Tuesday 6 February 2018

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).

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