Skip to main content
SpringerLink
Log in

Language as Primary Modeling and Natural Languages: A Biosemiotic Perspective

  • Chapter
Biosemiotic Perspectives on Language and Linguistics

Part of the book series: Biosemiotics ((BSEM,volume 13))

Abstract

Our paper concerns general linguistics and discusses standpoints in both taxonomic and generative-transformational structuralism. The question that linguistics most often fails to address is “why so many languages?”; this is the enigma of Babel. We attempt an answer in a biosemiotic key, with special reference to Sebeok’s global semiotics. What is implied is the problem not only of the plurality of natural languages (Fr. langue/It. lingua), but also of the different “languages” (Fr. langage/It. linguaggio) of different discourse genres, as well as the infinite differentiation in individual speech. Babel does not only concern difference among languages (Fr. langue/It. lingua), but also the different ways in which single individuals use the word. Far from acting as an obstacle to communication, the otherness relation among the word of single individuals is the condition for communication to obtain, for expression and understanding.

This essay develops a series of problematics presented in Ponzio 2002; Petrilli and Ponzio 2002a; Petrilli 2014.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this chapter

Log in via an institution
eBook
USD 16.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Available as EPUB and PDF
  • Read on any device
  • Instant download
  • Own it forever
Softcover Book
USD 109.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Compact, lightweight edition
  • Dispatched in 3 to 5 business days
  • Free shipping worldwide - see info
Hardcover Book
USD 109.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Durable hardcover edition
  • Dispatched in 3 to 5 business days
  • Free shipping worldwide - see info

Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout

Purchases are for personal use only

Institutional subscriptions

Notes

  1. 1.

    Deely 1998.

  2. 2.

    Sebeok 2001.

  3. 3.

    Sebeok 1963.

  4. 4.

    Petrilli and Ponzio 2001 and 2002a.

  5. 5.

    Lotman 1991.

  6. 6.

    Ibid., pp. 123–124.

  7. 7.

    Vernadskij 1926.

  8. 8.

    Cf. Lucid (ed.), 1977; Rudy 1986.

  9. 9.

    Cf. Deely 2007.

  10. 10.

    Cf. Kull 2010.

  11. 11.

    Cf. Sebeok 1979, pp. 49–58, 68, 82 and 1991, pp. 117–127.

  12. 12.

    Sebeok and Danesi 2000.

  13. 13.

    Ibid., p. 5.

  14. 14.

    Ibid., pp. 44–48.

  15. 15.

    Ibid., pp. 82–95.

  16. 16.

    Ibid., pp. 120–129.

  17. 17.

    Nöth 2013.

  18. 18.

    We obviously cannot dwell now upon Paul Cobley’s reconstruction of the relation between our conception of “dialogue” and that of Emmanuel Levinas and of Mikhail Bakhtin whose position is particularly interesting in the present context given his focus on corporeity and the biological sciences. In any case, it is above all owing to the relation Cobley establishes with Th.A. Sebeok that we wish to signal his “brief note” of 2007 (Cobley 2007). For a very effective synthesis of Sebeok’s contribution to semiotics and to biosemiotics in its current configuration, cf. also Deely 1998. The implications of the relation between dialogue and alterity (or otherness) from a biosemiotic perspective and what Peirce calls “agapasm” and “evolutionary love” are evidenced, passing through Levinas, by Donald Favareau (Favareau 2013).

  19. 19.

    A relation comes to be established among authors who have enquired into the “origins” of life and its different worlds from different perspectives. These authors include Bakhtin , Driesch, J. von Uexküll (cf. the essay on “contemporary vitalism,” in Bachtin e il suo circolo 2014, presented in a bilingual – Russian-Italian – edition, originally published by Ivan Kanaev, in a specialized journal of biology, in Russia, in 1926, but in reality written by Bakhtin). On the relation among these authors, taken into consideration as part of a dialogue with ourselves (lasting several years now), cf. Kull 2007 and 2013.

  20. 20.

    Sebeok 1997, p. 436.

  21. 21.

    Ibid., pp. 436–437; cf. also Sebeok 1986, pp. 15–16.

  22. 22.

    Uexküll 1998, art. 110, pp. 2187–2188.

  23. 23.

    Sebeok 1997, pp. 437–438.

  24. 24.

    Petrilli and Ponzio 2002b and 2007.

  25. 25.

    Sebeok 1991, pp. 57–58.

  26. 26.

    Rossi-Landi 1968 and 1972.

  27. 27.

    Sebeok 1976 [1985].

  28. 28.

