ABSTRACT
Because SFL is particularly concerned with describing the relationship between language and social context, the kinds of questions it asks about scientific language tend to focus on the relationship between the language system and broader questions of human semiosis. Of special interest is the relationship between the forms of language used in science and the forms of knowledge construed/construable by that language. In other words, SFL has attempted to map out the meaning potential of scientific discourse, and how it varies from other specialist forms of language as well as from everyday, non-specialist language. Such explorations allow us to understand the functionality of scientific language: how it allows us to know things that were previously unknowable, and to de things (through technology) that were previously undoable. It gives us a better understanding of what is required in order to learn and control scientific knowledge. A clear understanding of the functionality of scientific language also allows us to question what scientific discourse does not do-the kinds of meanings it leaves out, or deals with inefficiently, and the kind of language users it excludes.
