Language and biosphere

blurry contours as a condition of semiosis

Anton Markos

Dan Faltýnek

pp. 29-45

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

Abstract

The first part of this paper shows how our concepts (seemingly precise and clear-cut) in both linguistics and biology in fact represent very fuzzy and improperly defined entities that shimmer against the background of the world. The second part develops on such a knowledge: we argue that both language and evolution are distributed among many entities and processes on many time- and space- scales. As such, they can be grasped only by tools that allow extraction of meaning – like semiosis and/or narration.