Language Usage and Language Structure

Published by De Gruyter Mouton 2010

Language Usage and Language Structure

Edited by: Kasper Boye and Elisabeth Engberg-Pedersen

Volume 213 in the series Trends in Linguistics. Studies and Monographs [TiLSM]

https://doi.org/10.1515/9783110219180

Overview
Contents

About this book

During most of the 20th century, the classical Saussurean distinction between language usage and language structure remained untranscendable in much linguistic theory. The dominant view, propagated in particular by generative grammar, was that there are structural facts and usage facts, and that in principle the former are independent of, and can be described in complete isolation from, the latter.

With the appearance of functional-cognitive approaches on the scene, this view has been challenged. The view of structure as usage-based has had two consequences that make time ripe for a focused study of the interaction between usage and structure. Within the generative camp it has inspired a more explicit and precise description of the status of usage. Within the functional-cognitive camp it has blurred the status of structure. Perhaps because functionalists and cognitivists have had to position themselves in relation to generative grammar, some have emphasized the role of usage facts to the extent that structure is largely ignored.

Accounts of language usage, language acquisition and language change are impossible without an assumption about what it is that is being used, acquired, or subjected to change. And more moderate functionalists and cognitive functionalists recognize both structural facts and usage facts as genuine facts central to the understanding of language. Still, the linguistic literature that shares this position does not abound with explicit, precise characterizations of the relationship between usage and structure.

The present volume brings together scholars from different theoretical positions to address theoretical and methodological aspects of the relation between language usage and structure. The contributors differ with respect to how they conceive of this relation and, more basically, with respect to how they conceive of linguistic structure. What they have in common, however, is that they recognize structure and usage as non-reducible linguistic phenomena and take seriously the challenge to describe the relation between them.

Author / Editor information

Kasper Boye and Elisabeth Engberg-Pedersen, University of Copenhagen, Denmark.

Topics

Frontmatter Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	I
Table of Contents Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	V
Introduction Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	VII
Usage and structure: The case of clausal complementation
What conversational English tells us about the nature of grammar:A critique of Thompson’s analysis of object complements Frederick J. Newmeyer Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	3
Usage, structure, scientific explanation, and the role of abstraction, by linguists and by language users Arie Verhagen Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	45
Raising verbs and auxiliaries in a functional theory of grammatical status Kasper Boye Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	73
The rise of structure
How not to disagree: The emergence of structure from usage Ronald W. Langacker Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	107
Paradigmatic structure in a usage-based theory of grammaticalisation Lars Heltoft Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	145
Where do simple clauses come from? T. Givón Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	167
Structure, usage and variation
Alternative agreement controllers in Danish: Usage or structure? Elisabeth Engberg-Pedersen and Mads Poulsen Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	205
Schmidt redux: How systematic is the linguistic system if variation is rampant? Dirk Geeraerts Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	237
More tiles on the roof: Further thoughts on incremental language production J. Lachlan Mackenzie Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	263
Reconciling structure and usage: On the advantages of a dynamic, dialogic conception of the linguistic sign Maj-Britt Mosegaard Hansen Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	295
Methodology
Ten unwarranted assumptions in syntactic argumentation William Croft Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	313
Backmatter Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	351

(Deutsch)

Language: English
Publisher: De Gruyter Mouton
Audience: Scholars and Advanced Students Interested in Linguistic Theory and the Relation between Language Usage and Language Structure in Functional, Cognitive, and Formal Approaches
Pages
- Front matter: 14
- Main content: 354
Illustrations
- Other: num. figs. and tables
Keywords: Cognitive Linguistics; Generative Linguistics

eBook

Published: February 23, 2010
ISBN: 9783110219180

Hardcover

Published: February 17, 2010
ISBN: 9783110219173