Article published In:
Distributed LanguageEdited by Stephen J. Cowley
[Pragmatics & Cognition 17:3] 2009
► pp. 495–508
Edited by Stephen J. Cowley
[Pragmatics & Cognition 17:3] 2009
► pp. 495–508
Distributed language and dynamics
Stephen J. Cowley | University of Hertfordshire, UK and the University of KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa
Language is coordination. Pursuing this, the present Special Issue of Pragmatics & Cognition challenges two widely held positions. First, the papers reject the claim that language is essentially ‘symbolic’. Second, they deny that minds (or brains) represent verbal patterns. Rather, language is social, individual, and contributes the feeling of thinking. Simply, it is distributed. Elucidating this claim, the opening papers report empirically-based work on the anticipatory dynamics of reading, their cognitive consequences, Shakespearean theatre, what images evoke, and insight problem-solving. Having given reasons for rejecting linguistic autonomy, the papers turn to theory building. Initially, attention is given to a possible origin for semiotic cognition. Then, it is claimed that language functions by realizing values. Next, it is argued that human dynamics are co-regulated by cultural and biological symbols. Finally, in a review article, the distributed view of language is used to contrast Clark’s (2008) organism-centered cognition with what is here called ecologically extended cognition.
Cited by
Cited by 47 other publications
Aro, Mari
2012. Effects of authority: voicescapes in children's beliefs about the learning of English. International Journal of Applied Linguistics 22:3 ► pp. 331 ff. 
Bondì, Antonino
2020. Enactivism. In Glossary of Morphology [Lecture Notes in Morphogenesis, ], ► pp. 149 ff.
Borchmann, Simon
2018. Utterances as tool-mediated specifications of affordances - ecological pragmatics. Psychology of Language and Communication 22:1 ► pp. 124 ff.
Borchmann, Simon
2019. The spectator bias in the linguistic descriptions of information structure. Language Sciences 76 ► pp. 101180 ff.
Bottineau, Didier
2013. Pour une approche enactive de la parole dans les langues. Langages N° 192:4 ► pp. 11 ff.
Susan Conrad, Alissa Hartig & Lynn Santelmann
2020. The Cambridge Introduction to Applied Linguistics,
Cowley, Stephen J.
2011. Taking a Language Stance. Ecological Psychology 23:3 ► pp. 185 ff.
Cowley, Stephen J. & Dongping Zheng
2011. The turning of the tide: Rethinking language, mind and world. Journal of Multicultural Discourses 6:2 ► pp. 197 ff.
De Beule, Joachim
2014. Sketch for a Theory of Evolution Based on Coding. Biosemiotics 7:2 ► pp. 181 ff.
Drain, Chris
2022. Review of Lawrence J. Hatab, Proto-Phenomenology, Language Acquisition, Orality, and Literacy: Dwelling in Speech II. Phenomenology and the Cognitive Sciences 21:2 ► pp. 469 ff.
Fassin, Yves, Andrea Werner, Annick Van Rossem, Silvana Signori, Elisabet Garriga, Heidi von Weltzien Hoivik & Hans-Jörg Schlierer
2015. CSR and Related Terms in SME Owner–Managers’ Mental Models in Six European Countries: National Context Matters. Journal of Business Ethics 128:2 ► pp. 433 ff.
Gahrn-Andersen, Rasmus
2019. Biological simplexity and cognitive heteronomy. Language Sciences 71 ► pp. 38 ff.
Gahrn-Andersen, Rasmus
2021. Conceptual attaching in perception and practice-based behavior. Lingua 249 ► pp. 102960 ff.
Gahrn-Andersen, Rasmus
2023. On the constitutional relevance of non‑discursive enlanguaged doings to sociomaterial practices. Pragmatics and Society
Gahrn-Andersen, Rasmus
2023. Radicalizing radical linguistics: on the need to overcome the language–practice divide. Linguistic Frontiers 6:2 ► pp. 5 ff.
Harris, Kathy & Gloria Jacobs
2020. Literacy, Digital Literacy, Language Education, and Equity. In The Cambridge Introduction to Applied Linguistics, ► pp. 352 ff.
Hellermann, John
2018. Languaging as competencing: considering language learning as enactment. Classroom Discourse 9:1 ► pp. 40 ff.
Hellermann, John, Steven L. Thorne & Jamalieh Haley
2019. Building Socio-environmental Infrastructures for Learning. In Conversation Analytic Research on Learning-in-Action [Educational Linguistics, 38], ► pp. 193 ff.
Hodges, Bert H., Sune V. Steffensen & James E. Martin
2012. Caring, conversing, and realizing values: new directions in language studies. Language Sciences 34:5 ► pp. 499 ff.
Ilyin, Mikhail
2023. How to do languaging(s), language games and languages. Linguistic Frontiers 6:2 ► pp. 50 ff.
Inoue, Takuya
2023. Toward an ecological model of language: from cognitive linguistics to ecological semantics. Language Sciences 100 ► pp. 101582 ff.
