System in Systemic Functional Linguistics - A System-based Theory of Language - Christian M.I.M. Matthiessen
The System as a Fractal Principle: The System in Relation to Other Dimensions of Organization
System in Systemic Functional Linguistics - A System-based Theory of Language - Christian M.I.M. Matthiessen
Christian M.I.M. Matthiessen [+]
University of International Business and Economics (UIBE), Beijing
Description
In the previous chapter, I traced ‘system’ in the ontogenesis of language – its emergence as young children learn how to mean as they construct protolanguages in interaction with members of their immediate meaning group, and then make the transition to the mother tongue (or tongues) spoken by these members. In this chapter, I examine the system as a principle of organization in relation to the other dimensions that make up the organization of language in context, starting with the hierarchy of stratification. While the hierarchies of axiality and stratification are fused in protolanguage, they are separated in the transition to the mother tongue, so the question arises if the axial organization is the same within all strata. I suggest that it is: all strata can be interpreted, represented and described by means system networks although they have not yet been explored to the same extent as the best-described stratum, lexicogrammar, in any language. I illustrate the description of content plane systems within language, semantics and lexicogrammar, and of expression plane systems, phonology and phonetics. The language used for illustration is English, but also Akan and Chinese. Along the way, I touch on central systemic topics: double agnation, systemic fractals, metaphor, the lexicogrammatical continuum, semantic composition. After the sweep through linguistic system networks, I turn to system networks “outside” languages, starting with contextual system networks.