22 The Semiotic Fold: From Phenomenon to Metaphenomenon

(Post 22 in “Reflexive Matter: Relational Ontology and the Physics of Meaning”)

We have argued that there are no unconstrued phenomena — that every ‘thing’ we experience is already shaped by the way it is construed. But what happens when construal turns back upon itself? What happens when we construe the fact of construal?

This reflexive operation is not secondary. It is foundational to the evolution of meaning. It is how we move from phenomena to metaphenomena.

From First-Order to Second-Order Meaning

Let us revisit a simple distinction. A phenomenon is a construed experience — not a brute fact, but a semiotic event, shaped by the values, perspectives, and affordances of the system that enacts it. Phenomena are the basic elements of meaning.

But once a system develops the capacity to reflect on its own construals, it can begin to form second-order construals — that is, construals of construals. These second-order meanings are metaphenomena.

Language is the primary medium for this folding. When we describe, interpret, or critique our own meaning-making, we are not simply producing more meanings. We are engaging in meta-semiotic work — reorganising the field of meaning itself.

The Fold Is Not a Mirror

This reflexive move is not a duplication, nor a representational mirror. It is a transformation of relational space. To fold is not to copy; it is to create new dimensions of coherence.

A metaphenomenon is not simply a model of a phenomenon. It is a cut that reshapes the conditions of possible construal. It alters the system’s own phase space — expanding, contracting, or reorganising what counts as meaningful.

Thus, metaphenomena are not derivative. They are ontologically generative: they remake the field of potential that they reflect upon.

Meaning Evolves Through Reflexivity

This brings us to a powerful insight: meaning evolves through recursive construal. Not because higher-order construals are more accurate, but because they enable new forms of relational coherence.

The history of science, the development of ethics, the formation of social imaginaries — all of these are trajectories of metaphenomenal elaboration. They are folds upon folds, in which systems become capable of reconfiguring their own horizon of sense.

Meaning, then, is not just what is conveyed. It is what construal makes possible — and each act of meta-construal shifts the very topology of that possibility.