Books by Alexander Kravchenko
ISBN  ñáîðíèê âîøëè ïîëåìè÷åñêèå ñòàòüè ðîññèéñêèõ è çàðóáåaeíûõ ó÷åíûõ, ïîñâÿùåííûå âîïðîñàì ìå... more ISBN  ñáîðíèê âîøëè ïîëåìè÷åñêèå ñòàòüè ðîññèéñêèõ è çàðóáåaeíûõ ó÷åíûõ, ïîñâÿùåííûå âîïðîñàì ìåòîäîëîãèè ñîâðåìåííûõ ëèíãâèñòè÷åñêèõ èññëåäî-âàíèé. Ýòà ìåòîäîëîãèÿ õàðàêòåðèçóåòñÿ îòõîäîì îò îñíîâàííîé íà êàðòåçèàí-ñêîì äóàëèçìå òðàäèöèîííîé ôèëîñîôèè ïîçíàíèÿ è ñâÿçàííîãî ñ íåé îðòî-äîêñàëüíîãî íàïðàâëåíèÿ â òðàäèöèîííîé ëèíãâèñòèêå.  ñòàòüÿõ çàòðàãèâà-þòñÿ âàaeíåéøèå òåîðåòè÷åñêèå âîïðîñû, èìåþùèå ïðèíöèïèàëüíîå çíà÷åíèå äëÿ èññëåäîâàíèé åñòåñòâåííîãî ÿçûêà íà áëèaeàéøóþ è îòäàëåííóþ ïåðñïåê-òèâó.
Инновационный авторский курс предназначен для студентов-лингвистов, обучающихся по программам бак... more Инновационный авторский курс предназначен для студентов-лингвистов, обучающихся по программам бакалавриата и специалитета, и вводит обучающихся в современную проблематику науки о языке в контексте изменяющейся научной парадигмы.
Методологическую основу курса составляет некартезианская конструктивистская эпистемология – системный подход к языку как биологической и когнитивной особенности человека, отличающей его от всех других живых систем и являющейся важнейшим фактором в эволюции Homo sapiens как биологического вида. Предлагаемый подход к языку, его природе и функции является радикальной альтернативой традиционной лингвистической ортодоксии и помогает решить проблемы и преодолеть противоречия, препятствующие эффективности лингвистического образования в школе и вузе.
Книга обобщает итог 30-летних размышлений о положении дел в науке о языке, объединенных общей гла... more Книга обобщает итог 30-летних размышлений о положении дел в науке о языке, объединенных общей главной идеей о несостоятельности общепринятых воззрений на язык и необходимости выработки новой методологии его исследований, соответствующей новой, пока еще формирующейся научной парадигме в области гуманитарных наук. В первой части критически рассматриваются некоторые общие положения традиционной теории, подчеркивается неопределенность предметной области языкознания и указывается на необходимость интегративного подхода к языку как биологической реальности. Вторая часть посвящена методологическим проблемам в существующих подходах к языку и когниции; формулируются новые познавательные установки, исходящие из био-социокультурной сущности языка как когнитивной области взаимодействий, образующей экологическую нишу человека; подчеркивается экологический характер языковых изменений и их влияние на адаптивную функцию социума как живой (когнитивной) системы. В третьей части на примере различных языковых явлений в русском и английском языках показывается биологическая (ориентирующая) функция языка (фактор наблюдателя) и то, как понимание этой функции может способствовать более глубокому пониманию родного языка и эффективному овладению иностранным языком.
Для широкого круга лингвистов, филологов, философов, когнитологов, школьных и вузовских преподавателей русского и английского языка, магистрантов и аспирантов-лингвистов.
This book is an attempt to sum up the author’s reflections, over the past 30 years, on the state of language sciences. The main idea in the focus of these reflections is the untenability of conventional views of language, and the necessity of developing a new methodology for language studies that would be in sync with the new research paradigm in the humanities currently taking shape. In Part One, some general tenets of traditional theory are criticized; indeterminateness of the subject matter of linguistics is emphasized, and arguments are given for an integrational approach to language as a biological reality. Part Two focuses on methodological issues pertaining to the established approaches to language and cognition. New epistemological assumptions are formulated, based on the bio-sociocultural nature of language as a cognitive domain of interactions constitutive of the ecological niche of humans. The ecological nature of linguistic change and its effect on the adaptive function of society as a living (cognitive) system are highlighted. In Part Three, various linguistic phenomena in Russian and English are shown to illustrate the biological (orientational) function of language (the observer phenomenon); understanding this function may lead to new insights on one’s native tongue and considerably facilitate foreign language acquisition.
