1 Distributed Language: Using differences to create differences 1 Stephen. J. Cowley, Centre for Human Interactivity and the COMAC cluster, University of Southern Denmark, Slagelse Campus Abstract In viewing language as multi-scale co-ordination, a distributed view challenges central postulates of linguistics. It not only denies that language is essentially ‘symbolic’ but also that verbal patterns are represented inside minds or brains. Rather, language is, at once, collective, individual and constitutive of the feeling of thinking. It is distributed between us. Those pursuing this view have made two major advances. First, language is traced to, not a neural faculty, but a history of interactivity. Second, humans because humans constantly cope with lack of understanding, they have come to rely on time-ranging. I conclude that this offers a rich view of meaning to an inclusive ecolinguistic agenda. Much can be gained, I argue, if linguists strive to encourage bio-ecological awareness. Keywords: distributed language, ecological psychology, ecolinguistics, distributed cognition, enactivism, biosemiotics, linguistics 1. It’s the ecology, stupid Since Bill Clinton’s election in 1992, American politics has often been associated with the slogan “It’s the economy, stupid.” My concern, however, is with neither voting, US culture, nor the global economy. Rather, it is the crisis faced by the co-inhabitants of the planet. Environments are being degraded, habitats destroyed and biodiversity crushed; we know, moreover, that the ecological crisis stems from how humans transform the world of the living. That much is clear; yet, most of us feel that, personally, we are not responsible. Even the self-declared international community view ecological degradation as a problem to be solved by combining carefully managed growth, new forms of training and, above all, data-based innovation. Few even ask if, in principle, technical means could resolve the crisis. As goes almost without saying, the environment is seen as outside language and social life; for this reason, linguists and others who work with texts, talk and the media rarely strive to play a role in seeking solutions. I beg to differ. My thesis is that ecological disaster reduces biodiversity and, thus, narrows the space for what is human. As Gregory Bateson (1972; 1979) first saw, many of the contemporary world’s problems arise from failure to grasp the necessary unity of mind and nature. 2 For Bateson, one needs a view of differences that make differences, a view of meaning, that reaches beyond coherent bodies of facts and/or widely accepted 1 The paper is a specially rewritten version of ‘Distributed Language’, the introductory Chapter to a volume of the same name (Cowley, 2011). It uses this material to look at the state of the art and, above all, to focus on aspirations for a new view of ecolinguistics. 2 Gregory Bateson is an important twentieth century scholar who saw that mind cannot exclude nature and, just as crucially, that nature depends on mind. His influence on contemporary work is enormous (see, Harries-Jones, 1995). however, I challenge one of his key ideas. For Bateson (1979), meaning is defined by differences that make a difference. I take the view that energy is also important in how differences can be created by living people who, among other things, identify sames, share emotion, and feeling at one with the natural (or sacred) world (see, Rappaport, 1999).