Abstract
All linguistic structuring of the world involves abstraction. Reality “reflected in sign is not merely reflected but refracted”, as Vološinov (1973, p. 23) puts it. In this process of refraction perspectives on reality are shaped by systematic human attempts to make the world intelligible and to manipulate it in the service of needs experienced. Communicative growth thus involves more than the acquisition of a language with fixed meanings, it is also the adoption of perspectives on reality inherent to the linguistic community where socialisation takes place and the ability to utilize these perspectives in novel situations.
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Säljö, R. (1988). Introduction. In: Säljö, R. (eds) The Written World. Springer Series in Language and Communication, vol 23. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-72877-8_1
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-72877-8_1
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