Halliday's ordered typology of systems
Linguist M. A. K. Halliday proposed an ordered typology of systems to account for different types of complex systems operating in different phenomenal realms.[1][2]
He proposed four types of system, in order of increasing complexity—systems of a higher order encompass systems of a lower order:[3][4]
- Material systems:
- Physical systems: First-order systems, the oldest and widest type of system, having emerged with the Big Bang. They are organized by composition and governed by the laws of physics.
- Biological systems: Second-order systems. They are defined as physical systems plus life, making individuation and evolution possible. They are organized by functional composition (e.g. an organ is a group of tissues serving a similar function).
- Immaterial systems:
- Social systems: Third-order systems. They are biological systems plus social order (or value), organizing biological populations (human or otherwise) into social groups and defining the division of labour among them.
- Semiotic systems: Fourth order systems. They are social systems plus meaning, such as verbal language, gesture, posture, dress, painting, architecture, etc. They further divide into primary semiotic systems, which can only carry meaning, and high-order semiotic systems, which can create meaning.[3][5]
References
- ^ Halliday, M. A. K. (2005). On Grammar (Collected Works of M. A. K. Halliday: Volume 1). Bloomsbury Publishing. ISBN 978-1-4411-2057-1.
- ^ Halliday, M.A.K. (2007-02-17). "On matter and meaning: the two realms of human experience". Linguistics and the Human Sciences. 1 (1). doi:10.1558/lhs.2005.1.1.59. ISSN 1743-1662.
- ^ a b Matthiessen, Christian; Teruya, Kazuhiro; Lam, Marvin (2010-04-29). Key Terms in Systemic Functional Linguistics. A&C Black. ISBN 978-1-84706-440-0.
- ^ Wei, Ruby Rong (2021-08-01). "An interpersonal framework of international ecological discourse". Journal of World Languages. 7 (2): 305–333. doi:10.1515/jwl-2020-0004. ISSN 2169-8260.
- ^ Lin, Kathy Ling; Mwinlaaru, Isaac N.; Tay, Dennis, eds. (2020-12-29). Approaches to Specialized Genres (1 ed.). Routledge. doi:10.4324/9780429053351-3. ISBN 978-0-429-05335-1.