SYSTEM

System 34 (2006) 149–156

www.elsevier.com/locate/system

Book reviews

Kay O’Halloran, Mathematical Discourse – Language, Symbolism and Visual Images,

Continuum, London, 2005, xii + 226 pp

Given this title, I was surprised that this book starts by posing the question why so
many Germans could be persuaded to back the Nazis. Then, having just become engrossed
in this question, I found, midway the second page, that it would not be answered. Instead,
a book in which this question is asked (and presumably answered) is used to illustrate the
notion of ‘choice’ in systemic-functional linguistics. Somewhat disappointed, I adjusted
my expectations. The remainder of the chapter provides an introduction to the systemic
approach on which the book is based. For readers not familiar with systemic-functional
grammar it is perhaps all too rushed and dense, and may confuse rather than enlighten.
Fortunately, the book picks up in chapter 2, a fascinating history of mathematical dis-
course. On the one hand mathematical discourse evolved from language. Early algebra
was a ‘rhetorical algebra’ that worked with linguistic descriptions and solutions. On the
other hand it evolved from images. Early geometrical images were a good deal less abstract
than contemporary ones. Descartes’ drawings did not just show, say, a series of line seg-
ments and curves describing the path of a ball through water, but also a 17th century gen-
tleman with some kind of racket, standing at the edge of water and looking at the ball. In
this chapter we learn how Descartes mistrusted language, as he felt it belonged to the com-
monsense world of perception, and therefore developed the formalisms of algebra to try
and reduce the linguistic element to a minimum. And we learn how the pictorial element
in geometrical drawings was gradually reduced, first by taking out the setting and showing
only the hand or the eye of the observer, then by leaving the observer out of the picture
altogether.
The rest of the book explains why mathematics can be called a ‘semiotic resource’ and
how it ‘combines different sign systems’. It convincingly shows that mathematics, as it is
actually used, combines language, visuals and mathematical symbolism, assigning differ-
ent roles to each. Languagepserves for introducing, contextualizing and describing prob-
lems (for instance ‘If f(x) = x 1, find the derivative of f. State the domain of f1’), and
also comes to the mathematician’s aid when mathematical symbols and conventions are
not available. When a series of equations is not strictly sequential, for instance, we might
read ‘from 1 and 2’, or even ‘on the other hand’. Diagrams are seen as a heuristic tool
which could not, on its own, deliver a mathematical proof, but can help in conceptual-
izing problems and in keeping mathematics in touch with the real, ‘concrete’ world. At
least that is how they have traditionally been used, because O’Halloran shows that in the
age of computer visualization their role is changing and she believes that ‘computer
graphics may evolve formal systems for reasoning’ (p. 155). Mathematical symbolism,
finally, is used for working, step by step, towards the solution of problems by means
of reasoning.
150 Book reviews / System 34 (2006) 149–156

