The Continuum companion to systemic functional linguistics is a welcome addition to the growing number of collections of readings in Systemic Functional Linguistics (SFL). This volume is meant to complement readings published in the two co-edited volumes of Continuing discourse on language by Ruqaiya Hasan, Christian M. I. M. Matthiessen, & Jonathan J. Webster (Equinox, 2005, 2007). The book contains thirteen chapters plus a preface by Halliday. The chapters are thematically organized and cover areas including SFL theory, language evolution, linguistic computing, language disorders, and discourse studies. The first chapter, by Webster, is an introduction to the volume, comprising a very brief note on SFL's evolution through Halliday's early life and illustrations of a few theoretical concepts. Chs. 2 and 3 explore core theoretical issues. In Ch. 2, Matthiessen is concerned with the “ideas and new directions” emerging in SFL, with particular focus on those “closely related to applications and fundable research projects.” He provides a detailed developmental survey of the areas in which SFL has been increasingly successful since its inception. In Ch. 3, Halliday describes the architecture of systemic grammar and explains how SFL is a general linguistic theory.

The next two chapters are illustrations of language development. Claire Painter (Ch. 3) discusses the stages in childrens' language development, or the process of learning “how to mean,” a central phenomenon in SFL theory. Her discussion rests on phases and social dimensions of language development indicated by SFL research and learning through and about language. James D. Benson & Paul J. Thibault take on the often-debated question whether language is uniquely human in Ch. 5 and present a case study of bonobos' language learning ability. On the theme of linguistic computing, Elke Teich (Ch. 6) reports on the use and significance of computational tools in processing larger text samples for the purposes of linguistic analysis, while Canzhong Wu, in Ch. 7, highlights the significance of corpus-based research in SFL studies, introducing SysConc, a concordance tool for automated corpus analysis, and explaining its major features. In Ch. 8, Elizabeth Armstrong sheds light on developments in the investigation of speech and language disorders such as aphasia and dementia, discussing the contribution of SFL research to the field and outlining directions for the future.

Three chapters relate to the study of discourse. In Ch. 9, J. R. Martin reflects on the development of the SFL model in discourse studies. He credits Halliday's well-known social context model of field, tenor, and mode being the fundamental principles of SFL discourse studies and surveys major developments thereafter. “Context” has been at the core of SFL at every stage of its development. This is what Hasan takes as her object of study in Ch. 10—its place in SFL as well as its description in relation to linguistic analysis of the uses of language. In another chapter on discourse, David G. Butt & Annabelle Lukin explain “how stylistic analysis is defined by its concern for the semantic consequences of linguistic pattern” with the help of texts narrating experience of war and training for it. Ch. 12, by Mick O'Donnel, details resources for SFL students and researchers such as information sites, bibliographies, friendly publishers, journals, and universities. The final chapter presents a glossary of a few key words of SFL theory. In sum, this book is a very useful resource for students and researchers working within SFL theory.