The Notion Of Time "Running Slower" Through Systemic Functional Linguistics [Amended]

Hawking (1988: 32-3):

Another prediction of general relativity is that time should appear to run slower near a massive body like the earth. This is because there is a relation between the energy of light and its frequency (that is, the number of waves of light per second): the greater the energy, the higher the frequency. As light travels upward in the earth’s gravitational field, it loses energy, and so its frequency goes down. (This means that the length of time between one wave crest and the next goes up.) To someone high up, it would appear that everything down below was taking longer to happen. This prediction was tested in 1962, using a pair of very accurate clocks mounted at the top and bottom of a water tower. The clock at the bottom, which was nearer the earth, was found to run slower, in exact agreement with general relativity.

Blogger Comments:

From the perspective of Systemic Functional Linguistic Theory, it is not time that runs slower, but the ticking of a clock that measures intervals of time.  A longer time interval between ticks constitutes an expansion of time intervals.  This means that the presence of matter causes a relative contraction of space intervals but a corresponding relative expansion of time intervals.

As light travels upward in the earth's gravitational field, it is moving from relatively contracted space intervals to relatively expanded space intervals. This means that the spatial interval between wave crests of light is gradually lengthened, with a corresponding lowering of frequency (which is inversely proportional to wavelength).*

By the same token, as light travels upward in the earth's gravitational field, it is moving from relatively expanded time intervals to relatively contracted time intervals.  This means that the light is travelling from where processes unfold relatively more slowly to where processes unfold relatively more quickly.

* Because instances of light are particles, and waves are measures of their probability, the wavelength of light is the distance between equiprobable locations of photons.