Rethinking linguistic foundations: languaging in the praxis of living

This paper sides with so-called radical or distributed approaches, which build on a critique of some of the core assumptions of Saussurean linguistics. In advancing the criticism, the paper makes a case for questioning Saussure’s assumption that language use is pre-reflective while practical activities, such as playing chess, are not and therefore that language is somehow distinct from socio-practical activity more generally. The paper critically considers the assumed difference between language and practice (in this case, chess) in the context of Saussure’s work. It takes on Saussure’s view of language as fundamentally human and epistemically prior to practical dealings. Drawing on Dreyfus and Dreyfus’s model of skill acquisition, it then discusses the role of explicit instructions and explanations that enable intuitive expertise, or simply: absorbed coping. It is argued that while granting that language shapes practical activity, Dreyfus and Dreyfus’s account also takes language and practical activity to be fundamentally different. Following up on this point, the paper evokes reference to Maturana’s account on languaging as a radical counterpoint, showing how it considers explanations as part of how agents actively constitute their existence through languaging activity, but also that languaging is related to our praxis of living more generally.