The Qualia Of Higher-Order Consciousness Through Systemic Functional Linguistics [1]

Edelman (1992: 136):

But with us, it is different. Qualia, individual to each of us, are recategorisations by higher-order consciousness of value-laden perceptual relations in each sensory modality or their conceptual combinations with each other. We report them crudely to others; they are more directly reportable to ourselves. This set of relationships is usually but not always connected to value. Freedom from time allows the location in time of phenomenal states by a suffering or joyous self. And the presence of appropriate language improves discrimination enormously; skill in wine tasting, for example, may be considered the result of a passion based on qualia that are increasingly refined by language.

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From the perspective of Systemic Functional Linguistic Theory, the qualia of higher-order consciousness are the correlations of instances of value-laden perceptual meaning (of primary consciousness) with instances of linguistic meaning.  The correlation constitutes the material basis of a mental process and the medium through which the process unfolds constitutes a senser.

Clearly, the more linguistic distinctions, the more differentiated the qualia, the more refined the construal of experience.