The book first deals with each of the three semiotic modes in turn, and then shows how
they combine in actual mathematical discourse. Its key emphases are on semiotic func-
tions, and on the structuring of semiotic resources and texts.
Starting with functions, systemic-functional theory assumes that all semiotic re-
sources, not just language, simultaneously work on three levels, ideationally, by repre-
senting in some way or other what is going on in the world, interpersonally, by
creating certain relationships and certain forms of interaction between communicating
parties, and textually, by weaving ideational and interpersonal meanings into a textual
whole. The ideational function of language is further divided into an experiential func-
tion (constructing experiences) and a logical function (constructing logical relations be-
tween experiential meanings). Moreover, each function is linked to (‘realizable by’)
specific semiotic resources, for instance the interpersonal functions of language (e.g.
informing, questioning, ordering, and direct or indirect address) can be realized by the
grammatical systems of mood (indicative, interrogative, imperative) and person (the
‘indirect’ third person, and the ‘direct’ first and second person). O’Halloran therefore
looks at mathematical discourse not just as a resource for abstractly representing and
then performing logical operations on aspects of the world, but also as a way of address-
ing readers, for instance through its use of a (linguistically coded) ‘rhetoric of command’
(e.g. ‘find’, ‘state’, ‘we calculate that’, ‘we see that’, etc.), and of objective, impersonal-
ized images.
O’Halloran also emphasises the organisation of semiotic resources and texts. Semiotic
resources are ‘stratified’ into ‘discourse semantics’, ‘grammar’ and ‘display’. Discourse
semantics specifies what kinds of things can be ‘said’ mathematically, a limited semantic
domain of entities, relations and symbolic operations that developed to allow the propor-
tional and exact measurement and description of relations in fields such as commerce,
land surveying, calendar construction, and, not to forget, warfare. Grammar specifies
how elements of different rank can be combined, and here we move p into the structure
of texts which are built up from minimal components (e.g. f,x, = , 1), which combine
into embedded expressions (e.g. f(a + h)), which combine into operations (e.g.
f(a + h) f(a)) which combine into sequences of operations. A similar schema is used
in the case of visuals, where ‘parts’ combine into ‘figures’ which in turn combine into ‘epi-
sodes’. This schema is borrowed from O’Toole’s systemic-functional approach to painting
and the vocabulary is therefore perhaps not entirely suited to the purpose of a semiotics of
mathematical symbolism, but the existence of ‘ranks’ in visual mathematics is nevertheless
clearly demonstrated. The final level of the structure of semiotic resources is that of (gra-
phic) display, and it is interesting to see what a variety of means are in use here – numbers,
letters from different alphabets, punctuation signs, iconic symbols of various kinds, and
so on.
All these aspects operate across all three of the semiotic systems used in mathematical
discourse and for this reason O’Halloran can bring them together under common head-
ings, both in her analyses of specific texts, and in the diagrams that summarize the idea-
tional, interpersonal and textual work typically done by each of the three semiotic
modes in mathematical discourse, and the levels at which the modes overlap and reinforce
each other, or make complementary contributions. These very clear multimodal syntheses
are undoubtedly among the best achievements of this book.
What gets less attention, however, is another key aspect of systemic-functional gram-
mar, its emphasis on paradigmatic systems. For Halliday, language is in the first place a
 Book reviews / System 34 (2006) 149–156 151

semiotic resource, and that means that it offers the user systems of choices. Systemic-func-
tional linguists and semioticians usually represent these as ‘system networks’, but that term
is somewhat misleading, as these ‘networks’ are essentially taxonomical systems of binary
choices, allowing for limited simultaneous choices, graded choices, and back-looping. To
give a simple example, to choose the mood of a clause, one must make two simultaneous
choices, the choice between ‘information’ and ‘goods and services’ and the choice between
‘offer’ and ‘demand’. This gives four possibilities, each of which will have a specific linguis-
tic realization. For instance ‘offering information’ selects indicative mood, and ‘demanding
information’ selects interrogative mood. Each clause then co-patterns selections from a
range of such system networks. Although the author describes her categories as ‘types
of semiotic choices made from the available systems from the grammars of mathematical
symbolism, visual display and language’ (p. 209) she does not use the ‘system network’ for-
malisms of systemic-functional linguistics. This is a pity as it could have made the account
of, for instance, the different kinds of ‘operative processes’ (adding, subtracting, multiply-
ing, dividing, etc.) sharper and more defined.
Overall, however, the book is a key contribution to the emerging body of systemic-
functional accounts of different semiotic systems, ‘intersemiosis’ and multimodal textual-
ity. Despite the fact that O’Halloran does not always take enough time to explain the
subtleties of systemic-functional theory clearly enough and sometimes overwhelms the
reader with its extensive terminological apparatus, in the end a clear and plausible view
emerges, not just of mathematical discourse, but of the workings of multimodality and
‘intersemiosis’ generally.

Theo van Leeuwen

Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences
University of Technology, Sydney
Australia
E-mail address: theo.vanleeuwen@uts.edu.au
doi:10.1016/j.system.2006.01.004

M.P. Garcı́a Mayo, M.L. Garcı́a Lecumberri (Eds.), Age and the Acquisition of English as a
Foreign Language, Multilingual Matters, Clevedon, 2003, xii + 209 pp

The issue of when and how a foreign language should be introduced at school remains
controversial. If in immersion contexts ‘‘the younger the better’’ seems to be quite an accu-
rate prediction, there is still a lot to explore in formal settings. This book offers an exten-
sive review of current research and presents valuable findings as regards age when learning
a third language in formal contexts.
The book is divided into two main parts. After a brief introduction from the editors,
part one consists of three chapters that set the general framework and present an up-
to-date revision of the literature on the age factor and language acquisition. The second
part comprises six chapters which all deal with fieldwork in two bilingual communities
in Spain: The Basque Country (Chapters 4–7) and Catalonia (Chapters 8 and 9).
In Chapter 1, after a thorough introduction to the Critical Period Hypothesis (CPH),
Singleton revises the notion of a CP in an L2 in relation to three aspects: the attainment