In the previous posts, we examined non-meaning as structured potential, affordances as perspectival vectors, and illumination as ontogenesis. We now integrate these insights into the Hallidayan triad of system, instance, and potential, updating the architecture to reflect the dynamics of relational phasing.
1. System as structured field of affordances
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The system is not merely a set of abstract possibilities.
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It is the relational topology of potential meanings — a semiotic landscape threaded with affordances awaiting actualisation.
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Each node or choice in the system represents a vector of relational tension: the system itself is a network of phased possibilities, continuously modulated by prior and anticipated construals.
Think of the system as the ocean: currents, eddies, and pressure gradients define what the lantern can illuminate at any moment.
2. Instance as perspectival actualisation
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An instance is the act of lowering the lantern into this field: a localised, perspectival cut through the system of affordances.
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Instances are events, not objects: they are temporal stabilisations of potential.
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Each instance reshapes the topology of the system by modifying the gradients of non-meaning, subtly influencing future affordances.
Each lantern is a phase-shift: it illuminates, it shapes the dark ocean, and it disappears — leaving the field ready for the next act.
3. Non-meaning as dynamic horizon
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Non-meaning is the latent relational potential underlying the system, the structured but unactualised field of possibility.
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Far from being mere absence, it is the condition of all actualisation: without the unlit field, no pattern could emerge.
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Non-meaning is dynamic and recursive: each instance of meaning redraws its contours, generating new affordances and shading others.
Non-meaning is the ocean itself — dark, generative, and endlessly phasing with every illumination.
4. Relational Cosmos: co-constitution of system, instance, and non-meaning
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System, instance, and non-meaning are inseparable in practice:
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System = topology of potential
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Instance = perspectival phase
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Non-meaning = dynamic horizon of affordances
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Each act of construal is a co-ontogenetic event, simultaneously actualising meaning and reshaping potential.
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The relational cosmos is continuous, participatory, and emergent: meaning is never external to the field; it exists only in relational phasing.
5. Implications
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Meaning is relational and perspectival, not representational.
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Potential is dynamic and recursive, not static.
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Phenomena are emergent patterns, temporarily stabilised through actualisation.
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System and instance are co-evolving layers, intertwined through ongoing phasing.
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Non-meaning is productive, shaping the horizon of what can next be meant.
In summary:
The lantern metaphor has allowed us to see system, instance, and potential not as static categories but as phases of a single relational field. Meaning emerges as illumination, non-meaning as the generative horizon, and the system as the structured topology guiding and responding to these dynamics.
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