This volume, based on papers delivered at the 7th International Systemic Functional Workshop in Valencia in 1995, explores some of the choices open to speakers and writers for the expression of meaning in different socio-cultural contexts. Many of the papers draw inspiration from models of language developed by Michael Halliday and, in particular, recent theories of variation in relation to texts and genres explored by Halliday and his followers. There is an emphasis on the interdependence and interaction of linguistic choices across sentence boundaries and speaking turns and a consistent focus across many papers on the importance of lexicogrammar in the construction of texts. Several papers examine the differences between native-speaker and non-native-speaker choices in speech and writing.