For linguists, philologists, philosophers, cognitive scientists, school and college teachers of Russian/English, MA and PhD
Сборник включает в себя статьи, посвященные различным аспектам когнитивно-прагматической природы ... more Сборник включает в себя статьи, посвященные различным аспектам когнитивно-прагматической природы языка. В центре внимания -- новый подход к проблеме языкового значения, при котором основной акцент делается на когнитивное содержание языковых единиц.
В сборник вошли статьи, основанные на избранных докладах участников одноименной международной кон... more В сборник вошли статьи, основанные на избранных докладах участников одноименной международной конференции, прошедшей в 2010 г. в Байкальском государственном университете экономики и права. Авторы затрагивают различные аспекты видения языка как особого измерения когнитивной области взаимодействий сложной динамики в контексте проблемы общей методоло-гии языкознания и методики обучения иностранному языку.
Для широкого круга языковедов и философов языка, интересующихся вопросами методологии, теоретическими и прикладными аспектами исследований языка с позиций биологически ориентированной когнитивной науки.
В книге ставится вопрос о необходимости переосмысления традиционных познавательных установок и те... more В книге ставится вопрос о необходимости переосмысления традиционных познавательных установок и теоретических положений науки о языке. Такая необходимость вызвана отсутствием четко сформулированного идеального проекта языкознания, в результате чего образовался разрыв между теорией и теми практическими задачами, которые наука о языке призвана решить в пер-вую очередь. Обосновывается необходимость новой эпистемологической платформы, призванной вывести науки о языке из методологического тупика, и намечается путь, по которому уже началось движение биологически ориен-тированной когнитивной науки.
Для широкого круга языковедов, филологов, философов и методологов науки.
""В монографии рассматриваются актуальные проблемы современной прагматики, связанные с интерпрета... more ""В монографии рассматриваются актуальные проблемы современной прагматики, связанные с интерпретацией эгоцентрических и дейктических явлений в языке. Анализируются характер, место и роль субъективного фактора в интерпретации языкового значения, а также особенности отражения в языке когнитивных процессов.
Рассчитана на специалистов по лингвистической прагматике и общему языкознанию, преподавателей вузов, может быть использована аспирантами и студентами - филологами в качестве учебного пособия.
""
How well does linguistics 'know' language? What are the essential properties of language? Where d... more How well does linguistics 'know' language? What are the essential properties of language? Where do signs come from, and how is knowledge 'represented' in them? These and other related questions are in the focus of discussion in «Sign, Meaning, Knowledge». The book offers a conceptual synthesis of the vast theoretical and empirical data accumulated by the cognitive science. As a result of such synthesis, a unified methodology for treating language as a natural phenomenon is proposed. Taking the semiotic nature of language as a starting point, and drawing on the epistemological framework of autopoiesis as the organization of the living, the author attempts to describe the knowledge-representational function of language as the function of a biological system in its adaptive interactions with the environment. This takes linguistics a step further toward its integration with biology and other natural sciences.
Книга посвящена проблеме когнитивных истоков языковой катего-ризации; в ней рассматривается компл... more Книга посвящена проблеме когнитивных истоков языковой катего-ризации; в ней рассматривается комплекс вопросов, связанных с общей проблемой представления знаний в языке. На конкретном материале показывается феноменологический характер базовых когнитивных структур пространства и времени, участвующих в формировании языковой картины мира. Предлагается когнитивная модель категории вида в русском языке, анализируется эпистемическое соотношение именной и местоименной систем.
В сборник вошли полемические статьи российских и зарубежных ученых, посвященные вопросам методоло... more В сборник вошли полемические статьи российских и зарубежных ученых, посвященные вопросам методологии современных лингвистических исследований. Эта методология характеризуется отходом основанной на картезианском дуализме традиционной философии познания и связанного с нею ортодоксального направления в традиционной лингвистике. В статьях затрагиваются важнейшие теоретические вопросы, имеющие принципиальное значение для исследований естественного языка на ближайшую и отдаленную перспективу.
