metafunctionn.

1931 Ann. Math. 32 414 Metafunction...The following three coverings..are equivalent... Each such equivalent class of coverings will be called a metafunction.

1964 Philos. & Phenomenol. Res. 24 340 A functional expression may be considered as a (meta)function which, applied to an ordered n-tuple of individual expressions, has eventually a sentence of E_s as value.

1984 Amer. Math. Monthly 91 183 Improvements made to the system..include..a metafunction facility permitting the incorporation of new simplifiers after they have been mechanically proved correct.

1975 M. A. K. Halliday in S. Rogers Children & Lang. xv. 252 The linguistic system has evolved so as to serve, for the speaker, on the one hand, the ‘observer’ function and on the other hand the ‘intruder’ function. These two ‘meta-functions’, together with a third, the ‘textual’ function, are incorporated in the system of the adult language as distinct sets of options, each having strong internal but weak external constraints.

1989 Word 40 7 The most important sense of function is concerned with Halliday's claim..that the grammar..is functionally organised in terms of the ideational, interpersonal and textual components, or metafunctions.

1992 Internat. Encycl. Linguistics IV. 121/1 System networks at clause rank have consistently shown themselves to be organized according to metafunction, with the options clustering in three general groups.

1989 Word 40 21 Sinclair and Coulthard..while rejecting Halliday's metafunctional approach as unhelpful.., explicitly base their account on the earlier Scale and Category model.

1993 Cultural Dynamics 6 215 Both of these metafunctional paths..are of fundamental importance to our conception of the individual mind and the domain of cognitive science.