Memory Through Systemic Functional Linguistics

Edelman (1992: 238):

Memory is a system property: It differs depending on the structure of the system in which it is expressed. In biological systems, memory must not be confused with the mechanisms that are necessary for its establishment, such as synaptic change. Above all, biological memory is not a replica or a trace that is coded to represent its object. 

In whatever form, human memory involves an apparently open-ended set of connections between subjects and a rich texture of previous knowledge that cannot be adequately represented by the impoverished language of computer science — "storage," "retrieval," "input," "output." To have memory, one must be able to repeat a performance, to assert, to relate matters and categories to one's own position in time and space. To do this, one must have a self, and a conscious self at that.

Blogger Comments:

From the perspective of Systemic Functional Linguistic Theory, memory, as the ability to repeat a performance, includes the ability to instantiate meaning potential as meaning.  In this sense, semiotic systems can be understood as the expansion of memory:

• the elaboration of memory through more delicate distinctions,
• the extension of memory through conjunct and disjunct relations, and
• the enhancement of memory through the conditions on which distinctions, conjunctions and disjunctions are projected through the processes of consciousness,

with language as the most expansive form.