Un análisis en torno al enfoque biosemiótico del lenguaje: aportes al estudio de las especificidades cognitivas de la escritura

María Fissore

doi:10.56294/sctconf202385

Conference abstract

Published: 2023-04-19

DOI: https://doi.org/10.56294/sctconf202385

An analysis of the biosemiotic approach to language: contributions to the study of cognitive specificities of writing

Abstract

Traditionally, the idea has been extended that language is an exclusive faculty of human animals configured in an innate way (Chomsky, 2011). However, alternative research pathways have been developed: biosemiotics, a field of interdisciplinary studies that combines semiotic investigations of theoretical linguistics with studies in biological sciences, investigates sign processes in living systems beyond human language, considering that "the production, exchange, and interpretation of signs are constitutive of life" (Hoffmeyer, 2010, p. 368); its goal is to explain how the interaction between body, cognition, and environment produces signs, messages, thoughts, and, at more complex levels, cultural behaviors (Danesi, 2001). Human language is then understood as a subset of sign-based behaviors and, therefore, inheriting all those semiotic properties that occur in different spheres of life, which means thinking of language as actions "actually instantiated at all points" (Favareau and Kull, 2015). In contrast, from the Chomskyan approach, language is a mere code of thought; in this sense, any process of externalization is secondary. As evident, written language is reduced to another mode of externalization. In turn, the idea that writing is merely a graphic device to transcribe speech has historically been established in both linguistics and philosophy (e.g., Aristotle, trans. 2000; Saussure, 1916). This led most models to focus on oral language and its acquisition. Therefore, the aim of this work is to evaluate the conceptual contributions of the biosemiotic project to the study of the cognitive particularities of written language and the epistemological implications of assuming continuity between human language and the sign systems of other living organisms.

Keywords:

Language,

Biosemiotics,

Cognition,

Writing,

How to Cite

Fissore M. An analysis of the biosemiotic approach to language: contributions to the study of cognitive specificities of writing. Salud, Ciencia y Tecnología - Serie de Conferencias [Internet]. 2023 Apr. 19 [cited 2024 Jul. 5];2:85. Available from: https://conferencias.saludcyt.ar/index.php/sctconf/article/view/85

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The article is distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License. Unless otherwise stated, associated published material is distributed under the same licence.

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IV Jornadas de Fundamentos y Aplicaciones de la Interdisciplina (JFAI2023)

Vol. 2 (2023)

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