The shift towards a sociolinguistic approach to the analysis of language in the last few decades has necessitated new definitions for a number of concepts that linguists have taken for granted for a long time. This volume attempts to demystify the important notions of ‘text’ and ‘context’ by providing clear definitions and examples within the assumptions of Systemic Functional (SF) linguistics.

This is the first volume of a work envisioned to consist of six volumes, providing a complete overview of the unified approach to basic problems of linguistics, as developed by Hans-Heinrich Lieb. This first volume contains a detailed overview of Integrational Linguistics, and outlines a major fragment of a theory of language systems. The further volumes will discuss: II. A theory of grammars; III. Language universals and language contrast; IV. Syntax and semantics; V. Morphology and morphosemantics; VI. Lexical semantics.

The papers collected in this volume were first presented at the 14th International Conference on English Historical Linguistics (Bergamo, 2006). Alongside studies of syntax, morphology, lexis and semantics, published in two sister volumes, many innovative contributions focused on geo-historical variation in English. A carefully peer-reviewed selection, including two plenary lectures, appears here in print for the first time, bearing witness to the increasing scholarly interest in varieties of English other than so-called 'standard' English

This text presents a critical overview of current work on linguistic features - gender, number, case, person, etc. - and establishes new bases for their use in the study and understanding of language.

The articles in this edited volume represent a range of approaches to studying the role of verbal aspect in grammatical variation. Issues addressed include: defining the variable context; operationalizing aspectual distinctions as factors conditioning linguistic variation; and the appropriate number of aspectual distinctions and levels. Apart from bringing to light various methodological and analytical issues, this volume gathers together a unique collection of original research, based on spoken- and written-language corpora, of an array of languages and linguistic varieties