В сборник вошли статьи российских и зарубежных авторов, содержание которых отображает динамически... more В сборник вошли статьи российских и зарубежных авторов, содержание которых отображает динамические процессы, протекающие в различных об-ластях науки о языке как особой отрасли знания. Предлагаемые авторами подходы и решения дают представление о том, как осмысляются и по-новому интерпретируются те или иные теоретические положения языкознания на фоне происходящего в науке общепарадигмального сдвига.
This volume is a selection of original research papers which reflect the dynamics of changes in the various subfields of language science as a specific knowledge do-main. Approaches and perspectives taken by the authors are indicative of ongoing re-conceptualization and re-interpretation of certain theoretical tenets of mainstream linguistics in the context of the general paradigmatic shift.
Книга представляет собой опыт методологического обобщения накопленных когнитивной наукой данных о... more Книга представляет собой опыт методологического обобщения накопленных когнитивной наукой данных о языке как естественном объектие. Отталкиваясь от знаковой природы языка, автор предпринимает попытку охарактеризовать его функцию по представлению структур знания как функцию биологической системы, служащей адаптации человека к окружающей среде. Тем самым делается шаг к сближению языкознания с естественными науками.
В книге ставится вопрос о необходимости переосмысления некоторых традиционных познавательных уста... more В книге ставится вопрос о необходимости переосмысления некоторых традиционных познавательных установок и теоретических положений науки о языке. Такая необходимость вызвана отсутствием четко сформулированного идеального проекта языкознания, в результате чего образовался разрыв между теорией и теми практическими задачами, которые наука о языке призвана решить в первую очередь. Обосновывается необходимость новой эпистемологической платформы, призванной вывести науки о языке из методологического тупика, и намечается путь, по которому уже началось движение биологически ориентированной когнитивной науки.
This book is an attempt to re-evaluate some basic assumptions about language, communication, and ... more This book is an attempt to re-evaluate some basic assumptions about language, communication, and cognition in the light of the new epistemology of autopoiesis as the theory of the living. Starting with a critique of common myths about language and communication, the author goes on to argue for a new understanding of language and cognition as functional adaptive activities in a consensual domain of interactions. He shows that such understanding is, in fact, what marks a variety of theoretical and empirical frameworks in contemporary non-Cartesian cognitive science; thus, cognitive science is in the process of working out new epistemological foundations for the study of language and cognition. In Part Two, the traditional concept of grammar is reassessed from the vantage point of autopoietic epistemology, and an analysis of specific grammatical phenomena in English and Russian is undertaken, revealing common cognitive mechanisms at work in linguistic categories.
Papers by Alexander Kravchenko
Slovo.ru: Baltic Accent, 2021
The genesis of time is explained in the spirit of constructivism combined with the
activity appr... more The genesis of time is explained in the spirit of constructivism combined with the
activity approach to cognition. The cardinal temporal categories of present, past, and future are discussed in terms of action-thoughts understood as elementary units of activity whose structure is determined by linguistic semiosis. Husserl’s tripartite model of the phenomenology of time (prime perception, retention, protention) is applied to the analysis of the subject’s experience of his actions. It is demonstrated that, while our lived present is composed of the actually performed actions, our past and future are constructed by reflexive action-thoughts in the cognitive domain of language. It is emphasized that the construction of a temporal sequence that unites what is and what already or still is not, is possible only in linguistic semiosis. The analogy with Husserl’s tripartite structure of the time-consciousness flow helps elucidate the triad ‘present-past-future’ as an instance of the epistemological trap of language: ‘past’ and ‘future’ are mental constructs that belong to the present just as any other act of thinking.
