Vygotsky, Cognitive Development and Language

2013 ◽  
Vol 40 (1-2) ◽  
pp. 199-227 ◽  
Author(s):  
T. Craig Christy
Keyword(s):  
Developmental Psychology ◽  
Mirror Neuron ◽  
Evolution Of Language ◽  
Modal Particles ◽  
Socially Constructed ◽  
Origin Of Language ◽  
Recent Developments ◽  
Separate Source ◽  
Evolution Of Communication ◽  
Pointing Gesture

Summary Lev Vygotsky’s (1896–1934) views of the genesis of language and its relation to thought, illustrated here by his account of the origin of the pointing gesture, can be seen as anticipating current research in socially constituted cognition, pragmatics, developmental psychology and grammaticalization, in all of which the importance of contextual and pragmatic factors looms large. His conceptualization of the evolution of communication from action to semiosis has bearing on, and is illuminated by, recent developments in neurobiology, developmental psychology, primatology, and grammaticalization theory. Specifically, recently discovered mirror neuron systems may offer a neurophysiological platform for the evolution of language from gesture and imitation, for the transition from action to sign, from referential to relational meaning, an evolution in which the establishment of joint attention is pivotal. With his emphasis on the dynamic, socially constructed nature of signs, Vygotsky shares Humboldt’s view of language as energeia, as a system in a perpetual state of emergence, a view consistent with Condillac’s ‘language of action’, in which spontaneous vocalizations and gestures give rise to sign functions. Research of the grammaticalization pathways associated with demonstratives and modal particles also offers new perspectives on the process and hypothesized unidirectionality of grammaticalization, including the plausible claim that demonstratives represent a second and separate source of candidates for grammaticalization. Integrating grammaticalization research with findings from relevant social and natural sciences holds out the prospect of underwriting significant advances in understanding the origin of language and the emergence of grammar.

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.

Broadening brand engagement within the service-centric perspective

2017 ◽  
Vol 27 (2) ◽  
pp. 317-335 ◽  
Author(s):  
Yuri Seo ◽  
Carol Kelleher ◽  
Roderick J. Brodie
Keyword(s):  
Theoretical Perspective ◽  
Service Research ◽  
Brand Relationships ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Integrative Framework ◽  
Brand Engagement ◽  
Socially Constructed ◽  
Conceptual Clarity ◽  
Recent Developments ◽  
Conceptual Paper

Purpose While extant service-centric research has largely focussed on managerial advantages, few studies have addressed how brand engagement emerges in the broader context of consumer lives. The purpose of this paper is to develop a novel intersubjective hermeneutic framework that bridges the socially constructed as well as the individualised meanings of brand engagement in the context of service research. Design/methodology/approach This conceptual paper adopts a theory-building approach based on recent developments in the service-centric marketing literature. Findings The authors offer a novel theoretical perspective that recognises the intersubjective and phenomenological nature of individual and collective consumer brand experiences, and show how such experiences emerge from socially constructed brand engagement practices using the co-constituting lens of value-in-use. Research limitations/implications The proposed conceptual framework invites further empirical and contextual investigations of intersubjective brand engagement in both online and offline contexts. Originality/value The contribution of this framework is twofold. First, the authors draw on the intersubjective orientation and hermeneutic framework to provide conceptual clarity in relation to the nature of brand engagement practices, brand experiences, and value-in-use, and discuss their interrelationships. Second, the authors address the nature of meaning ascribed to engagement beyond customer-firm-brand relationships, and discuss why any given consumer’s experience of brand engagement reflects a complex dialectic between socially constructed and individualised brand meanings. In doing so, the integrative framework recognises the interplay between the intersubjective and phenomenological natures of consumer brand experiences, and offers insights as to how these experiences are framed by broader socially constructed engagement practices.

Who forgot Paul Broca? The origin of language as test case for speciation theory Jürgen Trabant & Sean Ward (eds.), New essays on the origin of language (Trends in Linguistics). Berlin & New York: Mouton de Gruyter, 2001. Pp. vi+258. Morten H. Christiansen & Simon Kirby (eds.), Language evolution (Studies in the Evolution of Language 3). Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2003. Pp. xvii+395.

2005 ◽  
Vol 41 (1) ◽  
pp. 133-156 ◽  
Author(s):  
TIMOTHY J. CROW
Keyword(s):  
New York ◽  
Language Evolution ◽  
Homo Sapiens ◽  
Test Case ◽  
Evolution Of Language ◽  
Oxford University ◽  
Origin Of Language ◽  
The Status ◽  
The Uk ◽  
Academy Of Sciences

In December 1999, as part of its tricentenary celebrations, the Berlin Academy of Sciences invited eleven speakers to discuss the Origin of Language (cf. the Trabant & Ward volume, henceforth T&W). In March 2000 a workshop (Crow 2002a) under the auspices of the British Academy and the UK Academy of Medical Sciences, ‘The speciation of modern Homo sapiens’, addressed the same problem. The speciation of Homo sapiens and the origins of language are surely two sides of the same coin. At about the same time, the Christiansen & Kirby volume on Language Evolution (henceforth C&K) was conceived at the Fifth Australasian Cognitive Science Conference. Together the contributions of these volumes constitute a substantial contemporary archive on the origin of language. Their publication provides an opportunity to review the status of attempts to account for the evolution of language. Do the contributions converge on a solution?

