[Xmca-l] Re: Gordon Wells

Mon Jul 20 11:13:55 PDT 2020

Hello David and VO's

I am having some question about the emphasis on vocalization of words when language includes many contexts that are not just social, but inclusive of environmental, circumstances, putting the weather aside to possibly speak of less polite small talk.

Sure, there is a distinction between who is speaking, who is listening, which David touches upon. Still, there is an emergent quality to language use that seems to be taken for granted. Or is it?

For vegetarians for example the slab of meat in between the bread perhaps might not exactly communicate as intended. And what happens of the bread is moldy or dry?

Instead, I see language (I can't cite a linguist who might have theorized much about it in this way, maybe Bakhtin???), as something more likened to cooking, where sometimes one must be exact about recipes, or one can slap something together without thinking, or one can be experienced enough to know an exact recipe by heart to make great marinara sauce with great aplomb in the kitchen, only to realize there aren't enough tomatoes and one will have to improvise and add some red peppers, which then means seasoning will have to be different, etc. With just as much happenstance in time and space, the meal will be received and enjoyed in as many different ways as it was created and served, repairing to the kitchen for salt when a glass of wine is spilled on the tablecloth.

No one really knows what will come next.

Language in this sense is constantly improvised based upon more than the vocalization of words to convey thoughts, word pairings, etc.

Isn't this why we love to see Romeo and Juliet over and over played by different characters? Because the sets, the lighting, the costumes, the stage, the theater, support Shakespeare's providence of lines we already know by heart, along with the story outcome we already know, played by actors we might know and love because of that wordless quality they deliver to their roles, with facial expressions, intonation, cadence, diction, gesture, and poise. One production differs from another, and there is no one particular way it's supposed to go, because all are interpretations that are equally justified as any other.

"A rose is a rose is a rose is a rose" is a line made up of three words said in a chain of four, but isn't from R&J's "What's in a name? "...that which we call a rose/ By any other name would smell as sweet;" though many might confuse it as Shakespeare's not Stein's, because it seems to say the same thing, though differently.

It's the context, not only the words, not the how, the why, the who, but all of it emerging together at a particular moment in time.

Intro to the intro or not, I do plan to read Jay's introduction just the same. ??

Kind regards,

Annalisa

________________________________
From: xmca-l-bounces@mailman.ucsd.edu <xmca-l-bounces@mailman.ucsd.edu> on behalf of David Kellogg <dkellogg60@gmail.com>
Sent: Saturday, July 18, 2020 4:08 PM
To: eXtended Mind, Culture, Activity <xmca-l@mailman.ucsd.edu>
Subject: [Xmca-l] Re: Gordon Wells

  [EXTERNAL]

I confess to getting a certain buzz of pride when I heard American epidemiologists start to complain that they coudn't read Korean medical papers and had to rely on the English abstracts. It was the real, tangible, ocular proof that the long century of English dominance in science is coming to an end (and  maybe what Andy said about end of the long American century is true, at least in the area of science). But  I think that whenever you compare abstracts to articles (and when you listen to doctors complain about getting press releases instead of papers from their colleagues), you have to say that we academic types don't really do spoilers. The devil is always in the detail--or the data. So the intro to the Vygotsky-Halliday-Hasan issue doesn't try to offer some executive summary that will prevent you from reading the articles themselves. I won't either.  Professor Lemke knows who he is talking to--he assumes that most readers will need an intro to Halliday rather than to Vygotsky, and he offers a list of basic concepts. I count four.

a) Language is not a bag of words or even a box of wordings: it's more like a natural resource (say, soil, air, water) which can be described according to three basic human needs: representing doings and happenings, exchanging goods, services and information, and putting together messages in various forms (spoken/written, artistic/scientific). These basic human needs give us the Hallidayan metafunctions: the "what" of ideation, the "who" of interpersonal/social interaction, and the "how" of textual constructions.

