Epistemological considerations for a linguistics of human interactions

• Grant number: 18/14359-4
• Support Opportunities: Scholarships abroad - Research
• Start date: February 15, 2019
• End date: June 14, 2019
• Field of knowledge: Linguistics, Literature and Arts - Linguistics - Linguistic Theory and Analysis
• Principal Investigator: Evani de Carvalho Viotti
• Grantee: Evani de Carvalho Viotti
• Host Investigator: Salikoko Sangol Mufwene
• Host Institution: Faculdade de Filosofia, Letras e Ciências Humanas (FFLCH). Universidade de São Paulo (USP). São Paulo , SP, Brazil
• Institution abroad: University of Chicago, United States

Abstract

The research outlined here discusses two of the epistemological bases of contemporary linguistics: the notions of linguistic sign and linguistic system. Put forward by Saussure, these notions pertain to the study of the 'langue', or of the linguistic competence, having been taken to be adequate also to the study of speech. But if we broaden the scope of the investigations on speech to encompass all the processes involved in human communicative interactions, we observe certain phenomena which extrapolate the tight limits imposed by the saussurian notions of sign and system, due to their creative, dynamic, and everchanging characteristics. Assuming that language is part of human cognition, this research aims at studying the possibility of integrating the notion of sign proposed by the philosopher Charles S. Peirce, more flexible than that entertained by Saussure, to an understanding of language as a complex system, having for background an interdisciplinary trend in cognitive sciences known as 'situated cognition' or 'enaction'. The expectation is that this new articulation of sign, system, and cognition, more open to the human individuality immersed in dynamic ecologies or sociocultural practices may account for the semiosis which emerge in communicative interactions. (AU)