Introduction

ASLAN endeavors to develop a scientific program able to account for linguistic phenomena in all of their complexity, within an integrative, multidimensional and non-reductionistic approach. ASLAN covers a broad scope of research activities which can be defined according to three attractor poles:

Embodied Language (EmLa)


Language in Society (LaSo)

Linguistic Systems (LiSy)

Of course, we also affirm that language is a complex system in which every element is related to all of the others. Some of our works clearly concern two or all three of these poles. These subjects constitute a fourth, “tout se tient”(1) convergence pole.

In most cases, research within ASLAN goes beyond simply generating new knowledge for its own sake, but rather is articulated with societal needs as expressed in the European Union and French National Research and Innovation Strategy documents (France Europe 2020: A Strategic Agenda for Research, Technology Transfer and Innovation). Our research tends to contribute to the following societal challenges identified in these agenda :
  • Innovative, integrating and adaptive societies
  • Information and communication society
  • Health and well-being
     
(1) "Comme pour toute autre langue, les différentes parties du système linguistique indo-européen forment un ensemble où tout se tient et dont il importe avant tout de bien comprendre le rigoureux enchainement." (Meillet, 1903. introduction à l'étude comparative des langues indo-européennes. Librairie Hachette).