Article

Name: Book review: Koshelev A. D. Essays on evolutionary-synthetic theory of language. Moscow, LCR Publ. House, 2017, 528 p. (Language and Reasoning)

Authors: T. G. Skrebtsova

St. Petersburg State University, St. Petersburg, Russian Federation; Institute for Linguistic Studies of the Russian Academy of Sciences, St. Petersburg, Russian Federation

In the section Review

Abstract: The monograph aims to give a comprehensive and well-integrated theoretical description of the language, taking into account its various properties. The synthetic component of the theory is meant to capture the interactive relations between language and other cognitive systems (thinking, knowledge representation, etc.) while the evolutionary component deals with the problems of onto-, glotto- and anthropogenesis. Linking the two components is sensory language lying at the core of the theory, a new notion that was introduced by A. D. Koshelev. Sensory language is made up of sensory lexical and grammatical units. The author puts forward an elaborate standard for their semantic definition designed to bring out both visual and functional properties of corresponding referents. Unlike most Russian linguists, Koshelev espouses a referential theory of meaning and presents solid arguments in its favour. The book may be classified as the work on cognitive linguistics although its scope is much broader, touching upon psychology, cultural anthropology, philosophy, and cognitive science.

Keywords: reference, mental representation, sensory language, language ontogenesis

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