Toward a Fuller Description and Theorization of Linguistic Communication

Abstract

  This paper addresses one of the classical, yet still unsolved question of how we can understand ‘others’ and, more fundamentally, how we can communicate with each other. As a point of departure, Vygotsky’s approach to language and thought is discussed. It is pointed out that while Yygotsky’s framework addresses the issue of thinking mediated by language in general it seemingly fails to address two important questions. One of them concerns itself with the issue of direct (i.e., unmediated) perception that is assumed, yet not explained in Vygotsky’s theory; the other is the issue of thinking mediated by the structural differences among different particular languages. J.J. Gibson’s idea of information provides a framework for the former question and B.L. Whorf’s linguistic relativity hypothesis for the latter. The question is; Could these different views be synthesized as a general theory of communication and understanding ‘eothers’ ? It is argued that Peirce’s semiotics with a special emphasis on indexicality provides an overall framework in which these different views play their own roles.