Which syntax: A consumer's guide

Abstract

1. The present paper is a critique of Halliday's ‘Syntax an;’, the consumer' (1964).2 As avid consumers of linguistic theory (our interest stemming from; a very general concern with the psychology of language) we are naturally delighted that Halliday has our welfare at heart. He states that a theory of competence should not be regarded as the terminal point of syntactic study, but that ‘the explanation of linguistic performance’ and ‘the description of language for the purpose of various specific applications’ are important and reasonable goals. With this attitude we enthusiastically concur. Halliday outlines his basic point of departure with the following question (1964: 11–12): ‘Language may be described for a wide range of purposes, or, if that is begging the question I want to ask, there is a wide range of purposes for which a description of language may be used. The question is: do these various aims presuppose different ways of using the same description, or are they best served by descriptions of different kinds? Is there one single “best description” of a language, or are there various possible “best descriptions” according to the purpose in view?’