Position Statement
Language transforms
human action and perception. In evolution it gave us unique capacities
for co-action.
This distributed view challenges the assumption that language-behaviour
depends on a language faculty. In such approaches, the ‘use’
of language is assumed to centre on what an individual or brain
allegedly knows. Debate thus pits theories that posit disembodied
cognitivism against ones which, rejecting formalism, invoke
cognitive embodiment.
While one group focus on manipulating and processing forms, the
other traces linguistic knowledge to an embodied mind. In both
cases a single brain or person is the locus of linguistic control.
The distributed language group reject all forms of cognitive
centralism.
Language is distributed.
Given radical heterogeneity, it spreads across bodies in time,
and space. It is merely constrained by the ‘languages’
which the centralist invokes to explain acts of utterance and
interpretations. Thus we prioritise dialogue and how humans behave.
What we do based in biomechanical co-ordination. This is first-order
language or languaging.
During embodied communication and cognition, context is used to
constrain bodily co-ordination. Once skilled with first-order
language, utterances and interpretations can be used to link experience,
events and expectations. Bodies, circumstances and codifications
interact while drawing on a history of speech and writing. Verbal
patterns are thus viewed as second-order
cultural entities. While they resemble material artefacts,
their valued constraints depend on historically-derived norms.
By exploring linguistic
heterogeneity, we aim to transform
the language sciences. We ask how language integrates dynamics
that use biological, lived and historical time. Equally, we ask
how human expression regulates the actions that promote functional
reorganization of the brain. In a biocultural world, we hypothesise,
languaging enables biological
individuals (babies) to self-organize as persons.
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A distributed community
To transform the language sciences,
we need to grow. The community came into being at a 2005 conference
at Sidney Sussex, Cambridge. This focused on cognitive dynamics
and language. Since then, we have recruited 80 odd members who are
distributed across continents and take many views on language, society
and mind. All stress linguistic heterogeneity and, crucially, deny
that language can be described by a single theory. To develop the
position, we have a central
committee who aim to promote empirical, theoretical and practical
work on distributed language. We are an open group who seek to make
connections with others seeking to change how people –not
just academics –think about language.
To participate in our self-organizing
process, we ask you to join the DLG. As a first step, send an e-mail
to Stephen
Cowley.
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Upcoming events:
Distributed thinking III:
A symposium
15-16 July, 2010. Kingston University, Rethinking
problem solving
Building on papers in the special
issue of AI & Society (in press) on ‘Thinking in Action’,
we aim to set up a debate between those who view problem solving
as computation in an abstract problem space and those who regard
it flexible use of neural, bodily and material resources.
Language
as Social Coordination: An Evolutionary Perspective 16-18 September,
2010. Warsaw, Poland
In scrutinizing the view that language arises from human co-action,
the meeting will examine how social coordination has evolved together
with human language. It will examine this with respect to both biological
and cultural time-scales.
Other
events
Cognitive
Dynamics in Linguistic Interactions
17-20 June, 2010
Alex Kravchenko of Baikal National University of Economics and Law
is heading the organizing committee for this international conference.
Taking a holistic view of language, the focus will fall on theoretical
and methodological issues in linguistic education. It will take
place in Irkutsk, Russia.
The
Tenth Annual International Gathering in Biosemiotics 22-27 June
2010
This will take place at the Department at the Faculty of Philosophy
of the Portuguese Catholic University in Braga, Portugal. It is
organised by João Carlos Major in collaboration with the
International Society for Biosemiotic Studies.
Call
for Papers
Also, See Previous
DLG events
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