Sunday 8 October 2017

Fawcett's Introduction Of The Term 'Instance'

Fawcett (2010: 36n):
In the past SF linguists have usually referred to instances as "instantiations". But since we need the term "instantiation" to refer to the relationship between the 'potential' and the 'instances' that it generates, as here, it is preferable to use a different term for the 'product' of the 'process' of instantiation. Hence my introduction here of the term "instance". Note that some SF linguists (e.g., Matthiessen & Bateman 1991) have used the term "actualisation" in place of "instantiation". One reason for preferring "instantiation"' to "actualisation" is the fact that English has the corresponding noun "instance", which can be used to distinguish the 'product' from the 'process'. It is this pair of terms, then, that is used in the present theory.

Blogger Comments:

This is misleading.  The term 'instance' was "introduced" in Categories Of The Theory Of Grammar (Halliday 1961: passim), and many subsequent publications, such as Halliday (1978 [1974]: 40), Halliday (1977: 54) and Halliday (1987:152).

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