•  201
    Towards a complex-figurational socio-linguistics
    History of the Human Sciences 27 (3): 55-75. 2014.
    As figurational sociologists and sociolinguists, we need to know that we currently find support from other fields in our efforts to construct a sociocultural science focused on interdependencies and processes, creating a multidimensional picture of human beings, one in which the brain and its mental and emotional processes are properly recognized. The paradigmatic revolutions in 20th-century physics, the contributions made by biology to our understanding of living beings, the conceptual construc…Read more
  •  294
    Complexity and language contact: A socio-cognitive framework
    In Salikoko S. Mufwene, François Pellegrino & Christophe Coupé (eds.), Complexity in language. Developmental and evolutionary perspectives., Cambridge University Press. pp. 218-243. 2017.
    Throughout most of the 20th century, analytical and reductionist approaches have dominated in biological, social, and humanistic sciences, including linguistics and communication. We generally believed we could account for fundamental phenomena in invoking basic elemental units. Although the amount of knowledge generated was certainly impressive, we have also seen limitations of this approach. Discovering the sound formants of human languages, for example, has allowed us to know vital aspects of…Read more
  •  186
    As a sort of intellectual provocation and as a lateral thinking strategy for creativity, this chapter seeks to determine what the study of the dynamics of biodiversity can offer linguists. In recent years, the analogical equation "language = biological species" has become more widespread as a metaphorical source for conceptual renovation, and, at the same time, as a justification for the defense of language diversity. Language diversity would be protected in a way similar to the mobilization tha…Read more
  •  289
    ‘Restricted’ and ‘General’ Complexity Perspectives on Social Bilingualisation and Language Shift Processes
    In Àngels Massip-Bonet, Gemma Bel-Enguix & Albert Bastardas-Boada (eds.), Complexity Applications in Language and Communication Sciences, Springer. pp. 119-137. 2019.
    Historical processes exert an influence on the current state and evolution of situations of language contact, brought to bear from different domains, the economic and the political, the ideological and group identities, geo-demographics, and the habits of inter-group use. Clearly, this kind of phenomenon requires study from a complexical and holistic perspective in order to accommodate the variety of factors that belong to different levels and that interrelate with one another in the evolving dy…Read more
  •  1270
    Family Multilingualism in Medium-Sized Language Communities (edited book)
    with Emili Boix-Fuster and Rosa M. Torrens Guerrini
    Peter Lang. 2019.
    Medium-sized language communities face competition between local and global languages such as Spanish, Russian, French and, above all, English. The various regions of Spain where Catalan is spoken, Denmark, the Czech Republic, and Lithuania show how their medium-sized languages (a term used to distinguish them as much from minority codes as from more widely-spoken codes) coexist alongside or struggle with their big brothers in multilingual families. This comparative analysis offers unique insigh…Read more
  •  100
    Complejidad y fenómeno (socio)lingüístico
    LSC - Llengua, Societat I Comunicació / Language, Society and Communication 11 5-14. 2013.
    Los fenómenos del nivel intermedio de la realidad presentan unas características particulares de autoorganización sistémica, de interrelación polinivelada, de recursividad, de emergencia de nuevos «objetos» con propiedades distintas a las de los elementos que los forman, y de dinamicidad evolutiva, que necesitan probablemente la formulación de nuevas concepciones teóricas y de principios paradigmáticos distintos. A esa «complejidad» de la realidad es a lo que intenta dar respuesta adecuada lo qu…Read more
  •  111
    The 'complexity' approach can be positive and very helpful for General Linguistics theory because departs from: a) the idea that knowledge or meaning can exist without a being who produces them, b) the fragmented and reductionist view of reality and its too mechanistic oriented images, c) the 'linear' causality models, d) the tendency to dichotomise the categories about reality, e) the 'third excluded' Aristotelian principle (binary logic: if something is here it is not there), f) the disappeara…Read more
  •  150
    In recent years the term ‘family language policy’ has begun to circulate in the international sociolinguistics literature (cf. Spolsky 2004, 2007, 2012, King et al. 2008; Caldas 2012; Schwartz & Verschik 2013)1. From a conceptual standpoint, however, the creation and/or use of this syntagma, applied directly to the language decisions taken by family members to speak to one another, can raise questions about whether one should apply what appears rather to be a framework that pertains to actions a…Read more
  •  653
    Human linguistic phenomenon is at one and the same time an individual, social, and political fact. As such, its study should bear in mind these complex interrelations, which are produced inside the framework of the sociocultural and historical ecosystem of each human community. Understanding this phenomenon is often no easy task, due to the range of elements involved and their interrelations. The absence of valid, clearly developed paradigms adds to the problem and means that the theoretical con…Read more
  •  393
    Linguistic sustainability for a multilingual humanity
    Sustainable Multilingualism / Darnioji Daugiakalbystė 5 134-163. 2014.
    Transdisciplinary analogies and metaphors are potential useful tools for thinking and creativity. The exploration of other conceptual philosophies and fields can be rewarding and can contribute to produce new useful ideas to be applied on different problems and parts of reality. The development of the so-called 'sustainability' approach allows us to explore the possibility of translate and adapt some of its main ideas to the organisation of human language diversity. The concept of 'sustainabilit…Read more
  •  232
    Complexity Perspectives on Language, Communication and Society (edited book)
    with Àngels Massip-Bonet
    Springer. 2013.
    The “language-communication-society” triangle defies traditional scientific approaches. Rather, it is a phenomenon that calls for an integration of complex, transdisciplinary perspectives, if we are to make any progress in understanding how it works. The highly diverse agents in play are not merely cognitive and/or cultural, but also emotional and behavioural in their specificity. Indeed, the effort may require building a theoretical and methodological body of knowledge that can effectively conv…Read more
  •  740
    This book aims to contribute to the overall, integrated understanding of the processes of language contact and their evolution, be they the result of political or economic (dis)integrations or migrations or for technological reasons. Via an interdisciplinary, holistic approach, it also aims to aid the theoretical grounding of a unified, common sociolinguistic paradigm, based on an ecological and complexical perspective. This perspective is based on the fact that linguistic structures do not li…Read more
  •  184
    Contact between culturally distinct human groups in the contemporary ‘glocal’ -global and local- world is much greater than at any point in history. The challenge we face is the identification of the most convenient ways to organise the coexistence of different human language groups in order that we might promote their solidarity as members of the same culturally developed biological species. Processes of economic and political integration currently in motion are seeing increasing numbers of peo…Read more
  •  8
    Complexity Applications in Language and Communication Sciences (edited book)
    with Àngels Massip-Bonet and Gemma Bel-Enguix
    Springer Nature Switzerland AG. 2019.
    This book offers insights on the study of natural language as a complex adaptive system. It discusses a new way to tackle the problem of language modeling, and provides clues on how the close relation between natural language and some biological structures can be very fruitful for science. The book examines the theoretical framework and then applies its main principles to various areas of linguistics. It discusses applications in language contact, language change, diachronic linguistics, and the…Read more
  •  217
    Complexics as a meta-transdisciplinary field
    Congrès Mondial Pour la Pensée Complexe. Les Défis D’Un Monde Globalisé. (Paris, 8-9 Décembre. UNESCO). 2019.
    ‘Complexics’ denotes the meta-transdisciplinary field specifically concerned with giving us suitable cognitive tools to understand the world’s complexity. Additionally, the use of the adjective ‘complexical’ would avoid the common confusion caused by the adjective ‘complex’, which belongs to everyday usage and already has its own connotations of complication and confusion. Thus, ‘complexical’ thinking and ‘complexical’ perspective would provide clearer terms, be freer of confusion, and refer mor…Read more