The Spacetime Curvature Of Gravitation Viewed Through Systemic Functional Linguistics

Penrose (2004: 459):

Gravitation [in Einstein’s model] is not to be regarded as a force; for, to an observer who is falling freely (such as our astronaut A), there is no gravitational force to be felt. Instead, gravitation manifests itself in the form of spacetime curvature.

Blogger Comments:

From the perspective of Systemic Functional Linguistic Theory, it is not spacetime (circumstance) that is curved, but the trajectory (process) of an orbiting body through spacetime. The curvature of the trajectory is due to the contraction of space intervals in the direction of the centre of mass, since this means that the geodesic, the shortest path between two points in three-dimensional space, is biased towards the centre of mass, relative to other directions.