The Thought Occurs

Wednesday 6 June 2018

The Distinction Between Generality, Abstraction And Instantiation In SFL

Halliday & Matthiessen (1999: 615):
General terms are not necessarily abstract; a bird is no more abstract than a pigeon.

Halliday & Matthiessen (1999: 144-5):
In other words, the elaboration sets up a relationship either of 
  • generality (delicacy), of 
  • abstraction (realisation), or of 
  • token to type (instantiation);

Blogger Comments:
  1. Generality/delicacy is equivalent to hyponymy and can be construed as either an identifying or attributive relation;
  2. Abstraction/realisation can only be construed as an identifying relation;
  3. Instantiation can only be construed as an attributive relation.

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