Cosmogonic Myth Through Systemic Functional Linguistics [14]

Genesis (1:20-1):

20. And God said, Let the waters bring forth abundantly the moving creature that hath life, and fowl that may fly above the earth in the open firmament of heaven. 

21. And God created great whales, and every living creature that moveth, which the waters brought forth abundantly, after their kind, and every winged fowl after his kind: 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.

In verse 20, the creator of meaning again verbally projects a proposal for phenomena to be created:

and	God	said		let	the waters	bring forth	abundantly	the moving creature that hath life, and fowl that may fly above the earth in the open firmament of heaven
1			"	2
	Sayer	Process: verbal		Process:	Actor	material: creative	Manner: degree	Goal

That is to say, the creation of phenomena is again construed as a linguistic construal of experience, made by the creator of meaning.

Verse 21 then elaborates on the creation of the phenomena verbally proposed in verse 20:

and	God	created	great whales, and every living creature that moveth, which the waters brought forth abundantly, after their kind, and every winged fowl after his kind
	Creator	Process: existential	Existent

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).