Chapter "Umwelt and language" available in Google Books

My recently published book chapter "Umwelt and language" is available in Google Books (full text, except for 5 pages or so). 

Mention of "Umwelt and language" chapter in introductory chapter

My chapter "Umwelt and language" (see recent post) is briefly mentioned in the introductory chapter of the book in which it appears:

Kull, Kalevi and Ekaterina Velmezova 2015. Language, Linguistics: Life, Biosemiotics... In Ekaterina Velmezova, Stephen J. Cowley and Kalevi Kull, Kalevi (Eds.), Biosemiotic Perspectives on Language and Linguistics (Biosemiotics 13) (Dordrecht: Springer), 1–10.

The reference appears on p. 7. Excerpt:

Morten Tønnessen’s contribution deals with language and umwelt. In this article, relations between these two “entities” turn out opposite in comparison with a “traditional” view.

Reference for "Umwelt and language"; product flyer

Here´s the reference for my article "Umwelt and language", which is being published in these days:

Tønnessen, Morten 2015. Umwelt and language. In Ekaterina Velmezova, Stephen J. Cowley and Kalevi Kull, Kalevi (Eds.), Biosemiotic Perspectives on Language and Linguistics (Biosemiotics 13) (Dordrecht: Springer), 77–96. Electronic versioon: DOI 10.1007/978-3-319-20663-9_5.

See also product flyer for the book. 

"Umwelt and language" proof-read

I have just proof-read my forthcoming book chapter "Umwelt and language". I had to do it manually, since Springer´s e.Proofing system did not work (not the first time).

"Umwelt and language" scheduled for publication September 14th

The book Biosemiotic Perspectives on Language and Linguistics (eds. Velmezova, Kull, Cowley; = Biosemiotics 13), which will include my chapter "Umwelt and language", has been scheduled for publication September 14th. Product flyer available here.

Chapter "Umwelt and language" proof-read

Today I have proof-read my chapter "Umwelt and language" (see some relevant previous posts), which will soon appear in a volume in the Biosemiotics book series published by Springer.

"Umwelt and language" completed, to appear in Cahiers de l'ILSL

About four weeks ago I finished my article "Umwelt and language", which is to appear this autumn in a special issue of the Swiss journal Cahiers de l'ILSL [l'Institut de Linguistique et des Sciences du Langage] on biosemiotic perspectives on language guest-edited by Ekaterina Velmezova, Stephen Cowley and Kalevi Kull.

Contents:

1. Introduction

2. 'I language, therefore I model'

2.1 Uexküll and language

2.2 Is language external or internal to the Umwelt? 

2.3 The tripartite Umwelt model

3. Languaging as perception, action and self-deception

3.1 Languaging is more-than-linguistic

3.2 Language and self-deception: The anthropocentric mistake

3.3 In search of the dark matter of our enlightened worlds

4. The genesis and modalities of language

4.1 Origin and evolution of language

4.2 Acquisition of language in childhood

4.3 The various linguistic modalities of the human Umwelt

5. Beyond the anthropocentric mistake: Languaging as if nature mattered

Abstract

It is often asserted that the existence of human language sets us apart from non-humans, and makes us incomparably special. And indeed human language does make our Umwelt (Uexküll), our lifeworld, uniquely open-ended. However, by committing what I term the anthropocentric mistake, i.e. falsely assuming that all true reality is linguistic, we close in on ourselves and our language-derived practices, and as a result we lose sight of much that truly matters (including a proper understanding of our human nature). Like Sebeok and Hoffmeyer I hold that language is a modeling system, but unlike them I argue that language is not external to the Umwelt, but internal to it. Language changes the human Umwelt not by escaping or sidelining it, but by fundamentally transforming it. In consequence supra-linguistic phenomena as well are modeled as internal to the human Umwelt. The Umwelt model presented is termed the tripartite Umwelt model, and includes three aspects of Umwelt: The core Umwelt, the mediated Umwelt and the conceptual Umwelt. Linguistic practices are placed within the latter, but it is furthermore claimed that a number of animals too have conceptual Umwelten, which is said to be characterized by predicative reasoning, the attribution of specific features to someone or something. The activity of languaging is presented as more-than-linguistic, with reference to the distributed language perspective. Given all the dark matter underpinning and surrounding verbal practices, a foray into the hinterland of language is called for. A section on the genesis and modalities of language addresses the origin and evolution of language, acquisition of language in childhood and a simple typology of the various linguistic modalities of the human Umwelt. The concluding section treats Puura’s notion of semiocide, and the question: How can we language as if nature mattered?

Keywords: the anthropocentric mistake, dark cognitive matter, dark cultural matter, distributed language, first-order languaging, genesis of language, perception, semiocide, Umwelt theory