Grammaticalisation, Semiotic Pragmatics, and the Social Dimension: Dilemmas for Biosemiotics as a Theoretical and an Applied Science

Abstract

This essayistic paper positions pragmatics as an aspect within biosemiotics, a field still in becoming. “Semiotic pragmatics” is phrased as a contrast to “linguistic pragmatics” since historically, pragmatics, in opposition, departed from (‘pure’) linguistics and developed in various linguistic and semiotic directions. In these struggles “grammaticalisation” became central. As a process it aimed at making sign-theories scientifically crafted by consequent use of synchronism. Pragmatic grammars, such as Peirce’s and Halliday’s came in opposition to traditional (Saussurean) and Chomskyean grammars. The development lead to a series of challenges within biosemiotics, concerning scientificity, the social dimension, communication, triadism, and bio-/semiotics as an applied field. The essayistic approach implies a design turned more to abduction than just to induction and deduction, methodologically speaking mainly by contrasting and exemplifying. The paper ends calling for clarifications of the social dimension’s role in biosemiotics, in theory as in practice.