Habitus and Communication Theory
There is a tendency among the sciences to promote theoretical knowledge over practical knowledge. Bourdieu was concerned with the role of practical knowledge within society. He developed this concept of Habitus and developed it into an important contribution to social theory. One is not born with Habitus. It is learned through repitition. It consists of actions that are internalized by the human body. He uses the game metaphor to explain this concept. At some point one knows how to play the social game. He has internalized the strategies needed to be successful in playing the game. The result is the acquisition of practical knowledge. What role, it should be asked, does the concept of Habitus play in communication theory? This is the focus of this essay.
Linguistic Systems and the Physiological Classification of Verbs
From a linguistic perspective, verbs are merely a collection of classificatgory devices. From a physiological point of view, verbs are complex neural pathways that are marked along the motor cortex system and represent merely a point in an extensive flare of neuronal activity. Within the framework of the embodied mind, the nervous system is part of the mind and it runs throughout the body. Verbs are part of that system but they exist as neuronal pathways that are linked within the brain. What is presented here is a classification of verbs as neuronal patterns. Some of these neuronal pathways will share motor activity with other verbs and how these paths are organized is the key to the phjysiological classification of verbs. PDF Copy
The Limbic System and the Serial Order of Communicative Signs
There are three brain and the one that is continuously being redefined is the mid brain which consists of the limbic system. It is argued that this portion of the brain functions, in many wayss, as a shunt displacer for neuronal signals. Built into brain theory is the old phrenological system that looks for the brain as a collection of objects, but the brain is a network and the serial order of communicative signs is organized much along the lines of the electronic signals in a computer. There is much to be said in favor of the brain as a computer model, but theories of the brain are overstructured with many computer components that have no reality except as computer constructs. This model attempts to create a balance between these views.
Second Generation of Cognitive Linguistics
The second generation of linguistics represents the changes that took place from language beging seen as a concatenation of signs to language being seen as a concatenation of concepts and ideas. In the older model, grammar consisted of sign patterns; in the newer model, grammar has to do with cognitive schemata, the organization of ideas and concepts. Metaphor plays a major role in this process because it has to do with analogical reasoning and many concepts are created in this way.
Metacognition and the Teaching of Grammar
Metacognition has to do with thinking and talking about cognition. This is the approach to teach grammatical concepts. One needs to have a theory behind language teaching and metacognition provides such a framework.
Metaphor and Linguistic Creativity
There are two kinds of creativiy. One has to do with the rearrangement or the creation of new forms and the other has to do with the new creation of meaing. The former dominates in models of language. Transformations, for example, have to do with the rearrangement of forms. The creation of a system, on the other hand, has more to do with meaning than with form. The creation of new ideas is rare. Much of philosophical thought has to do with the creation of new meanings. The renaissance of metaphorical thought, which contributes greatly to creativity, has to do with a new theory of meaning. What is lacking in this new model is exactly what made the previous model of language so important for the creation of new forms, viz. transformational theory. Both are needed. One contributes to meaning theory and the other to a theory of form. A merger between the two will provide for a stronger theory of linguistic creativity.