Introdungcing English language part 49: 'In this exciting new textbook, Louise Mullany and Peter Stockwell have provided a fresh and imaginative set of alternatives for teaching and learning a huge amount about the English language. The book allows tor creative and lateral approaches to developing an understanding of important linguistic concepts and, together with the thought-provoking activities, and accessible readings, guarantees there is something to stimulate every learner. | Bob Carter and Alison Sealey 274 EXTENSION LINGUISTIC READINGS However in the linguistically saturated world inhabited by the contemporary human species there is perpetual interplay between practice and language with the existence of language representing a quantum leap in the human potential for practice in the world. Language as a cultural emergent property The interplay of language and practice to which we have just alluded rests not only on the assertion of the temporal priority of human practice but also on the stratified social ontology of culture structure and agency. . R ealists claim that the world is not directly produced or constructed by us but is rather the complex outcome of the interactions between structural contexts and ourselves. They view social relations and structures as emergent properties of social interaction Archer 1995 . Since emergence is a key term . we shall take a moment to explore it in more detail. Emergence refers to the generation of new entities or phenomena from the combination of other entities or phenomena. Because the new entity is emergent from this combination it possesses certain distinct features namely irreducibility to any of its constituent elements autonomy from any of its constituent elements ability to interact with any of its constituent elements. Thus languages are emergent products of the engagement of human practice with the material world they cannot be reduced to any of their constituents that is languages are not merely what human beings say nor are they simply an internal relationship between linguistic signs nor yet a grammar which is grasped intuitively and is not corrigible by human intervention they have a partial independence or autonomy both from human beings we learn a language that pre-exists us and from the material world through language people create things such as stories and characters which have no physical counterpart and finally language is itself a practice capable of enabling people to act .
