Complexity Perspectives on Language, Communication and Society

Contents 1 Introduction ......................................................................................................1 Àngels Massip-Bonet, Albert Bastardas-Boada 2 Facing Complexity: Prediction vs. Adaptation .............................................3 Carlos Gershenson 1 Introduction ...................................................................................................3 2 The Limits of Prediction ................................................................................4 3 Complexity ....................................................................................................5 4 Adaptation .....................................................................................................9 5 Self-organization............................................................................................9 6 Language .....................................................................................................10 7 The Model and the Modeled ........................................................................12 8 Conclusions .................................................................................................12 References ........................................................................................................13 3 Sociolinguistics: Towards a Complex Ecological View................................15 Albert Bastardas-Boada 1 Introduction .................................................................................................15 2 The Perspective of Complexity....................................................................16 3 The Main Aspects of an Ecological Complexity: A Proposal .....................18 4 Sociolinguistic Complexity..........................................................................20 5 The (Bio)ecological Perspective as a Metaphor ..........................................23 6 Towards a Socio-emo-cognitive Language Ecology ...................................28 7 Time and Co-evolution in Sociolinguistics..................................................32 References ........................................................................................................34 4 Language as a Complex Adaptive System: Towards an Integrative Linguistics........................................................................................................35 Àngels Massip-Bonet 1 Shared Assumptions ....................................................................................35 2 Main Vocabulary .........................................................................................36 2.1 Concept................................................................................................36 2.2 Measures of Complexity ......................................................................37 2.3 Systems ................................................................................................39 2.4 Context.................................................................................................40 2.5 Organisms ............................................................................................41 VIII Contents 3 Change in Complex Systems .......................................................................41 3.1 Irreversibility, Self-organization and Emergence ................................41 3.2 Attractors .............................................................................................43 3.3 On the Edge of Chaos ..........................................................................44 3.4 Co-adaptation.......................................................................................44 4 Characteristics of the Language System as a CAS (Complex Adaptive System)........................................................................44 4.1 Distributed Control and Collective Emergence ...................................45 4.2 Intrinsic Diversity ................................................................................45 4.3 Perpetual Dynamics .............................................................................45 4.4 Adaptation through Factors of Amplification and Competition ..........46 4.5 Non-linearity and Phase Transitions ....................................................46 4.6 Sensitive Dependence on Network Structure.......................................46 5 Language Change ........................................................................................46 5.1 Complexity and Change......................................................................46 5.2 Language Change and Variation..........................................................47 5.3 Parallels between Biological and Language Systems ..........................48 6 Language Evolution and Language Change ................................................48 7 Language and Thought: Grammar ...............................................................49 8 Culture .........................................................................................................50 9 From Genes to Culture.................................................................................52 10 Brain and Culture.......................................................................................53 11 Theories and Time .....................................................................................53 11.1 Linguistic Theories and Complexity..............................................53 11.2 Reducing Complexity .....................................................................54 12 Epistemological Conclusions.....................................................................55 12.1 Brain Activity and Epistemology.....................................................55 12.2 Neuronal Connections......................................................................56 13 Conclusions ...............................................................................................57 References ........................................................................................................57 5 An Experientially-Based Informationless Communication ........................61 Òscar Vilarroya 1 Introduction .................................................................................................61 2 An Experientially-Based Communication ...................................................64 3 Information in Experientially-Based Communication .................................70 Reference ..........................................................................................................73 6 Conversation as Emergent Function.............................................................75 Xavier Martorell 1 Introduction .................................................................................................75 2 Properties of Emergent Functions................................................................75 3 Conversation Analysis .................................................................................76 4 The Analytical Perspective ..........................................................................78 5 The Complex Perspective ............................................................................79 5.1 Mind-Reading Modules .......................................................................79 Contents IX 5.2 Social Intelligence ...............................................................................80 6 Who Studies Complexity? ...........................................................................81 7 How Are Cognitive Functions Generated? ..................................................82 8 Conclusions .................................................................................................83 References ........................................................................................................84 7 Communication Situations: A Dialogic Quiz?..............................................85 Enric Puig-Giralt 1 Introduction .................................................................................................85 2 Complexity and Informal Speech ................................................................86 3 From the Historical Discourse to the Art of Advertising.............................87 4 A Whole Music Experience.........................................................................91 References ........................................................................................................93 8 Education, Emotion, Complexity ..................................................................95 Pere Darder 1 Introduction .................................................................................................95 2 References to the Theory of Complexity .....................................................96 3 The Emotions, Here and Now......................................................................96 4 The Characterization of Emotions ...............................................................97 4.1 Emotional Education............................................................................98 4.2 School Education .................................................................................98 4.3 The Emotional Competence of the Teacher.........................................99 5 Rethinking Education ..................................................................................99 5.1 Integrated Education ............................................................................99 5.2 Learning and Knowledge...................................................................100 5.3 Participation and Governance in Education.......................................100 6 A Brief Final Consideration.......................................................................101 References ......................................................................................................101 9 Minds and Screens: Communication and Socialization from a Complexity Perspective ................................................................................103 Magdalena Albero-Andrés 1 Assumptions about the Relationship between Media and Young People ........................................................................................................103 2 Causes of the Use of the Non-complex Approach .....................................106 3 How a Non-complex Approach Misleads Us ............................................107 4 Applying a Complexity Perspective to the Use of Media Products and Media Education in Schools ......................................................................110 References .....................................................................................................114 10 Self-organization in Communicating Groups: The Emergence of Coordination, Shared References and Collective Intelligence ................117 Francis Heylighen 1 Introduction .............................................................................................117 2 Complex Systems ....................................................................................118 X Contents 3 Self-organization......................................................................................120 4 Self-organization as a Problem of Coordination......................................122 4.1 Self-organization of Alignment .......................................................123 4.2 Division of Labor.............................................................................126 4.3 Workflow.........................................................................................127 4.4 Aggregation .....................................................................................128 5 Collective Intelligence .............................................................................129 5.1 Requirements for Collective Intelligence ........................................129 5.2 Groupthink and Polarization ............................................................131 5.3 Avoiding Groupthink .......................................................................132 6 The Self-organization of Shared References ...........................................132 6.1 The Origin of Language...................................................................133 6.2 Conversational Alignment ...............................................................135 6.3 Group Alignment .............................................................................136 7 An Experiment in Collective Intelligence................................................137 7.1 Setting Up an Experiment................................................................137 7.2 Results of the Experiment................................................................141 7.3 Interpretation of the Results.............................................................142 8 Conclusion ...............................................................................................144 References ....................................................................................................146 11 General Linguistics and Communication Sciences: Sociocomplexity as an Integrative Perspective .....................................................................151 Albert Bastardas-Boada 1 Introduction: The Need for a Perspective of Complexity ........................151 2 Towards a Paradigm of Complexity ........................................................153 2.1 Constructing a World. The Representation of Reality, and Scientific Activity ............................................................................153 2.2 (Re)thinking Reality .......................................................................154 2.3 Wholes and Parts ............................................................................156 2.4 Time................................................................................................159 2.5 Human Beings: The Centrality of the Mind/Brain..........................161 2.6 Interdisciplinarity............................................................................164 3 Linguistics and Complexity ....................................................................166 References ...................................................................................................171 12 The Fuzzy Complexity of Language..........................................................175 Frederic Munné 1 Fuzziness as a Property of Complex Systems..........................................175 2 Inverting the Laws of Aristotelian Logic.................................................177 3 Language as a Fuzzy System ...................................................................178 4 Delimitation: Reducing the Fuzziness .....................................................180 5 Categorization: A Resource for Definition ..............................................182 6 Dichotomization: Glossing over the Fuzziness........................................184 7 Words as Fuzzy Concepts........................................................................186 8 Words and Definitions .............................................................................189 Contents XI 9 Indicators of Fuzziness ............................................................................191 10 Expanding Fuzziness: Hypertext ...........................................................193 11 Returning to Where We Began ..............................................................195 References ....................................................................................................195 13 The Emergence of Complexity in Language: An Evolutionary Perspective..................................................................................................197 Salikoko S. Mufwene 1 Introduction ............................................................................................197 2 Languages as Technologies ....................................................................201 3 The Phylogenetic Emergence of Complexity .........................................204 3.1 The Nature of Linguistic Complexity .............................................204 3.2 How Did Complexity Emerge Phylogenetically in Language? ......208 4 Conclusions ............................................................................................213 References ...................................................................................................215 14 The Ecology of Pressures: Towards a Tool to Analyze the Complex Process of Language Shift and Maintenance...........................................219 Roland Terborg and Laura García-Landa 1 Introduction ............................................................................................219 2 The Origin of Actions .............................................................................222 3 The Origin of Pressure............................................................................222 4 Interests and Pressures ............................................................................225 5 The State of the World and Pressures .....................................................228 6 Competence and Common Routine ........................................................229 7 Classification of Pressures ......................................................................235 8 As a Conclusion......................................................................................237 References ...................................................................................................238 15 Ethics and Progress in Today’s World .....................................................241 Federico Mayor Zaragoza Author Index ......................................................................................................247 Subject Index......................................................................................................249