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Cognitive Study for Language as a Complex Adaptive System: Evidence from Chinese WeChat Communications

Received: 28 January 2019     Accepted: 3 April 2019     Published: 15 May 2019
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Abstract

The nature of language has always been the core issue of academic inquiry. Form and function, symbol and representation, linearity and system, static and dynamic, inner and outer, mind and brain, etc. are always the hot arguing topics in both linguistics and philosophical fields. The complex adaptive theory argues that language understanding requires whole-hearted intelligent participation and the adaptive selection of complex systems, which is the overall response of human beings to the external world and language stimulus. In order to prove this, this article chooses Chinese daily language on the WeChat as examples so as to provide evidence for explaining the complexity of language expression and language understanding. With thoughtful analysis and discussion by exploring the essential features of language evidence, this paper concludes that language understanding goes beyond the syntactic sequences of words and involves the whole cognition and adaptation of human being to the environment; semantic generation needs to mobilize the comprehensive coordination of all elements of human cognitive systems to produce the overall effect. It further indicates that thinking is literal and coherent, and suitable for logical modeling. This conclusion is in accordance with the biological and neural science claim by the second generation of cognitive science.

Published in International Journal of Language and Linguistics (Volume 7, Issue 2)
DOI 10.11648/j.ijll.20190702.14
Page(s) 78-84
Creative Commons

This is an Open Access article, distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted use, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, provided the original work is properly cited.

Copyright

Copyright © The Author(s), 2019. Published by Science Publishing Group

Keywords

Language, Complex Adaptive System, Cognition

References
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[2] Wang, Shiyuan. 2006. Language is Complex Adaptive System. Journal of Tsinghua University, 21(6): 5-13.
[3] Ellis, N. C. & D. Larsen-Freeman. 2009. Language as a Complex Adaptive System: Position Paper. Language Learning 59: Suppl. 1. pp. v-vii.
[4] Wolfe, T. 2016. The Kingdom of Speech. New York: Little, Brown and Company, Hachette Book Group, Inc.
[5] Bolhuis, J. J., Tattersall, I., Chomsky, N. & R. C. Berwick. 2014. How could language have evolved?. PLOS Biology, 12(8): 1-6.
[6] Chomsky, N. 2009. Cartesian Linguistics: A Chapter in the History of Rationalist Thought (3rd ed.). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
[7] Berwick, R. C. & N. Chomsky. 2016. Why Only Us: Language and Evolution. Cambridge, MA: The MIT Press.
[8] Yang Kun & Jiang Canzhong. 2017. Biolinguisitics in China—Report on the First Seminar of Biolinguistics. Foreign Language Research. (2): 127.
[9] Lai, C. S., Fisher, S. E., Hurst, J. A., Vargha-Khadem, F., & Monaco, A. P. 2001. A fork head-domain gene is mutated in a severe speech and language disorder. Nature, 413, 519–523.
[10] Mozzi, A. et al. 2016. The evolutionary history of genes involved in spoken and written language: beyond FOXP2. Scientific Reports 6: 1-12.
[11] Atkinson, E. G. et al. 2018. No Evidence for Recent Selection at FOXP2 among Diverse Human Populations. Cell 174, 1-12.
[12] Hall, M. J. (Trans.). 1999. The Collected Works of L. S. Vygotsky Vol. 6 Scientific Legacy. New York: Kluwer Academic/Plenum Publishers.
[13] Cole, M., John-Steiner, V., Scribner, S. & E. Souberman. 1978. Mind in Society: The Development of Higher Psychological Processes. Cambridge: Harvard University Press.
[14] Kallestrup, J. 2012. Semantic Externalism. New York: Routledge.
[15] Lappin, S. 1996. The Handbook of Contemporary Semantic Theory. Oxford: Blackwell Publishers Ltd.
[16] Kelso, J. A. Scott.1995. Dynamic Patterns: The Self-organization of Brain and Behavior . Massachusetts: MIT Press.
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[18] Whorf, B. 1956. Language, Thought and Reality: Selected Writings of Benjamin Lee Whorf, J. Carroll (ed.) Cambridge: MIT Press.
[19] Lakoff, G. 2003. “How the Body Shapes Thought: Thinking with an All Too Human Brain”. in A. Sanford and P. Johnson-Laird (eds.) The Nature and Limits of Human Understanding: The 2001 Gifford Lectures at the University of Glasgow . Edinburgh: T. & T. Clark Publishers, Ltd.: 49–74.
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  • APA Style

