Making Use of Abstract Concepts–Systemic-Functional Linguistics and Ambient Intelligence

Abstract

One of the challenges for ambient intelligence is to embed technical artefacts into human work processes in such a way that they support the sense making processes of human actors instead of placing new burdens upon them. This successful integration requires an operational model of context. Such a model of context is particularly important for disambiguating abstract concepts that have no clear grounding in the material setting of the work process. This paper examines some of the strengths and current limitations in a systemic functional model of context and concludes by suggesting that the notions of instantiation and stratification can be usefully employed.