Chapter 4: Mathematics As Text

Language is considered by many to be important in the development of mathematical ideas, whether as a result of new deliberations by mathematicians or as the reproduction of existing ideas by new learners. In this chapter, mathematics is considered as a text which can be analyzed. Using ideas from Michael Halliday’s Functional Grammar, a model is outlined to illustrate how the linguistic choices made by the speaker or writer as a result of their contexts of situation and culture are intricately connected to the mathematics which is being developed and interpreted. In a similar way, mathematical understanding can also influence the contexts of culture and situation and thus the linguistic choices which are perceived as being appropriate in the production of a new text. This model is then used to consider aspects of the development of texts of mathematics within classrooms.