Monday 23 October 2017

The Laws Of Physics Through Systemic Functional Linguistics [2]

Gribbin (1989: 348):
This is hardly likely to be a chance occurrence and must mean that the laws of physics somehow require the Universe to be born out of the Big Bang in a state of extreme flatness.

Blogger Comment:

From the perspective of Systemic Functional Linguistic theory, this:
  1. confuses meaning of the first-order (the Universe) with meaning of the second-order (laws of physics);
  2. by the word 'require', misconstrues the laws of physics as modulation (obligation/inclination) instead of modalisation (probability/usuality); and
  3. proposes that the second-order (theory) requires something of the first-order (data), which is equivalent to proposing that a map requires something of the landscape it models.


modulation: obligation
modalisation: probability
2nd-order meaning
theory
'map'

Laws of Physics
according to SFL
1st-order meaning
data
'landscape'
Laws of Physics
according to Gribbin

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