The Virtuality of Language

Natural language presents a kind of complexity that is analogous to the complexity characterizing biological, psychological and social systems. Their type of complexity is such that there is no formal model able fully to capture the dynamic unfolding of the relevant phenomena. Among the local models that one can develop, those working at the interface between language and cognition appear to be more enlightening than the more customary models based on the opposition between syntax and semantics; furthermore, the strategy of developing a multiplicity of different partial models can be substantially improved by developing batteries of related models, such as those based on the interplay between structural and functional dimensions.