Wednesday 6 May 2015

Fundamental Semantic Motif: Meaning As Expansion

Halliday & Matthiessen (1999: 222): 
The first of these is meaning as expansion: the way regions of semantic space are opened up and defined by the three vectors of elaboration, extension and enhancement — elaborating a region that is already as it were staked out, extending the region’s boundaries to take in more, and enhancing the region’s potential by enrichment from its environment.