Languages and grammars of action and interaction: Some further results

This paper continues the work reported in Skvoretz and Fararo (1980) by advancing proofs for results that were only previously conjectured. The proofs show that under conditions of relatively wide generality, actions and interactions can be seen to have a language-like structure; that is, generated by grammars of action and interaction. From a systems viewpoint, the concern is with the temporal structure of the activity of living systems–organisms, groups, and/or organizations. The theory is applicable at any level of analysis to the extent that the actions of units at each level can be appropriately specified. The theory shows how a potentially infinite number of distinct strings of action and interaction can be produced by finite means available to an acting unit. Substantively, the theory offers a more sophisticated basis for the study of the structure of the activity of living systems, even when that activity contains apparently “creative” elements that would seem to argue against a structural analysis (Turner, 1962).