Symbolization as such is a vital prerequisite for power formation. Language – and not by any means only the theoretical language of science – has 'dispositional concepts', such as strength, ability, potential, ready for this purpose. Such expressions hide the fact that power is a modalization of communicative processes because they combine the expression of possibility with an attribution of power to the power-holder. In this function they are parts of the power-code itself.

DEFINE: Explains how dispositional concepts like 'strength' and 'potential' function as modalizations that attribute power while obscuring its communicative-process origin.

Niklas Luhmann, Trust and Power, loc. 638