%A Prof. A.V. Kravchenko %T ESSENTIAL PROPERTIES OF LANGUAGE FROM THE POINT OF VIEW OF AUTOPOIESIS %X The structuralist heritage in linguistics continues to obscure the essential properties of natural language as an empirical phenomenon. It is argued that the new framework of autopoiesis possesses a greater explanatory power, as it assumes the connotational na-ture of language. The key notions of representation, sign and signification, interpreta-tion, intentionality and communication, and reciprocal causality, approached from the autopoietic angle, allow for deeper insights into the essence of language which is as a kind of adaptive behavior of an organism involving a system constituted by signs of signs. %D 2004 %K sign, signification, interpretation, intentionality, communication, reciprocal causality %L cogprints4008