Applying a Relational Ontology to SFL: 6 The Metaphysics of Realisation: A Relational Interpretation

This post clarifies realisation across the strata of SFL, showing how it operates perspectivally rather than temporally, and preserves both Halliday’s architecture and the relational ontology.

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1. Realisation vs Instantiation

Canonical distinctions:

• Instantiation: token–type relation within a stratum

  • Situation → context potential

  • Text → semantic potential

• Realisation: relation between strata

  • Semantics realises context

  • Lexicogrammar realises semantics

  • Phonology realises lexicogrammar

Key points:

• Realisation is not instantiation

• Realisation is not actualisation

• Realisation is a relation of semiotic dependency, not a temporal process

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2. The Relational-Ontological Perspective

In relational ontology:

• System = structured potential (theory of the instance)

• Instance = perspectival actualisation

• Construal is constitutive: no unconstrued instance exists

Realisation is therefore understood as a perspectival descent:

• Higher-stratal potential → lower-stratal construal

• Meaning at a higher stratum is read through its realisation at the next lower stratum

• This is solidary, not serial: strata are relationally linked, not sequentially processed

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3. Semantic Construal → Lexicogrammar → Phonology

Canonical SFL:

1. Semantics: meaning potential, construed relative to context

2. Lexicogrammar: wording potential, realising semantic construal

3. Phonology: expression potential, realising lexicogrammar

Relational ontology emphasises:

• Realisation is perspectival, not temporal

• Each lower stratum specifies and makes explicit the higher-stratal meaning

• The meaning at each stratum is solidary: cohesive, relational, and constrained by the potential at the higher stratum

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4. Key Insights

1. Realisation is a relation of dependency, not production

2. Realisation is perspectival, not sequential

3. Realisation does not violate stratification

4. Lexicogrammar and phonology never instantiate context directly; they realise the semantic construal of context

5. This preserves the canonical Hallidayan architecture while clarifying its metaphysics

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5. What This Post Secures

• The architecture of strata is maintained

• Cross-stratal relations are cleanly defined

• Perspectival cuts clarify how meaning flows without implying temporal or causal processes

• Semantic construal → wording → expression is rigorously relational

• Future posts can now safely address temporal issues (logogenesis, semogenesis) without confusing realisation with instantiation

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Next Post

Post 7 will tackle Logogenesis, Without Misinterpretation:

• Recover Halliday’s logogenesis while avoiding representational or deterministic readings

• Clarify instantial potential as perspectival, not literal temporal change

• Distinguish ontogenetic, logogenetic, and phylogenetic processes clearly within relational ontology