Beyond the horizon: a more-than-human and holistic approach to language

This position paper proposes a more-than-human and holistic approach to language that moves beyond entrenched divides between structuralism, constructivism, positivism, and methodological camps. Writing under the collective pseudonym Gaya Seldon, we argue that many oppositions in linguistics, particularly the equation of quantitative methods with positivism and structuralism, rest on reductive misreadings. Structuralism, we contend, is not inherently anti-social or anti-agentive but grounded in relationality; its caricature has contributed to theoretical fragmentation and epistemic silos. At the same time, constructivist and decolonial turns, while critically valuable, often remain entangled in colonial, extractivist, capitalist, hegemonic, and anthropocentric logics. We propose an ecolinguistic, holistic framework that disentangles method from epistemology and repositions language as emerging within dynamic, relational systems that include human and more-than-human actors. Drawing on critical quantitative approaches, dynamic systems theory, and more-than-human ecolinguistics, we advocate principled methodological openness grounded in care, reflexivity, and ethical accountability. Rather than methodological eclecticism, we call for a relational praxis capable of integrating qualitative and quantitative tools while foregrounding socio-ecological justice and interdependence across living systems.