Consistency as Contextual Fit in Meaning-Making
Consistent meaning-making is meaning-making that fits — that coheres within the context of other meaning-making. Each metafunctional dimension brings its own type of fit, its own kind of consistency:
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Experiential consistency is about construals of experience fitting with other construals of experience. It concerns whether the ways experience is represented hold together across time and context.
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Logical consistency is about logical relations among construals of experience fitting with other logical relations. It concerns the systematicity of reasoning: how well inferential or implicational links hold across a network of meanings.
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Interpersonal consistency is about evaluative stances — valuings of construals of experience — fitting with other such valuings. It concerns the coherence of attitudes and judgements over time, across contexts and interlocutors.
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Textual consistency is about patterns of salience — what is made prominent or backgrounded — fitting with other such patterns. It concerns the coherence of attentional framing: how relevance is construed across texts or episodes of semiosis.
Each dimension of meaning-making provides a context for interpreting the others. Consistency is not about mechanical repetition, but about meaningful alignment — about how each act of semiosis harmonises with the broader symphony of meaning in which it participates.