Linguistic Frontiers, 2024
Linguistic denotation is discussed as an epistemological issue that arises from the philosophy of... more Linguistic denotation is discussed as an epistemological issue that arises from the philosophy of external realism and the reification of language as a communication tool. Together, these serve as a foundation for viewing language as a sign system used for knowledge representation, when denotation is seen as the semantic property of linguistic signs-indication or reference to something, such as a thing (event, process, activity) or a concept. However, since neither the concept of sign in semiotics nor the concept of knowledge in philosophy (let alone the concept of concept itself) has a uniformly accepted informative definition, the concept of denotation, viewed by many as an implied semantic property of the linguistic sign, is highly controversial. It is argued that the reification of linguistic signs is a poor starting point in our attempts to understand language, not as a tool in the service of the mind, but as a mode of existence of humans in the world as an image of language.
Language Sciences, 2024
The article argues for a necessity to increase human awareness of language as functional biologic... more The article argues for a necessity to increase human awareness of language as functional biological behavior rather than simply a tool in the service of communication, by emphasizing the difference between talk and text as ontologically different semiotic phenomena characteristic of the human cognitive domain. The established tradition to view written words as linguistic signs leads the studies of natural language astray, effectively hiding its nature as biologically functional orientational behavior in a consensual domain that evolved with the evolution of our species and was not a cultural invention. Because of the identification of text with talk in linguistic semiotics, the empirical validity of the core semiotic concept of natural linguistic sign, based on the so-called semiotic triangle, is undermined. While talk is a dynamic fact of nature, text is a static artifact; it is argued, therefore, that the analytical approach to linguistic signs as objects in the world is inadequate, and the notions of first-and second-order semiotics are introduced. It is concluded that awareness of the cognitivesemiotic difference between talk and text and their respective roles in the evolution of humans may facilitate further research into the nature and origin of humanness.
Язык: мультидисциплинарность научного знания, 2024
Теоретически несостоятельная и эмпирически неадекватная кодовая модель языковой коммуникации пред... more Теоретически несостоятельная и эмпирически неадекватная кодовая модель языковой коммуникации предопределяет парадоксальную ситуацию в образовании, когда учебный предмет «русский язык» становится одним из самых трудных в школьной программе, а решаемая им дидактическая задача расплывчата и туманна. Гипостазирование языковых знаков в самостоятельно существующие объекты-контейнеры, содержащие значения, мотивирует так называемый морфемный анализ – разложение слов на составные части (морфемы) с присущими им «квантами» значения, при этом образовательная цель такого «анализа» не ясна, а его когнитивная ценность ничтожна, поскольку морфемный анализ никак не соотносится с повседневной языковой практикой.
The theoretically untenable and empirically inadequate code model of linguistic communication predetermines the paradoxical situation in education, when the Russian language, as a school subject, becomes one of the hardest in the school curriculum, while the didactic goal it aims to achieve is vague and indeterminate. The hypostatization of linguistic signs into autonomous container-like objects with meanings as their contents motivates the so-called morphemic analysis – the breaking down of words into their components (morphemes) that possess specific «quanta» of meaning, while the educational purpose of such an “analysis” is unclear, and its cognitive value is negligible, because morphemic analysis does not relate to the practice of living in language.
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Books by Alexander Kravchenko
Методологическую основу курса составляет некартезианская конструктивистская эпистемология – системный подход к языку как биологической и когнитивной особенности человека, отличающей его от всех других живых систем и являющейся важнейшим фактором в эволюции Homo sapiens как биологического вида. Предлагаемый подход к языку, его природе и функции является радикальной альтернативой традиционной лингвистической ортодоксии и помогает решить проблемы и преодолеть противоречия, препятствующие эффективности лингвистического образования в школе и вузе.
Для широкого круга лингвистов, филологов, философов, когнитологов, школьных и вузовских преподавателей русского и английского языка, магистрантов и аспирантов-лингвистов.
This book is an attempt to sum up the author’s reflections, over the past 30 years, on the state of language sciences. The main idea in the focus of these reflections is the untenability of conventional views of language, and the necessity of developing a new methodology for language studies that would be in sync with the new research paradigm in the humanities currently taking shape. In Part One, some general tenets of traditional theory are criticized; indeterminateness of the subject matter of linguistics is emphasized, and arguments are given for an integrational approach to language as a biological reality. Part Two focuses on methodological issues pertaining to the established approaches to language and cognition. New epistemological assumptions are formulated, based on the bio-sociocultural nature of language as a cognitive domain of interactions constitutive of the ecological niche of humans. The ecological nature of linguistic change and its effect on the adaptive function of society as a living (cognitive) system are highlighted. In Part Three, various linguistic phenomena in Russian and English are shown to illustrate the biological (orientational) function of language (the observer phenomenon); understanding this function may lead to new insights on one’s native tongue and considerably facilitate foreign language acquisition.
