*Types of Instantiation: Towards a Systemic Model of Meaning Emergence*

The Instantiation of Meaning in Consciousness

Semiotic systems construe experience as meaning. But what brings meaning into being? In this post, I explore how meaning is instantiated — how meaning potential is actualised as meaning instances — and how this process is mediated by the symbolic activity of consciousness. My focus is on the Systemic Functional Linguistics (SFL) model of meaning, which assumes a strong semiotic ontology: reality is meaning, and all meaning arises within and through semiotic systems.

Meaning does not pre-exist its construal. Experience is not yet meaning; it is what is construed as meaning. Semiotic systems transform experience into structured meaning potential, which can then be instantiated as meaning instances through the symbolic processes of consciousness.

These processes of instantiation occur in two broad modes: internally, through mental processes, and externally, through verbal processes. Mental processes include processes of perception, emotion, desideration, and cognition. Verbal processes, by contrast, make public what would otherwise remain internal: they externalise symbolic activity in the form of language.

SFL distinguishes between two orders of meaning:

• First-order meaning: the construal of experience as meaning — what SFL calls phenomena.

• Second-order meaning: the construal of meaning itself — what SFL calls metaphenomena.

Mental processes of perception and emotion instantiate first-order meaning. That is, they construe experience directly as meaning — the phenomenal world as felt and sensed. In contrast, mental processes of desideration and cognition, and verbal processes, instantiate second-order meaning. They do this through projection: they project one meaning as the content of another, giving rise to metaphenomena — meanings about meanings.

This capacity for projection is central. It allows consciousness not only to construe the world, but also to reflect on its construals — to think, want, and speak about meanings. In SFL, projected meaning falls into two broad interpersonal types:

• Propositions: projected by cognitive processes; these align with modalisation, representing what is known or thought.

• Proposals: projected by desiderative processes; these align with modulation, representing what is wanted or demanded.

Verbal processes externalise these projections as locutions — wordings that may realise propositions or proposals. In this way, verbal processes allow the internal activity of consciousness to be shared and negotiated interpersonally. They instantiate not only individual meaning, but also intersubjective, socially organised meaning.

To summarise:

• Meaning arises through the construal of experience by semiotic systems.

• Meaning potential is instantiated by symbolic processes of consciousness.

• Mental processes instantiate meaning internally, verbal processes instantiate it externally.

• Emotion and perception instantiate first-order meaning (phenomena).

• Cognition, desideration, and verbal processes instantiate second-order meaning (metaphenomena) through projection.

• Verbal processes realise these projections as locutions — interpersonal meaning made shareable.

This framework provides a basis for a systematic model of instantiation — one that accounts for how meaning arises not only in language, but also in consciousness more broadly. Future posts will explore types of instantiation in greater depth, including the role of individuation and the unfolding of meaning over time.