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Biosemiotic Perspectives on Language and Linguistics pp 1–10Cite as

Language, Linguistics: Life, Biosemiotics…

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Part of the book series: Biosemiotics ((BSEM,volume 13))

Abstract

Since mostly human modes of action take on a symbolic aspect, and since there are many semiotic (meaning making) systems without any symbolic signs, the application of purely linguistic models in biology is mostly incongruent. However, there exist many common features between human language and other (non-human) sign systems, and even the developed linguistic universe remains internally connected to pre-linguistic expressive forms. Therefore, at least this role of biosemiotic phenomena and processes in the functioning of human language is worth paying attention to, as manifested by the contributions to this volume.

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Notes

  1. 1.

    Cf. Cowley 2012.

  2. 2.

    Favareau 2012.

  3. 3.

    Cf. Kull 1999b, p. 125.

  4. 4.

    Cf. also Kull et al. 2009, p. 171 about biosemiotics aiming at general semiotics.

  5. 5.

    Cf. the following observation of one of the participants of our project: “Linguists attending the biosemiotic Gatherings conferences always run the risk of being perceived as naïve or uninformed about the many layers of language and communication that the inadequate abstractions in the field of linguistics cannot address” (Augustyn 2012, p. 185).

  6. 6.

    Cf. Velmezova 2014.

  7. 7.

    English edition Berg 1969.

  8. 8.

    Cf. also Sériot 2014; Velmezova 2007.

  9. 9.

    Cf. also Auroux (ed.), 2007.

  10. 10.

    Jakobson 1971; Marcus 1974; Pattee 1972, etc.

  11. 11.

    Hoffmeyer 2008, pp. 360–364; cf. also Markoš and Faltýnek 2011.

  12. 12.

    Cf. Kravchenko 2013.

  13. 13.

    Waddington 1972, p. 289.

  14. 14.

    Pattee 1977.

  15. 15.

    Florkin 1974, p. 14.

  16. 16.

    The conference was organised by three research groups, starting to work in the direction of establishing connections between biology and semiotics. They were from St. Petersburg (leaded by Sergei Chebanov), Moscow (Alexander Levich, Alexei Sharov), and Tartu (Kalevi Kull with colleagues) (cf. Kull 1999b, p. 122).

  17. 17.

    Cf. for instance Ivanov 1978; articles on these problems in Minc (ed.), 1983, etc.

  18. 18.

    Cf. a review about the history of zoosemiotics in Maran et al. (eds.), 2011.

  19. 19.

    Sebeok and Umiker-Sebeok (eds.),1992; Hoffmeyer 1993 [1996]; for reviews of this tendency cf. Favareau 2010a; Kull 1999a.

  20. 20.

    Cf. in particular Deacon 1997. It corresponds to Th.A. Sebeok ’s usage of the term language as referring to the sign system which is almost uniquely human.

  21. 21.

    Hoffmeyer 2008, p. 274.

  22. 22.

    Some earlier works on the relations between linguistics and biosemiotics were reviewed in the anthologies on biosemiotics (Favareau [ed.], 2010) and zoosemiotics (Maran et al. [eds.], 2011). In addition, we may mention the work, e.g., by Alexander Kravchenko (2006 and 2013), Terrence Deacon (2003), Stephen Cowley (2006), etc.

  23. 23.

    Let us specify from the very beginning that some theses discussed in the contributions of this volume, or conclusions to which their authors come, were not always shared by the three editors of the book (whose views also sometimes diverged). We also gave (relatively) free hand to our authors as to their own right for spelling the words and terms with non-established orthography (Umwelt or umwelt? etc.), for putting (or not) into References works which they only mention (without quoting) in their contributions, etc. Likewise, each author could choose either British or American spelling for her/his contribution; among other things, this allowed us to avoid potential inconsistencies in quotations, etc.

  24. 24.

    Berwick and Chomsky 2011; Di Sciullo and Boeckx (eds.), 2011.

  25. 25.

    Asked about the definitions (“biolinguistics is the study of biological preconditions of language; biosemiotics is the study of pre-linguistic sign systems”), one of the current leaders in the field of biolinguistics, Cedric Boeckx, responded with the following: “Regarding your definitions, they seem fine to me, as far as definitions are concerned, and I believe the two fields have lots to teach to one another” (letter from Cedric Boeckx to Kalevi Kull [July 19 2013]). Cf. also Cowley 2006 about the differences between biosemiotic and biolinguistic approaches.

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Acknowledgements

We would like to thank all participants of this project. Kalevi Kull’s research has been supported by the European Union through the European Regional Development Fund, grant IUT2-44.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Semiotics, University of Tartu, Tartu, Estonia

    Kalevi Kull

  2. Centre for Linguistics and Language Sciences / Department of Slavic and South Asian Studies, University of Lausanne, Lausanne, Switzerland

    Ekaterina Velmezova

Authors
  1. Kalevi Kull
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  2. Ekaterina Velmezova
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Correspondence to Kalevi Kull .

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. Slavic and South Asian Studies, University of Lausanne, Lausanne, Switzerland

    Ekaterina Velmezova

  2. Professor in biosemiotics, University of Tartu, Tartu, Estonia

    Kalevi Kull

  3. Dept. of Language and Communication, University of Southern Denmark, Slagelse, Denmark

    Stephen J. Cowley

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Kull, K., Velmezova, E. (2015). Language, Linguistics: Life, Biosemiotics…. In: Velmezova, E., Kull, K., Cowley, S. (eds) Biosemiotic Perspectives on Language and Linguistics. Biosemiotics, vol 13. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-20663-9_1

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