Roy
Harris
Online
Integrationism: a very brief introduction:
Integration
3. Integration.
3a. The term integrational alludes to the recognition that the linguistic sign alone cannot function as the basis of an independent, self-sufficient form of communication, but depends for effectiveness on its integration with non-verbal activities of many different kinds. These include all those that do not depend in any way on being able to speak or write; i.e. most of the basic activities needed for everyday living (eating, drinking, bodily movement, standing up, lying down, walking, fetching and carrying, avoiding obstacles, using elementary tools, paying attention to objects and happenings in the immediate environment, etc.). This ubiquitous prelinguistic substrate of behaviour is a prerequisite for the emergence and maintenance of verbal communication in all its forms. Not a single example has ever been found of a system of words or sentences which is useful and meaningful although totally unrelated to any non-verbal human activity. Even the ‘abstract’ language of mathematics has its roots in everyday integrated procedures of counting and measuring, as practised from time immemorial in markets all over the world.
3b. The integrated character of linguistic and non-linguistic practices is so fundamental for human beings as to make it difficult to separate out any purely linguistic component. However you try to tackle the problem, there is no universal dividing line between the linguistic and the non-linguistic. This becomes comprehensible when it is realized that the human child has no way of learning what are in retrospect regarded as its ‘first words’ other than as extensions of pre-linguistic vocal activities. Nor, having mastered these ‘first words’, coached by its parents, does the child immediately abandon the use of all earlier non-linguistic signs. On the contrary, the verbal signs become ever more complexly integrated into a whole range of other signs and activities that gradually assume importance in the child’s life. Thus the notion that any episode of linguistic communication can be reduced to its verbal component, without reference to the prelinguistic activities involved, must be rejected.
3c. The same is true of adult communication. To take a trivial example, raising a hand and pointing to a certain building supplies an answer to the question ‘Which is the Town Hall?’. In that respect it is as much a linguistic ability as being able say, without pointing, ‘That building opposite is the Town Hall’. Again, when you ask someone to shut the window, what you expect (or hope for) is a non-verbal response in the form of actions taken by the person you are addressing. In order to make sense, your question has to relate to an existing non-verbal situation where there is a window open and your addressee is in a position to shut it. In order to understand your question, the person you are speaking to has to understand not only the words you uttered but also what a window is and how to shut it. By shutting the window, your addressee gives a contextually integrated response to your question. Thus there is a sense in which that response is no less a linguistic act than your utterance, since what makes it the right response is determined by the language of your question. Shutting the window in those circumstances is an intrinsic move in the communication process. If you then say ‘Thanks!’ when the window is closed, you have just taken part in an integrated sequence of activities involving you and someone else, of which the crucial component (getting the window shut) did not involve uttering words at all.
Back to Integrationism: a very brief introduction
