Reflection on the Borders of Language and Speech in Light of Discoveries in Zoosemiotics
Reflection on the Borders of Language and Speech in Light of Discoveries in Zoosemiotics
Author(s): Tomasz NowakContributor(s): Dmitry KOZHEVNIKOV (Translator)
Subject(s): Language studies, Semiotics / Semiology, Theoretical Linguistics, Applied Linguistics, Comparative Linguistics
Published by: Wydawnictwo Uniwersytetu Śląskiego
Keywords: boundaries of language and speech; language universals; biolinguistics; zoosemiotics
Summary/Abstract: The main problem I address in this article are the boundaries of language and speech, established jointly by social sciences, humanities, mathematics, and life sciences, in particular by what is a merger of semiotics and biology, that is, biosemiotics. I advance a thesis according to which biocommunication skills of both human and non-human animals are divided by a chasm that is simultaneously quantitative and qualitative, where: phylogenetic (pre-)adaptations and ontological (pre-)dispositions of human and non-human animals are on the one hand communicatively discrete, while on the other, cognitively and behaviourly, continual. Based on the results of empirical studies which I quote and upon which I comment, it stands to reason that there exist the biocommunication features which are inherently human.
Journal: ZOOPHILOLOGICA. Polish Journal of Animal Studies
- Issue Year: 2021
- Issue No: 7
- Page Range: 1-53
- Page Count: 53
- Language: English
