Abstract
I use biological simplexity to argue that, since the natural world repeats tricks such as emotion, inhibition, or anticipation, language can emerge from coordinated embodiment. In exemplifying the claim, I show how, in both face-to-face dialogue and text messaging, felt experience is yoked to verbal patterning. Language activity is multi-scalar, individual, and collective: people mesh vocal, manual, and gestural techniques with embodied coordination. People gain cognitive skills that link historically derived patterns with how, as vertebrates, they mesh perception with action (in perçaction). This view applies to evolution, know-how, and individual-collective agency: as people draw on the logic shown in the Taiji Yin-Yang emblem, they use language to change the bio-ecology (plant-animal-human-cultural formations) as cultural products transform terrestrial life. It is concluded that recognition of the simplex nature of language can help linguists and semioticians play a major part in reducing the degradation of the living world.
Original language | English |
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Journal | Chinese Semiotic Studies |
Volume | 12 |
Issue number | 1 |
Pages (from-to) | 67-91 |
ISSN | 2198-9613 |
DOIs | |
Publication status | Published - 2016 |
Keywords
- bio-ecology
- embodied coordination
- evolution
- linguistic embodiment
- linguistic symbiosis