    Sebeok et al. 2001.

  29. 29.

    Sebeok 1979, pp. 61–83.

  30. 30.

    Sebeok 1997, pp. 438–440; cf. also Bouissac (ed.), 1998.

  31. 31.

    Thibault 1998.

  32. 32.

    Bouissac (ed.), 1998.

  33. 33.

    Posner et al. (eds.), 1997–2004.

  34. 34.

    Bouissac (ed.), 1998.

  35. 35.

    Johansen 1998; Parret 1998.

  36. 36.

    Cf. Petrilli 2013.

  37. 37.

    Thibault 1998, p. 81.

  38. 38.

    Bakhtin 1970–1971 [1986].

  39. 39.

    On the relation between dialogue and dialectics in Peirce and Bakhtin , cf. Ponzio 1984 and 1990; Ponzio et al. 2006.

  40. 40.

    Thibault 1998. For an analysis of binarism in Saussure, cf. §222 “Binarität” in ibid.

  41. 41.

    Ponzio 1990, pp. 279–280.

  42. 42.

    Fano 1972. This book is now also available in English translation (1992).

  43. 43.

    Ponzio 2012b.

  44. 44.

    Sebeok 1994, pp. 117–128.

  45. 45.

    Sebeok 1981.

  46. 46.

    Cf. Danesi 1993.

  47. 47.

    Gould and Vrba 1982.

  48. 48.

    Sebeok 1986, pp. 14–16; italics ours. – S.P., A.P.

  49. 49.

    Sebeok 1991, p. 56.

  50. 50.

    Sebeok 1997, pp. 443–444.

  51. 51.

    Rossi-Landi 1968 and 1975.

  52. 52.

    Rossi-Landi 1985 [2006]; Petrilli and Ponzio 2005, pp. 232–296.

  53. 53.

    Cf. Sebeok 1991, p. 49.

  54. 54.

    Lévinas 1982.

  55. 55.

    Jakobson 1965.

  56. 56.

    Kristeva 1969 [1981].

  57. 57.

    Derrida 1967.

  58. 58.

    Sebeok 1986.

  59. 59.

    Lieberman 1975.

  60. 60.

    Rossi-Landi 1985 [2006, p. 229].

  61. 61.

    Jakobson 1960; subsequently Jakobson 1971.

  62. 62.

    Engels 1883 [1962].

  63. 63.

    Rossi-Landi 1985 [2006, pp. 225–226].

  64. 64.

    Ibid., pp. 233–234.

  65. 65.

    Cf. Ponzio 2001.

  66. 66.

    Bakhtin 1952–1953, pp. 67–75.

  67. 67.

    Ibid., p. 75 sq.

  68. 68.

    Mauro 1994.

  69. 69.

    Michel Malherbe counts three thousand (Malherbe 2010).

  70. 70.

    Ibid Ibid.

  71. 71.

    Hymes 1973.

  72. 72.

    Chomsky 1975.

  73. 73.

    Jakobson, quoted in New Yorker, 8 May 1971, pp. 79–80 (Steiner 1975, p. 245 sq.).

  74. 74.

    Steiner 1975.

  75. 75.

    Ibid., p. 288.

  76. 76.

    Ibid, p. 473.

  77. 77.

    Ibid., p. 228.

  78. 78.

    Mauro 1994, p. 80.

  79. 79.

    Ponzio 2001.

  80. 80.

    Hjelmslev 1943 [1961, pp. 32–33].

  81. 81.

    Cf. Johansen 1998, pp. 2275–2282.

  82. 82.

    Cf. Lévi-Strauss 1958; Ponzio et al. 1994 [1999, pp. 50–53].

  83. 83.

    Sebeok 1991, p. 97.

  84. 84.

    Rossi-Landi 1985 [2006, p. 252].

  85. 85.

    Vygotskij 1934 [1990].

  86. 86.

    Cf. Rossi-Landi 1985 [2006, pp. 217–269].

  87. 87.

    Voloshinov’s essays of 1926–1930 cf. in Ponzio (ed.), 2014, pp. 271–333, 1461–2069.

  88. 88.

    Bakhtin 1970–1971 [1986].

  89. 89.

    Ponzio 1993, pp. 138–154; Petrilli 2014, pp. xx, 112–114.

  90. 90.

    Bakhtin 1970–1971 [1986, pp. 133–134]; Petrilli 2014, Chapter 6.

  91. 91.

    Barthes 1982.

  92. 92.

    Ponzio 2010 and 2012a.

  93. 93.