b) Language is not a set of pairings of thought and word: it's more like a sandwich with a slice of meaning-bread, a slab of wording-meat, and a slice of sounding-or-spelling bread, with the bread interfacing in a relatively unmediated way with the environment (context at one end and the human body at the other) and the meat having only a mediated relationship to us through the bread.  Here Professor Lemke skips adroitly over his OWN unique contribution to systemic functional linguistics, one that Halliday always scrupulously acknowledged and attributed to him by name. If the relationship were simply a fixed chain of meaning-wording-sounding that does not change, there is no advantage to this model over the Saussurean one of pairings. But it isn't: instead, each layer is linked to the last by META-REDUNDANCY. Meaning is realized (that is, "real"-ized or re-cognized, depending on whether you are listening or speaking) by relating wording to speaking, and speaking is realized by relating meaning to wording. That means that at each realization point the sandwich can be decoupled and rematched--and that is what makes it an infinite resource and not a finite bag or box of wordinigs.

c) Languaging isn't a process of labelling things or even experiences. It's more like a way of pointing them out to someone, a never-ending game of Where's Waldo, except that you and your interlocutor are right there in the picture alongside Waldo. So words don't ever have fixed meanings but instead meaning potential, entirely conditional upon a) and b) above. (Vygotsky distinguishes between sense and meaning, but Halliday gives us the actual mechanism whereby meaning potential gets embodied, and it's not a two-stage process at all....)

d) Language doesn't do universals. Or rather, the universal only exists in the particular, and the particular exists only through the individual. Without weather, we wouldn't be talking about climate, and without climate, we wouldn't know what to say..

David Kellogg
Sangmyung University

New Article: Ruqaiya Hasan, in memoriam: A manual and a manifesto.
Outlines, Spring 2020
https://urldefense.com/v3/__https://tidsskrift.dk/outlines/article/view/116238__;!!Mih3wA!Vk3_dsz3Q5idL-TWfcHE_unwS7704VGiYAegs1xG4k_08asYy7h39YG38FSvm5d8rNLzMg$ <https://urldefense.com/v3/__https://tidsskrift.dk/outlines/article/view/116238__;!!Mih3wA!WWLDjMq2OGWLnHlocqsUxQ9WOUdocjsHvjXJpA0eU00e0t5q9KkqI4DcWgXisJthff4dFQ$>
New Translation with Nikolai Veresov: L.S. Vygotsky's Pedological Works Volume One: Foundations of Pedology"
 https://urldefense.com/v3/__https://www.springer.com/gp/book/9789811505270__;!!Mih3wA!Vk3_dsz3Q5idL-TWfcHE_unwS7704VGiYAegs1xG4k_08asYy7h39YG38FSvm5cZCDCbLg$ 
<https://urldefense.com/v3/__https://www.springer.com/gp/book/9789811505270__;!!Mih3wA!WWLDjMq2OGWLnHlocqsUxQ9WOUdocjsHvjXJpA0eU00e0t5q9KkqI4DcWgXisJvcYZ9zjw$>

On Sat, Jul 18, 2020 at 9:05 AM mike cole <mcole@ucsd.edu<mailto:mcole@ucsd.edu>> wrote:
David--

It is pretty certain that most readers will not yet have read Jay's intro the LSV/Halliday/Hasan (!!) symposium.
And if they are not familiar with Gordon's work, they won't get that connection either. Both seem important
for us to understand.

Might you  have time to  fill out the thoughts? I will cc Jay in case he is not reading xmca.
It seems like a good opportunity to pull a bunch of people/ideas together?
Hopefully
mike

On Fri, Jul 17, 2020 at 4:56 PM David Kellogg <dkellogg60@gmail.com<mailto:dkellogg60@gmail.com>> wrote:
In almost all the compilation volumes I have read on the Halliday/Vygotsky nexus, there is a tendency towards division of labor: the Hallidayans pretty much ignore Vygotsky and the Vygotskyans pretty much ignore Halliday.

Not with Gordon Wells, though. And not here either. Lemke starts off like with what he insists are THREE themes:

(1) linguistic resources for making meaning
(2) human development and the operation of higher mental functions
(3) situated social interaction and historically evolved cultural patterns of practice

Hang on! Isn't that really FIVE? At least!

