This presentation focuses on the interweaving of constructive praxis with communication in ontogenesis, in phylogenesis and in biocultural niche evolution (ecogenesis), within an EvoDevoSocio framework. I begin by discussing the nature of symbolization, its evolution from communicative signaling and its elaboration into semantic systems. I distinguish between the symbol-ready and the language-ready brain, leading to a discussion of linguistic conceptualization and its dual grounding in organism and language system. There follows an outline account of the interpenetration in the human biocultural niche-complex of semiosphere and technosphere, mediated by the evolution of the niche of infancy. Symbolization (the foundation of the semiosphere) is by definition normative; the normative character of the technosphere is demonstrated by the interrelations in human development between affordance, action schema and canonical functional object schema. A model of the neuro-computational implementation of dual grounding is proposed.
References
Sinha, C. (2018) Praxis, symbol and language: developmental, ecological and linguistic issues. Interaction Studies 19: 1-2 (2018), 239-255. doi: 10.1075/is.17025.sin
Arbib, M.A. & 20 others including C. Sinha (2018). The Comparative Neuroprimatology 2017 (CNP-2017) road map for research on how the brain got language. Interaction Studies 19: 1-2 (2018), 370-387. doi: 10.1075/is.18013.arb