At the centre of the confusion lies a quiet substitution.
A cline has been replaced by a taxonomy.
1. What a Taxonomy Does
A taxonomy:
-
Divides phenomena into discrete classes.
-
Requires boundaries.
-
Requires membership decisions.
-
Operates on an either/or logic.
But they presuppose that the entities being classified are inherently discrete.
And that presupposition matters.
2. What a Cline Does
A cline, by contrast:
-
Organises phenomena along a gradient.
-
Describes degrees, not membership.
-
Works with probability, not boundary.
-
Assumes continuous variation within structured constraints.
The cline of instantiation is precisely this kind of organisation.
Between system and instance there are no sharp breaks — only increasingly specific actualisations of potential.
Register, from the pole of potential, is a region within this gradient.
It is not a class of texts.
It is a patterned construal of contextual configuration, realised probabilistically.
3. The Substitution
When we observe recurrent patterns across instances, we face a choice:
We can describe them as:
zones of higher probability within potential
or we can redescribe them as:
discrete text types.
Once the taxonomic move is made, new questions arise:
-
What defines the category?
-
What are its necessary features?
-
Where are its boundaries?
-
What distinguishes it from neighbouring types?
These questions feel natural — because taxonomy invites them.
But they are not questions the cline requires.
4. Boundary Problems
Consider a text that:
-
Narrates events,
-
Explains causal relations,
-
Embeds argument,
-
Uses technical nominalisation,
-
And incorporates multimodal diagrams.
Taxonomy demands a decision.
The cline does not.
From the perspective of instantiation:
The text is an event of actualisation drawing from multiple regions of potential.
No ontological anomaly has occurred.
Only our classificatory expectations have been unsettled.
5. Probability vs Membership
The difference can be stated simply:
Taxonomy asks:
Does this text belong?
The cline asks:
How is potential being distributed here?
In a probabilistic model:
-
Features cluster because of contextual configurations.
-
Clusters vary in strength.
-
Overlaps are normal.
-
Shifts across contexts are continuous.
Membership becomes irrelevant.
What matters is patterned actualisation.
6. Why Taxonomy Feels So Compelling
Taxonomy is cognitively efficient.
It:
-
Simplifies pedagogy.
-
Facilitates curriculum design.
-
Enables assessment rubrics.
-
Stabilises institutional expectations.
In these domains, categories are operationally useful.
But operational usefulness is not ontological validity.
The danger is not using types as heuristics.
The danger is mistaking heuristic convenience for structural reality.
When that happens, the gradient disappears from view.
7. Reasserting the Cline
If we return to instantiation as cline:
-
Register is subpotential.
-
Texts are events of actualisation.
-
Recurrence produces probabilistic clustering.
-
Clusters may be named.
-
Names do not create ontological units.
The architecture remains coherent.
Variation is expected because potential is structured but continuous.
8. The Quiet Reorientation
The goal is not to abolish the word “narrative.”
It is to relocate it.
Once we see that, the taxonomy loosens its grip.
And the cline re-emerges.
Next, we move to the hinge of the series:
Register as Event.
If register is not a container that texts enter, what is it?
We will answer that by shifting fully to the dynamic pole of instantiation.
No comments:
Post a Comment