Cline of instantiation

A cline of instantiation is a concept in systemic functional linguistics theory.

Alongside stratification and metafunction, it is one of the global semiotic dimensions that define the organization of language in context.

[1][need quotation to verify] According to Michael Halliday, instantiation is "the relation between an instance and the system that lies behind it".

[3] The notion of "cline of instantiation" reconciles the distinction between "langue" and "parole", made by Ferdinand de Saussure—a separation adapted by Noam Chomsky, who reconceptualized "langue" and "parole" from social constructs (language as collective) to the individual psychological constructs of "competence" and "performance" (language as genetic).

Halliday suggests that this dichotomy has done considerable harm to linguistics as a discipline.