A part outside the whole? (To Anton Zimmerling's article “Really: syntactics without semiotics?”)

• Published in: Slovo.ru : Baltiĭskiĭ akt͡s︡ent Vol. 14; no. 4; pp. 153 - 169
• Main Author: Chebanov, Sergey V.
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Immanuel Kant Baltic Federal University 2023
• Subjects: biosemiotics; fan matrices; hermeneutics; non-philological linguistics; ongstad; philological linguistics; philology; pragmalinguistics; semiotics; witzany
• ISSN: 2225-5346; 2686-8989
• DOI: 10.5922/2225-5346-2023-4-9

Before delving into the connections between linguistics and semiotics, it is essential to es­tablish a clear demarcation between these fields, which necessitates a precise definition of each subject. However, the approach taken by Anton Zimmerling in this regard is subject to de­bate. In the discussion of semiotics, the focus tends to lean towards interpretations that recog­nize the dual understanding of signs, while unilateral conceptions of signs are often over­looked. Linguistics is typically confined to the study of language itself, and the treatment of linguistics concerning speech (text) is often seen as a concealed branch of philology. Moreo­ver, it remains unclear whether the distinction between language and speech pertains to lin­guistics or philology. This ambiguity extends to the status of linguistic pragmatics. To address this issue constructively, it is useful to differentiate between five concepts en­compassing language and speech: hermeneutics, philology, linguistics, semiotics, and prag­malinguistics. Each of these concepts delineates a specific ontology and corresponding metho­do­lo­gical approach. By considering them as orthogonal axes within a fan matrix, one can identify 25 possible approaches for studying speech, including those that are currently em­ployed and potential ones. Within this framework, philological linguistics, as discussed by Zimmerling, finds its place, and the transitions of scholars like Witzany from biohermeneu­tics to biopragmalinguistics and Ongstad's shift from philology become more comprehensible.