Cosmogonic Myth Through Systemic Functional Linguistics [9]

Genesis (1:10):

10. And God called the dry land Earth; and the gathering together of the waters called he Seas: and God saw that it was good.

Blogger Comments:

From the perspective of Systemic Functional Linguistic theory, this symbolism from Abrahamic mythology can be interpreted as further construing the genesis of construing experience as meaning through language.

This tenth verse continues the construal of the stratification of linguistic content into two levels of symbolic abstraction: meaning and wording.  In the first clause, the creator of meaning verbally assigns a relation of symbolic identity that encodes the meaning the dry land by reference to the wording Earth:

and	God	called	the dry land	Earth
	Assigner	Process: identifying	Identified Value	Identifier Token

and in the second clause, the creator of meaning verbally assigns a relation of symbolic identity that encodes the meaning the gathering together of the waters by reference to the wording the Seas:

and	the gathering together of the waters	called	he	the Seas
	Identified Value	Process: identifying	Assigner	Identifier Token

and in the final clause nexus, the creator of meaning cognitively projects the ascription of a positive value (attitude) to the phenomena:

and	God	saw	that	it	was	good
1			'	2
	Senser	Process: mental: cognitive		Carrier	Process: attributive	Attribute

which continues the ascription of interpersonal values (attitudes) to experiential phenomena; cf the notion of 'categorising on value' in the neuroscientific theory (TNGS) of Edelman (1992).