This book describes language as a network of functional relations involving a context which is also a network of functional relations. Part I presents essays from a variety of perspectives on the theory of language as functional relations. Part II presents essays which describe an oral text from a variety of functional perspectives. All of the essays are by linguists interested in oral and written texts who have achieved international recognition in their fields. Illustrated in this book are cognitive, social construction, social praxis and anthropological approaches to the description of text. Currently in linguistics there is a movement towards careful use of corpora in linguistic and text analysis. This movement has involved the use of written corpora, spoken corpora and corpora which consist of combinations of spoken and written text. But little detailed discussion of the language of oral texts has been published. Most text analyses address written texts – often literary works. This book is among the first to integrate the analysis of the language of spoken and written texts.