On the constitutional relevance of non‑discursive enlanguaged doings to sociomaterial practices
In expanding on the ‘dynamics first, symbols afterwards’ principle (
Cowley
2009) of Distributed Language research, I propose that embodied linguistic competencies comprise the prerequisite for
human agents to engage in sociomaterial practices. I make the case that human practical activity is fundamentally ‘enlanguaged’
and that linguistic skills are not only trans-practical in the sense of enabling agents to engage in diverse activities across
practices but also that they constitute the basis for adult skill acquisition (see
Dreyfus and
Dreyfus 1986) more generally. Specifically, I explore language-relative skills as the enablers of more diverse
activities than what is prescribed to them by Saussurean linguistic tradition i.e., the denotative relations intrinsic to
linguistic signs as well the rule-governed combinations of such signs into meaningful sentences.
Article outline
- 1.Introduction
- 2.Languaging as the starting point
- 3.From language to languaging (or ‘sayings’) and enlanguaged doings: Critically expanding on the accounts of Linell and
Schatzki
- 4.The constitutive role of conceptual know-how in practical activity and practices
- 5.Wrapping up
- Notes
-
References
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Cited by (3)
Cited by three other publications
Fester-Seeger, Marie-Theres
2024.
How a Child Learns to ‘Talk’ to a Smart Speaker: On the Emergence of Enlanguaged Practices.
Linguistic Frontiers 7:1
► pp. 1 ff.
Gahrn-Andersen, Rasmus
2024.
Introduction to the Special Issue on Enlanguaged Practices.
Linguistic Frontiers 7:1
► pp. 1 ff.
Raimondi, Vincenzo
2024.
Rethinking Sociality in Language Evolution: Enlanguagement as a Catalyst for Shifts in Developmental Pathways.
Linguistic Frontiers 7:1
► pp. 1 ff.
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