Roy Harris (24 February 1931 – 9 February 2015) was a British linguist. He was Professor of

General Linguistics Theoretical linguistics is a term in linguistics that, like the related term general linguistics, can be understood in different ways. Both can be taken as a reference to the theory of language, or the branch of linguistics that inquires into the ...

in the

University of Oxford The University of Oxford is a collegiate university, collegiate research university in Oxford, England. There is evidence of teaching as early as 1096, making it the oldest university in the English-speaking world and the List of oldest un ...

and Honorary Fellow of

St Edmund Hall St Edmund Hall (also known as The Hall and Teddy Hall) is a constituent college of the University of Oxford. The college claims to be "the oldest surviving academic society to house and educate undergraduates in any university" and was the last ...

. He also held university teaching posts in Hong Kong (

University of Hong Kong The University of Hong Kong (HKU) is a public research university in Pokfulam, Hong Kong. It was founded in 1887 as the Hong Kong College of Medicine for Chinese by the London Missionary Society and formally established as the University of ...

), Boston and Paris and visiting fellowships at universities in South Africa and Australia, and at the Indian Institute of Advanced Study. His books on integrationism, theory of communication,

semiology Semiotics ( ) is the systematic study of sign processes and the communication of meaning. In semiotics, a sign is defined as anything that communicates intentional and unintentional meaning or feelings to the sign's interpreter. Semiosis is a ...

and the history of linguistic thought include ''The Language Myth'', ''Rethinking Writing'', '' Saussure and his Interpreters'' and ''The Necessity of Artspeak''. He has also translated an edition of Ferdinand de Saussure's, ''Course in General Linguistics''. He was a founding member of the ''International Association for the Integrational Study of Language and Communication (IAISLC)'' and founding editor of the journal ''Language & Communication''.

Integrationism

The main focus of Harris'

research Research is creative and systematic work undertaken to increase the stock of knowledge. It involves the collection, organization, and analysis of evidence to increase understanding of a topic, characterized by a particular attentiveness to ...

was the development of an integrational approach to signs and semiological systems, and hence to all

human communication Human communication, or anthroposemiotics, is a field of study dedicated to understanding how humans Communication, communicate. Humans' ability to communicate with one another would not be possible without an understanding of what we are refere ...

. His approach, called integrationism, involves looking at current educational practice, together with the whole history of linguistic thought from

Plato Plato ( ; Greek language, Greek: , ; born BC, died 348/347 BC) was an ancient Greek philosopher of the Classical Greece, Classical period who is considered a foundational thinker in Western philosophy and an innovator of the writte ...

down to the present day, in a perspective that differs radically from traditional views. Integrationism has important implications for our understanding of interpersonal relations, as well as of modern society and its communicational resources, including the entire range of arts and sciences. Expanding on the sign study of

Ferdinand de Saussure Ferdinand Mongin de Saussure (; ; 26 November 185722 February 1913) was a Swiss linguist, semiotician and philosopher. His ideas laid a foundation for many significant developments in both linguistics and semiotics in the 20th century. He is wi ...

and the semiotics theory of

Charles Sanders Peirce Charles Sanders Peirce ( ; September 10, 1839 – April 19, 1914) was an American scientist, mathematician, logician, and philosopher who is sometimes known as "the father of pragmatism". According to philosopher Paul Weiss (philosopher), Paul ...

, integration accounts for indeterminate processes of sign interaction as they occur through human conductants. A Saussurean conception of signs offers a perspective that separates speakers' minds from environments; language occurs as codes which are unconsciously stored and deployed. Semiotics sees the sign processes of the mind as part of the environment. It encompasses a study of sign systems and autopoietic processes in nature as they occur, with or without conscious human participation. Integration focuses on human communication as inseparable from environments but also considers the individual self and human agency as important to the process of creating, recreating and integrating signs along with the ever-changing signs of nature. The theory takes the human perspective as an appropriate starting place for understanding semiological phenomena. In addition to Ferdinand de Saussure and the semiotician Charles Sanders Peirce, Harris and his descendant thinkers credit the philosopher

G. E. Moore George Edward Moore (4 November 1873 – 24 October 1958) was an English philosopher, who with Bertrand Russell, Ludwig Wittgenstein and earlier Gottlob Frege was among the initiators of analytic philosophy. He and Russell began de-emphasizing ...

