The Centre is a joint project of philosophers, philologists, art historians, linguists and mathematicians for whom language is not only a medium but also a specific object of research. In collaboration between three faculties, the Faculty of Arts, the Faculty of Mathematics and Physics, and the Faculty of Humanities, the research focuses on the comparison and interaction of different approaches to discursivity, from the understanding of language as an empirical phenomenon to its hermeneutic grasp as a medium of meaning and interpretation. Gestural (embodied and interactive forms of language) and pictorial (material forms of language) aspects are considered to be the unifying feature of these approaches and at the same time their presupposition.
The duration of the project is 6 years. The Centre brings together a team of 17 junior researchers under the supervision of 5 senior researchers.
Prof. Miroslav Petříček, Dr. (principal investigator, FF UK)
Prof. PhDr. Eva Voldřichová-Beránková, Ph.D. (FF UK)
Prof. PhDr. Vojtěch Kolman, Ph.D. (FF UK)
Prof. RNDr. Jaroslav Nešetřil, DrSc. (MFF UK)
Doc. Mgr. Josef Fulka, PhD. (FHS UK)
The scientific aim of the project is to investigate different forms of discursivity, i.e. different answers to the question “what is language?”, and their interactions between philosophical, philological, art, linguistic and mathematical disciplines. This research will be coordinated through two core problem areas identified by the following questions:
(1) In what sense is language to be understood as an experienced phenomenon, i.e. in its performative, embodied and social forms as opposed to its theoretical, conceptual and abstract forms?
(2) In what sense can the phenomenon of discursivity be extended beyond “verbal” systems, i.e., why can we speak of language in cases of other forms of “representation” such as images, gestures, musical notation, etc.?
Against this background, a third strand emerges as a key theme of the project, namely (3) clarifying the relationship between language and thought. Our proposal is, after clarifying questions (1) and (2), to see thinking as an open-ended process in which the carrier of meaning can be not only a linguistic expression, but also a gesture, a diagram, a drawing or an image – and, depending on the context, anything that will be grasped as a “sign”. The reference to the material handling of signs (painting, writing, speaking) can then easily be replaced by phrases such as thinking on paper, thinking aloud, thinking in pictures, etc. These questions and the whole interdisciplinary reasearch about language are also relevant in the context of the development of technology and artificial intelligence in particular.
The practical aim of the project is (a) to support the professional growth of talented juniors by effectively integrating them into the international community, including publishing and project activities, and (b) to stimulate ways of their interdisciplinary collaboration. The chosen topic and team composition is likely to achieve this goal because it does not limit the scope of the juniors’ investigations, but rather motivates them to look at their research from a different perspective. A supporting function of the project is (c) the support of talented PhD students who may obtain post-doc positions after their defence, as well as the dissemination of the project results in teaching at secondary schools and universities.