For linguists, philologists, philosophers, cognitive scientists, school and college teachers of Russian/English, MA and PhD
Для широкого круга языковедов и философов языка, интересующихся вопросами методологии, теоретическими и прикладными аспектами исследований языка с позиций биологически ориентированной когнитивной науки.
Для широкого круга языковедов, филологов, философов и методологов науки.
Рассчитана на специалистов по лингвистической прагматике и общему языкознанию, преподавателей вузов, может быть использована аспирантами и студентами - филологами в качестве учебного пособия.
""
This volume is a selection of original research papers which reflect the dynamics of changes in the various subfields of language science as a specific knowledge do-main. Approaches and perspectives taken by the authors are indicative of ongoing re-conceptualization and re-interpretation of certain theoretical tenets of mainstream linguistics in the context of the general paradigmatic shift.
Papers by Alexander Kravchenko
activity approach to cognition. The cardinal temporal categories of present, past, and future are discussed in terms of action-thoughts understood as elementary units of activity whose structure is determined by linguistic semiosis. Husserl’s tripartite model of the phenomenology of time (prime perception, retention, protention) is applied to the analysis of the subject’s experience of his actions. It is demonstrated that, while our lived present is composed of the actually performed actions, our past and future are constructed by reflexive action-thoughts in the cognitive domain of language. It is emphasized that the construction of a temporal sequence that unites what is and what already or still is not, is possible only in linguistic semiosis. The analogy with Husserl’s tripartite structure of the time-consciousness flow helps elucidate the triad ‘present-past-future’ as an instance of the epistemological trap of language: ‘past’ and ‘future’ are mental constructs that belong to the present just as any other act of thinking.
The theoretically untenable and empirically inadequate code model of linguistic communication predetermines the paradoxical situation in education, when the Russian language, as a school subject, becomes one of the hardest in the school curriculum, while the didactic goal it aims to achieve is vague and indeterminate. The hypostatization of linguistic signs into autonomous container-like objects with meanings as their contents motivates the so-called morphemic analysis – the breaking down of words into their components (morphemes) that possess specific «quanta» of meaning, while the educational purpose of such an “analysis” is unclear, and its cognitive value is negligible, because morphemic analysis does not relate to the practice of living in language.
Методологическую основу курса составляет некартезианская конструктивистская эпистемология – системный подход к языку как биологической и когнитивной особенности человека, отличающей его от всех других живых систем и являющейся важнейшим фактором в эволюции Homo sapiens как биологического вида. Предлагаемый подход к языку, его природе и функции является радикальной альтернативой традиционной лингвистической ортодоксии и помогает решить проблемы и преодолеть противоречия, препятствующие эффективности лингвистического образования в школе и вузе.
Для широкого круга лингвистов, филологов, философов, когнитологов, школьных и вузовских преподавателей русского и английского языка, магистрантов и аспирантов-лингвистов.
This book is an attempt to sum up the author’s reflections, over the past 30 years, on the state of language sciences. The main idea in the focus of these reflections is the untenability of conventional views of language, and the necessity of developing a new methodology for language studies that would be in sync with the new research paradigm in the humanities currently taking shape. In Part One, some general tenets of traditional theory are criticized; indeterminateness of the subject matter of linguistics is emphasized, and arguments are given for an integrational approach to language as a biological reality. Part Two focuses on methodological issues pertaining to the established approaches to language and cognition. New epistemological assumptions are formulated, based on the bio-sociocultural nature of language as a cognitive domain of interactions constitutive of the ecological niche of humans. The ecological nature of linguistic change and its effect on the adaptive function of society as a living (cognitive) system are highlighted. In Part Three, various linguistic phenomena in Russian and English are shown to illustrate the biological (orientational) function of language (the observer phenomenon); understanding this function may lead to new insights on one’s native tongue and considerably facilitate foreign language acquisition.
