Halliday & Matthiessen (1999: 202):
The sort of strict taxonomy that is typically associated with related series of nominal groups is often a feature of special registers of the language […]. The limiting cases of such taxonomies are those found in the specialised technical registers of science and technology; these include some which are partially or even wholly designed in a conscious exploitation of the grammatical resources involved. The “things” that are construed in this way include the more abstract concepts of a scientific theory, the virtual objects that are postulated to explain the more arcane phenomena that impinge on human experience.