The Nexus of Language, Socio‐Material Practices, and the Ecology

This chapter pushes a radical agenda on language, thus challenging traditional structuralist views in linguistics by rejecting the notion of “a language” or “a language system”. Rather than assuming that language is a homogeneous system that can effectively be studied in isolation from socio-material practices and the wider ecology, the present chapter pushes the opposite view: language activity is fundamentally embodied and interactive, and, furthermore, it remains deeply entangled with the practical contexts wherein it unfolds. Drawing on Félix Guattari's ecosophical philosophy and Humberto Maturana's theory of languaging, this chapter introduces Enlanguaged Cognition (EC) as a theory that explains how linguistic resources are integral to socio-material practices, while emphasizing that languaging shapes both overt communication and nondiscursive action. By engaging with Heidegger's concept of “as-structures” and providing a practical example from the Danish utility sector, the essay demonstrates that languaging is inseparable from human practical understanding and ecological contexts, advocating for a view of language as a dynamic and heterogeneous phenomenon.