Racial reality and unreality1

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Karim Murji
Keyword(s):  
Social Sciences ◽  
Natural Sciences ◽  
Social Constructionist ◽  
Socially Constructed ◽  
The Social ◽  
Recent Developments ◽  
Constructionist Approach ◽  
The Many ◽  
The Relationship

This chapter explores the debates on what race is. For some time, the dominant social constructionist approach in the social sciences has insisted that the only proper way to regard race is by refuting any connection with biology. Attention to the many ways in which race is socially constructed has been important; but, while a construction is not ‘unreal’, there is a common further step in which race is thereby deemed to be not valid. The rejection of race tends to treat race as something that would be ‘real’ if it were located in science and biology. The chapter then shows how recent developments in the natural sciences and changing views on the relationship between the natural and social sciences problematise that view. Yet in opposition to post-race views, critical scholars can then be seen to draw on conventional categories of race to show that racialised inequality still matters.

Toward a socio-contextual understanding of transliteracy

2018 ◽  
Vol 46 (2) ◽  
pp. 178-188 ◽  
Author(s):  
Amanda Hovious
Keyword(s):  
Information Literacy ◽  
Social Practice ◽  
Academic Librarians ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Current Discussion ◽  
Socially Constructed ◽  
Contextual Understanding ◽  
Recent Developments ◽  
The Relationship ◽  
Practical Implications

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to explore the emerging concept of transliteracy from the perspective of literacy as a socially constructed and contextual practice. Design/methodology/approach A systematic review of the literature explores the origins and development of transliteracy in the context of the multiple understandings of literacy. An argument is made that the current discussion among academic librarians about transliteracy as a set of skills is incompatible with its socio-constructivist roots. Findings Librarians’ interest in transliteracy stems from its relationship to information literacy, with current discussion focused on defining its skills. However, a skills-based perspective does not reflect the nature of what it means to be transliterate. Rather than a common set of skills that are practiced across multiple media platforms, transliteracy can be reconceptualized as a social practice that crosses multiple contexts (e.g. school, home and workplace). Practical implications This expanded understanding better aligns transliteracy to recent developments in information literacy, such as the knowledge practices of the ACRL framework. Originality/value This paper introduces an expanded understanding of transliteracy, adding to the growing conversation about the relationship between emergent literacies and information literacy.

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.

Did courtship drive the evolution of mind?

1996 ◽  
Vol 19 (1) ◽  
pp. 155-156 ◽  
Author(s):  
Eric B. Baum
Keyword(s):  
Driving Force ◽  
Human Mind ◽  
Evolution Of Language ◽  
Origin Of Language ◽  
Evolution Of Mind

AbstractThe driving force in the evolution of language and the human mind was the advantage gained in courtship by efficient communicators. Ontogeny recapitulating phylogeny may offer an alternative to Donald's picture of the relative origins of language and mimesis. Very recent evidence is pertinent to dating the origin of language.

scholarly journals Revisiting Mary O’Brien – Reproductive Consciousness and Liquid Maternity

2014 ◽  
Vol 10 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Annette Burfoot
Keyword(s):  
Feminist Theory ◽  
Historical Materialism ◽  
Reproductive Technologies ◽  
Liquid Modernity ◽  
Socially Constructed ◽  
Socialist Feminism ◽  
Recent Developments ◽  
The Subject ◽  
And Gender ◽  
Theoretical Developments

This research note examines feminist theory from socialist feminism through the post-structural turn associated with thinkers like Foucault, Derrida and Butler to neo-materialism, this last noted for its emphasis on the body's materiality as opposed to the subject as a socially constructed or merely linguistic practice. Tracing these theoretical developments is contextualized with respect to theories and concepts such as feminist standpoint theories of epistemology, historical materialism and Baumann's "liquid modernity". I ask: have we lost sight of the strength of feminist structuralism - particularly the effects of capital - in order to accommodate multiple and complex subjectifications associated with gender? Mary O'Brien's reproductive consciousness, her argument that women's consciousness is fundamentally shaped through the different moments related to reproduction, is re-examined in light of recent developments in egg donation and surrogacy. This is not intended as an exercise in romantic longing for some sort of utopian society where femininity is venerated. Rather, it is an exploration of the potential for reproductive consciousness to guide political responses to contemporary problems raised by new reproductive technologies that combine capital and gender in a single dialectic.

Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document