ABSTRACT
The central problem of working towards a contextual grammar of English is the people lack of an adequate description of the contextual role of clause in the notion of sentence, and especially of the contextual contrast between subordination and independence for the clause. In Halliday’s old rank analysis, a sentence consists of one or more clauses, and the people wish to further specify that at least one of these clauses must be an independent declarative clause. The distinction between sentence and clause reflects the distinction between a whole and its parts. However, in speaking of the grammar of the clause within its sentence, the people have the paradox that the clause itself does not exist except as a generalisation that all clauses have subjects and predicates, with or without adjuncts; or simply predicates, with or without adjuncts. By taking a decoding approach (signalling), the people can at least get to grips with the facts of meaning more reasonably.
