Treść książki
Przejdź do opcji czytnikaPrzejdź do nawigacjiPrzejdź do informacjiPrzejdź do stopki
Structure,Function,System,andStrata
(c)Theformerincorporateobservablesounds(whicharethoughtofasbeing“substantive”),
whereasthelatterarekindsofmeaning(felttobeintangible,transient,andmysterious).
(d)Butthe“formal”elementsaresubstantiveonlymetaphorically.Phonological,lexical,and
grammaticalstructuresconsistinpatternsofprocessingactivity,justlikemeaningsdo.
Iwilltalkaboutsemanticfunctionsandthestructuralimplementation
ofsemanticfunctionsvialexiconandgrammar.Tat’sthestandardwayof
talking,andIcan’treallyavoidit.Youshouldnonethelessbeawarethat
everything,includinggrammar,isactivity.Semanticactivityandfunctionis
justanaspectofgrammaticalactivityandfunction.
Butwhataboutthissecondfactor,configurationofpartsandtheirsta-
blearrangement?Well,thatalsoinvolvesspatialmetaphorifyouapplyitto
language.Wecanmakesenseofitwiththemetaphoricalmappingslisted
in(3).Metaphorically,wecantalkaboutastructureofanysizethatcon-
sistsinorganizedactivity.Apatternofactivitycanbestableinthesenseof
being“entrenched”andabletorecur:it’sanestablishedprocessingroutine,
orwhatIcallaunit.Andtosomeextentapatterncanbedecomposedinto
subpatternswhicharelikepartswithinawhole.Tesepartsareconnected
invariousways:viaassociation,temporalsequencing,partialoverlap.Tese
arekindsofconnections.Andastructure’sconfigurationconsistsinthese
connections.Conversely,itsplacewithinaconfiguration(itsconnections
withothersubpatterns)definesthefunctionofagivenpart.Sothat’show
Iunderstandthings,andifunderstoodinthisway,structurevs.functionis
reallyjustamatterofperspective.Tesearenotseparatethings,it’samatter
ofperspectiveonthesameconfigurations.Ifwefullydescribestructuresat
alllevels,weareimplicitlydescribingfunctions:we’redescribinglower-level
structures,andwe’redescribinghowtheymapontoaspectsofhigher-level
structures,andthisamountstocharacterizingthefunctions.
(3)Metaphoricalmappingsfromspatialconfigurationtolinguisticstructureandfunction:
(a)Astructureofanysizeconsistsinorganizedactivity.
(b)Apatternofactivitycanbestableinthesenseofbeing“entrenched”andabletorecur:
anestablishedprocessingroutine(aunit,inCGterms).
(c)Tosomeextentapatterndecomposesintosubpatterns–partswithinthewhole.
(d)Thesepartsareconnectedinvariousways(e.g.association,temporalsequencing,
partialoverlap).Astructure’sconfigurationconsistsintheseconnections.
(e)Conversely,itsplacewithintheconfiguration(itsconnectionswithothersubpatterns)
definesthefunctionofagivenpart.
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