The Direction Of Coding In SFL Theorising

Matthiessen (1995: 306):

Intensive clauses play an important role in linguistic theory because they allow us to construe various relationships that are fundamental in semiotic systems. For instance, identifying intensive clauses can construe realisation — the relationship between SIGNIFIED (Value) and SIGNIFIER (Token). See Figure 4-29 and note that the direction is from the signifier to the signified — the interpretive direction in linguistic theorising.

Blogger Comments:

To be clear, the direction from Token to Value is decoding (Halliday & Matthiessen 2014: 280) and this applies to theorising in which lower levels of abstraction, e.g. forms, are decoded by reference to higher levels of abstraction, e.g. meanings.

Theorising in SFL, however, proceeds in the opposite direction: higher levels of abstraction, e.g. meanings, are encoded by reference to lower levels of abstraction, e.g. forms. That is, in SFL Theory, the question is not 'what do these forms mean?' but 'how are these meanings expressed?'. Halliday (1985 & 1994: xiv):