Shaumyan Sebastian. Signs, Mind, And Reality: A theory of language as the folk model of the world

John Benjamins, 2006. — xxvii, 315 pages. — (Advances in Consciousness Research). — ISBN: 9027252017.The book presents a new science of semiotic linguistics. The goal of semiotic linguistics is to discover what characterizes language as an intermediary between the mind and reality so that language creates the picture of reality we perceive. The cornerstone of semiotic linguistics is the discovery and resolution of language antinomies contradictions between two apparently reasonable principles or laws.Language antinomies constitute the essence of language, and hence must be studied from both linguistic and philosophical points of view. The basic language antinomy which underlies all other antinomies is the antinomy between meaning and information. Both generative and classical linguistic theories are unaware of the need to distinguish between meaning and information. By confounding these notions they are unable to discover language antinomies and confine their research to naturalistic description of superficial language phenomena rather than be concerned with the quest for the essence of language.The Science of Semiotic Linguistics
The confusion of language and logic in modern linguistics
The place of Semiotic Linguistics among other semiotic disciplines
Language defined
Grammar and semantics
Transfer Principle
Genotype grammar and phenotype grammar
The organization of Semiotic Linguistics
Research Program for Semiotic Linguistics
Anomalies, antinomies, and concepts of Semiotic Linguistics
Language as a Phenomenon of the Social Mind
Facts of the social mind
Independence of language from psychology
Independence of language from biology
Methodological fallacy of reductionism
Language versus knowledge of language
Language-thought and the method of the distinction of language from thought
Semiotic versus objectivist view of language
Language as a theoretical construct and language universals
Semiotic universals as genetic factors
The Linguistic Sign
Sign and meaning defined
Critique of Saussure's concept of the linguistic sign
Critique of Peirce's conception of semiotics
The Anomalies of Categorization and the Principle of Differences
Anomalies of categorization
Arbitrariness and conventionality of the linguistic sign
Principle of Differences and the Concept of Value
Explaining the anomaly of meaning by the Principle of Differences
Principle of Duality of Categorization, and value and worth classes of signs and meanings
Critique of Saussure's conception of the arbitrariness of the sign
Homonymy
Principle of Phonological Differences and Principle of Phonological Duality of Categorization
The significance of the Principle of Differences
Disassociation of the sign-meaning bond in modern linguistics
Linguistic Structure
Principle of the Contrast of Structural and Lexical Signs
Syntactic and paradigmatic meanings
Antinomies between lexical and structural meanings
Grammatical structure
The concept of the structural class
Extending the Principle of Differences to cover the structural sign series
The lexicon
Grammar
Law of Autonomy of Grammar from the Lexicon
Semiotic Typology of Languages
Confusion of structural and lexical meanings in modern linguistics
The Theory of Superposition
Meaning and information
Worth-and value-changing contexts
Primary and secondary functions of a sign and the notion of the field
Principle of Superposition
Stability and flexibility of language
Law of Sign-Function Correspondence
Hierarchy of sign functions and the Range-Content Law
Basic and derived words as primary and secondary forms of the word
Antinomies of structural and logical meaning explained by superposition
Confusion of linguistic and logical analysis of meaning
Superposition in diachrony: Principle of Diachronic Differentiation
The theory of synonymy as part of the theory of superposition
A historical note
Methodological Interlude
Dimensions of a theory
The nature of abstraction
Examples of semiotic abstraction
Dialectics and Complementarity Principle
Empirical and conceptual problems in linguistics
What must count as discovery in theoretical linguistics
The pitfalls of formal models of language
Critique of Hjelmslev's notion of linguistic reality
The Word and Word Classes
Difficulties with defining the word
Defining the word
Word and morpheme
Theory of word classes
Word and its syntactic field
Principle of Maximal Distinction
Opposition of independent and dependent words as basis for language typology
Problems with the notion of word classes in contemporary linguistics
Syntax as the Theory of Word Combinations
Word combination as a linguistic gestalt
The structure of the word combination
Constituency as a relational concept
Dependency relations as invariants under changes of constituency
The Nucleus Law
The Nucleus Law and the Principle of Superposition