Life, The Multiverse And Everything: An Introduction To The Ideas Of Humberto Maturana Interpreting Maturana / quote 39 of 50
Language is not an abstract phenomenon
It is important to note that no particular behaviour or movement or gesture or sound constitutes languaging. Rather, it is an ongoing process because it is defined in the history of the coordination of actions. Just a word or gesture does not constitute languaging. Furthermore, languaging is not an abstract phenomenon, we are not dealing with abstract entities. Languaging becomes part of our medium and so anything we say is not trivial since it becomes part of the domain in which our co-ontogenic structural drift takes place. That is, our co-drifts are contingent upon our languaging. Languaging interactions are as powerful as a physical interaction e.g. pushing someone hard.