How to do languaging(s), language games and languages

Abstract

The article elaborates on substance-form aspects of integral communicative practices. Respective substance matters emerge with their shaping into formative and formal modes within the integral bio-social existence and experience of humans. Instrumentally modes help humans to shape or form their irregular substance matters into in-formed mental, behavioral and communicative practices.

The article outlines interpretations of respective transformations and processes from Aristotle, Descartes and Kant to Russell, Wittgenstein, Austin and theoreticians of ongoing cognitive and languaging revolutions. The rigid opposing of the ultimate substance/form abstractions provokes conceptual impediments that result in the notorious pseudo-Cartesian mind-body problem. It is possible to overcome it by refocusing on actual middle ground integral developments including actual psychosomatic and mental processes, human communicative interactions and their pragmatic activities. A promising way to do that is to develop intellectual instruments similar to accommodating Hjelmslevean distinction of content and expression planes or relatively integral substance-form complexes.

The article suggests a range of instrumentalities to methodologically reinterpret actual middle ground practices of languaging and language games. To that effect, it suggests a few complementary ways of their embedding and enacting, particularly new modes and procedures to conceptualize prerequisites and outcomes, externalities and affordances of the matching middle ground practices.