonathan J. Webster. London & New York: Continuum.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
2002d. On grammar, volume 1 in the collected works of M.A.K. Halliday. Edited by Jonathan J. Webster. London & New York: Continuum.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
2002e[1994]. So you say ‘pass’. Thank you three muchly. In M. A. K. Halliday, Linguistic studies of text and discourse, volume 2 in the collected works of M.A.K. Halliday, 228–254. Edited by Jonathan J. Webster. London & New York: Continuum.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
2002f[1977]. Text as semantic choice in social contexts. In M. A. K. Halliday, Linguistic studies of text and discourse, volume 2 in the collected works of M.A.K. Halliday, 23–81. Edited by Jonathan J. Webster. London & New York: Continuum.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
2002g[1992]. How do you mean? In M. A. K. Halliday, On grammar, volume 1 in the collected works of M.A.K. Halliday, 352–368. Edited by Jonathan J. Webster. London & New York: Continuum.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
2003a. On language and linguistics, volume 3 in the collected works of M.A.K. Halliday. Edited by Jonathan J. Webster. London & New York: Continuum.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
2003b[1992]. The act of meaning. In M. A. K. Halliday, On language and linguistics, volume 3 in the collected works of M.A.K. Halliday, 375–389. Edited by Jonathan J. Webster. London & New York: Continuum.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
2003c[1977]. Ideas about language. In M. A. K. Halliday, On language and linguistics, volume 3 in the collected works of M.A.K. Halliday, 92–115. Edited by Jonathan J. Webster. London & New York: Continuum.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
2003d[2001]. Is the grammar neutral? Is the grammarian neutral? In M. A. K. Halliday, On language and linguistics, volume 3 in the collected works of M.A.K. Halliday, 271–292. Edited by Jonathan J. Webster. London & New York: Continuum.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
2003e[1987]. Language and the order of nature. In M. A. K. Halliday, On language and linguistics, volume 3 in the collected works of M.A.K. Halliday, 116–138. Edited by Jonathan J. Webster. London & New York: Continuum.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
2003f[1995]. On language in relation to the evolution of human consciousness. In M. A. K. Halliday, On language and linguistics, volume 3 in the collected works of M.A.K. Halliday, 390–432. Edited by Jonathan J. Webster. London & New York: Continuum.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
2003g. On the architecture of human language. In M. A. K. Halliday, On language and linguistics, volume 3 in the collected works of M.A.K. Halliday, 1–29. Edited by Jonathan J. Webster. London & New York: Continuum.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
2003h[1992]. Systemic grammar and the concept of a “science of language”. In M. A. K. Halliday, On language and linguistics, volume 3 in the collected works of M.A.K. Halliday, 199–212. Edited by Jonathan J. Webster. London & New York: Continuum.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
2003i[1973]. The functional basis of language. In M. A. K. Halliday, On language and linguistics, volume 3 in the collected works of M.A.K. Halliday, 298–322. Edited by Jonathan J. Webster. London & New York: Continuum.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
2003j[1992]. The history of a sentence. In M. A. K. Halliday, On language and linguistics, volume 3 in the collected works of M.A.K. Halliday, 355–374. Edited by Jonathan J. Webster. London & New York: Continuum.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
2003k. The language of early childhood, volume 4 in the collected works of M.A.K. Halliday. Edited by Jonathan J. Webster. London & New York: Continuum.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
2003l[1990]. New ways of meaning: A challenge to applied linguistics. In M. A. K. Halliday, On language and linguistics, volume 3 in the collected works of M.A.K. Halliday, 139–174. Edited by Jonathan J. Webster. London & New York: Continuum.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
2003m[1985]. Systemic background. In M. A. K. Halliday, On language and linguistics, volume 3 in the collected works of M.A.K. Halliday, 185–198. Edited by Jonathan J. Webster. London & New York: Continuum.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
2003n[1993]. Language in a changing world. In M. A. K. Halliday, On language and linguistics, volume 3 in the collected works of M.A.K. Halliday, 213–231. Edited by Jonathan J. Webster. London & New York: Continuum.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
2004a. Introduction: How big is a language? On the power of language. In M. A. K. Halliday, The language of science, volume 5 in the collected works of M.A.K. Halliday, xi–xxiv. Edited by Jonathan J. Webster. London & New York: Continuum.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
2004b. The language of science, volume 5 in the collected works of M.A.K. Halliday. Edited by Jonathan J. Webster. London & New York: Continuum.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
