Arbitrary Divisions: The ‘Two Cultures’ and the Iconicity of a Myth

Research into linguistic iconicity takes a researcher from inside the human brain to inside the workings of a culture. Literary luminaries and laudable linguists have taken pains to explain why and how certain sounds are paired with certain meanings. These endeavours have been mirrored by those seminal psychologists and noteworthy neuroscientists who also made observations, quickly taking those observations into the lab. University structures and group-think meant that departmental politics outweighed researchers’ own mental faculties, faculties which should have united on fundamental questions of sound, meaning, the evolution of language, and universals amongst the staggering diversity of human cultures. CP Snow’s ‘Two Cultures,’ as he argued against it, was set into memetic motion and replicated the whole world over. As a result, cross-fertilisation waned and the field of iconicity research risked drying up. Recent resurgences of inter- (and non-) disciplinary research has seen the revitalisation and, perhaps, hay-day of iconicity research since the initial musings laid down in the time of famed philosophers and ‘universal’ thinkers.

This can also be found on my blog.

In English:

In French (Divisions arbitraires : Les ‘deux cultures’ et l’iconicité d’un mythe):

For those who are interested in: C.P. Snow's 'Two Cultures,' Arts and Sciences, Philosophy of Science, Linguistic Sign, Semiotics, Ferdinand de Saussure, Iconicity, Mimetics, Memetics, Ideophones, History of Science

[middleroadvoiceornot]

Wow, I mean it's rhetorical haha