Signs, Mind, and Reality
A theory of language as the folk model of the world
1st Edition
Published on 6. April 2006
XXVII, 315 pages
978-90-272-8342-9 (ISBN)
Description
The book presents a new science of semiotic linguistics. The goal of semiotic linguistics is to discover what characterizes language as an intermediary between the mind and reality so that language creates the picture of reality we perceive. The cornerstone of semiotic linguistics is the discovery and resolution of language antinomies -contradictions between two apparently reasonable principles or laws. Language antinomies constitute the essence of language, and hence must be studied from both linguistic and philosophical points of view. The basic language antinomy which underlies all other antinomies is the antinomy between meaning and information. Both generative and classical linguistic theories are unaware of the need to distinguish between meaning and information. By confounding these notions they are unable to discover language antinomies and confine their research to naturalistic description of superficial language phenomena rather than the quest for the essence of language.(Series A)
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Content
- Signs, Mind, and Reality
- Editorial page
- Title page
- Copyright page
- Table of contents
- Preface
- Chapter 1. The Science of Semiotic Linguistics
- 1.1 The confusion of language and logic in modern linguistics
- 1.2 The place of Semiotic Linguistics among other semiotic disciplines
- 1.3 Language defined
- 1.4 Grammar and semantics
- 1.5 Transfer Principle
- 1.6 Genotype grammar and phenotype grammar
- 1.7 The organization of Semiotic Linguistics
- 1.8 Research Program for Semiotic Linguistics
- 1.9 Anomalies, antinomies, and concepts of Semiotic Linguistics
- Chapter 2. Language as a Phenomenon of the Social Mind
- 2.1 Facts of the social mind
- 2.2 Indepen dence of language from psychology
- 2.3 Independence of language from biology
- 2.4 Methodological fallacy of reductionism
- 2.5 Language versus knowledge of language
- 2.6 Language-thought and the method of the distinction of language from thou ght
- 2.7 Semiotic versus objectivist view of language
- 2.8 Language as a theoretical construct and language universals
- 2.9 Semiotic universals as genetic factors
- 2.9.1 Communicative function of language
- 2.9.2 Subjectivity
- 2.9.3 Polarity of persons
- 2.9.4 Complementary duality of society-individua l
- 2.9.5 Arbitrariness and conventionality of the sign
- 2.9.6 Ego-coordinates
- 2.9.7 Fundamental linguistic classes
- 2.9.8 Distributive and integrative relations
- Chapter 3. The Linguistic Sign
- 3.1 Sign and meaning defined
- 3.1.1 Sign
- 3.1.2 Meaning
- 3.1.3 Field
- 3.1.4 Assignment of attributes to sign and meaning
- 3.1.5 Conventionality of the sign-meaning relation
- 3.1.6 Meaning and referent
- 3.1.7 Meaning and information
- 3.2 Critique of Saussure's concept of the linguistic sign
- 3.3 Critique of Peirce's conception of semiotics
- Chapter 4. The Anomalies of Categorization and the Principle of Differences
- 4.1 Anomalies of categorization
- 4.2 Arbitrariness and conventionality of the linguistic sign
- 4.3 Principle of Differences and the Concept of Value
- 4.4 Explaining the anomaly of meaning by the Principle of Differences
- 4.4.1 Anomalies of meaning
- 4.4.2 Semiotic identities and semiotic differences
- 4.4.3 Semiotic identities and semiotic differences in phonology
- 4.5 Principle of Duality of Categorization, and value and worth classes of signs and meanings
- 4.6 Critique of Saussure's conception of the arbitrariness of the sign
- 4.7 Homonymy
- 4.8 Principle of Phonological Differences and Principle of Phonological Duality of Categorization
- 4.9 The significance of the Principle of Differences
- 4.9.1 Principle of Differences as the cornerstone of linguistic analysis
- 4.9.2 Philosophical implications of the Principle of Differences
- 4.9.3 Principle of Differences and cognition
- 4.10 Disassociation of the sign-meaning bond in modern linguistics
- 4.10.1 Generative semantics
- 4.10.2 Generative phonology
- 4.10.3 The confusion of the functional and physical aspects of the concept of phoneme in violation of the Principle of the Duality of Categorization
- Chapter 5. Linguistic Structure
- 5.1 Principle of the Contrast of Structural and Lexical Signs
- 5.2 Syntactic and paradigmatic meanings
- 5.3 Antinomies between lexical and structural meanings
- 5.4 Grammatical structure
- 5.4.1 Contensive autonomous words and their structures
- 5.4.2 The structure of the word combination
- 5.4.3 The structure of the syllable
- 5.5 The concept of the structural class
- 5.5.1 Fusion of meanings and structural series
- 5.5.2 Meaning of structural classes
- 5.5.3 Structural class defined
- 5.5.4 Structural classes and the Proportionality Law
- 5.6 Extending the Principle of Differences to cover the structural sign series