Not so. The operation of higher mental functions in you and in me is an instance of a historical process called human development, and situated social interaction is likewise an instance of historically evolved cultural patterns of practice. So from the get-go, Jay Lemke signs up to Hasan's understanding of the "cline of instantiation" (and the crucial distinction between instantiation on the one hand and realization on the other).

Are linguistic resources simply the latest instance of making meaning? Or is it better to think of linguistic resources as "realizing" ("real"-izing, but also achieving conscious awareness of and control over) meaning-making?

David Kellogg
Sangmyung University

New Article: Ruqaiya Hasan, in memoriam: A manual and a manifesto.
Outlines, Spring 2020
https://urldefense.com/v3/__https://tidsskrift.dk/outlines/article/view/116238__;!!Mih3wA!Vk3_dsz3Q5idL-TWfcHE_unwS7704VGiYAegs1xG4k_08asYy7h39YG38FSvm5d8rNLzMg$ <https://urldefense.com/v3/__https://tidsskrift.dk/outlines/article/view/116238__;!!Mih3wA!WmtkVt30P9wuKiGUAd_HvO0tUOvqZH75IueTFhxapLRlL7BKtsLTCxviAq5imDoQxOJL0g$>
New Translation with Nikolai Veresov: L.S. Vygotsky's Pedological Works Volume One: Foundations of Pedology"
 https://urldefense.com/v3/__https://www.springer.com/gp/book/9789811505270__;!!Mih3wA!Vk3_dsz3Q5idL-TWfcHE_unwS7704VGiYAegs1xG4k_08asYy7h39YG38FSvm5cZCDCbLg$ 
<https://urldefense.com/v3/__https://www.springer.com/gp/book/9789811505270__;!!Mih3wA!WmtkVt30P9wuKiGUAd_HvO0tUOvqZH75IueTFhxapLRlL7BKtsLTCxviAq5imDoR-syhWA$>

On Fri, Jul 17, 2020 at 1:53 PM Alfredo Jornet Gil <a.j.gil@ils.uio.no<mailto:a.j.gil@ils.uio.no>> wrote:

Here is the PDF for Jay’s introduction. (As I was downloading it, I noticed that Jay’s postal address may be wrong; the publisher will be fixing this before it goes to press, but the text will be the same.)

As per dedicating the whole issue to Gordon Wells, which we will do in the overall editorial, if you or others in this list were interested in writing a post on/in memoriam of Gordon Wells for Cultural Praxis, let us know and get in touch through culturalpraxis@ils.uio.no<mailto:culturalpraxis@ils.uio.no>

Best,

Alfredo

From: <xmca-l-bounces@mailman.ucsd.edu<mailto:xmca-l-bounces@mailman.ucsd.edu>> on behalf of David Kellogg <dkellogg60@gmail.com<mailto:dkellogg60@gmail.com>>
Reply to: "eXtended Mind, Culture, Activity" <xmca-l@mailman.ucsd.edu<mailto:xmca-l@mailman.ucsd.edu>>
Date: Friday, 17 July 2020 at 01:58
To: "eXtended Mind, Culture, Activity" <xmca-l@mailman.ucsd.edu<mailto:xmca-l@mailman.ucsd.edu>>
Subject: [Xmca-l] Re: Gordon Wells

Yes, I see Jay Lemke's intro:

https://urldefense.com/v3/__https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/10749039.2020.1794009__;!!Mih3wA!Vk3_dsz3Q5idL-TWfcHE_unwS7704VGiYAegs1xG4k_08asYy7h39YG38FSvm5eQhftadA$ <https://urldefense.com/v3/__https:/www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/10749039.2020.1794009__;!!Mih3wA!T_CogK1HXO0v1MSEtMt5-XEb_XJ9GP9OaC2DvzP3LaygD4CH0ehleldkrG7uoVdlnDdXsQ$>

Unfortunately, I can't access it without paying an arm and a leg. Isn't there even a preview?

