History and Philosophy of the Language Sciences Podcast episode 56: Nick Enfield on linguistic signs and concepts
Feb 28, 2026
Nick Enfield, Professor of Linguistics at the University of Sydney who studies language, interaction, and semantics. He contrasts Saussurean and Peircean models of signs. He explores how concepts form from interactional evidence and social feedback. He discusses language functions beyond information transfer, multiple interpretants, and evolutionary frames for communicative motives.
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Concepts As Signified Hypotheses
- Linguistic signs are conventionally taught as signifier-signified pairs where the signified often maps to a concept.
- Nick Enfield explains Saussure's diagram: the signifier is the word sound and the signified is the mental concept (e.g., tree).
Concepts Are Hypotheses From Interaction
- Concepts are useful higher-level descriptions of neural events, not separate platonic entities.
- Enfield treats concepts as hypotheses learners construct from interactional data and must be consistent with observable responses.
Meanings Arise From Interpretive Responses
- Static signifier-signified models miss that signs elicit interpretants—responses that validate and shape meaning.
- Enfield contrasts an O axis (sign stands for object) with an interpretive axis where utterances produce action and internal reactions.
