If Your Language Was a Car… The Object(s) of Linguistic Research, or: Towards a Shared Geography of Linguistics
The article suggests that there are underexplored possibilities for fruitful communication between formal and functionalist linguistics. A key issue is the question of exactly what each approach is aiming to capture about language. This is especially relevant for understanding the status of claims a...
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | deu |
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Aarhus University
2011-10-01
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| Series: | Hermes |
| Online Access: | https://tidsskrift.dk/her/article/view/97564 |
| _version_ | 1818150798011400192 |
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| author | Peter Harder |
| author_facet | Peter Harder |
| author_sort | Peter Harder |
| collection | DOAJ |
| description | The article suggests that there are underexplored possibilities for fruitful communication between formal and functionalist linguistics. A key issue is the question of exactly what each approach is aiming to capture about language. This is especially relevant for understanding the status of claims about autonomy. The role of distributional regularities and their precise relations with semantic motivation is argued to be a shared problem that could fruitfully be addressed from both sides of the divide – and the role of niche construction as a dimension of evolutionary theory is put forward as providing a new take on the innateness debate. Torben Thrane’s work is discussed as an illustration example. |
| first_indexed | 2024-12-11T13:28:39Z |
| format | Article |
| id | doaj.art-7e52b8743727446ea709636cd380a56d |
| institution | Directory Open Access Journal |
| issn | 0904-1699 1903-1785 |
| language | deu |
| last_indexed | 2024-12-11T13:28:39Z |
| publishDate | 2011-10-01 |
| publisher | Aarhus University |
| record_format | Article |
| series | Hermes |
| spelling | doaj.art-7e52b8743727446ea709636cd380a56d2022-12-22T01:05:24ZdeuAarhus UniversityHermes0904-16991903-17852011-10-01244710.7146/hjlcb.v24i47.97564If Your Language Was a Car… The Object(s) of Linguistic Research, or: Towards a Shared Geography of LinguisticsPeter Harder0University of Copenhagen Department of English, Germanic and Romance Studies Njalsgade 128, 24.2 DK-2300 Copenhagen SThe article suggests that there are underexplored possibilities for fruitful communication between formal and functionalist linguistics. A key issue is the question of exactly what each approach is aiming to capture about language. This is especially relevant for understanding the status of claims about autonomy. The role of distributional regularities and their precise relations with semantic motivation is argued to be a shared problem that could fruitfully be addressed from both sides of the divide – and the role of niche construction as a dimension of evolutionary theory is put forward as providing a new take on the innateness debate. Torben Thrane’s work is discussed as an illustration example.https://tidsskrift.dk/her/article/view/97564 |
| spellingShingle | Peter Harder If Your Language Was a Car… The Object(s) of Linguistic Research, or: Towards a Shared Geography of Linguistics Hermes |
| title | If Your Language Was a Car… The Object(s) of Linguistic Research, or: Towards a Shared Geography of Linguistics |
| title_full | If Your Language Was a Car… The Object(s) of Linguistic Research, or: Towards a Shared Geography of Linguistics |
| title_fullStr | If Your Language Was a Car… The Object(s) of Linguistic Research, or: Towards a Shared Geography of Linguistics |
| title_full_unstemmed | If Your Language Was a Car… The Object(s) of Linguistic Research, or: Towards a Shared Geography of Linguistics |
| title_short | If Your Language Was a Car… The Object(s) of Linguistic Research, or: Towards a Shared Geography of Linguistics |
| title_sort | if your language was a car the object s of linguistic research or towards a shared geography of linguistics |
| url | https://tidsskrift.dk/her/article/view/97564 |
| work_keys_str_mv | AT peterharder ifyourlanguagewasacartheobjectsoflinguisticresearchortowardsasharedgeographyoflinguistics |