The Thoughts Of Russell In Systemic Functional Linguistics

Russell (1961: 627):

If it were held that thought and perception consist of a relation between subject and object, it would be possible to identify the mind with the subject, and to maintain that there is nothing 'in' the mind, but only objects 'before' it.

Blogger Comments:

In terms of Systemic Functional Linguistic Theory, 'thought' and 'perception' are reifications of mental processes of cognition and perception.

Here these reified mental processes are construed as an intensive attributive relation between subject/mind and object, such that objects are members of the class 'before the subject/mind':

objects	are	‘before’ the subject/mind
Carrier	Process: relational	circumstantial Attribute
Medium		Range: location

Through the lens of Systemic Functional Linguistic Theory, mental processes of perception project first-order phenomena, and mental processes of cognition project second-order phenomena (metaphenomena).

subjects	perceive	objects
Senser	Process: mental: perception	Phenomenon
Medium		Range

subjects	think	ideas
Senser	Process: mental: cognition	Phenomenon: metaphenomenon
Medium		Range

Phenomena are themselves construals of experience as meaning; that is: semiotic values mentally assigned to experiential tokens.

subjects	construe	experience	as	meaning
Assigner	Process: relational	Identified/Token		Identifier/Value
Agent		Medium		Range

As this analysis shows, the construal of experience as meaning is the mental assignment of identifying relations that decode experience by reference to meaning.