Holistic Linguistics

prism of the functional-cognitive approach. It covers such issues as language and
mind, the embodiment of language, the peculiarities of language acquisition, and the
metaphoric nature of the human mind. The functional-cognitive approach is regarded
as part of a holistic anthropocentric paradigm where language is conceived of as a
natural biological phenomenon connected with the adaptive functions of a human
being as a holistic living organism. A new paradigm gives rise to new epistemologies
and generates new forms of scientific collaboration. Thus, neurosciences, quantum
physics, and biology become involved in processing language data, influencing the
direction and goals of linguistic research. As suggested by the author of this paper,
changes in language can be viewed with regard to quantum effects observed in the
macroworld, or an autopoietic reconstruction of the language system. Dwelling on
the ideas of cognitive typology, the paper also makes an attempt to elucidate some
reasons for the appearance of new structural features in language which influence
the reconstruction of its grammatical interface in the first place. Such processes are
viewed as the reflection of global shifts in the linguistic world image of language bearers
under the influence of the outer world/extralinguistic factors, and as connected with
encoding by language of the changes in socio-discursive parameters of the intercourse.
Finally, some perspectives of grammar analysis are outlined.