    Jianjun Ma. (2019). Cognitive Study for Language as a Complex Adaptive System: Evidence from Chinese WeChat Communications. International Journal of Language and Linguistics, 7(2), 78-84. https://doi.org/10.11648/j.ijll.20190702.14

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    ACS Style

    Jianjun Ma. Cognitive Study for Language as a Complex Adaptive System: Evidence from Chinese WeChat Communications. Int. J. Lang. Linguist. 2019, 7(2), 78-84. doi: 10.11648/j.ijll.20190702.14

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    AMA Style

    Jianjun Ma. Cognitive Study for Language as a Complex Adaptive System: Evidence from Chinese WeChat Communications. Int J Lang Linguist. 2019;7(2):78-84. doi: 10.11648/j.ijll.20190702.14

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  • @article{10.11648/j.ijll.20190702.14,
      author = {Jianjun Ma},
      title = {Cognitive Study for Language as a Complex Adaptive System: Evidence from Chinese WeChat Communications},
      journal = {International Journal of Language and Linguistics},
      volume = {7},
      number = {2},
      pages = {78-84},
      doi = {10.11648/j.ijll.20190702.14},
      url = {https://doi.org/10.11648/j.ijll.20190702.14},
      eprint = {https://article.sciencepublishinggroup.com/pdf/10.11648.j.ijll.20190702.14},
      abstract = {The nature of language has always been the core issue of academic inquiry. Form and function, symbol and representation, linearity and system, static and dynamic, inner and outer, mind and brain, etc. are always the hot arguing topics in both linguistics and philosophical fields. The complex adaptive theory argues that language understanding requires whole-hearted intelligent participation and the adaptive selection of complex systems, which is the overall response of human beings to the external world and language stimulus. In order to prove this, this article chooses Chinese daily language on the WeChat as examples so as to provide evidence for explaining the complexity of language expression and language understanding. With thoughtful analysis and discussion by exploring the essential features of language evidence, this paper concludes that language understanding goes beyond the syntactic sequences of words and involves the whole cognition and adaptation of human being to the environment; semantic generation needs to mobilize the comprehensive coordination of all elements of human cognitive systems to produce the overall effect. It further indicates that thinking is literal and coherent, and suitable for logical modeling. This conclusion is in accordance with the biological and neural science claim by the second generation of cognitive science.},
     year = {2019}
    }
    

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    AB  - The nature of language has always been the core issue of academic inquiry. Form and function, symbol and representation, linearity and system, static and dynamic, inner and outer, mind and brain, etc. are always the hot arguing topics in both linguistics and philosophical fields. The complex adaptive theory argues that language understanding requires whole-hearted intelligent participation and the adaptive selection of complex systems, which is the overall response of human beings to the external world and language stimulus. In order to prove this, this article chooses Chinese daily language on the WeChat as examples so as to provide evidence for explaining the complexity of language expression and language understanding. With thoughtful analysis and discussion by exploring the essential features of language evidence, this paper concludes that language understanding goes beyond the syntactic sequences of words and involves the whole cognition and adaptation of human being to the environment; semantic generation needs to mobilize the comprehensive coordination of all elements of human cognitive systems to produce the overall effect. It further indicates that thinking is literal and coherent, and suitable for logical modeling. This conclusion is in accordance with the biological and neural science claim by the second generation of cognitive science.
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Author Information
  • Foreign Language College, Hunan University of Finance and Economics, Changsha, China

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