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The Role of Languaging in Human Evolution

An approach based on the theory of natural drift

  • Vincenzo Raimondi

    Vincenzo Raimondi (b. 1978) is a Research Fellow at Université de Technology de Compiègne, France. His research interests include conversation, language acquisition, language evolution, autopoiesis, 4E approaches of cognition. Publications include “Social interaction, languaging and the operational conditions for the emergence of observing” (2014) and “The bio-logic of languaging and its epistemological background” (2019).

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From the journal Chinese Semiotic Studies

Abstract

The notion of languaging provides a new understanding of the intimate relationship between sociality and language. In this paper, I address the evolutionary emergence of language by subscribing to the autopoietic theory of natural drift (Maturana and Varela 1987; Varela et al. 1993; Maturana and Mpdozis 2000) I show that this systemic approach to evolution can offer the ideal epistemological background to evaluate the role of languaging throughout hominization. The central idea is that the languaging-based way of living acted as an attractor for the evolutionary process. This claim relies on three interrelated assumptions: 1) behavioral and relational habits may channel the course of genetic and structural change; 2) recursive coordination and specific forms of sociality set the systemic conditions for coexistence-through-languaging to be conserved over generations; 3) the conservation of these systemic conditions gives rise to a spiraling, positive-feedback process that involves body, cognition, and culture.

About the author

Vincenzo Raimondi

Vincenzo Raimondi (b. 1978) is a Research Fellow at Université de Technology de Compiègne, France. His research interests include conversation, language acquisition, language evolution, autopoiesis, 4E approaches of cognition. Publications include “Social interaction, languaging and the operational conditions for the emergence of observing” (2014) and “The bio-logic of languaging and its epistemological background” (2019).

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Published Online: 2019-11-21
Published in Print: 2019-11-26

© 2019 Walter de Gruyter GmbH, Berlin/Boston

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