The Curvature Of Space-Time Through Systemic Functional Linguistics [2]

Hawking (1988: 33):

Before 1915, space and time were thought of as a fixed arena in which events took place, but which was not affected by what happened in it. This was true even of the special theory of relativity. Bodies moved, forces attracted and repelled, but time and space simply continued, unaffected. It was natural to think that space and time went on forever. 

The situation, however, is quite different in the general theory of relativity. Space and time are now dynamic quantities: when a body moves, or a force acts, it affects the curvature of space and time — and in turn the structure of space-time affects the way in which bodies move and forces act. Space and time not only affect but also are affected by everything that happens in the universe. Just as one cannot talk about events in the universe without the notions of space and time, so in general relativity it became meaningless to talk about space and time outside the limits of the universe.

Blogger Comments:

From the perspective of Systemic Functional Linguistic Theory, as previously argued, the curvature of space-time is the curvature of the geodesic trajectory of a body through space whose intervals have been relatively contracted — during which, time intervals are relatively expanded — by the presence of another body.