Wave-Particle Duality Through Systemic Functional Linguistics [9]

Hawking (1988: 56):

Although light is made up of waves, Planck’s quantum hypothesis tells us that in some ways it behaves as if it were composed of particles: it can be emitted or absorbed only in packets, or quanta. Equally, Heisenberg’s uncertainty principle implies that particles behave in some respects like waves: they do not have a definite position but are “smeared out” with a certain probability distribution. The theory of quantum mechanics is based on an entirely new type of mathematics that no longer describes the real world in terms of particles and waves; it is only the observations of the world that may be described in those terms.

Blogger Comments:

From the perspective of Systemic Functional Linguistic Theory, particles do have a definite position, as demonstrated when an observation is made.  They are not "smeared out" because the probability distribution quantifies their potential positions, not their actual (instantial) positions.

The mathematics of quantum mechanics does describe the "real world" in terms of particles and waves, but with the following qualifications:

1. the "real world" is the identity relation of perceptual and linguistic meaning, construed of experience of the non-semiotic domain;
2. the mathematics of waves quantifies quantum systems as potential; and
3. the mathematics of particles quantifies instances of quantum potential.