"Getting under the skin of a language" is an intriguing new work appearing in the seventh volume in this Collected Works of Professor M. A. K. Halliday, Studies in English Language. Topics covered in the papers from the section on "Theoretical foundations" include transitivity, theme-rheme, mood, and modality in English. Other sections include papers on English intonation and grammar including discussion of word order in English and the complex structures typical of informal spontaneous conversation. The grammatical analysis of English also serve to demonstrate the application of linguistics to language teaching.