For linguists, philologists, philosophers, cognitive scientists, school and college teachers of Russian/English, MA and PhD
Для широкого круга языковедов и философов языка, интересующихся вопросами методологии, теоретическими и прикладными аспектами исследований языка с позиций биологически ориентированной когнитивной науки.
Для широкого круга языковедов, филологов, философов и методологов науки.
Рассчитана на специалистов по лингвистической прагматике и общему языкознанию, преподавателей вузов, может быть использована аспирантами и студентами - филологами в качестве учебного пособия.
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This volume is a selection of original research papers which reflect the dynamics of changes in the various subfields of language science as a specific knowledge do-main. Approaches and perspectives taken by the authors are indicative of ongoing re-conceptualization and re-interpretation of certain theoretical tenets of mainstream linguistics in the context of the general paradigmatic shift.
activity approach to cognition. The cardinal temporal categories of present, past, and future are discussed in terms of action-thoughts understood as elementary units of activity whose structure is determined by linguistic semiosis. Husserl’s tripartite model of the phenomenology of time (prime perception, retention, protention) is applied to the analysis of the subject’s experience of his actions. It is demonstrated that, while our lived present is composed of the actually performed actions, our past and future are constructed by reflexive action-thoughts in the cognitive domain of language. It is emphasized that the construction of a temporal sequence that unites what is and what already or still is not, is possible only in linguistic semiosis. The analogy with Husserl’s tripartite structure of the time-consciousness flow helps elucidate the triad ‘present-past-future’ as an instance of the epistemological trap of language: ‘past’ and ‘future’ are mental constructs that belong to the present just as any other act of thinking.
The theoretically untenable and empirically inadequate code model of linguistic communication predetermines the paradoxical situation in education, when the Russian language, as a school subject, becomes one of the hardest in the school curriculum, while the didactic goal it aims to achieve is vague and indeterminate. The hypostatization of linguistic signs into autonomous container-like objects with meanings as their contents motivates the so-called morphemic analysis – the breaking down of words into their components (morphemes) that possess specific «quanta» of meaning, while the educational purpose of such an “analysis” is unclear, and its cognitive value is negligible, because morphemic analysis does not relate to the practice of living in language.
The article continues the discussion of the name as an “innate linguistic property”, started by Alexei Koshelev in a previous issue of this journal, and is of a polemical nature. Subscribing to most of Koshelev’s important observations and inferences regarding the dynamics of infants’ development, I question his main and, seemingly, paradoxical conclusion about the innate character of names as linguistic properties of objects and argue that such a conclusion is inevitable in the framework of the dualist Cartesian philosophy with its rationalist epistemology still dominant in academia. As an alternative, and a way to avoid such paradoxes, I argue for a different kind of epistemology based on radical constructivist philosophy as its theoretical foundation, particularly H. Maturana’s biology of cognition and biology of language. A constructivist, systems approach to the issue of the relationship between cognition and language, or “objectivity with parentheses”, opens a new perspective on the nature of concepts and the role of language in their formation, leaving no room for the idea of presumed innateness of names.
The insolvability of the core problem of linguistic meaning is put down to the legacy of dualist philosophy that defines the initial epistemological assumptions, therefore the semiotic problem of the triad “sign – meaning/reference – sense” is discussed as a methodological problem caused by philosophy of external realism and the representational theory of cognition based on it. The view of linguistic signs as some external objects with specific properties, that is, their reification – a distinctive feature of Frege’s logical construals as a philosophical foundation of semiotic analysis, along with the deeply entrenched erroneous view of the nature and function of language as a communication tool rather than the mode of existence of humans as living (cognitive) systems, impedes scientific explanation of both language and linguistic signs. As an alternative, the core problem of semiotics is approached within the framework of constructivist epistemology that allows us to resolve the contradictions in the objectivist interpretation and explanation of sign, meaning, and sense which are viewed as emergent phenomena. A constructivist approach allows for a new understanding of the nature of meaning and sense as a synthesis of systemic and individual cognitive processes “grasped” by the word and constituting the basis of human cognition.
теллект как разумная способность: наша человечность покоится в языке как созидающем начале мира, в котором мы существуем как языковые организмы.
