About Professor M.A.K. Halliday

Professor Michael Alexander Kirkwood Halliday served as Advisor to the Halliday Centre from 2005 to 2018. As a significant contribution to language studies, he developed a theoretical approach known as ‘systemic functional linguistics’, incorporating a comprehensive model of grammar appliable to different languages. He also emphasised on theory as a resource for solving real-world problems (he called it an ‘appliable’ theory). As a result, his work has been of interest to a wide audience of those concerned with language in both theory and practice.



A Brief Biography

1925

Born in Leeds, England

1947

Enrolled in Peking University

1948

External BA (Hons.) London University (Modern Chinese)

1949

Research student under Wang Li at Lingnan University, Guangzhou, China, doing dialect field work

1955

PhD studies at Cambridge under J.R. Firth; title of dissertation: "The Language of the Chinese Secret History of the Mongols"

1963 - 1970

University College London, Director of the Communication Research Centre

1976 - 1987

University of Sydney, Founding Professor of Linguistics

1979

Research Fellow, Australian Academy of the Humanities

1981

David H. Russell Award for distinguished Research in the Teaching of English, National Council of Teachers of English (USA)

1986

Lee Kuan Yew Distinguished Visitor, National University of Singapore

1989

Corresponding Member of the British Academy

2002

Inaugural recipient of the AILA Gold Medal Award for exemplary scholarship in the field of applied linguistics

2003

Distinguished Visiting Professor, Faculty of Education, The University of Hong Kong

2005-2018

Advisor, The Halliday Centre for Intelligent Applications of Language Studies, City University of Hong Kong

2007

Recipient of an honorary doctorate from the University of British Columbia in recognition of his contribution to linguistics, including especially educational linguistics

2008

Recipient of an honorary doctorate (Doctor of Education honoris causa ) from The Hong Kong Institution of Education

2012-2015

Honorary Professor at the Department of Linguistics and Translation, City University of Hong Kong (CityU)

2013-2018

Advisor, The Functional Linguistics Institute, Sun Yat-sen University

2018

Deceased