In this article I explore some potential philosophical intersections between Systemic Functional Linguistics (SFL), General Semiotics (GS) and Process Philosophy (PP). Much work in contemporary PP is inspired by the work of British philosopher, mathematician and logician Alfred North Whitehead (1861-1947), probably best known for his cooperation with Bertrand Russell on “Principia Mathematica”. Less well known is that Whitehead, during his time in America at Harvard University from 1924 until he retired in 1939, developed a “Philosophy of Organism” (PO). What is of particular interest for both SFL and GS here, is that PO and PP point in other directions, oriented more to accommodating process factors in ontological, epistemological and axiological description than those directions traditionally traced out within the philosophy of language and linguistic metatheory.Epistemologically speaking, SFL, GS and PO clearly have a number of zones of intersection. To bring these more clearly into focus, we move from some epistemological presuppositions of SFL, by way of some of those of GS, to PO. This can be profitable transition, since in GS terms, SFL is construable as a Specific Semiotics (SS) with language as its main object of study, while GS, on the other hand, is a philosophical project that studies, in Umberto Eco’s words: “the whole of human signifying activity”, and “languages through languages” . GS is thus too, “a philosophy of language which stresses the comparative and systematic approach to languages (and not only to verbal language) by exploiting the result of different, more local enquiries.”

Coppock, Patrick John. "Systemic Functional Linguistics, Semiotics and Philosophy of Organism: Part of the same project?" Working paper, Dipartimento di Scienze Sociali, Cognitive e Quantitative - Università di Modena e Reggio Emilia, 2005.

Systemic Functional Linguistics, Semiotics and Philosophy of Organism: Part of the same project?

COPPOCK, Patrick John
2005

Abstract

In this article I explore some potential philosophical intersections between Systemic Functional Linguistics (SFL), General Semiotics (GS) and Process Philosophy (PP). Much work in contemporary PP is inspired by the work of British philosopher, mathematician and logician Alfred North Whitehead (1861-1947), probably best known for his cooperation with Bertrand Russell on “Principia Mathematica”. Less well known is that Whitehead, during his time in America at Harvard University from 1924 until he retired in 1939, developed a “Philosophy of Organism” (PO). What is of particular interest for both SFL and GS here, is that PO and PP point in other directions, oriented more to accommodating process factors in ontological, epistemological and axiological description than those directions traditionally traced out within the philosophy of language and linguistic metatheory.Epistemologically speaking, SFL, GS and PO clearly have a number of zones of intersection. To bring these more clearly into focus, we move from some epistemological presuppositions of SFL, by way of some of those of GS, to PO. This can be profitable transition, since in GS terms, SFL is construable as a Specific Semiotics (SS) with language as its main object of study, while GS, on the other hand, is a philosophical project that studies, in Umberto Eco’s words: “the whole of human signifying activity”, and “languages through languages” . GS is thus too, “a philosophy of language which stresses the comparative and systematic approach to languages (and not only to verbal language) by exploiting the result of different, more local enquiries.”
2005
Gennaio
Coppock, Patrick John
Coppock, Patrick John. "Systemic Functional Linguistics, Semiotics and Philosophy of Organism: Part of the same project?" Working paper, Dipartimento di Scienze Sociali, Cognitive e Quantitative - Università di Modena e Reggio Emilia, 2005.
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Utilizza questo identificativo per citare o creare un link a questo documento: https://hdl.handle.net/11380/619556
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