    Bakhtin 1959–1961 [1986, pp. 110–115].

  94. 94.

    Foucault 1971.

  95. 95.

    Bakhtin 1970–1971.

  96. 96.

    Barthes 1979.

  97. 97.

    Cf. Petrilli (ed.), 2007 and 2013.

References

  • Bakhtin, M. M. (1952–1953). The problem of speech genres. In Bakhtin 1986, pp. 59–102.

    Google Scholar 

  • Bakhtin, M. M. (1959–1961 [1986]). The problem of the text. In Bakhtin 1986, pp. 103–131.

    Google Scholar 

  • Bakhtin, M. M. (1970–1971 [1986]). From notes made in 1970–71. In Bakhtin 1986, pp. 132–172.

    Google Scholar 

  • Bakhtin, M. M. (1986). Speech genres and other late essays. Austin: Austin University of Texas Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Barthes, R. (1979). Leçon. Paris: Seuil.

    Google Scholar 

  • Barthes, R. (1982). L’obvie et l’obtus. Essais critiques III. Paris: Seuil.

    Google Scholar 

  • Bouissac, P. (Ed.). (1998). Encyclopedia of semiotics. New York/Oxford: Oxford University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Chomsky, N. (1975). Reflections on language. New York: Pantheon.

    Google Scholar 

  • Cobley, P. (2007). A brief note on dialogue. In Petrilli (Ed.), 2007, pp. 13–20.

    Google Scholar 

  • Danesi, M. (1993). Vico, metaphor and the origin of language. Bloomington/Indianapolis: Indiana University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • De Mauro, T. (1994). Capire le parole. Roma/Bari: Laterza.

    Google Scholar 

  • Deely, J. (1998). Thomas A. Sebeok. In Bouissac (Ed.), 1998, pp. 557–559.

    Google Scholar 

  • Deely, J. (2007). The primary modeling system in animals. In Petrilli (Ed.), 2007, pp. 161–180.

    Google Scholar 

  • Derrida, J. (1967). L’écriture et la différence. Paris: Seuil.

    Google Scholar 

  • Engels, F. (1883 [1962]). Dialektik der Natur. In K. Marx & F. Engels, Werke (Vol. 20, pp. 305–570). Berlin: Karl Dietz Verlag.

    Google Scholar 

  • Fano, G. (1972). Origini e natura del linguaggio. Turin: Einaudi [English translation and introduction by Petrilli, S. (1992). Origins and nature of language. Bloomington: Indiana University Press].

    Google Scholar 

  • Favareau, D. (2013). Agapastic exploration of the biosphere: Alterity and biosemiosis. In Petrilli (Ed.), 2013, pp. 143–150.

    Google Scholar 

  • Foucault, M. (1971). L’ordre du discours. Paris: Gallimard.

    Google Scholar 

  • Gould, J., & Vrba, E. S. (1982). Exaptation – A missing term in the science of form. Paleobiology, 8(1), 4–15.

    Google Scholar 

  • Hjelmslev, L. (1943 [1961]). Prolegomena to a theory of language. Madison: University of Wiscontin Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Hymes, D. (1973). Speech and language. On the origins and foundations of inequalities among speakers. Daedalus, 102(3), 59–85.

    Google Scholar 

  • Jakobson, R. (1960). Linguistics and poetics. In T. A. Sebeok (Ed.), Style in language (pp. 350–377). New York: Wiley.

    Google Scholar 

  • Jakobson, R. (1965). Quest for the essence of language. Diogenes, 13(51), 21–37.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Jakobson, R. (1971). Selected writings, vol. II: Word and language. The Hague: Mouton.

    Google Scholar 

  • Johansen, J. D. (1998). Hjelmslev and glossematics. In Posner, Robering, Sebeok (Eds.), 1997–2004, Vol. 2, pp. 2272–2289.

    Google Scholar 

  • Kristeva, J. (1969 [1981]). Le langage, cet inconnu. Paris: Seuil.

    Google Scholar 

  • Kull, K. (2007). Biosemiotic conversations: Ponzio, Bakhtin, Kanaev, Driesch, Uexküll, Lotman. In Petrilli (Ed.), 2007, pp. 79–89.

    Google Scholar 

  • Kull, K. (2010). Umwelt and modeling. In P. Cobley (Ed.), The Routledge companion to semiotics (pp. 43–56). London/New York: Routledge.

    Google Scholar 

  • Kull, K. (2013). On the sphere of understanding: A note on Driesch. In Petrilli (Ed.), 2013, pp. 151–161.

