Gravitational Waves Viewed Through Systemic Functional Linguistics

Penrose (2004: 465):

Now let us consider that the bodies [imagined planets] are in motion, in orbit about one another. It is a consequence of Einstein’s field equation that gravitational waves — ripples in the fabric of spacetime — will emanate from the system and carry (positive) energy away from it. In normal circumstances, this energy loss will be very small. For example, the largest such effect in our own solar system arises from the Jupiter–Sun system, and the rate of energy loss is only about that emitted by a 40-watt light bulb!

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From the perspective of Systemic Functional Linguistic Theory, the construal of spacetime as a fabric mistakes circumstance for thing. Spacetime is not a thing, but where things are located.

If gravity is understood as the relative contraction of space intervals, and the relative expansion of time intervals, with proximity to a centre of mass, then gravitational waves are propagations of relatively contracted intervals of space, and relatively expanded intervals of time.