Nonverbal Steps to the Origin of Language

2020 ◽  
pp. 163-189
Author(s):  
David B. Givens
Keyword(s):  
Origin Of Language

The Philological Endeavours of the Early Arabic Linguists: Theological Implications of the tawqīf-iṣṭilāḥ Antithesis and the majāz Controversy – Part I

1999 ◽  
Vol 1 (1) ◽  
pp. 27-46 ◽  
Author(s):  
Mustafa Shah
Keyword(s):  
Opposing View ◽  
Religious Doctrine ◽  
Origin Of Language ◽  
The Way

This article examines a number of issues relating to discussions of the origin of language and related topics among early Arabic linguists. A number of these discussions treated the topic of the ‘revelationist’ view of language (tawqīf), and the opposing view that language had developed as a result of human convention (iṣṭilāḥ). It has been suggested that religious doctrine hampered the development of the linguistic tradition, as theologically motivated views increasingly governed the way in which linguists were able to articulate their positions on this and related subjects. We contend that the evidence does not altogether support this view, and that there was a subtle interplay between theological views and linguistic theories. Individual linguists, whom tradition identifies as having certain theological tendencies, are found to have followed lines of linguistic thinking at odds with what is assumed to have been the religious doctrine to which they subscribed. An increasingly sophisticated tradition of scholarship refined and reassessed arguments based on the Qur'an and earlier thought, with a concern for the theological implications of issues such as ishtiqāq, tarāduf and addād.

The Philological Endeavours of the Early Arabic Linguists: Theological Implications of the tawqīf-iṡṫilāh Antithesis and the majāz Controversy (Part II)

2000 ◽  
Vol 2 (1) ◽  
pp. 43-66 ◽  
Author(s):  
Mustafa Shah
Keyword(s):  
Figurative Language ◽  
Arabic Language ◽  
Metaphorical Language ◽  
Islamic Tradition ◽  
Religious Significance ◽  
Origin Of Language ◽  
Ibn Taymiyya ◽  
The Aesthetic

The concluding part of the article pursues the theoretical arguments which relate to the tawqīf-işṭilāḥ debate on the origin of language and the intricate link with the concept of majāz. The article attempts to show how the question of the origin of language was imported into the controversy relating to the resort to metaphor and figurative language in the exegesis of the Qur'an and Prophetic dicta. Moreover, there was concern in some quarters that religious doctrines were being articulated through a veneer of metaphorical language. Some theologians had, in presenting a hypothesis for the existence of tropical expressions in the idiom of Arabic, referred to the concept of işṭilāḥ to justify their arguments, whilst tawqīf al-lugha was adduced to counter such reasoning. The religious significance of the issue is highlighted by Ibn Taymiyya who advances the thesis that the evolved concept of majāz was expressly formulated at a posterior juncture in the development of the Islamic tradition. He vociferously argues that a developed concept of majāz was insidiously exploited by those with preconceived theological motives. The article shows why Ibn Taymiyya had to discard the perceived sacrosanct doctrine of tawqīfal-lugha in order to refute theoretically the concept of majāz. This also meant that for scholars of the same view as Ibn Taymiyya, the aesthetic features associated with the device of majāz were summarily disregarded. Nevertheless, a concept of majāz was explicitly endorsed as an indisputable feature of the Arabic language by a majority of scholars.

scholarly journals Dating the Origin of Language Using Phonemic Diversity

PLoS ONE ◽  
2012 ◽  
Vol 7 (4) ◽  
pp. e35289 ◽  
Author(s):  
Charles Perreault ◽  
Sarah Mathew
Keyword(s):  
Origin Of Language

scholarly journals LENGUAJE, FORMA INTERNA Y EXISTENCIA: LA FILOSOFÍA DEL LENGUAJE DE ANTON MARTY

2021 ◽  
pp. 127
Author(s):  
Luis Niel
Keyword(s):  
Philosophy Of Language ◽  
Edmund Husserl ◽  
Genetic Theory ◽  
Categorical Judgment ◽  
Origin Of Language ◽  
Existential Sentences ◽  
Franz Brentano ◽  
Shed Light

El artículo analiza ciertos temas centrales de la filosofía del lenguaje de Anton Marty: primero, su teoría genética del origen casual del lenguaje; segundo, su descripción de los componentes mereológicos y semánticos del lenguaje, en particular del concepto de forma inter-na; tercero, su crítica del juicio categórico, basada en sus análisis de las oraciones impersonales y existenciales; cuarto, la importancia del concepto de existencia para aclarar problemas ontológicos. El trabajo hace además hincapié en señalar las conexiones entre su pensamiento y el de Edmund Husserl, ambos discípulos de Franz Brentano.The article addresses some essential issues of Anton Marty’s philosophy of language: first, its genetic theory of the random origin of language; second, his description of the mereological and the semantic components of language, focused on the concept of internal form; third, its criticism of the categorical judgment, based on its analyses of impersonal and existential sentences; fourth, the importance of the concept of existence in order shed light upon ontological problems. The paper also focuses on emphasizing the connections between his thought and that of Edmund Husserl, both disciples of Franz Brentano.

scholarly journals The Origin and Evolution of Language and the Propagation of Organization

1970 ◽  
Vol 5 (2) ◽  
pp. 75-81 ◽  
Author(s):  
Robert K. Logan
Keyword(s):  
Knowledge Management ◽  
New Media ◽  
Evolution Of Language ◽  
Origin And Evolution ◽  
Language And Culture ◽  
Origin Of Language ◽  
Engineering Problems ◽  
Living Organisms ◽  
The Impact

In this presentation we will study propagating organization. We begin by examining the evolution and origin of language by briefly reviewing the impact of the phonetic alphabet (Logan 2004a), the evolution of notated language (Logan 2004b), the origin of language and culture (Logan 2006, 2007), the role of collaboration in knowledge management (Logan and Stokes 2004), the impact of “new media” (Logan in preparation). We will then connect this work to the propagating organization of all living organisms (Kauffman et al. in press) where we will show that information in biotic systems are the constraints that instruct living organisms how to operate. We will demonstrate that instructional or biotic information is quite different than the classical notion of information Shannon developed for addressing engineering problems in telecommunications. We also will show that biosemiosis is in some sense equivalent to propagating organization (Kauffman et al. in press). We then conclude our presentation with the speculation that there exist at least seven levels of biosemiosis.

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