The article invites the reader to ponder the question of what impedes further development of the language science which continues to be in a state of stagnant crisis. This crisis, it is argued, is caused by the inadequate methodology used in linguistic research that defines the paradigm of so-called “normal” science which suppresses innovation. Dualistic philosophy of external realism continues to be the epistemological foundation of “normal” linguistics, and neither mainstream cognitive science in general, nor cognitive linguistics in particular has been able to break away from it. Arguments are given for a new, constructivist epistemology capable of overcoming the crisis and giving a new impetus to further development of the language science. This calls for abandoning the traditional view of language as a tool used for the expression and transfer of thoughts; instead, researchers should use a systems approach to linguistic semiosis as a biological adaptation which is the organizational basis of humans as living systems at both individual and social levels. Viewing linguistic semiosis as an evolutionary stage in the development of the species Homo sapiens, along with establishing the functional role of linguistic semiosis in the systemic cognition of humans as a socially organized living system whose unity is ensured and sustained by its circular (self-referential) organization in the relational domain of languaging, of necessity calls for a radical revision of the extant views on the relationship between language and mind, language and cognition, and language and consciousness. An ecological approach to language assumes that the cognitive dynamics of humans as living systems consists in the adaptive interactional behavior in the relational domain of linguistic interactions; this relational domain constitutes the ecological niche of humans as organism-environment systems. It is in this continuously self-constructed human niche that the uniquely human power to reason (intelligence) emerges and develops: our humanness rests in language as the creative beginning of the world in which we exist as talking organisms
nature of language should not be absolutized but seen rather as depending on the overlap between the first-order and the second-order consensual
domains as the sources of experience.
The theoretically untenable and empirically inadequate code model of linguistic communication predetermines the paradoxical situation in education, when the Russian language, as a school subject, becomes one of the hardest in the school curriculum, while the didactic goal it aims to achieve is vague and indeterminate. The hypostatization of linguistic signs into autonomous container-like objects with meanings as their contents motivates the so-called morphemic analysis – the breaking down of words into their components (morphemes) that possess specific “quanta” of meaning, while the educational purpose of such an “analysis” is unclear, and its cognitive value is negligible, because morphemic analysis does not relate to the practice of living in language.
In this research we focus on basic concepts of present, past and future. We interpret these fundamental categories in terms of action-thoughts, understood as elementary units of activity as well as of actional thinking and imagination. Action-thoughts conceptualize the fundamental unity of thinking and activity postulated by the champions of action-based approach in psychology, from Vygotsky and Rubinstein to today’s enactivism. Action-thoughts both bring forth and represent actions and are also evoked in their covert rehearsal. The action-thought is an instrumentum studorium, which enables us to view from common perspective the phenomenology of the present as well as the enactment of past and future.
We argue that the temporal reality of an acting agent is sustained by the experiential flow of ‘absorbed activity’. An action being an indivisible unit of activity is thus also a unit of ‘actional’ time. A flow of time is thus constructed of and through actions. This experiential time is determined by the rhythm of activity, whereas ‘objective’ time measurements appear as external constraints (such as deadlines) and can even be viewed as foreign intrusions.
Both past and future are consciously and reflectively constructed in the plane of the lived present and make sense only in this plane. Past is re-presented by action-thoughts which abstract some part of our present and re-focus our attention on its experience. Future is also an action-thought, and it takes this abstraction even further to the new levels of reflection, so that it becomes yet a new modulation of our experience of the present. This experience changes the way we live and act and it modulates our cognitive living. If past builds up on attentional re-focalizations, future is constructed through focalizations of another kind, allowing for an increased sense of relevance and actuality. In fact, both past and future are merely abstractions from the present.
It is emphasized that the construction of temporal sequences is possible only in linguistic semiosis, and the triad ‘present-past-future’ is an instance of the ‘epistemological trap of language’: past and future are mental constructs that belong to the present just as any other act of thinking.
