The Semogenetic Mechanism Of Relational Processes From The Perspective Of Semiotic Modes

In SFL,relational processes(RPs)are part of experiential grammar,and one of the six major process types in the transitivity system.RPs construe human experience as static relations,and they are not only a domain of construal but also a particular angle of vision.The static relations construed by RPs can be divided into two modes—identifying and attributive processes.Or they can be alternatively classified into three types—intensive,possessive and circumstantial processes.To date,there remains the problem of lacking a scientific modeling of the relationship between the two modes given the fact that whatever grammatical form may be taken,every RP in real-time language activities can be interpreted both as identifying processes and as attributive processes.Moreover,the interpretation is also determined by situational variations.This issue is therefore the focus of this study.The hypothesis is that the relationship between the two modes of RPs results from the integration of evolutionary phases.The alternation of semiotic modes in different evolutionary phases leads to the heterogeneity of RPs in the language system.The dissertation is outlined as follows:Firstly,it introduces the research background,purpose,data collection,methodology and the organization of the dissertation.Then it reviews the status quo of the relevant researches.The studies on RPs so far can adopt two strategies:the formal perspective and the constructional perspective.The latter can be further classified into functional,cognitive and functional-cognitive approaches.Some researches see the duality of the two modes of RPs as an intrinsic characteristic of language,some attribute it to the hybridity of language,some explain it as the result of the permeability of language,and some offer a mechanistic explanation of grammatical metaphors.However,since the duality results from the integration of evolutionary phases of RPs,the structuralistc view of language as static cannot satisfactorily explain the dynamic process of language evolution.Secondly,this study constructs a dynamic analytic framework on the basis of the modifications of the semogenesis theory in SFL.Interactions among patterns on the three timescales in semogenesis,i.e.phylogenesis,ontogenesis and logogenesis,constitute the mechanistic explanation of the evolution of RPs.Since the foundation of semogenesis is regarding language as a dynamic open system and logogenesis is defined as the unfolding processes of texts,there appears an explanatory tension between logonenesis and the other two semohistories.For this reason,this study replaces logogenesis by microgenesis.Meanwhile,regarding language as a dynamic open system also presupposes semiotic alternation as the mechanism of language evolution.Thirdly,in line with the evolutionary trajectory of RPs,this dissertation chooses child language,adult language and scientific language,representing the three evolutionary phases of language.Then the exploration is made of the semiotic modes in them.In the analysis of child language,this study illustrates by exemplification that there are three stages of the development of RPs in child language—multimodal perceptual RPs,class-membership RPs and identity RPs.As separate evolutionary phases,they are discrete categories.In the discussion of adult language,through the multimodal analysis of the interactions among processes on microgenetic,ontogenetic and phylogenetic timescales,this study proves the cause-and-effect relationship between the typology of RPs and the integration among processes on different timescales,which involves both individual interpretive flexibility and socio-cultural normativity.In the investigation of scientific language,through the analysis of scientific discourses,this study depicts the two stages of the evolution of RPs.The first stage is only quantitatively different from adult language,which can be modeled as the increase of grammatical reactance and the change of semiotic mode from topology to typology.The second stage is qualitatively different.At this stage,RPs become part of the syndrome of grammatical metaphors.Consequently,the semiotic mode changes from typology to topology.This study brings out the following major findings:Firstly,it argues that the particular way of construal of RPs results from multiple times of alternation of the semiotic mode in different evolutionary phases.And the evolutionary trajectory of RPs heads towards situational transcendence.The three phases of the evolution of RPs can be further specified into six sub-phases.Altogether the semiotic mode undergoes alternations four times.Secondly,in child language,the evolution of RPs can be generalized as the process towards the independence from the here-and-now.After birth,children interact with their surroundings through the mother-child dyad,which makes RPs at this stage multimodal.The RPs now are differentiative tools for infants to specify the surrounding environment.Such RPs are of the perceptual type.They are usually in one-word form,facilitating children’s constru ction of redundancy relations between perceptual stimuli and conceptual categories.At this stage,RPs are completely confined to the here-and-now environment.It is through the mother-child dyad that a complete interactive loop is constructed.Next emerges classmembership RPs.The conceptual categories formed at the previous stage are further generalized,connecting redundantly with linguistic categories.The generalized conceptual categories are more abstract and independent from the immediate environment.The third,and the latest,type of RPs is identity RPs,which define linguistic categories according to socio-cultural patterns.Consequently,they meta-redound with class-membership RPs.Compared with the other two types,identity RPs are the most detached from the here-andnow environment.As three evolutionary stages,the three types of RPs are discrete and typological.Thirdly,in adult language,taking a language stance results in a further independence from the here-and-now.RPs become part of second-order socio-cultural patterns,and are stored as knowledge at the population level,passing from generation to generation.However,RPs used in real-time interactions are the results of the interactions among processes on different timescales.They are affected by second-order lexicogrammatical patterns,autobiographic experiences of using RPs in similar types of situations and the microgenetic purpose of resolving local modal frictions.RPs are the re-envoicement of processes on different timescales.Based on different ways of overcoming local modal frictions in different types of situations,the use of RPs by interactants is not choices in the pre-given systems,but a dynamic adaptive process to affordances in which second-order lexicogrammatical patterns are applied innovatively as tools.In this way,every RP in adult language is both an identifying and an attributive process,which makes the semiotic mode topologic.Fourthly,in scientific language,RPs are comparatively the most detached from the hereand-now environment,which results from the technical world constructed by scientific language.The need for logical deductions makes RPs deductive tools.There are altogether four types of such tools—exhaustive identification,exemplifying identification,classifying attribution and descriptive attribution.Exhaustive identification is a tool for the adjustment of the one-to-one relationship between semiotic entities;exemplifying identification is a tool for the adjustment of the one-to-many relationship between semiotic entities:classifying attribution is a tool for the lowering of the degree of generality of semiotic entities;descriptive attribution is a tool for the increasing of the degree of generality of semiotic entities.Therefore,due to the particular meaning-making pressure in scientific language,RPs manifest typological characteristics.Then,the emergence of grammatical metaphor leads to a further evolution of RPs,making them part of the syndrome of grammatical metaphors.Accordingly,semantic junction process changes the semiotic mode again from typology to topology.This study is significant in many aspects:Firstly,it expounds the particular way of construal of RPs from the perspective of semogenesis.In SFL,RPs are usually defined as construing static relations.Through the dynamic description based on language evolution,this study proves the heterogeneity of the construal of RPs,which is the integration of topological and typological modes of semiosis.Secondly,this study proves the applicability and necessity of constructing the descriptive model of language from the perspective of language evolution.Despite decades of the theoretical development of semogenesis,it remains a theoretical claim.The modifications made in this dissertation can be applied in other researches,hence making semogenesis a more applicable explanatory framework.Last but not least,this dissertation is an example treating language as a dynamic open system.Although this significant feature of language has long been acknowledged in SFL,it is not effectively taken as part of descriptive and explanatory frameworks of language.This study is an attempt along this line.