This book is the first to provide a systemic functional interpretation of the grammar of Japanese, describing it as a resource for making meaning rather than as a set of formal rules. It offers a general overview of all the major systems of Japanese grammar, covering the three major functions of language - the ideational, the interpersonal and the textual functions. The account of the grammar of Japanese is based on extensive corpus material and throughout the book the account is shown at work in Japanese discourse analysis. The book is also intended to extend our understanding of the semiotic potential of Japanese, and of language in general, for making meanings, taking into account both grammatical and lexical resources and linking them in a unified description of the lexicogrammar of Japanese.
