Halliday Honoured 1987 The University of Sydney News. Voume19 No.22. 1 September 1987 (See the clearer text below.)
And, another special event for commemorating Michael Halliday's retirement from the University of Sydney, in 1987.
Distinguished linguist honoured
Professor Michael Halliday in Linguistics was presented with a two volume festschrift, a commemorative collection of articles in his honour, at the official reception for the 8th World Congress of Applied Linguistics on 17 August.
Professor Halliday is the University's Foundation Professor of Linguistics and was prsesident of the 8th World Congress. He retires from the University at the end of this year. His systemic functional model of grammar is today recognised as one of the most powerful explanatory models of language available.
The festschrift consists of articles focussing on Professor Halliday's work by 60 colleagues and scholars from about eighteen countries around the world. It was organised and entitled by Associate Professor Ross Steele in French Studies and Mrs Terry Threadgold, Senior Lecturer in English. It is titled Language Topics: Essays in Honour of Michael Halliday.
Professor Steele said the festschrift took three years to organise and the second volume is still in the page proofing stage. 'We had such a huge acceptance rate by people wanting to contribute to the book that we had to expand it to two volumes,' Professor Steele said. 'This is an indication of the prestige of Professor Halliday and the wormth held for him. He is a humble man who has devoted his whole life to his students and to advancing the knowledge of linguistics. He is one of the most famous linguists in the world.
Contributors to the festschrift include the co-authors of Professor Halliday's first influential book, The Linguistic Science and Language Teaching (1964), Peter Strevens and Angus McIntosh. 'This book was the first to set out how a linguist could contribute to our understanding of learning and teaching languages,' Professor Steele said. 'It is still a fundamental work.'
About 600 friends, former students and colleagues witnessed the presentation. The first volume of the festschrift is on sale in most educational bookshops. The 60 contributors were of world renown, Professor Steele said.
(N.Y. comments: It was a gorgeous reception at the Great Hall of University of Sydney!)
Another Special Commemorative Event for Michael Halliday
At the conference dinner (at Malayan Restaurant in the evening of 27 August 1987) of the 14th International Systemic Workshop (the first conference held in the South Hemisphere; the ISW was renamed as International Systemic Congress then and as International Systemic Functional Congress, later again), Michael Halliday was presented by his systemic functional colleagues the official plan of publication of a three volume festschrift commonly titled Meaning and Choice in Language: Studies for Michael Halliday, which is commemorative collections of articles of three different themes: Language Development: Learning Language, Learning Culture; Discourse in Society: Systemic Functional Perspectives; and Meaning and Form: Systemic Functional Interpretations. (Which have been now all published by Ablex.)
(N.Y. comments: The meal and talks that evening were nice and fabulous. See some photographs to recall or imagine the pleasant atmosphere of that occasion.)