Linguistic competence: Theory and empiry
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Christian Lehmann
Abstract
Language competence has sometimes been used as an idealized notion which somehow embodies the collective knowledge of a speech community in the person of an ideal speaker-hearer. However, the basic notion is the competence of an individual in a language. If the language in question is not the native language, it is taken for granted that the person may be proficient in the language to some degree. The standard is then generally set by native competence. However, native competence is itself a matter of degree. Consequently, objective criteria are required by which one may assess the competence of a person in one or more languages by a common standard. This presupposes a notion of linguistic competence which has empirical import. The paper tries to articulate a concept of linguistic competence which can be converted into language tests. A test was devised on this basis and administered to groups of native and non-native speakers of German. The results of the experiment suggest that there is no difference in principle between native and foreign language competence, whether on theoretical or empirical grounds.
© Walter de Gruyter
Artikel in diesem Heft
- Editorial Note
- Linguistic competence: Theory and empiry
- Operator movement and topicalisation in adverbial clauses
- Left-detachment and topic-marking in French: The case of quant à and en fait de
- Specificational sentences and word order in Romance: A functional analysis
- Old English left-dislocations: Their structure and information status
- Book Reviews
- Acknowledgements
- Conference announcement: 41st Annual Meeting of the Societas Linguistica Europaea
- Publications Received
- Correction
- Index to Volume 41
Artikel in diesem Heft
- Editorial Note
- Linguistic competence: Theory and empiry
- Operator movement and topicalisation in adverbial clauses
- Left-detachment and topic-marking in French: The case of quant à and en fait de
- Specificational sentences and word order in Romance: A functional analysis
- Old English left-dislocations: Their structure and information status
- Book Reviews
- Acknowledgements
- Conference announcement: 41st Annual Meeting of the Societas Linguistica Europaea
- Publications Received
- Correction
- Index to Volume 41
