We emphasise first-order
language. Instead of hypothesising that we know or use language-systems,
we regard verbal patterns as constraints on real-time action.
We have the following interests:
1. Distributed language
and implications for cognition;
a. We aim to reconceptualise
how cognition contributes to language (and vice versa). Currently,
the distributed view focuses on the events of language acquisition
and in considering links between first-order language and the
linguistics of languages. We are interested in the rise and maintenence
of linguistic diversity.
b. A distributed view of language has major implications for human
cognition. Some focus on distributed thinking; elsewhere our ideas
play out in ecological psychology, the one-system perspective
to mind, and in a biosemiotic psycholinguistics.
2. Simulations and
robotics;
a. Rather as cognitive
centralists model language with computer programmes, robotics
is central to distributed language. Several members work on synthetic
models of various kinds. They work in areas as far apart as (1)
the evolution of language (2) how experience of language and interaction
reshape robot control functions; (3) how android interfaces impact
on human expression; and (4) using social robots to investigate
human co-action.
3. Language in human
practice;
a. The DLG ims
to develop the practical implications of our position. We are
developing a tool box for applying analyses of first-order language
to professional practice. This is soon to be extended to work
in medical environments. Later, we hope it will extend to other
settings (including schools).
4. Science and humanities:
the contact zone.
a. Above and beyond
empirical questions about language and cognition, our work has
implications for a range of disciplines. We hope that a distributed
view on language can have a part in reshaping relations between
the language sciences and the humanities. This is of central concern
to Nigel Love, Talbot Taylor and Paul Hopper.
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