Variety in written English : texts in society : societies in text

Preliminaries; Contents; Preface; Introduction; 1 Variety and Standard English; 2 A very brief history of English; 3 Texts in societies societies in texts; 4 Some definitional problems; 5 Cohesion coherence and register; 6 Interpreting the language; 7 Genre; 8 The case of literature; Conclusion; Notes; Bibliography; Index.
Combining insight from a variety of linguistic perspectives including Hallidayan functional linguistics and relevance theory, Tony Bex demonstrates how written texts operate within society to convey meaning.