2005a. Computational and quantitative studies, volume 6 in the collected works of M.A.K. Halliday. Edited by Jonathan J. Webster. London & New York: Continuum.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
2005b. Studies in English language, volume 7 in the collected works of M.A.K. Halliday. Edited by Jonathan J. Webster. London & New York: Continuum.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
2006. Studies in Chinese language, volume 8 in the collected works of M.A.K. Halliday. Edited by Jonathan J. Webster. London & New York: Continuum.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
2007a[1971]. A “linguistic approach” to the teaching of the mother tongue. In M. A. K. Halliday, Language and education, volume 9 in the collective works of M.A.K. Halliday, 35–48. Edited by Jonathan J. Webster. London & New York: Continuum.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
2007b. Language and education, volume 9 in the collective works of M.A.K. Halliday. Edited by Jonathan J. Webster. London & New York: Continuum.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
2007c. Language and society, volume 10 in the collected works of M.A.K. Halliday. Edited by Jonathan J. Webster. London & New York: Continuum.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
2007d[1996]. Literacy and linguistics: A functional perspective. In M. A. K. Halliday, Language and education, volume 9 in the collective works of M.A.K. Halliday, 97–129. Edited by Jonathan J. Webster. London & New York: Continuum.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
2007e[1991]. The notion of “context” in language education In M.A.K. Halliday, Language and education, volume 9 in the collective works of M.A.K. Halliday. Edited by Jonathan J. Webster. London & New York: Continuum, pp 269–290.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
2007f[1975]. Sociological aspects of language change, In M. A. K. Halliday, Language and society, volume 10 in the collected works of M.A.K. Halliday. Edited by Jonathan J. Webster. London & New York: Continuum, pp 131–168.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
2009. ‘Methods — techniques — problems’, in M. A. K. Halliday and Jonathan J. Webster (eds.), Continuum companion to systemic functional linguistics, 59–86. Continuum.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
2013. Halliday in the 21st century, volume 11 in the collected works of M.A.K. Halliday. Edited by Jonathan J. Webster. London: Bloomsbury.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
2015. The influence of Marxism. In Jonathan J. Webster (ed.), The continuum companion to M.A.K. Halliday, 94–100. London: Bloomsbury.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Halliday, M. A. K. & Ruqaiya Hasan. 1976. Cohesion in English. London: Longman.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Halliday, M. A. K. & Christian M. I. M. Matthiessen. 1999. Construing experience through meaning: A language based approach to cognition. London & New York: Cassell.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Halliday, M. A. K., Angus McIntosh & Peter Stevens. 2007[1964]. The users and uses of language. In M. A. K. Halliday, Language and society, volume 10 in the collected works of M.A.K. Halliday, 5–37. Edited by Jonathan J. Webster. London & New York: Continuum.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Hart, Christopher. 2014. Discourse, grammar and ideology: Functional and cognitive perspectives. London & New York: Bloomsbury Publishing.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Hasan, Ruqaiya. 1987. Directions from structuralism. In Nigel Fabb, Derek Attridge, Alan Durant & Colin McCabe (eds.), The linguistics of writing: Arguments between language and literature. Manchester: Manchester University Press.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
. 2005. Language, society and consciousness: Transdisciplinary orientations and the tradition of specialisation. In Language, society and consciousness, volume 1 in the collected works of Ruqaiya Hasan, 3–17. Edited by Jonathan J. Webster. London: Equinox.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Klemperer, Victor. 2001. The language of the Third Reich: Lti — lingua tertii imperii: A philologist’s notebook (Translated by Martin Brady.) London & New York: Continuum.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Kress, Gunther & Bob Hodge. 1979. Language as ideology. London: Routledge and Kegan Paul.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Kress, Gunther. 1993. Against arbitrariness: The social production of the sign as a foundational issue in critical discourse analysis. Discourse & Society 4(2). 169–191. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Lukin, Annabelle. 2019. War and its ideologies: A social-semiotic theory and description. Singapore: Springer. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
2010. Semantic variation — modelling realisation, instantiation and individuation in social semiosis. In Monika Bedernak & J. R. Martin (eds.), New discourse on language: Functional perspectives on multimodalty, identity and affiliation, 1–34. New York & London: Continuum.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Marx, Karl & Frederick Engels. 1985. The German ideology. London: Lawrence and Wishart.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Matthiessen, Christian M. I. M. 2012. Systemic functional linguistics as appliable linguistics: Social accountability and critical approaches. DELTA Documentação de Estudos em Lingüistica Teórico e Aplicada 281. 453–471. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
