Developing comprehensive criteria of adequacy
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Alison Wray
Abstract
Butler (2009a, b) argues that an adequate model of the language system should accommodate cognitive, sociocultural, discoursal, acquisitional, typological and diachronic dimensions, and observational evidence from corpora, experiments and intuition. This paper asks if such reconciliation is possible. It argues that language is composed of accreted subsystems that render the linguistic system inherently complex in each dimension. This hybridity explains the difficulty in constructing Butler’s macro-model, but also indicates how it might be done. Subsystems that add complexity in one dimension are often explained by another, e.g. sub-patterns for English plural formation arose for sociocultural reasons (Classical borrowing); typological exception groups (e.g. Director General) have a diachronic explanation. Thus, future modelling will benefit from the flexibility to cross-refer between dimensions.
Abstract
Butler (2009a, b) argues that an adequate model of the language system should accommodate cognitive, sociocultural, discoursal, acquisitional, typological and diachronic dimensions, and observational evidence from corpora, experiments and intuition. This paper asks if such reconciliation is possible. It argues that language is composed of accreted subsystems that render the linguistic system inherently complex in each dimension. This hybridity explains the difficulty in constructing Butler’s macro-model, but also indicates how it might be done. Subsystems that add complexity in one dimension are often explained by another, e.g. sub-patterns for English plural formation arose for sociocultural reasons (Classical borrowing); typological exception groups (e.g. Director General) have a diachronic explanation. Thus, future modelling will benefit from the flexibility to cross-refer between dimensions.
Chapters in this book
- Prelim pages i
- Table of contents v
- Contributors vii
-
Introduction
- On the relatedness of functionalism and pragmatics 1
-
I. Methods in the analysis of language and discourse
- Developing comprehensive criteria of adequacy 19
- A method of analysing recontextualisation in the communication of science 37
- Contrastive corpus annotation in the CONTRANOT project 57
- Form and function in evaluative language 87
- Life before Nation 111
-
II. Pragmatics and grammar
- A lexico-paradigmatic approach to English setting-constructions 133
- How did we think? 149
- The adverb truly in Present-Day English 169
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III. Current trends in pragmatics and discourse analysis
- Nominal reference and the dynamics of discourse 189
- ‘Pragmatic punting’ and prosody 209
- Besides as a connective 223
- Searle and Sinclair on communicative acts 243
- Strategies of (in)directness in Spanish speakers’ production of complaints and disagreements in English and Spanish 261
- Name index 285
- Term index 289
Chapters in this book
- Prelim pages i
- Table of contents v
- Contributors vii
-
Introduction
- On the relatedness of functionalism and pragmatics 1
-
I. Methods in the analysis of language and discourse
- Developing comprehensive criteria of adequacy 19
- A method of analysing recontextualisation in the communication of science 37
- Contrastive corpus annotation in the CONTRANOT project 57
- Form and function in evaluative language 87
- Life before Nation 111
-
II. Pragmatics and grammar
- A lexico-paradigmatic approach to English setting-constructions 133
- How did we think? 149
- The adverb truly in Present-Day English 169
-
III. Current trends in pragmatics and discourse analysis
- Nominal reference and the dynamics of discourse 189
- ‘Pragmatic punting’ and prosody 209
- Besides as a connective 223
- Searle and Sinclair on communicative acts 243
- Strategies of (in)directness in Spanish speakers’ production of complaints and disagreements in English and Spanish 261
- Name index 285
- Term index 289
