Each language has its own semantic code, although languages that share a common culture tend to have codes that are closely related [...] Only the grammatical system as a whole represents the semantic code of a language [...] The context of culture determines the nature of the code. As a language is manifested through its texts, a culture is manifested through its situations; so by attending to text–in–situation a child construes the code, and by using the code to interpret text he contrues the culture. Thus for the individual, the code engenders the culture; and this gives a powerful inertia to the transmission process.
- Halliday (1985), a pag.XXXI-XXXII