About My Research (a brief introduction)

Research on language and meaning from an ecological perspective

There are several language models, but most linguists implicitly assume that language is an internal representation: language is a tool for conveying meaning and information in participants' minds. From this point of view, the "meaning of a word" is the content transmitted between speakers through its form, and it has been held by most modern linguists.

Cognitive linguistics is a paradigm of cognitive science that considers the environment and the body. However, the cognitive abilities that underlie it are considered internal to the individual. Therefore, cognitive linguistics still clings to the traditional idea that the meaning of a word is a mental representation through unconstrained conceptualization and interpretation, although it emphasizes the embodied nature of meaning and concepts.

On the other hand, in sociology or social linguistics, discourse analysis, ethnography, and cognitive science, which advocates the decentralized nature of cognition (Hutchins 1995), meaning is considered a valuable act realized in joint action. Edward Reed, an inheritor of James Gibson's ecological psychology, argues that language is not information transmission. However, it is a means of identifying and sharing information (ecological meaning and value) in the environment. He does not take a psychological or cognitivist stance that language directly reflects the speaker's interpretation or vision, nor does he take an objective semantic or causal stance that language directly corresponds to affordances. 

In my research, I would like to focus on the discussion of "salience" and "reference point structure" in cognitive linguistics from the perspective that language is a design in the environment to facilitate the discovery of affordances and is a "signifier (Norman 2010)". 

I focus on "ecological meaning" realized by linguistic action while incorporating the discussion of "salience" and "reference-point structure" (Langacker 1991; 1993) in cognitive linguistics. In addition, I examine the ecological motivation of forms such as word usage and word order. 

My Previous Research

In my graduation thesis on Hokkaido dialects, I concluded that the "V-rasar construction" expresses the perceived affordances of objects (pencil, button, ...). V-rasar construction can be used flexibly for new things and products. If we consider language to be part of the design, we can see that thinking about objects and the language used around them can greatly help us rethink how we design new products (product design).

In my master's thesis in 2016, I wrote about "place expression" (Nakagawa 1984; Izutsu 2006), which is considered to be the definitive expression in the Ainu language. I especially discussed the fact that place nouns and place names specify the affordance perception of the land. I argued that place nouns and place names are definite expressions because they are distinguished by the availability of land based on the possibility of action. The findings of this discussion are consistent with the discussion of "placeness" (Relph 1977; Tuan 1979), which is both unique and shared with experience, and with Augustin Berque's discussion of "milieu."

In my doctoral dissertation, I aimed to theoretically position and practically apply ecological semantics based on ecological realism. I proposed a way to guarantee language creativity without relying on subjectivism. Instead, I emphasize aspects such as the infinity of affordances. I also proposed positioning language as a signifier that facilitates the perception of affordances, establishing a method for describing ecological semantics while introducing the concept of human-environmental systems as the object of description for ecological semantics. In addition, I introduced description analysis methods in cognitive linguistics, such as cognitive diagrams and frame semantics in cognitive grammar, as description methods for ecological semantics.

Development of a theoretical linguistic foundation to contribute to the reconstruction of the Ainu language 

It is an urgent task to go beyond mere description to an awareness of how to revive the productivity of endangered languages. It is a matter of intra-linguistic theory and the community's life that uses the language and the environment surrounding it. From an ecological point of view, the study of language is not so much about what was in the speaker's mind as it is about how the speaker identified and shared pragmatic meanings in the environment. In other words, accumulating linguistic knowledge and reconstructing the possibility of perception-action as a linguistic resource through ecological linguistic research is a way to make a theoretical contribution to language reconstruction.

For example, the Te Ataarangi method, a language acquisition method inherited from the Maori tradition, does not teach the knowledge of grammar and meaning but prioritizes sharing the place where Maori is spoken. It supports the natural acquisition of language by inserting words only in Maori. Creating and sharing such a place are increasingly active in the Ainu language, especially in Nibutani. I believe an ecological approach will be needed as an even more effective teaching method for non-Ainu people from the perspective of mutual understanding.

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