Volume 30, Issue 1

Natural selection is claimed to be the only way to explain complex design. The same assumption has also been held for language. However, sciences of complexity have shown, from a wide range of domains, the existence of a clear alternative: self-organisation, spontaneous patterns of order arising from chaos. According to this view, design derives from internal factors (dynamic interaction of the elements within the system) rather than from adaptation to the environment by means of selection. This paper aims to apply sciences of complexity to language origins; it shows that preexisting and well established ideas can be rethought according to such a view. The main objective of the paper is to illustrate the new and promising horizons that complexity could open as regards the origins of the most specific property of human beings.

From ancient through modern times there have persisted various versions of a dichotomy between ‘natural’ and other, implicitly ‘unnatural’ forms of language. One version is a split between natural language and an ‘artificial’ literary or standard language. This paper examines several key moments in the development of this particular dichotomy, starting with Varro's belief that the language of poets should not be subject to the same rules of analogy as ordinary language is. Dante sets the pattern for modern considerations of the literary and standard language, which he would create by instituting a reversal of history. The concept is subsequently politicized by, for example, Nebrixa and Du Bellay. Saussure's views on literary language have parallels with Dante's ‘elimination of history’, and resonance for other aspects of Saussure's theory of language. The implications for contemporary views of what is and is not ‘natural’ in language are also considered.

The debate about cloning and genetic engineering, which began in 1997, has been strongly influenced by fictional narratives, scripts, and images. They in turn provided the seeds for the creation of various metaphors used in the debate, especially by the media. The flow of metaphors and images associated with cloning is now ebbing away and is being replaced by a new wave of images and metaphors deployed in arguments against genetically modified food. In both cases, cloning and genetically modified food, the media reports are interwoven with more or less explicit references to science fiction novels and films, from Frankenstein to Gattaca and beyond. They nourish and reflect the general public's fears about an increasing process of biological hybridisation which blurs the boundaries between humans, plants, animals, and machines and threatens people's sense of humanity.

Berthoff, Ann E. (1999). The Mysterious Barricades: Language and Its Limits . Toronto: University of Toronto Press. x, 191 pp. (Frank Nuessel)

David Lightfoot (1999). The Development of Language. Acquisition, Change, and Evolution . Oxford: Blackwell, xii, 287 pp. (Víctor M. Longa)

Barbara Korte (1997). Body Language in Literature . Toronto: University of Toronto Press, ix, 329 pp. (Frank Nuessel)