Quantum Theory Through Systemic Functional Linguistics [11]

Gribbin (1990: 198):

Protons and neutrons — nucleons — can only exchange mesons when they are very close together, essentially when they are "touching", to use an inappropriate expression from the everyday world.  Otherwise, the virtual pions cannot get across the gap during the time allowed by the uncertainty principle.

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From the perspective of Systemic Functional Linguistic theory, it is the quantum system potential — the probability of pi meson instantiation — that varies with the distance between nucleons.

It can be seen that the 'uncertainty principle' is a (Galilean) way of interpreting quantum physical data in the absence of the notion of instantiation, which provides a distinction between potential and instance as perspectives on the meaning being construed of experience.