Daniel Everett’s book about the language and culture of Pirahã, an Indian tribe in the Amazonia
(previously discussed in The Siberian Journal of Philology), has caused a lively reaction
in the global linguistic community, questioning the basic tenets of Chomsky’s theory. At the same
time, an intriguing feature of this language, the “immediacy of perception principle” described
by Everett, seems to have remained beyond the focus of attention. Starting with Maturana’s epistemic
maxim “everything said is said by an observer to another observer,” it will be shown that,
counter to Everett’s claim, this principle is not a unique feature of Pirahã and is manifested
in European languages as well, such as Russian and English, for example, in particular, in the
system of aspectual oppositions of the verb. It may be hypothesized that the “immediacy of experience
principle” is a language universal stemming from the biological function of language.
Bod R. Beyond Grammar: An experience-based theory of language. Stanford, CA, Center for
the Study of Language and Information, 1998.
Cowley S. J., Kravchenko A. V. Dinamika kognitivnykh protsessov i nauki o yazyke [Cognitive
processes dynamics and language sciences]. Voprosy Jazykoznanija (Topics in the study
of language). 2006, no. 6, pp. 133–141.
Deacon T. W. The Symbolic Species: The co-evolution of language and the human brain.
W. W. Norton & Co., 1997.
Everett D. Cultural constraints on grammar and cognition in Pirahã. Current Anthropology.
2005, no. 46(4), pp. 621–646.
Everett D. Don’t Sleep: There are Snakes. Life and Language in the Amazon Jungle. New
York, Pantheon Books, 2008.
Everett D. Ne spi – krugom zmei! Byt i yazyk indeytsev amazonskikh dzhungley [Don’t Sleep:
There are Snakes. Life and language in the Amazon jungle]. Moscow, LRC Publ. House, 2016.
Evidentiality Revisited: Cognitive grammar, functional and discourse-pragmatic perspectives.
J. I. M. Arrese, G. Haßler, M. Carretero (Eds). Amsterdam, Philadelphia, John Benjamins, 2017.
Evidentiality: The linguistic coding of epistemology. W. Chafe, J. Nichols (Eds). Norwood,
NJ, Ablex, 1986.
Gibson J. The ecological approach to visual perception. Boston, MA, Houghton-Mifflin,
1979.
Givón T. Bio-linguistics: The Santa Barbara lectures. Amsterdam, Philadelphia, John
Benjamins, 2002.
Givón T. The Genesis of Syntactic Complexity: Diachrony, ontogeny, neuro-cognition, evolution.
Amsterdam, Philadelphia, John Benjamins, 2009.
Hutton C. Analysis and notation: the case for a non-realist linguistics. In: Linguistics and Philosophy: The controversial interface. R. Harré, R. Harris (Eds). Pergamon Press, 1993, pp. 165–
178.
Järvilehto T. The theory of the organism-environment system: I. Description of the theory. Integrative Physiological and Behavioral Science. 1998, vol. 33, pp. 317–330.
Jennings R. E., Thompson J. J. The biological centrality of talk. In: Cognitive Dynamics in
Linguistic Interactions. A. V. Kravchenko (Ed.). Newcastle upon Tyne, Cambridge Scholars
Publ., 2012, pp. 33–63.
Koshelev A. D. Sovremennaya teoreticheskaya lingvistika kak vavilonskaya bashnya (o “mirnom”
sosushchestvovanii mnozhestva nesovmestimykh teoriy yazyka) [Contemporary theoretical
linguistics as a Babylon tower (on the “peaceful” coexistence of a multitude of incompatible theories of language)]. The Bulletin of the Russian Academy of Sciences: Studies in Literature and
Language. 2013, vol. 72, no. 6, pp. 3–22.
Kravchenko A. V. Biology of Cognition and Linguistic Analysis: From non-realist linguistics
to a realistic language science. Frankfurt/Main etc.: Peter Lang, 2008.
Kravchenko A. V. Constructivism and the epistemological trap of language. Constructivist
Foundations. 2016, vol. 12, no. 1, pp. 110–112.
Kravchenko A. V. Fenomenologiya i kognitsiya v semantike russkogo ETO [Phenomenology
and cognition in the semantics of the Russian ÈTO]. In: Kognitivnoye modelirovaniye v lingvistike:
Sb. dokl. mezhdunar. konf., 1–3 sent. 2003, Varna [Cognitive Modeling in Linguistics:
Proceedings of intern. conf., 1–3 Sept. 2003, Varna]. Polyakov (Ed.). Varna, 2003, pp. 229–237.
