Praxis, symbol and language
Developmental, ecological and linguistic issues
This article focuses on the interweaving of constructive praxis with communication in ontogenesis, in
phylogenesis and in biocultural niche evolution (ecogenesis), within an
EvoDevoSocio framework. I begin by discussing the nature of symbolization, its evolution from
communicative signaling and its elaboration into semantic systems. I distinguish between the symbol-ready and
the language-ready brain, leading to a discussion of linguistic conceptualization and its dual
grounding in organism and language system. There follows an outline account of the interpenetration in the human
biocultural niche-complex of semiosphere and technosphere, mediated by the evolution of the
niche of infancy. Symbolization (the foundation of the semiosphere) is by definition normative; the normative character of the
technosphere is demonstrated by the interrelations in human development between affordance, action schema and canonical
functional object schema. A model of the neuro-computational implementation of dual grounding is proposed.
Article outline
- 1.Introduction
- 2.From communicative signal to representational symbol
- 3.From symbol to system: The emergence of language
- 4.Niche construction: Meaning, materiality and human development
- 5.The ontogenesis of praxic action, imitation and language: Beyond affordance
- 6.Toward a new road map
- Neuro-computational subsystems and their integration
- EcoEvoDevo-Socio: A synoptic view
- Genetics and epigenetics of the language-ready brain
-
Acknowledgements
-
Notes
-
References
References (44)
References
Abouheif, E., Favé, M. -J., Ibarrarán-Viniegra, A. S., Lesoway, M. P., Rafiqi, A. M., Rajakumar, R. (2014) Eco-evo-devo: the time has come. In Landry, C. R. and Aubin-Horth, N. (Eds.) Ecological Genomics: Ecology and the Evolution of Genes and Genomes. New York: Springer 107–25. ![DOI logo](https://benjamins.com/logos/doi-logo.svg)
![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Arbib, M. (2012). How The Brain Got Language: The Mirror System Hypothesis. Oxford: Oxford University Press. ![DOI logo](https://benjamins.com/logos/doi-logo.svg)
![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Arbib, M. A. (2015). Towards a computational comparative neuroprimatology: framing the language-ready brain. Phyics of Life Review. ![DOI logo](https://benjamins.com/logos/doi-logo.svg)
![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Berwick, R. C. and Chomsky, N. (2016). Why Only Us: Language and Evolution. Cambridge, MA. MIT Press. ![DOI logo](https://benjamins.com/logos/doi-logo.svg)
![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Bronfenbrenner, U. (1979). The Ecology of Human Development. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Cheney, D. L. & Seyfarth, R. M. (1981). Selective forces affecting the predator alarm calls of vervet monkeys. Behavior 76, 25–61. ![DOI logo](https://benjamins.com/logos/doi-logo.svg)
![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Clark, H. (1996). Using Language. Cambridge, Cambridge University Press. ![DOI logo](https://benjamins.com/logos/doi-logo.svg)
![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Corballis, M. (2017). Language evolution: A Changing Perspective. Trends in Cognitive Sciences 21, 4. ![DOI logo](https://benjamins.com/logos/doi-logo.svg)
![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Dediu, D. and Levinson, S. C. (2013). On the antiquity of language: the reinterpretation of Neandertal linguistic capacities and its consequences. Frontiers in Psychology 4, 397. ![DOI logo](https://benjamins.com/logos/doi-logo.svg)
![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Enfield, N. (2013). Relationship Thinking: Agency, Enchrony, and Human Sociality. New York. Oxford University Press. ![DOI logo](https://benjamins.com/logos/doi-logo.svg)
![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Fagg, A. H. and Arbib, M. A. (1998). Modelling parietal-premotor interactions in primate control of grasping. Neural Networks 11, 1277–1303. ![DOI logo](https://benjamins.com/logos/doi-logo.svg)
![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Freeman, N., C. Sinha and S. Condliff. (1981) Confrontation and collaboration with young children in language comprehension tasks. In W. P. Robinson (ed.) Communication in Development, 63–88. London, Academic Press. ![DOI logo](https://benjamins.com/logos/doi-logo.svg)
![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Frege, G. (1892). Über Sinn und Bedeuting. Zeitschrift für Philosophie und Philosophische Kritik 100, 25–50.![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Gärdenfors, P. (2014). The Geometry of Meaning: Semantics based on conceptual spaces. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press. ![DOI logo](https://benjamins.com/logos/doi-logo.svg)
![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Gilbert, S. F., Bosch, T. and Ledón-Rettig, C. (2015). Eco-Evo-Devo: developmental symbiosis and developmental plasticity as evolutionary agents. Nature Reviews Genetics 16, 611–622. ![DOI logo](https://benjamins.com/logos/doi-logo.svg)
![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Halina, M., Rossano, F. and Tomasello, M. (2013). The ontogenetic ritualization of bonobo gestures. Animal Cognition 16, 653–666. ![DOI logo](https://benjamins.com/logos/doi-logo.svg)
![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Hauser, M. D. (1996). The Evolution of Communication. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Heine, B. and Kuteva, T. (2007). The Genesis of Grammar: A reconstruction. Oxford: Oxford University Press.![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Henshilwood, C. S. and Dubreuil, B. (2011). The Still Bay and Howieson’s Poort 77–59 ka: Symbolic material culture and the evolution of the mind during the African Middle Stone Age. Current Anthropology 52, 361–402. ![DOI logo](https://benjamins.com/logos/doi-logo.svg)
![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Huxley, J. (1966). A discussion of ritualization of behaviour in animals and man. Phil. Trans. Roy. Soc. London 251, 273–284.![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Jensen de López, K. (2003). Baskets and Body-Parts: a cross-cultural and cross-linguistic investigation of children’s development of spatial cognition and language. PhD dissertation, University of Aarhus.![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Johnson, Mark. (1987). The Body in the Mind: The bodily basis of meaning, imagination and reason. Chicago: University of Chicago Press. ![DOI logo](https://benjamins.com/logos/doi-logo.svg)
![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Joordens, J. C., d’Errico, F., [18 others] & Roebroeks, W. (2014). Homo erectus at Trinil on Java used shells for tool production and engraving. Nature.