Keestra, Machiel & Stephen J. Cowley
2011. Concepts – not just yardsticks, but also heuristics: rebutting Hacker and Bennett. Language Sciences 33:3 ► pp. 464 ff.
Kinnear, Penny
2013. IEEE International Professonal Communication 2013 Conference, ► pp. 1 ff.
Kuhle, Anneliese
2018. Clues to the puzzle: The significance of material cultures in nonhuman primates for the study of language. Language Sciences 67 ► pp. 72 ff.
Madsen, Jens Koed
2017. Time During Time: Multi-scalar Temporal Cognition. In Cognition Beyond the Brain, ► pp. 155 ff.
Moore, Roger K.
2016. Introducing a Pictographic Language for Envisioning a Rich Variety of Enactive Systems with Different Degrees of Complexity. International Journal of Advanced Robotic Systems 13:2 ► pp. 74 ff.
ORMAN, JON
2016. Distributing mind, cognition and language: exploring the (un)common ground with integrational linguistics. Language and Cognition 8:1 ► pp. 142 ff.
Shi, Dan & Paul J. Thibault
2022. Languaging dynamics of classroom interactivity: a distributed view of the pedagogic recontextualization in L2 tertiary settings. Semiotica 2022:245 ► pp. 125 ff.
Steffensen, Sune Vork
2012. Care and conversing in dialogical systems. Language Sciences 34:5 ► pp. 513 ff.
Steffensen, Sune Vork
2015. Distributed Language and Dialogism: notes on non-locality, sense-making and interactivity. Language Sciences 50 ► pp. 105 ff.
Stuart, Susan & Paul J. Thibault
2015. Enkinaesthetic polyphony:. In Emotion in Language [Consciousness & Emotion Book Series, 10], ► pp. 113 ff.
Stuart, Susan A. J.
2018. Enkinaesthesia: Proto-moral value in action-enquiry and interaction. Phenomenology and the Cognitive Sciences 17:2 ► pp. 411 ff.
Sukhoverkhov, Anton V. & Carol A. Fowler
2015. Why Language Evolution Needs Memory: Systems and Ecological Approaches. Biosemiotics 8:1 ► pp. 47 ff.
Tantucci, Vittorio & Aiqing Wang
2022. Resonance as an Applied Predictor of Cross-Cultural Interaction: Constructional Priming in Mandarin and American English Interaction. Applied Linguistics 43:1 ► pp. 115 ff.
THORNE, STEVEN L., JOHN HELLERMANN & TEPPO JAKONEN
2021. Rewilding Language Education: Emergent Assemblages and Entangled Actions. The Modern Language Journal 105:S1 ► pp. 106 ff.
Tison, Remi & Pierre Poirier
2021. Communication as Socially Extended Active Inference: An Ecological Approach to Communicative Behavior. Ecological Psychology 33:3-4 ► pp. 197 ff.
Trasmundi, Sarah Bro
2019. Skilled Embodiment in Emergency Medicine. Chinese Semiotic Studies 15:4 ► pp. 627 ff.
Trasmundi, Sarah Bro & Matthew Isaac Harvey
2018. A blended quantitative-ethnographic method for describing vocal sonification in dance coaching. Psychology of Language and Communication 22:1 ► pp. 198 ff.
Trybulec, Marcin
2019. Extending the Private Language Argument. Chinese Semiotic Studies 15:4 ► pp. 513 ff.
Walters, Keith
2020. Language, the Law, and Forensic Linguistics. In The Cambridge Introduction to Applied Linguistics, ► pp. 325 ff.
Worgan, Simon F.
2011. Towards an artificial model of ‘languaging’: reviewing the distributed language hypothesis. Language Sciences 33:1 ► pp. 229 ff.
Zheng, Dongping
2012. Caring in the dynamics of design and languaging: exploring second language learning in 3D virtual spaces. Language Sciences 34:5 ► pp. 543 ff.
Zheng, Dongping, Ying Hu & Ivan Banov
2019. A Multiscalar Coordination of Languaging. Chinese Semiotic Studies 15:4 ► pp. 561 ff.
Zheng, Dongping & Kristi Newgarden
2011. Rethinking Language Learning: Virtual Worlds as a Catalyst for Change. International Journal of Learning and Media 3:2 ► pp. 13 ff.
Zheng, Dongping, Kristi Newgarden & Michael F. Young
2012. Multimodal analysis of language learning in World of Warcraft play: Languaging as Values-realizing. ReCALL 24:3 ► pp. 339 ff.
Zlatev, Jordan
2023. The Intertwining of Bodily Experience and Language: The Continued Relevance of Merleau-Ponty. Histoire Épistémologie Langage :45-1 ► pp. 41 ff.
[no author supplied]
This list is based on CrossRef data as of 8 april 2024. Please note that it may not be complete. Sources presented here have been supplied by the respective publishers. Any errors therein should be reported to them.