References
1. Bedny, G., Karwowski, A. A. (2007). Systemic-structural theory of activity. Boca Raton, FL: Taylor & Francis
2. Melser, D. (2004). The act of thinking. Cambridge, MA & London, England: MIT Press
3. Jeannerod, M. (1999). To act or not to act: Perspectives on the representation of actions. The 25th Bartlett lecture. The Quarterly Journal Of Experimental Psychology, 52A (1), 1-29
4. Simsky, A. (2018) Action-thoughts as a foundation of mental work. Voprosy Kulturologii, 8, 28-40 (part 1); 9, 29-41 (part 2), in Russian
5. Simsky, A. (2021) Action-thought as a Synergy and Hierarchy. Diogenes’ Lantern. The Human Being in Diversity of Practice. International Anthropological Journal, No 5-6, p. 202-242.
6. Simsky, A., Kravchenko, A. V., Druzhinin, A. S. (2021) Action-thoughts and the Genesis of Time in Linguistic Semiosis. Slovo.ru. baltic accent, Vol. 12, No. 2, p. 7-28.
7. Thompson, E. (2007) Mind in life. Biology, phenomenology and the sciences of mind. Cambridge, MA & London, England: Harvard University Press
While basing my approach on the thesis that "semiosis is a central concept for biology that requires a more exact definition" (Kull et al. 2009: 171), I am going to argue that the direction taken by Barbieri is based on an epistemic fallacy rooted in the language myth and follows the objectivist path to reification of sign relationships, with the expected result of giving a vitalistic explanation. I will further show that such terms as genetic code, organic code, code biology, codepoiesis etc. are metaphors provoked by a misunderstanding of the nature and function of language (cf. Raczaszek-Leonardi et al. 2018); this misunderstanding keeps us in the epistemological trap of language.
I will conclude by emphasizing that genetic code is not language, and just as understanding language and its function cannot fully explain the phenomenon of ‘humanness’, neither can our understanding of genetic control explain life.
Ключевые слова: деятельность, язык, сенсорный подъязык, функциональный подъязык, прототип, функция, базовый концепт, развитый концепт, языковой онтогенез, антропогенез.
The new linguistic theory developed by Alexei Koshelev is described and evaluated in view of the paradigm shift from analysis to synthesis that begins to show in contemporary cognitive science and calls for interdisciplinary approaches to language studies.
Keywords: activity, language, sensory sublanguage, functional sublanguage, prototype, function, basic concept, developed concept, language ontogeny, anthropogeny.
Languaging and Eco-civilizations: Towards Consilience with the Life Sciences
University of Southern Denmark (Odense Campus)
12th to 15th of August 2019
The conference aims to bring about consilience (a bringing forth of new knowledge) that can unite those who acknowledge human responsibility for the well-being of the living world. Accordingly, we aim to connect ecolinguists with work in fields that include bio-ethics, ecocriticism, biosemiotics, economics and the environmental sciences.
WHAT IS WRONG WITH LINGUISTICS AS A SCIENCE?
The deep crisis the science of linguistics is currently going through has been to a large extent provoked by the traditional semiotic approach to language as a tool. Such an approach places language outside the biological organization of humans and engenders the "language-mind" dichotomy characteristic of philosophy of language and mainstream cognitive science. A systems approach to the study of our species leaves no room for such a dichotomy. As a functional biological feature of humans, linguistic behavior-contextually driven interactive semiotic behavior of living organisms-is constitutive of the system "human organism-environment" as a unity. Linguistic semiosis is a biological adaptation that sets humans apart from the rest of the living world as linguistic organisms capable of operating on first-order abstractions in coordinations of their interactive behavior. It is hypothesized that the emergence of this ability was a pivotal point in the evolution of the human brain, laying the basis for abstract thought as neuronal processes that led to the emergence of second-order consensuality and language as behavior in this consensual domain: the merging of cognition as a biological function with language as a biological adaptation marked the beginning of the ontogenesis of Homo sapiens.
The article addresses the issue of the lasting methodological crisis in linguistics which, as a science, lacks a clearly formulated research project. Absence of a unified methodology accounts for the fuzziness of the subject matter of linguistics and prevents any pointed discussion of the function of language as a kind of species-specific, biologically grounded, socially informed interactional activity. A way out of the methodological dead-end that would allow linguists to develop a synthetic theory is seen in viewing individual human organisms and human society as living systems whose organization is based in embodied orientational interactions ― that is, natural language.