Enchrony

What are the properties of mind that make language the way it is, and languages the way they are? To answer those questions, it is necessary to look at the causal processes by which languages become the way they are. The relevant dynamic processes take place in different causal frames, including the familiar diachronic, phylogenetic, ontogenetic, and microgenetic frames. One frame is less frequently acknowledged and yet is arguably central to cognitive-scientific explanations of language. This is the enchronic frame, which critically involves a public semiotic process (running at the time-course of milliseconds and seconds) by which each utterance serves as an interpretant of-that is, a meaningful response to-what came before it, driving the progression of social interaction, the most experience-near context of language usage. The notion of enchrony is needed for bringing together certain aspects of language that are typically handled by quite disparate conceptual and methodological approaches (e.g., lexical semantics, morphological typology, conversation analysis, sociolinguistic typology, diachronic linguistics). Situated within an integrated set of causal frames for language, enchrony provides conceptual tools for an account of language that foregrounds social cognition and interaction in a usage-based model. This article is categorized under: Linguistics > Cognitive Linguistics.