Friday 9 September 2016

Instantiation As Attributive Relation

each text
belongs to
a register
Carrier: possessed
Process: possession
Attribute: possessor

But the above is incongruent, because instantiation is an intensive — not possessive — attributive relation (Halliday & Matthiessen 1999: 145), as in:

this text
is
a register
Carrier
Process: intensive
Attribute

Note that if we say that this text "instantiates" a register, the relation is not attributive, because it can be reversed to a register is instantiated by this text.

If we say this text is an instance of a register, then the instantial relation is construed by the structure of the nominal group:

this text
is
an instance of a register
Identified / Token
Process: relational
Identifier / Value


an instance of
a
register
Numerative: variety
Deictic
Thing

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