%0 Journal Article %A Thibault, Paul J. %T Selves, interactive representations and context: A systemic functional linguistic account of process in language and world %D 2021 %J Language, Context and Text %V 3 %N 1 %P 33-92 %@ 2589-7233 %R https://doi.org/10.1075/langct.00032.thi %K metafunction %K interactivity %K affordance %K representation %K process ontology %K anticipatory dynamics %K systemic functional linguistics %K functional constraint %K functional individual %K self %I John Benjamins %X Abstract

In this paper, I re-examine the notion of ‘clause-as-representation’ in Michael Halliday’s systemic functional theory of language. I argue that ‘representation’ is a mode of linguistic action that cannot be understood in terms of the experiential metafunction alone. Instead, a theoretical account of representation must be undertaken in relation to all the metafunctions. Rejecting encodingist accounts of representation, I develop the argument that representations are interactively constituted and emergent in languaging activity. The paper develops these arguments in relation to a process ontological account of the relations between language and the world-side phenomena that language represents. Language does not encode actualities. The future-oriented, anticipatory character of languaging is fundamentally modal in character. A co-articulated self-utterance-situation matrix never attains full actuality. The virtual potentialities of languaging always have the potential for further individuation. %U https://www.jbe-platform.com/content/journals/10.1075/langct.00032.thi