The goal of this chapter is to present RRG as a formalized grammatical theory which puts emphasis on mathematical and logical rigour. It is shown how the syntactic dimension of RRG can be formally expressed as a tree rewriting grammar consisting of elementary tree templates that can be combined with larger syntactic units by three modes of composition: substitution, adjunction and wrapping. Special attention is given to the structure and derivation of extraction constructions and complex sentences.

Chapter 1 presents the purpose of the book – i.e. describing how a text-based description of three world languages can be developed. The Systemic Functional Linguistic theory informing these descpriptons is introduced, including modellng of context and discourse semantics,and the basic theoretical parameters of metafunciton, rank and stratification.The nature argumentation in relation to grammar description is outlined.

Chapter 3 explores verbal group system and structure. In doing so for English and Spanish, it concentrates on what in SFL is referred to as univariate structure. Univariate structures are structures involving a single variable, which is repeated over and over again; they thus function as the realisation of recursive systems. The unit complexes introduced above (clause complexes, group complexes, word complexes and morpheme complexes) are structures of this kind. And some languages develop more delicate clause and group systems organised along these lines. The recursive tense systems in English and Spanish which we describe in this chapter are good examples. Chinese verbal groups on the other hand do not involve recursive systems realised by iterating structures and so have to be approached from a multivariate perspective.

Chapter 2 explores nominal group system and structure. In doing so, it concentrates on what in SFL is referred to as multivariate structure. Multivariate structures are structures involving a finite number of functions, each playing a distinct role. In this chapter we concentrate on developing multivariate structures for nominal groups in English, Spanish and Chinese.

In this invited Afterword Matthiessen positions this volume as the third step in a series of books introducing students and colleagues to Systemic Functional Linguistics (SFL) – following on from the general introduction in Matthiessen and Halliday (1997/2009) and the introduction to formulating system networks in Martin, Wang and Zhu (2013). It also positions the work on English, Spanish and Chinese in this volume in relation to work on other languages, much of which has been curated and/or mentored by Matthiessen. In addition this afterword reviews a number of key issues arising in relation to language description based on SFL. These include the paradigmatic orientation of system descriptions, cryptogrammatical reasoning, trinocular vision (from about, from roundabout and from below), metafunction (ideational, interpersonal and textual), rank and functional language typology.

Chapter 4 explores mood systems and structures. It concentrates on paradigmatic relations – and the ways in which these can be motivated in the grammars of English, Spanish and Chinese. This chapter foregrounds questions about the nature of functional language typology, when confronted with the diverse structural realisations of mood in three different languages. It highlights the need to focus on system rather than structure, on higher ranks rather than lower ones and ultimately on discourse semantics rather than grammar by way of establishing comparable ground whenever languages are being contrasted and compared.

Chapter 6 explores theme and information systems and structures. It concentrates on the need to argue from discourse semantics as far as the interpretation of information flow is concerned. This chapter brings some phonological analysis into the picture, since information systems are realised through prosodic phonology (i.e. rhythm and intonation). This work draws on Halliday’s analysis of English intonation, as presented in Halliday (1967, 1970) and Halliday & Greaves (2008).