Dynamics of Linguistic Constructions: Coordination, Canonization, and Divergence of Vocabularies

The paper proposes a model of the dynamics of linguistic constructions, treating language not as a static system of signs and meanings but as a process of formation, coordination, canonization, and subsequent divergence of systems of distinctions. The initial premise is that linguistic categories arise not as a direct reflection of objects of reality, but as a result of the stabilization of distinctions that are significant for observation, coordination, and joint activity.

It is shown that categories cannot be formed from single observations and arise only as a result of repeated coordination of distinctions between observers. On this basis, the notion of a vocabulary is introduced as a regulatory structure of distinctions that ensures compatibility of observations and interpretations within a community. The processes of vocabulary formation, the emergence of canons, the role of writing in the autonomization of linguistic constructions, and the mechanisms of their further specialization and divergence are analyzed.

Special attention is paid to the cyclical nature of linguistic dynamics. The stabilization of vocabularies and canons creates conditions for the emergence of new distinctions, which, in turn, become the source of subsequent changes in linguistic and conceptual structures. As a result, language is viewed as a self-developing system of collective observation, possessing its own historical dynamics, only partially determined by objects of the external world.

The proposed model makes it possible to interpret objectivity not as an immediate property of reality, but as the result of stable coordination of local systems of distinctions. In a broader context, the paper proposes to consider the formation of knowledge, scientific paradigms, cultural traditions, and ontological categories as special cases of the evolution of systems of distinctions and the vocabularies associated with them.