Dear Colleagues,
The following quote might be useful for anyone who is interested in the
means by which language accelerates its own ideational complexification
on the ontogenetic timescale. Halliday & Matthiessen (1999: 618):
The developmental dynamic of "generalisation — abstractness — metaphor"
provides the semiotic energy for the grammar, enabling it to serve as the
powerhouse for construing experience in the form of scientific knowledge.
Presented in this very sketchy fashion the movement may seem catastrophic
and discontinuous; but this is misleading. Rather, it is a steady
progression, marked by three periods of more rapid development at the
transitions: from protolanguage to language (generalisation, associated
with bipedal motion), from commonsense (spoken) language to written
language (abstractness: the move into primary school), and from non-speciali
sed written language to technical language (metaphor the move into
secondary school). There is a clear grammatical and semantic continuity
between the various versions of experience, which we can bring out by
analysing the grammar of particular instances… . At the same time, the
ontogenetic perspective shows that in fact our experience is being
ongoingly reconstrued
and categorised as we grow from infancy to maturity. This is the outcome of
processes taking place in human history — evolutionary events that are at
once both material and semiotic, and that cannot be reduced to either
purely physical processes driven by technology or purely discursive
processes driven by ideology.
--
dr chris cléirigh
*The first principle is that you must not fool yourself *
*and you are the easiest person to fool.*
— Richard P. Feynman
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Deploying Functional Grammar
<https://deployingfunctionalgrammar.blogspot.com/>
Martin's Model Of Paralanguage <https://sflparalanguage.blogspot.com/>
Informing Thoughts <http://informingthoughts.blogspot.com.au/>
Making Sense Of Meaning <https://meta-sfl-theory.blogspot.com/>
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Sys-Func <http://sys-func.blogspot.com.au/>
Sysfling <http://sysfling.blogspot.com.au/>
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<http://discourse-semantics.blogspot.com.au/>
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Working With Discourse: Meaning Beyond The Clause
<http://workingwithdiscourse.blogspot.com.au/>
The Cardiff Grammar <http://cardiff-grammar.blogspot.com.au/>
Lexis As Most Local Context <https://lexisasmostlocalcontext.blogspot.com/>
Factoring Out Structure <https://yaegandoran.blogspot.com/>
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