Proposal of Ecological Semantics: Language as “Signifiers”

Abstract

　This paper aims to situate language within ecological psychology and discuss its creativity from an ecological perspective. Based on the notion of ecological realism, which assumes that concrete and abstract relationships exist both equally and independently of agents in the human-environment sys tem, this paper claims the necessity of defining the two-phase process of actualizing and perceptualizing affordances. In the process, language is positioned as “perceptualizers” or “signifiers” in perceptualizing design. This new model of language enables further discussion of abstract concepts expressed by language and its creativity.