Language as primary modeling and natural languages

a biosemiotic perspective

Susan Petrilli

Augusto Ponzio

pp. 47-76

in: Ekaterina Velmezova, Kalevi Kull, Stephen J. Cowley (eds), Biosemiotic perspectives on language and linguistics, Berlin, Springer, 2015

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.