Kravchenko A. V. Glagol’nyy vid i kartina mira [Verbal aspect and the world view]. The Bulletin
of the Russian Academy of Sciences: Studies in Literature and Language. 1995, vol. 54,
no. 1, pp. 49–64.
Kravchenko A. V. Grammar as semiosis and cognitive dynamics. In: Cognitive Dynamics in
Linguistic Interactions. A. V. Kravchenko (Ed.). Newcastle upon Tyne, Cambridge Scholars
Publ., 2012, pp. 125–153.
Kravchenko A. V. How Humberto Maturana’s biology of cognition can revive the language
sciences. Constructivist Foundations. 2011, vol. 6, no. 3, pp. 352–362.
Kravchenko A. V. Making sense of languaging as a consensual domain of interactions: Didactic
implications. Intellectica. 2017, no. 2(68), pp. 175–191.
Kravchenko A. V. O predmetnoy oblasti yazykoznaniya [On the subject matter of linguistics].
In: Yazyk i mysl’: sovremennaya kognitivnaya lingvistika [Language and Thought: Contemporary cognitive linguistics]. A. A. Kibrik, A. D. Koshelev (Comps). Moscow, LRC Publ. House, 2015,
pp. 155–172.
Kravchenko A. V. O traditsiyakh, yazykoznanii i kognitivnom podkhode [On tradition, linguistics,
and the cognitive approach]. In: Gorizonty sovremennoy lingvistiki: Traditsii i novatorstvo
[The horizons of contemporary linguistics: Tradition and innovation]. Moscow, LRC
Publ. House, 2009, pp. 51–65.
Kravchenko A. V. Voprosy teorii ukazatel’nosti: Egotsentrichnost’. Deiktichnost’. Indeksal’-
nost’ [Issues in the theory of indication: Egocentricity. Deixis. Indexicality]. Irkutsk, ISU Publ., 1992.
Kull K. Life is many: on the methods of biosemiotics. In: Biosemiotics in Transdisciplinary
Contexts. G. Witzany (Ed.). Umweb, 2006, pp. 193–202.
Lin F. Y. A refutation of universal grammar. Lingua. 2017, vol. 193, pp. 1–22.
Lutsenko N. A. Vzaimootnosheniye znacheniy nastoyashchego i budushchego form perfektivnogo
prezensa v russkom i drugikh slavyanskikh yazykakh [Interplay of the “present” and
“past” meanings of the perfective praesens forms in Russian and other Slavic languages]. Philological Sciences. 1989, no. 4, pp. 45–51.
Maturana H. Biologiya poznaniya [Biology of cognition]. In: Yazyk i intellect [Language and
intellect]. V. V. Petrov (Comp.). Moscow, Progress, 1996, pp. 95–141.
Miloslavskiy I. G. Vid russkogo glagola kak slovoobrazovatel’naya kategoriya [Russian verbal
aspect as a word-formation category]. Philological Sciences. 1989, no. 4, pp. 37–44.
Morris C. W. Osnovaniya teorii znakov [Foundations of the theory of signs]. In: Semiotika
[Semiotics]. Yu. S. Stepanov (Comp.). Moscow, Raduga, 1983, pp. 37–89.
Paradis C. Is the notion of linguistic competence relevant in cognitive linguistics? Annual Review of Cognitive Linguistics, 2003, vol. 1, pp. 207–231.
Studies in Evidentiality. A. Y. Aikhenvald, R. M. W. Dixon (Eds). Amsterdam, Philadelphia,
J. Benjamins, 2003. (Typological studies in Language 54).
Ross D. H. sapiens as ecologically special: what does language contribute? Language Sciences.
2007, vol. 29, no. 5, pp. 710–731.
Willett T. A cross-linguistic survey of the grammaticalization of evidentiality. Studies in Language. 1988, vol. 12, pp. 51–97.
Zlatev J. Znacheniye = zhizn’ (+ kul’tura): Nabrosok edinoy biokul’turnoy teorii znacheniya
[Meaning = life (+ culture): an outline of a unified biocultural theory of meaning]. In: Yazyk
i poznaniye: metodologicheskiye problemy i perspektivy [Language and cognition: methodological
problems and perspectives]. A. V. Kravchenko (Ed.). Moscow, Gnozis, 2006, pp. 308–361.
(Studia Linguistica Cognitiva; Vyp. 1).