On Instances Of Meaning As Inputs To Form Potential

Fawcett (2010: 40):

Figure 4 shows that at this level too — as we would logically expect — there is both a potential and an instance. The two levels of form and meaning are connected to each other, in a generative model of language, through the fact that the output from the level of meaning is the input to the level of form — more precisely, to the form potential. The form potential of a language consists principally of the realisation rules (or, as Halliday calls them, 'realisation statements').

Blogger Comments:

This continues the discussion of Figure 4 (p36):

[1] To be clear, on Fawcett's model, a structure is an instance of realisation rules.   As the term 'realisation rule' suggests, the relation here is realisation, not instantiation.  In this case, it is the realisation relation between the paradigmatic and syntagmatic axes (rather than the relation between potential and instance).

[2] As the terms 'output' and 'input' suggest, this is a model for text generation using computers, not a model of language as a human resource.  Moreover, the modular architecture of Fawcett's model is inconsistent with the dimensional architecture of SFL theory, where different levels represent different perspectives on language — different levels of symbolic abstraction — not different interacting components.