Biology Reference
In-Depth Information
Chapter 6
Linguistics, Semiotics, and Philosophy
6.1 Linguistics
6.1.1 The Biology-Linguistics Connection
The idea that language may provide a useful metaphor or analogy for describing
and understanding the complexity inherent in living systems was expressed by
Pattee (1968), Marcus (1974), and others more than four decades ago. The biology-
linguistics connection was significantly strengthened by the uncovering of the
isomorphism between cell and human languages (to be discussed in Sect.
6.1.2
)
(Ji 1997a, b, 1999b, 2001, 2002a). Unlike the familiar biology-physics connection,
which is characterized by
determinism
, the biology-linguistic connection may be
said to be characterized by
quasi-determinism
(Ji et al. 2009b), which is akin to
the rule-governed creativity (RGC) in linguistics (see Sect.
6.1.4
). RGC refers to the
fact that humans are endowed with the ability to generate an indefinitely large
number of
meaningful
sentences from a finite number of words and grammatical
rules. RGC is also related to another linguistic phenomenon known as the
arbitrar-
iness of signs
, that is, the
arbitrariness
of the relation between signs and their
objects resulting from the lack of any physical laws mandating it (Sect.
6.1.4
)
(Lyons 1992, 1993; Culler 1991).
An indirect evidence for the quasi-deterministic nature of biology surfaced
during the DIMACS (Discrete Mathematics and Computer Science) Workshop
on
Bimolecular Networks: Topological Properties and Evolution
, held at Rutgers on
May 11-13, 2005. At this meeting, Alfonso Valencia from the National Center of
Biotechnology in Spain gave a lecture entitled “Biodegradation network, and all
what we need for its study.” Based on his research experience in the field of the
structure-function correlations in proteins, he came to the conclusion that protein
folds and functions might not be predictable from amino acid sequence data.
Valencia's pessimism seems to go against
the prevailing presupposition of
