Cultural Linguistics, Social Cognitive Neuroscience, et. al. (academia.edu)

As a sub-field of linguistics, Cultural Linguistics has the potential to bring forth a model that successfully melds together complementary approaches, e.g., viewing language as ‘a complex adaptive system’ and bringing to bear upon it concepts drawn from cognitive science such as ‘distributed cognition’ and ‘multi-agent dynamic systems theory’.

In recent years neuroscientists have begun to investigate the neural mechanisms underlying cognitive, emotional and affective processes that are core to many aspects of our social behavior. As a consequence, the neural mechanisms underlying phenomena and constructs typically considered by social psychologists have begun to be investigated.

This paper proposes a semiotic theory of norms—what I term normative semiotics. The paper’s central contention is that social norms are a language. Moreover, it is a language that we instinctively learn to speak. Normative behaviour is a mode of communication, the intelligibility of which allows us to establish cooperative relationships with others.