From Meaning to Matter, Part 4: Implications for Thought and Construal

Having traced the genealogy from Systemic Functional Linguistics to physics and articulated a relational ontology, we now turn to its implications for how we think, construe, and understand reality.

The central insight is that construal is constitutive of reality. In SFL, meaning is not a passive reflection but an active actualisation of potential. Extended into a relational ontology, this implies that our perception, cognition, and symbolic activity are part of the same network of actualising potential that gives rise to phenomena in physics, social systems, and collective symbolic formations.

Key implications:

1. Perspective shapes reality
   Every act of construal — whether linguistic, cognitive, or practical — represents a perspectival cut into structured potential. Reality is not fully given independently of this cut; it emerges relationally through the choices and alignments we enact.

2. Thought as relational practice
   Thinking is not merely an internal process; it is an engagement with the evolving network of possibility. By attending to relations rather than things, we can trace how potentials are constrained, actualised, and aligned across contexts.

3. Bridging domains
   The same relational logic links quantum events, social interactions, and symbolic systems. Understanding this allows us to move seamlessly between domains — from the microphysical to the symbolic — while maintaining conceptual coherence.

4. Construal and innovation
   By foregrounding potential and relationality, this ontology highlights opportunities for novel configurations. Creativity, problem-solving, and social innovation all emerge as actualisations of potentialities, guided by relational alignment rather than pre-existing substances.

In summary, the From Meaning to Matter series shows that SFL’s categories — systems, instantiation, and clause complexes — do more than illuminate language. When extended, they provide a unified framework for understanding reality itself as the evolution of possibility, guiding both how we think and how we act.

The next series, Ontologies in Action, will explore how these insights translate into practical, observable interventions across education, social coordination, ethics, and beyond, connecting theory to lived reality.