    Google Scholar 

  • Levinas, E. (1982). L’au-delà du verset. Paris: Éditions de Minuit.

    Google Scholar 

  • Lévi-Strauss, C. (1958). Anthropologie structurale. Paris: Plon.

    Google Scholar 

  • Lieberman, P. (1975). On the origins of language. New York: Macmillan.

    Google Scholar 

  • Lotman, J. M. (1991). Universe of the mind. A semiotic theory of culture. Bloomington: Indiana University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Lucid, D. P. (Ed.). (1977). Soviet semiotics. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Malherbe, M. (2010). Les langages de l’humanité. Paris: Robert Laffont.

    Google Scholar 

  • Nöth, W. (2013). Is communication possible? In Petrilli (Ed.), 2013, pp. 66–71.

    Google Scholar 

  • Parret, H. (1998). Greimas and his school. In Posner, Robering, Sebeok (Eds.), 1997–2004, Vol. 2, pp. 2300–2311.

    Google Scholar 

  • Petrilli, S. (Ed.). (2007). La filosofia del linguaggio come arte dell’ascolto/Philosophy of language as the art of listening. On Augusto Ponzio’s scientific research. Bari: Edizioni dal Sud.

    Google Scholar 

  • Petrilli, S. (2013). Reinterpreting the notions of ‘triadism’, ‘dialectics’ and ‘automatism’ with A. Ponzio. In Petrilli (Ed.), 2013, pp. 302–308.

    Google Scholar 

  • Petrilli, S. (Ed.). (2013). Writing, voice, undertaking. New York/Ottawa/Toronto: Legas.

    Google Scholar 

  • Petrilli, S. (2014). Sign systems and semioethics. Communication, translation and values. Berlin: Mouton de Gruyter.

    Google Scholar 

  • Petrilli, S., & Ponzio, A. (2001). Thomas Sebeok and the signs of life. Duxford, Cambridge: Icon Books.

    Google Scholar 

  • Petrilli, S., & Ponzio, A. (2002a). I segni e la vita. La semiotica globale di Thomas A. Sebeok. Milan: Spirali.

    Google Scholar 

  • Petrilli, S., & Ponzio, A. (2002b). Sign vehicles for semiotic travels: Two new handbooks. Semiotica, 141(1–4), 203–350.

    Google Scholar 

  • Petrilli, S., & Ponzio, A. (2005). Semiotics unbounded. Interpretive routes through the open network of signs. Toronto: Toronto University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Petrilli, S., & Ponzio, A. (2007). Semiotics today. From global semiotics to semioethics, a dialogic response. New York/Ottawa/Toronto: Legas.

    Google Scholar 

  • Ponzio, A. (1984). Semiotics between Peirce and Bakhtin. Recherches Sémiotiques/Semiotic Inquiry, 4(3–4), 306–326.

    Google Scholar 

  • Ponzio, A. (1990). Man as a sign. Berlin: Mouton de Gruyter.

    Book  Google Scholar 

  • Ponzio, A. (1993). Signs, dialogue and ideology. Amsterdam/Philadelphia: John Benjamins [edited and translated from Italian by S. Petrilli].

    Book  Google Scholar 

  • Ponzio, A. (2001). Enunciazione e testo letterario nell’insegnamento dell’italiano come LS. Perugia: Guerra.

    Google Scholar 

  • Ponzio, A. (2002). Il linguaggio e le lingue. Bari: Graphis.

    Google Scholar 

  • Ponzio, A. (2010). Encontres de palavras. O outro no discurso. San Carlo: Pedro e João Editores.

    Google Scholar 

  • Ponzio, A. (2012a). In altre parole. Milan: Mimesis.

    Google Scholar 

  • Ponzio, A. (2012b). Linguística Chomskyana e ideologia social. Curitiba: Editora UFPR.

    Google Scholar 

  • Ponzio, A. (Ed.). (2014). Michail Bachtin e il suo circolo. Opere 1919–1930. Milan: Bompiani.

    Google Scholar 

  • Ponzio, A., Calefato, P., & Petrilli, S. (1994 [1999]). Fondamenti di filosofia del linguaggio. Roma/Bari: Laterza.

    Google Scholar 

  • Ponzio, A., Bonfantini, M. A., & Petrilli, S. (2006). I dialoghi semiotici. Sul dialogo, sulla menzogna e la verità, sui nuovi mass-media, sulla retorica e l’argomentazione, sulla testualità e la discorsività, sull’ideologia e l’utopia 1982–2006. Napoli: Edizioni Scientifiche Italiane.

