If you take a Marxian approach, life and being together was there prior
to language--prior to anthropogenesis. Similar, children do not use or
speak language prior to a certain age. . . again, being in relation
appears more encompassing than language. This is also the message we
get from Heidegger, who suggests that language (words) accrue to
meaning wholes, life, rather than get meaning from somewhere.
WMR
On 17-Jun-05, at 9:17 AM, Steven Thorne wrote:
>
> hi again Michael (and all) -- while i am not familiar with this
> Polwork, i agree with an approach that relations are privileged over
> language per se, but as you would also agree, relations and language
> dialectically infuse one another. as the linguistic anthropologist
>
>> Steve, here one more thing that goes into the same direction from
>> DIALOGUE AS A WAY TO HUMANITY, JOLANA POLÁKOVÁ
>>
>>
>> In dialogue, language as a system of signs is just an aid to
>> relation, which permeates language, appropriating it and creatively
>> working with it. Despite modern linguistic reduction, he who speaks
>> and that which is spoken of does exist outside language. The
>> possibility of linguistic creativity is conditioned precisely by this
>> fact. In case the world is identified with "the world of language",
>> there is nothing to conduct genuine dialogue about and no one with
>> whom to conduct it.
>>
>> In dialogue, language is adjusted to relatedness, not the other way
>> round. Language receives its life from dialogue; without contact with
>> what there is, it dies. Even my speaking Self becomes real or unreal
>> depending on the extent of the reality I allow to enter into my
>> words. If I am more my own myself in dialogue, this is because in it
>> I intrinsically stand up for that which is - and then also my
>> language meets its intrinsic destination. If I transcend it with a
>> genuine contact with reality, it, too, will transcend me with a
>> genuine contact with that with whom I want to speak. This
>> transcendent character of dialogue is transferred onto everything
>> that may serve it.
>>
>> The freer we are from language, the freer our language is itself. The
>> system of signs can function only in relation to an indisposable
>> reality. In the opposite case, it does not "mean" anything, but
>> ceases to be itself.
>>
>> In the end, the predominance of relation over language means that a
>> dialogic relation may cover more than could be communicated by
>> language.
>>
>>
>> Michael
>>
>> On 16-Jun-05, at 8:23 PM, Steven Thorne wrote:
>>
>>>
>>> you've misread me. for clarification, the point above had to do with
>>> my (possible mis-) interpretation of your earlier (to me unclear)
>>> statement about mediation.
>>>
>>> BREAK: Ana's note just came in. Michael -- as you feel so strongly
>>> about what i (and possibly others) have not taken account of/been
>>> consistent with, why don't we move at least one strand of the
>>> conversation in the direction Ana suggests -- that you illustrate
>>> some concrete examples using Buber in particular. what do you think?
>>>
>>> steve
>>>
>>>> Back to the above point, the mediating relationship in the activity
>>>> system, or for action, cannot be the same as that in the operation
>>>> case, and this is exactly the point Heidegger, Wittgenstein, Buber
>>>> and others seem to make in my view.
>>>
>>>
>>> --
>>>
>>>
>>> Steven L. Thorne
>>> Assistant Professor of Applied Linguistics
>>> Linguistics and Applied Language Studies
>>> and
>>> Communication Arts and Sciences
>>> Associate Director, Center for Language Acquisition
>>> Associate Director, Center for Advanced Language Proficiency
>>> Education and Research
>>> The Pennsylvania State University
>>> Interact > 814.863.7036 | sthorne@psu.edu |
>>> http://language.la.psu.edu/~thorne/ | IM: avkrook
>
>
> --
> Steven L. Thorne
> Assistant Professor of Applied Linguistics
> Linguistics and Applied Language Studies
> and
> Communication Arts and Sciences
> Associate Director, Center for Language Acquisition
> Associate Director, Center for Advanced Language Proficiency Education
> and Research
> The Pennsylvania State University
> Interact > 814.863.7036 | sthorne@psu.edu |
> http://language.la.psu.edu/~thorne/ | IM: avkrook
>
>
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