36.1310, Calls: Punctum-Intenational Journal of Semiotics - "Generativity in language, cognition, and artificial intelligence: Theoretical convergences and emerging paradigms" (Jrnl)

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LINGUIST List: Vol-36-1310. Mon Apr 21 2025. ISSN: 1069 - 4875.

Subject: 36.1310, Calls: Punctum-Intenational Journal of Semiotics - "Generativity in language, cognition, and artificial intelligence: Theoretical convergences and emerging paradigms" (Jrnl)

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Date: 18-Apr-2025
From: Evangelos Kourdis [ekourdis at frl.auth.gr]
Subject: Punctum-Intenational Journal of Semiotics - "Generativity in language, cognition, and artificial intelligence: Theoretical convergences and emerging paradigms" (Jrnl)


Journal: Punctum-Intenational Journal of Semiotics
Issue: Generativity in language, cognition, and artificial
intelligence: Theoretical convergences and emerging paradigms
Call Deadline: 31-May-2025

Call for Papers:
This issue explores how different theoretical traditions have
conceptualized the generative capacities of language and thought, and
how these ideas intersect with contemporary developments in AI. We
will focus on the frameworks of Noam Chomsky, Gustave Guillaume,
Antoine Culioli, Algirdas Julien Greimas, and Joseph Courtés, each
offering a distinct perspective on the generative processes
underpinning meaning construction.
At the core of Noam Chomsky's transformational-generative grammar is
the idea that a finite set of syntactic rules can generate infinite
grammatically correct sentences. For Chomsky, generativity is a
formal, combinatorial property of language grounded in human biology–
specifically, the faculty of language. His focus is on linguistic
competence, the internalized system of knowledge that enables speakers
to produce and comprehend novel utterances. For him, syntactic
structure is at the center of meaning construction. In this framework,
generativity is not merely creative expression but a computational
process driven by recursive operations like Merge. This perspective
has profoundly influenced both theoretical linguistics and
computational models of language, shaping approaches to natural
language processing and AI systems designed to simulate syntactic
productivity. However, Chomsky’s model has been critiqued for its
limited attention to language's semantic, pragmatic, and enunciative
aspects – areas highlighted by Guillaume and Culioli.
Gustave Guillaume offers a distinct view of generativity through his
theory of psychomechanics, which frames language as a dynamic
unfolding of mental processes over time – a concept he calls
chronogenesis. For Guillaume, generativity is not purely structural
but involves a temporal and cognitive activity wherein thought is
progressively actualized into language. Guillaume’s concepts of
discourse time and system time – the former representing the
temporality of speech, and the latter the latent, organizing structure
of language – provide a nuanced model for understanding how abstract
linguistic categories (such as tense, aspect, or modality) are
mentally constructed before being expressed. This perspective
positions generativity within the mental representation and
transformation of language forms, anticipating cognitive linguistics
and aligning with modern, embodied, and predictive models of
cognition. It also raises questions about whether and how AI systems
could replicate such processes.
Antoine Culioli takes a different approach, defining generativity not
as rule-following or temporal construction but as a series of mental
gestures that structure meaning. Culioli emphasizes that language is
not a fixed code but a procedure in which speakers perform operations
of representation, predication, and validation to construct reference
and value in context. These mental gestures are abstract, recursive,
and combinatorial, yet they are fundamentally contextual - shaped by
the specific situation of enunciation. For Culioli, generativity
involves a constant negotiation of meaning through operations that are
both cognitive and linguistic. The speaker is an agent of meaning,
navigating virtual structures and adapting them to communicative
goals. This view contrasts Chomsky’s formalism and Guillaume’s
temporal psychomechanism by emphasizing variation, subjectivity, and
the epistemic dimensions of language. Culioli’s ideas have influenced
both linguistic analysis and discourse theory, with implications for
human-machine interaction – particularly regarding how AI could
simulate inferential, context-sensitive language use.
In semiotics, Algirdas Julien Greimas and Joseph Courtés provide a
structural account of generativity that shifts the focus from grammar
or cognition to semiotic systems and narrative logic. In their
Semiotics and Language: An Analytical Dictionary, they define
generativity as a “generative trajectory” (parcours génératif) of
meaning, structured through a series of transformational levels: deep
structures, surface structures, and discursive manifestations. For
Greimas and Courtés, generativity is not simply about producing
linguistic forms or cognitive constructs but also about the systematic
unfolding of meaning from abstract, actantial configurations to
concrete textual expressions. The generative
process involves semantic articulation (semic level), syntactic
organization (actantial and narrative structures), and discursive
realization (enunciative and stylistic forms). This approach
highlights the transformation of meaning across multiple levels,
balancing structural regularity with discursive variation. It provides
a valuable framework for analyzing how AI systems generate coherent
narratives or simulate storytelling, raising questions about whether
these systems merely imitate surface structures or engage in deeper
semiotic processes.
The rise of AI, especially large language models, raises fundamental
questions about the nature of generativity. These models generate
syntactically fluent text, semantically plausible and narratively
coherent. But do they engage in the semiotic transformations described
by Greimas and Courtés? Do they reflect the chronogenetic unfolding
proposed by Guillaume or the inferential operations detailed by
Culioli? Or are they simply statistical engines replicating surface
patterns without access to the underlying cognitive or semiotic
depths?
These questions invite a critical examination of what it means to
generate meaning and whether AI systems participate in the same
generative logics that characterize human language and cognition. We
welcome submissions that explore these questions across both
theoretical and applied contexts, including but not limited to:
 • Comparative analyses of Chomsky, Guillaume, Culioli, and Greimas on
generativity
 • The role of narrative and semiotic structures in human and
artificial meaning- making
 • Generative grammars vs. generative trajectories: Formalism and
semiotics
 • Chronogenesis, mental gesture, and the modeling of cognition in AI
 • Semiotic and enunciative dimensions of generativity in
human-machine interaction
 • Can AI produce narrative in a Greimasian sense?
 • Epistemological and ontological questions surrounding meaning
generation in humans and machines
This special issue aims to foster a truly transdisciplinary dialogue
on generativity as a linguistic, cognitive, semiotic, and
technological phenomenon. By bringing together theories from
semiotics, enunciative linguistics, cognitive chronogenesis, and AI,
we aim to shed light on both the continuities and ruptures in how
meaning is created, transformed, and shared.
Prospective authors should submit an abstract of 250-300 words by
email to the guest editors, Didier Tsala Effa
(didier.tsala-effa at unilim.fr) and Rossana De Angelis
(rossana.de-angelis at u-pec.fr), including their institutional
affiliation and contact information. Acceptance of the abstract does
not guarantee publication, given that all research articles will be
subjected to peer review.
TIMELINE:
Deadline for Abstracts: May 31, 2025
Notice of acceptance of the Abstract: June 15, 2025
Deadline for submission of full papers:
September 15, 2025
Peer Review Due:
November 30, 2025
Final Revised Papers Due: December 30, 2025
Publication Date: January

Linguistic Field(s): Applied Linguistics
                     Cognitive Science
                     Computational Linguistics
                     Linguistic Theories

Subject Language(s): English (eng)




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