.![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Lakoff, G. (1987). Women, Fire and Dangerous Things: What categories tell us about the mind. Chicago: University of Chicago Press. ![DOI logo](https://benjamins.com/logos/doi-logo.svg)
![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Langacker, R. W. (1987). Foundations of Cognitive Grammar Vol. 1, Theoretical Prerequisites. Stanford: Stanford University Press.![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Lock, A. (1980). The Guided Reinvention of Language. London, Academic Press.![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Lotman, Y. (1990). Universe of the mind, in A SemioticTheory of Culture, transl. A. Shukman. New York: I.B.Tauris and Co. Ltd.![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Odling-Smee, F. J. and Laland, K. N. (2009). Cultural niche-construction: evolution’s cradle of language. In R. Botha and C. Knight (eds.) The Prehistory of Language. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 99–112. ![DOI logo](https://benjamins.com/logos/doi-logo.svg)
![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Saussure, F. de. (1966). Cours de Linguistique Générale. New York: McGraw-Hill.![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Sinha, C. (1982) Representational development and the structure of action. In G. Butterworth and P. Light (eds.) Social Cognition: Studies in the Development of Understanding. Brighton, Harvester, pp. 137–162.![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Sinha, C. (1988). Language and Representation: A Socio-Naturalistic Approach to Human Development. Hemel Hempstead, Harvester-Wheatsheaf & New York, New York University Press.![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Sinha, C. (1999) Sinha, C. Grounding, mapping and acts of meaning. In T. Janssen and G. Redeker (eds.) Cognitive Linguistics: Foundations, Scope and Methodology. Berlin, Mouton de Gruyter, pp. 223–255. ![DOI logo](https://benjamins.com/logos/doi-logo.svg)
![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Sinha, C. (2004) The Evolution of Language: From Signals to Symbols to System. In D. Kimbrough Oller and Ulrike Griebel (eds.) Evolution of Communication Systems: A Comparative Approach. Vienna Series in Theoretical Biology. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press, pp. 217–235.![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Sinha, C. (2013). Niche construction, too, unifies praxis and symbolization. Commentary on Michael Arbib: How the brain got language. Language and Cognition 5, 261–271. ![DOI logo](https://benjamins.com/logos/doi-logo.svg)
![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Sinha, C. (2015a). Language and other artifacts: socio-cultural dynamics of niche construction. Frontiers in Psychology (Cognitive Science) 6, 1601. ![DOI logo](https://benjamins.com/logos/doi-logo.svg)
![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Sinha, C. (2015b). Ontogenesis, semiosis and the epigenetic dynamics of biocultural niche construction. Cognitive Development 36, 202–209. ![DOI logo](https://benjamins.com/logos/doi-logo.svg)
![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Sinha, C. and Jensen de López, K. (2000). Language, culture and the embodiment of spatial cognition. Cognitive Linguistics 11, 17–41.![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Slocombe, K. K. E. and Zuberbühler, K. (2005). Functionally referential communication in a chimpanzee. Current Biology 15, 1179–1184. ![DOI logo](https://benjamins.com/logos/doi-logo.svg)
![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Steffensen, S. V. and Pedersen, S. B. (2016). Temporal dynamics in human interaction. Cybernetics and Human Knowing 21, 80–97.![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Tomasello, M. & Call, J. (1997). Primate Cognition. New York: Oxford University Press.![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Trevarthen, C. (2008). The musical art of infant conversation: Narrating in the time of sympathetic experience, without rational interpretation, before words. Musicae Scientiae 12 (Suppl. 1), 15–46. ![DOI logo](https://benjamins.com/logos/doi-logo.svg)
![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Whiten, A., Goodall, J., McGrew, W. C., Nishida, T., Reynolds, V., Sugiyama, Y., Tutin, C. E. G., Wrangham, R. W., Boesch, C. (1999). Cultures and chimpanzees. Nature 399, 682–685. ![DOI logo](https://benjamins.com/logos/doi-logo.svg)
![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Cited by (1)
Cited by one other publication
Moser, Keith
2022.
Edgar Morin’s Complex, “Ecologized” Thought: The Ubiquity of “Informational Capital” on the Battlefield of Life in the COVID-19 Era. In
Contemporary French Environmental Thought in the Post-COVID-19 Era [
Sustainable Development Goals Series, ],
► pp. 65 ff.
![DOI logo](//benjamins.com/logos/doi-logo.svg)
This list is based on CrossRef data as of 19 july 2024. Please note that it may not be complete. Sources presented here have been supplied by the respective publishers.
Any errors therein should be reported to them.