Introduction

Language is essentially a resource for communicating through speech or writing. It provides us with ways of patterning sound or letter forms that are associated with meanings. Systemic linguistics describes language as a set of choices, extending from the most general to the most specific. These choices form the ‘meaning potential’ of language. They are expressed as abstract features that specify among other things the processes and entities that make up the structure of the basic unit of language, which is the clause, or simple sentence. According to systemic linguists, language is always patterned to simultaneously communicate three broad types of meaning – ideational, interpersonal and textual. Language consists both of grammar and vocabulary, and hence the language of new media design can also be seen from the perspective of the vocabulary. The linguistic choices of speakers and writers will be driven by their communicative purposes and by their target audiences.