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Linguistics: The Study of the Language Capacity and Its Functions

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  01 January 2024

Elizabeth Closs Traugott
Elizabeth Closs Traugott*
Affiliation:
Stanford University
*
Elizabeth Closs Traugott, Department of Linguistics, Stanford University, Stanford CA 94305-2150, USA Email: traugott@stanford.edu
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Abstract

Language is considered a defining property of humanity in ancient myths and in contemporary humanities disciplines such as philosophy and in linguistics. But there are competing views about what constitutes the capacity for language. One approach, known as the formal generative approach, regards the language capacity as autonomous from other cognitive abilities, and equates it with the syntactic ability to form an infinite number of sentences from finite means. Another, known as the functional approach, regards the language capacity as a non-autonomous symbolic system. From this perspective factors such as speech acts, narrative discourses, and frequency effects are as important as syntax for understanding the language capacity. Implications of work from these two perspectives for a broad range of disciplines, especially literary studies, are suggested.

Type
Articles
Information
Diogenes , Volume 58 , Issue 1-2: The Humanities Today , May 2011 , pp. 20 - 34
Copyright
Copyright © ICPHS 2012

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