The Logical Thoughts Of Aristotle In Systemic Functional Linguistics

Russell (1961: 206-7):

Aristotle's most important work in logic is the doctrine of the syllogism.  A syllogism is an argument consisting of three parts, a major premiss, a minor premiss, and a conclusion.  Syllogisms are of a number of different kinds, each of which has a name, given by the scholastics.  The most familiar is the kind called 'Barbara':

All men are mortal (Major premiss).

Socrates is a man (Minor premiss).

Therefore: Socrates is mortal (Conclusion).

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In Systemic Functional Linguistics, each of the three parts of a syllogism is an attributive process, a clause that construes class membership:

All men	are	mortal
Carrier	Process: relational	Attribute: quality

Socrates	is	a man
Carrier	Process: relational	Attribute: entity

Socrates	is	mortal
Carrier	Process: relational	Attribute: quality

In both the major premiss and the conclusion, the class assigned to the Carrier is a quality (mortal), whereas in the minor premiss, the class assigned to the Carrier is an entity (man).

The minor premiss also differs from the other two in that the relation is one of instantiation ('token to type'): Socrates is an instance of the type man.

On the other hand, the major premiss includes a relation of instantiation within the Carrier: all men means 'all instances of the type man'.  The minor premiss thus construes one instance of that type, and the conclusion assigns, to that single instance, the class to which all instances are members.