2015. Halliday on language. In Jonathan J. Webster (ed.), The Bloomsbury companion to M.A.K. Halliday, 137–202. London: Bloomsbury.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Mautner, Gerlinde. 2016. Checks and balances: How corpus linguistics can contribute to CDA. In Ruth Wodak & Michael Meyer (eds.), Methods of critical discourse studies (3rd edition), 154–179. London: Sage.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Meyer, Michael. 2001. Between theory, method, and politics: Positioning of the approaches to CDA. In Ruth Wodak & Michael Meyer (eds.), Methods of critical discourse analysis, 14–31. London: Sage.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Mills, C Wright. 2000. The sociological imagination. New York: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
O’Grady, Gerard. (2019). SFL and critical discourse analysis. In Geoff Thompson, Wendy L. Bowcher, Lise Fontaine, & David Schonthal (eds.), The Cambridge handbook of systemic functional linguistics, 462–484. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Raworth, Kate. 2017. Doughnut economics. London: Random House.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Reisigl, Martin & Wodak, Ruth. 2009. The discourse-historical approach (DHA). In Ruth Wodak & Michael Meyer (eds.), Methods of critical discourse analysis, 87–121. London: Sage.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Reisigl, Martin & Ruth Wodak. 2016. The discourse-historical approach (DHA). In Ruth Wodak & Michael Meyer (eds.), Methods of critical discourse analysis, 23–61. London: Sage.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Sanders, Carol (ed.). 2004. The Cambridge companion to Saussure. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Seuren, Pieter A. M. 2016. Saussure and his intellectual environment. History of European Ideas 42(6). 819–847. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
van Dijk, Teun. 1980. Macrostructures: An interdisiplinary study of global structures in discourse, interaction, and cognition. Hillsdale, New Jersey: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
. 1984. Prejudice in discourse. Amsterdam: John Benjamins. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
. 1988. News as discourse. Hillsdale, New Jersey: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
. 1991. Racism and the press. London & New York: Routledge.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
. 1993. Elite discourse and racism. London: Sage. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
. 1998. Ideology: A multidisciplinary approach. London: Sage.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
. 2008a. Discourse and context: A sociocognitive approach. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
. 2008b. Discourse and power. Houndmills, Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
van Dijk, Teun & Walter Kintsch. 1983. Strategies of discourse comprehension. New York: Academic Press.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Whorf, Benjamin. 1956. Language, thought, and reality: Selected writings. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Wodak, Ruth. 2001. What is CDA about — a summary of its history, important concepts and its developments. In Ruth Wodak & Michael Meyer (eds.), Methods of critical discourse analysis, 1–13. London: Sage.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Wodak, Ruth & Michael Meyer (eds.). 2001. Methods of critical discourse analysis. London: Sage. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Wodak, Ruth & Meyer, Michael. 2009. Critical discourse analysis: History, agenda, theory and methodology. In Ruth Wodak & Michael Meyer (eds.), Methods of critical discourse analysis, 1–33. London: Sage.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Wodak, Ruth & Michael Meyer. 2016a. Critical discourse studies: History, agenda, theory and methodology. In Ruth Wodak & Michael Meyer (eds.), Methods of critical discourse studies (3rd edition). 1–22. London: Sage.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Wodak, Ruth, & Michael Meyer (eds.). 2016b. Methods of critical discourse studies (3rd edition). London: Sage.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Zhou, Wenjuan. 2021. Ecolinguistics: A half-century overview. Journal of World Languages 7(3). 461–468. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Cited by (1)

Cited by one other publication

Lukin, Annabelle
2025. Review of Malešević (2022): Why humans fight: The social dynamics of close-range violence. Language, Context and Text. The Social Semiotics Forum 7:1 ► pp. 161 ff. DOI logo

This list is based on CrossRef data as of 20 november 2025. Please note that it may not be complete. Sources presented here have been supplied by the respective publishers. Any errors therein should be reported to them.

Mobile Menu Logo with link to supplementary files background Layer 1 prag Twitter_Logo_Blue