A linguistic-centered investigation into the mereology of living beings

This thesis seeks to examine the relationship between living organisms and the physical elements to which they are intrinsically connected, within a framework that privileges semantics over syntax. In doing so, it takes as its reference point the current state that contemporary linguistics has reached today in terms of language studies, along with its two major traditions. The research aims to delineate the layers of meaning-making, and to ask how diverse meaning-bearing wholes can be structured. Theoretically, it advances the claim that such an approach offer insights into the syntactic organization and mereological (part-whole) relationships of living organisms. The nature of the living organism, its physical constituents, and its relation to the rest of the universe remain subjects of ever-growing significance. The extraordinary complexity of living systems, as well as their possession of a wide range of properties absent in inanimate systems, constitutes one of the principal reasons for their continued importance. Natural languages, composed of multiple layers, display complexity both in their structure and in their open-ended generativity: despite possessing a limited inventory of elements and rules, they are capable of producing an infinite range of expressions. The various sub-disciplines of linguistics—phonology, morphology, syntax, and semantics—each investigate these levels both independently and in relation to one another, thereby revealing the multilayered nature of language. Collectively, these inquiries broaden the overall framework through which linguistic complexity is understood. This study posits that the constitution of living organisms likewise exhibits a form of complexity and stratification analogous to that found in language. Accordingly, our justification for detailing the intricacy of linguistic structures lies in the potential of linguistic part–whole relations and complexity to illuminate those of living systems. Ultimately, the thesis concludes that the forms of complexity inherent in both life and language are not merely analogous but are intimately related. Yet we maintain that both meaning and "life," although their emergence presupposes physical substrates—such as sounds in language or the physico-chemical components of matter—nevertheless transcend those structures. The critique of Noam Chomsky's Generative Grammar, which foregrounded syntax, gave rise to the emergence of Generative Semantics, Cognitive Linguistics, and other cognitively oriented approaches to grammar. These developments have steered linguistic inquiry increasingly toward semantics and, by extension, toward the study of meaning itself. Nevertheless, ongoing debates concerning meaning often lack sufficient depth. The very existence of meaning in language situates it beyond the mechanical interaction of its elementary units, such as sounds. Each linguistic level operates through its own distinct set of elements and rules. While sound persists as the fundamental material of expression, each component encompasses additional properties that contribute to greater complexity. We attribute this to the fact that the living speaker—the subject who uses language—constitutes these elements as parts of larger wholes, relating and complexifying them. Hence, we contend that the phenomenon of language cannot be adequately comprehended independently of the subject who assigns meaning to its constituent elements and communicates it to the other.