David Kellogg

Sangmyung University

New Article: Ruqaiya Hasan, in memoriam: A manual and a manifesto.

Outlines, Spring 2020

https://urldefense.com/v3/__https://tidsskrift.dk/outlines/article/view/116238__;!!Mih3wA!Vk3_dsz3Q5idL-TWfcHE_unwS7704VGiYAegs1xG4k_08asYy7h39YG38FSvm5d8rNLzMg$ <https://urldefense.com/v3/__https:/tidsskrift.dk/outlines/article/view/116238__;!!Mih3wA!T_CogK1HXO0v1MSEtMt5-XEb_XJ9GP9OaC2DvzP3LaygD4CH0ehleldkrG7uoVeV6h6agw$>

New Translation with Nikolai Veresov: L.S. Vygotsky's Pedological Works Volume One: Foundations of Pedology"

 https://urldefense.com/v3/__https://www.springer.com/gp/book/9789811505270__;!!Mih3wA!Vk3_dsz3Q5idL-TWfcHE_unwS7704VGiYAegs1xG4k_08asYy7h39YG38FSvm5cZCDCbLg$ 
<https://urldefense.com/v3/__https:/www.springer.com/gp/book/9789811505270__;!!Mih3wA!T_CogK1HXO0v1MSEtMt5-XEb_XJ9GP9OaC2DvzP3LaygD4CH0ehleldkrG7uoVfCyYMyng$>

On Thu, Jul 16, 2020 at 5:52 PM Alfredo Jornet Gil <a.j.gil@ils.uio.no<mailto:a.j.gil@ils.uio.no>> wrote:

Yes, David, great suggestion. In fact, the set of articles is coming out these days, to be part of issue 3, and we did discuss exactly that yesterday. Best,

Alfredo

From: <xmca-l-bounces@mailman.ucsd.edu<mailto:xmca-l-bounces@mailman.ucsd.edu>> on behalf of David Kellogg <dkellogg60@gmail.com<mailto:dkellogg60@gmail.com>>
Reply to: "eXtended Mind, Culture, Activity" <xmca-l@mailman.ucsd.edu<mailto:xmca-l@mailman.ucsd.edu>>
Date: Thursday, 16 July 2020 at 03:31
To: "eXtended Mind, Culture, Activity" <xmca-l@mailman.ucsd.edu<mailto:xmca-l@mailman.ucsd.edu>>
Subject: [Xmca-l] Re: Gordon Wells

Alfredo--

What about dedicating that Vygotsky-Halliday special issue to the late, great Gordon Wells?

(You know he really discovered that great metamorphic vein of thinking, in which I am still a coal-faced little mine boy....)

David Kellogg

Sangmyung University

New Article: Ruqaiya Hasan, in memoriam: A manual and a manifesto.

Outlines, Spring 2020

https://urldefense.com/v3/__https://tidsskrift.dk/outlines/article/view/116238__;!!Mih3wA!Vk3_dsz3Q5idL-TWfcHE_unwS7704VGiYAegs1xG4k_08asYy7h39YG38FSvm5d8rNLzMg$ <https://urldefense.com/v3/__https:/tidsskrift.dk/outlines/article/view/116238__;!!Mih3wA!SyvQAgDai_VrZZXKQHAZQI-5BFIdovvjzj1luADDAejsAOuTu1d4LpdPYonFCykvgwRkWg$>

New Translation with Nikolai Veresov: L.S. Vygotsky's Pedological Works Volume One: Foundations of Pedology"

 https://urldefense.com/v3/__https://www.springer.com/gp/book/9789811505270__;!!Mih3wA!Vk3_dsz3Q5idL-TWfcHE_unwS7704VGiYAegs1xG4k_08asYy7h39YG38FSvm5cZCDCbLg$ 
<https://urldefense.com/v3/__https:/www.springer.com/gp/book/9789811505270__;!!Mih3wA!SyvQAgDai_VrZZXKQHAZQI-5BFIdovvjzj1luADDAejsAOuTu1d4LpdPYonFCykdCoe3yQ$>

On Thu, Jul 16, 2020 at 7:13 AM Alfredo Jornet Gil <a.j.gil@ils.uio.no<mailto:a.j.gil@ils.uio.no>> wrote:

Oh no, these are terrible news. When I started at InterMedia in Oslo around 2010, Gordon Well’s Dialogic Inquiry was still one of the core references informing much of the work that we were and continue doing on education. My condolences to colleagues, friends, and family. And thanks for sharing, Greg.