    Google Scholar 

  • Posner, R., Robering, K., & Sebeok, T. A. (Eds.) (1997–2004). Semiotik/semiotics. A handbook on the sign-theoretic foundations of nature and culture (Vol. 4). Berlin/New York: Walter de Gruyter.

    Google Scholar 

  • Rossi-Landi, F. (1968). Il linguaggio come lavoro e come mercato. Milan: Bompiani.

    Google Scholar 

  • Rossi-Landi, F. (1972). Semiotica e ideologia. Milan: Bompiani.

    Google Scholar 

  • Rossi-Landi, F. (1975). Linguistics and economics. The Hague: Mouton.

    Google Scholar 

  • Rossi-Landi, F. (1985 [2006]). Metodica filosofica e scienza dei segni. Milan: Bompiani.

    Google Scholar 

  • Rudy, S. (1986). Semiotics in the USSR. In T. A. Sebeok & J. Umiker-Sebeok (Eds.), The semiotic sphere (pp. 34–67). New York: Plenum.

    Google Scholar 

  • Sebeok, T. A. (1963). Untitled review (subsequently sometimes referred to under the ex post factum title “Communication in animals and men”) of three books: 1. Lindauer, M. (1961). Communication among social bees. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press; 2. Kellogg, W. N. (1961). Porpoises and sonar. Chicago: University of Chicago Press; 3. Lilly, J. C. (1961) Man and dolphin. Garden City: Doubleday & Co. Inc. Language, 39(3) (July–September 1963), 448–466.

    Google Scholar 

  • Sebeok, T. A. (1976 [1985]). Contributions to the doctrine of signs. Lanham: University Press of America.

    Google Scholar 

  • Sebeok, T. A. (1979). The sign & its masters. Texas: The University of Texas Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Sebeok, T. A. (1981). The play of musement. Bloomington: Indiana University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Sebeok, T. A. (1986). I think I am a verb. More contributions to the doctrine of signs. New York: Plenum.

    Google Scholar 

  • Sebeok, T. A. (1991). A sign is just a sign. Bloomington: Indiana University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Sebeok, T. A. (1994). Signs. An introduction to semiotics. Toronto: Toronto University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Sebeok, T. A. (1997). The evolution of semiosis. In Posner, Robering, Sebeok (Eds.), 1997–2004, Vol. 1, pp. 436–446.

    Google Scholar 

  • Sebeok, T. A. (2001). Global semiotics. Bloomington: Indiana University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Sebeok, T. A., & Danesi, M. (2000). The forms of meaning. Modelling systems theory and semiotics. Berlin: Mouton de Gruyter.

    Book  Google Scholar 

  • Sebeok, T. A., Petrilli, S., & Ponzio, A. (2001). Semiotica dell’io. Rome: Meltemi.

    Google Scholar 

  • Steiner, G. (1975). After Babel. Aspects of language and translation. London: Oxford University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Thibault, P. J. (1998). Binarism. In Bouissac (Ed.), 1998, pp. 76–82.

    Google Scholar 

  • Uexküll, T. von (1998). Jakob von Uexkülls Umweltlehre. In Posner, Robering, Sebeok (Eds.), 1997–2004, Vol. 2, pp. 2183–2190.

    Google Scholar 

  • Vernadskij, V. I. (1926). Biosfera. Leningrad: Nauka. [The Biosphere].

    Google Scholar 

  • Vygotskij, L. S. (1934 [1990]). Pensiero e linguaggio. Roma/Bari: Laterza.

    Google Scholar 

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. The University of Bari “Aldo Moro”, Bari, Italy

    Susan Petrilli & Augusto Ponzio

Authors
  1. Susan Petrilli
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  2. Augusto Ponzio
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Susan Petrilli .

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. Slavic and South Asian Studies, University of Lausanne, Lausanne, Switzerland

    Ekaterina Velmezova

  2. Professor in biosemiotics, University of Tartu, Tartu, Estonia

    Kalevi Kull

  3. Dept. of Language and Communication, University of Southern Denmark, Slagelse, Denmark

    Stephen J. Cowley

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

Copyright information

© 2015 Springer International Publishing Switzerland

About this chapter

Cite this chapter

Petrilli, S., Ponzio, A. (2015). Language as Primary Modeling and Natural Languages: A Biosemiotic Perspective. In: Velmezova, E., Kull, K., Cowley, S. (eds) Biosemiotic Perspectives on Language and Linguistics. Biosemiotics, vol 13. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-20663-9_4

Download citation

Publish with us

Policies and ethics

Search

Navigation