Wittgenstein Ludwig Josef Johann Wittgenstein ( ; ; 26 April 1889 – 29 April 1951) was an Austrian philosopher who worked primarily in logic, the philosophy of mathematics, the philosophy of mind, and the philosophy of language. From 1929 to 1947, Witt ...

's ''

Philosophical Investigations ''Philosophical Investigations'' () is a work by the philosopher Ludwig Wittgenstein, published posthumously in 1953. ''Philosophical Investigations'' is divided into two parts, consisting of what Wittgenstein calls, in the preface, ''Bemer ...

'', J. L. Austin,

Gilbert Ryle Gilbert Ryle (19 August 1900 – 6 October 1976) was a British philosopher, principally known for his critique of Cartesian dualism, for which he coined the phrase " ghost in the machine". Some of Ryle's ideas in philosophy of mind have been ca ...

and the "ordinary language" movement as influencing the development of integrational linguistics . The linguist and anthropologist J. R. Firth and

Bronisław Malinowski Bronisław Kasper Malinowski (; 7 April 1884 – 16 May 1942) was a Polish anthropologist and ethnologist whose writings on ethnography, social theory, and field research have exerted a lasting influence on the discipline of anthropology. ...

and their "context of situation" are also pertinent reference points as is the "ethnomethodology" associated with Harold Garfinkel.

Books

*''Synonymy and Linguistic Analysis'', 1973, Oxford, Blackwell. *''The Language-Makers'', 1980, London, Duckworth. *''The Language Myth'', 1981, London, Duckworth. *''F. de Saussure: Course in General Linguistics'', 1983, London, Duckworth. *''The Origin of Writing'', 1986, London, Duckworth. *''Reading Saussure'', 1987, London, Duckworth. *''The Language Machine'', 1987, London, Duckworth. *''Language, Saussure and Wittgenstein'', 1988, London, Routledge. *''La Sémiologie de l'écriture'', 1994, Paris, CNRS. *''Signs of Writing'', 1996, London, Routledge. *''The Language Connection'', 1996, Bristol, Thoemmes. *''Signs, Language and Communication'', 1996, London, Routledge. *''Introduction to Integrational Linguistics'', 1998, Oxford, Pergamon. *''Rethinking Writing'', 2000, London, Athlone. *''Saussure and his Interpreters'', 2001, Edinburgh, Edinburgh UP. *''The Necessity of Artspeak'', 2003, London, Continuum. *''The Linguistics of History'', 2004, Edinburgh, Edinburgh UP. *''The Semantics of Science'', 2005, London, Continuum. *''Integrationist Notes and Papers 2003–2005'', 2006, Crediton, Tree Tongue. *''Mindboggling'', 2008, Luton, The Pantaneto Press. *''Rationality and the Literate Mind'', 2009, London, Taylor & Francis. *''After Epistemology'', 2009, Gamlingay, Bright Pen. *''The Great Debate About Art'', 2010, Prickly Paradigm Press. *''Integrationist Notes and Papers 2009–2011'', 2011, Gamlingay, Bright Pen. *''Integrationist Notes and Papers 2012'', 2012, Gamlingay, Bright Pen. *''Integrating Reality'', 2012, Gamlingay, Authors Online Ltd. *''Language and Intelligence'', 2013, Gamlingay, Authors Online Ltd.

References

External links

Roy Harris and Integrational LinguisticsThe International Association for the Integrational Study of Language and Communication (IAISLC) websiteObituary from the International Association for the Integrational Study of Language and Communication (IAISLC)
{{DEFAULTSORT:Harris, Roy British semioticians Linguists from the United Kingdom Alumni of St Edmund Hall, Oxford 2015 deaths 1931 births Translators of Ferdinand de Saussure