Alfredo

From: <xmca-l-bounces@mailman.ucsd.edu<mailto:xmca-l-bounces@mailman.ucsd.edu>> on behalf of Greg Thompson <greg.a.thompson@gmail.com<mailto:greg.a.thompson@gmail.com>>
Reply to: "eXtended Mind, Culture, Activity" <xmca-l@mailman.ucsd.edu<mailto:xmca-l@mailman.ucsd.edu>>
Date: Wednesday, 15 July 2020 at 23:40
To: "xmca-l@ucsd.edu<mailto:xmca-l@ucsd.edu>" <xmca-l@ucsd.edu<mailto:xmca-l@ucsd.edu>>
Subject: [Xmca-l] Gordon Wells

Forwarding this message that I received from the SCT-SLL listserve.

It is a tragic and unfortunate loss.

-greg

=================

Begin forwarded message

Colleagues,

It is with deep regret that I write to inform this community of the sudden passing of Gordon Wells. Gordon was struck by a car while riding his bike Sunday evening in State College, Pennsylvania, where he lived with his wife, Mari Haneda (a faculty member at Penn State University). He was rushed to the hospital for emergency surgery but did not pull through. Gordon was a cherished and respected colleague, teacher, mentor, and friend to scholars and educators around the world. This is a shocking loss for Mari and Gordon's family and for all of us.

Matt

Matthew E. Poehner

Associate Department Head, Curriculum and Instruction

Professor of World Languages Education and Applied Linguistics

President, International Association for Cognitive Education and Psychology

Associate Editor, Language and Sociocultural Theory

The Pennsylvania State University

Department of Curriculum and Instruction

159 Chambers Building

University Park, PA 16802

814-865-2161

--

Gregory A. Thompson, Ph.D.

Assistant Professor

Department of Anthropology

880 Spencer W. Kimball Tower

Brigham Young University

Provo, UT 84602

WEBSITE: https://urldefense.com/v3/__https://anthropology.byu.edu/greg-thompson__;!!Mih3wA!Vk3_dsz3Q5idL-TWfcHE_unwS7704VGiYAegs1xG4k_08asYy7h39YG38FSvm5ddXYy7ww$ <https://urldefense.com/v3/__https:/anthropology.byu.edu/greg-thompson__;!!Mih3wA!VRy6jSUwl0Kb_amKGVqBpTBWtGAn_XJyZlFGRT5FD_AspPxgPKsi1owAqkPEjmI$>
https://urldefense.com/v3/__http://byu.academia.edu/GregoryThompson__;!!Mih3wA!Vk3_dsz3Q5idL-TWfcHE_unwS7704VGiYAegs1xG4k_08asYy7h39YG38FSvm5cPoCKl7w$ <https://urldefense.com/v3/__http:/byu.academia.edu/GregoryThompson__;!!Mih3wA!VRy6jSUwl0Kb_amKGVqBpTBWtGAn_XJyZlFGRT5FD_AspPxgPKsi1owAeubQTGQ$>

--

I[Angelus Novus]<https://urldefense.com/v3/__http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Angelus_Novus__;!!Mih3wA!U3I8lxjVU2vKG3R_OrePCWa1iSeJucjcfhp6bVFVixjrKPwQMjofig4vtTPCa75DmVN6Mg$>

The Angel's View of History is looking as plausible in 2020 as it did to Walter Benjamin & Klee in 1940

---------------------------------------------

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Archival resources website: lchc.ucsd.edu<http://lchc.ucsd.edu>.
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