- 5.6.1 Generalized Principle of Differences
- 5.6.2 Extension of the diagnostic cases for homonymy
- 5.7 The lexicon
- 5.8 Grammar
- 5.9 Law of Autonomy of Grammar from the Lexicon
- 5.10 Semiotic Typology of Languages
- 5.10.1 Typology of signs
- 5.10.2 Sign-based typology of languages
- 5.10.3 Law of the Syntactic Field as the foundation of linguistic typology
- 5.11 Confusion of structural and lexical meanings in modern linguistics
- 5.11.1 Agentivity
- 5.11.2 Agentivity in ergative languages
- Chapter 6. The Theory of Superposition
- 6.1 Meaning and information
- 6.2 Worth- and value-changing contexts
- 6.3 Primary and secondary functions of a sign and the notion of the field
- 6.3.1 Synonymy and polysemy
- 6.3.2 Spurious polysemy
- 6.3.3 Syntactic superposition
- 6.3.4 Syntactic and non-syntactic contexts
- 6.3.5 Superposition in phonology
- 6.3.6 Variants and alternants
- 6.3.7 The notion of the field of a sign
- 6.4 Principle of Superposition
- 6.5 Stability and flexibility of language
- 6.6 Law of Sign-Function Correspondence
- 6.7 Hierarchy of sign functions and the Range-Content Law
- 6.8 Basic and derived words as primary and secondary forms of the word
- 6.9 Antinomies of structural and logical meaning explained by superposition
- 6.9.1 Antinomies of word classification
- 6.9.2 Antinomy of transitivity
- 6.10 Confusion of linguistic and logical analysis of meaning
- 6.11 Superposition in diachrony: Principle of Diachronic Differentiation
- 6.11.1 Structural meaning shift
- 6.11.2 Lexical meaning shift
- 6.11.3 Phonological shift
- 6.12 The theory of synonymy as part of the theory of superposition
- 6.13 A historical note
- Chapter 7. Methodological Interlude
- 7.1 Dimensions of a theory
- 7.1.1 Research program
- 7.1.2 Principles and laws
- 7.1.3 Conceptual framework
- 7.1.4 Analogical modeling
- 7.1.5 Mathematical modeling
- 7.2 The nature of abstraction
- 7.3 Examples of semiotic abstraction
- 7.3.1 Communicative and informational dimensions of language
- 7.3.2 Abstraction from sound to phoneme
- 7.3.3 The concept of phoneme
- 7.3.4 Are segmental phonemes a fiction?
- 7.4 Dialectics and Complementarity Principle
- 7.5 Empirical and conceptual problems in linguistics
- 7.6 What must count as discovery in theoretical linguistics
- 7.7 The pitfalls of formal models of language
- 7.8 Critique of Hjelmslev's notion of linguistic reality
- Chapter 8. The Word and Word Classes
- 8.1 Difficulties with defining the word
- 8.2 Defining the word
- 8.2.1 Word defined
- 8.2.2 Lexeme
- 8.2.3 Autonomous and non-autonomous words
- 8.2.4 Independent and dependent contensive autonomous words
- 8.2.5 Modifiers and relators
- 8.2.6 Functional definition of the word
- 8.3 Word and morpheme
- 8.4 Theory of word classes
- 8.4.1 Difficulties with the word classification
- 8.4.2 Law of Contensive Autonomous Word Classes
- 8.4.3 Principal phoneme classes
- 8.5 Word and its syntactic field
- 8.6 Principle of Maximal Distinction
- 8.7 Opposition of independent and dependent words as basis for language typology
- 8.8 Problems with the notion of word classes in contemporary linguistics
- Chapter 9. Syntax as the Theory of Word Combinations
- 9.1 Word combination as a linguistic gestalt
- 9.2 The structure of the word combination
- 9.2.1 Complete and incomplete word combinations
- 9.2.2 Representing word combinations
- 9.2.3 Applicative Principle
- 9.2.4 Word Combination Law
- 9.3 Constituency as a relational concept
- 9.4 Dependency relations as invariants under changes of constituency
- 9.5 The Nucleus Law
- 9.6 The Nucleus Law and the Principle of Superposition
- 9.7 The Generalized Nucleus Law
- 9.8 Isomorphism between sentence and syllable structure
- 9.9 The strange properties of the Nucleus Law
- Chapter 10. The Theory of the Sentence
- 10.1 Predicative and attributive articulation of the sentence
- 10.2 Sentence articulation laws
- 10.3 Obligatory Subject Law and Term Uniqueness Law
- 10.4 Law of Binary Structuration of the Sentence
- 10.5 Word-based syntactic phenomena
- 10.6 Transformation-based syntactic phenomena: the theory of diatheses
- 10.7 Passive
- 10.7.1 Bipartite passive as a paradigmatic phenomenon
- 10.7.2 Passive proper
- 10.7.3 Relation between bipartite and tripartite passive
- 10.7.4 Reciprocal subordination between a syntactic unit and its nucleus
- 10.7.5 Middle voice
- 10.8 Critique of the generativist notion of transformation
- 10.8.1 Nominal constructions
- 10.8.2 Apposition
- 10.8.3 Genitive case
- 10.8.A Concrete and abstract nouns
- 10.8.5 Confusion of lexical and structural signs
- 10.8.6 Use of transformations in linguistics
- Chapter 11. Genotype Categorial Calculus
- 11.1 The theoretical apparatus of Semiotic Linguistics
- 11.2 The choice of the mathematical framework
- 11.3 An outline of genotype calculus
- Chapter 12. Semiotic Linguistics and Cognitive Grammar
- Epilogue
- References
- List of Definitions
- Indexof languages
- Index of names
- Index of terms
