Halliday & Matthiessen (1999: 18):
semogenic
processes:
|
‘provides
environment for’ ð
|
||
|
phylogenetic
(evolution of the system
in the
species)
|
ontogenetic
(development of the system
in the
individual)
|
logogenetic
(instantiation of the system
in the
text)
|
|
ï ‘provides material for’
|
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As the [leftward] pointing arrow suggests, the individual’s (transfinite) meaning potential is constructed out of (finite) instances of text; the (transfinite) meaning potential of the species is constructed out of (finite) instances of individual ‘meaners’. Following the [rightward] arrow, the system of the language (the meaning potential of the species) provides the environment in which the individual’s meaning emerges; the meaning potential of the individual provides the environment within which the meaning of the text emerges.