Enlanguaged affordances in social practices: A critical rethinking of Gibson's approach to language

Abstract

Jones and Read argue that Gibson's concept of affordances can significantly contribute to radical, non-representationalist approaches in linguistics. In line with their perspective, this paper asserts that a crucial initial step must be taken: a critical examination of Gibson's account of the relationship between affordances and language. Specifically, I argue that we should question the assumption that affordance-relative awareness necessarily precedes linguistic behavior, a hypothesis I term Gibson's ‘awareness first, words second’ hypothesis. The paper develops a positive argument around the concept of ‘enlanguaged affordance’, demonstrating how insights from practice theory, radical cognitive science, and distributed approaches to language can converge around this central idea. The paper aims to illuminate how linguistic skills and competencies contribute to shaping social practices.