Towards a Cognitive Ecology of Language

The conundrum of the human condition

Linguists quarrel about the functions of language. Cognitive scientists disagree on the nature of cognition. Philosophy of mind is a battlefield for physicalists, materialists, idealists, dualists, and monists. And each of these debates, positions, and arguments have implications for the other debates, so basically, we face an intricate network of moving targets in our understanding of the human condition.

Oscillating between theoretical arguments and empirical case studies, this kick-off lecture will provide an overview of the research I plan to pursue at the Amsterdam IAS. As a language researcher who draws on recent developments in cognitive science, my primary research interest is to understand how language intersects with behaviour in ways that have ecological consequences.

Cognition is embodied and interactional

The lecture takes a starting point in recent developments in cognitive science. After half a century of computational models of cognition, cognitive scientists have begun questioning the idea that cognition is a disembodied, computational property of “single-minded” agents (Dingemanse et al., 2023). Instead, they suggest that cognition, action, and perception play out in the interactions between embodied agents and their social and natural environment. This change of perspective on cognition has given rise to multiple empirical programs, including ecological psychology, distributed cognition, and radical embodied cognitive science.

A recent offshoot that draws on these programs is cognitive ecology (Hutchins, 2010; Steffensen & Baggs, 2024; Tribble & Sutton, 2011). Cognitive ecology uses qualitative methods (such as cognitive ethnography) to study cognitive ecosystems, that is, coalitions of interacting bodies, artefacts, cultural norms, and social habits. It is specifically focused on how human cognitive powers are adapted to specific social and ecological task landscapes (Trasmundi, Baggs, Toro, & Steffensen, 2024).

Language is an ecological phenomenon

In the lecture, I will argue that an ecological perspective on language allows for the investigation of how linguistic events impact on human behavioural dynamics. Rather than focusing on language as an object of study in its own right, cognitive ecology provides a fertile starting point for understanding the intersection between language, social interaction, cognitive events, and the environment in which we live.

This development can be taken in two directions. On the one hand, one can use it to scrutinise how language interweaves with mundane activities in the human lifeworld. On the other hand, one can ask how large-scale “wicked problems”, such as the ecological crisis, has a linguistic dimension. If the rapid changes in the earth systems (global warming, loss of biodiversity, acidification of the oceans, etc.) are caused by human behaviour, and if language plays a role in human behaviour, what is then the role of language in the current crisis?

This intersection between an ecological perspective on language and an ecological concern for the environment has given rise to the linguistic discipline of ecolinguistics (Steffensen, 2024a, 2024b; Steffensen, Döring, & Cowley, 2024). Accordingly, my lecture ends by introducing this rapidly growing field.

Programme

References

• Dingemanse, M., Liesenfeld, A., Rasenberg, M., Albert, S., Ameka, F. K., Birhane, A., . . . Wiltschko, M. (2023). Beyond Single-Mindedness: A Figure-Ground Reversal for the Cognitive Sciences. Cognitive Science, 47(1), e13230. doi:10.1111/cogs.13230
• Hutchins, E. (2010). Cognitive ecology. Topics in Cognitive Science, 2(4), 705-715. doi:10.1111/j.1756-8765.2010.01089.x
• Steffensen, S. V. (2024a). On the demarcation of ecolinguistics. Journal of World Languages.
• Steffensen, S. V. (2024b). Surveying ecolinguistics. Journal of World Languages.
• Steffensen, S. V., & Baggs, E. (2024). Ecolinguistics and the cognitive ecology of global warming. In S. V. Steffensen, M. Döring, & S. Cowley (Eds.), Language as an Ecological Phenomenon: Languaging and Bioecologies in Human-Environment Relationships. London: Bloomsbury.
• Steffensen, S. V., Döring, M., & Cowley, S. J. (Eds.). (2024). Language as an Ecological Phenomenon: Languaging and Bioecologies in Human-Environment Relationships. London: Bloomsbury.
• Trasmundi, S. B., Baggs, E., Toro, J., & Steffensen, S. V. (2024). Expertise in Non-Well-Defined Task Domains: The Case of Reading. Social Epistemology, 38(1), 13-27. doi:10.1080/02691728.2023.2266690
• Tribble, E., & Sutton, J. (2011). Cognitive Ecology as a Framework for Shakespearean Studies. Shakespeare Studies, 39, 94-103.