Usage-based models of language: Difference between revisions

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{{Linguistics}}

The '''Usage-based linguistics''' is a [[linguistics]] approach within a broader [[Functional linguistics|functional]]/[[Cognitive linguistics|cognitive]] framework, that emerged since the late 1980s, and that assumes a profound relation between linguistic structure and usage.<ref name="Mengden2014">{{Cite book|chapter-url=http://dx.doi.org/10.1075/sfsl.69.01men|doi = 10.1075/sfsl.69.01men|chapter = Introduction. The role of change in usage-based conceptions of language|title = Usage-Based Approaches to Language Change|series = Studies in Functional and Structural Linguistics|year = 2014|last1 = von Mengden|first1 = Ferdinand|last2 = Coussé|first2 = Evie|volume = 69|pages = 1–20|isbn = 978-90-272-1579-6}}</ref> It challenges the dominant focus, in 20th century linguistics (and in particular con [[Formal linguistics|formalism]]-[[generativism]]), on considering language as an isolated system removed from its use in human interaction and human cognition.<ref name="Mengden2014"/> Rather, usage-based models posit that linguistic information is expressed via context-sensitive mental processing and mental representations, which have the cognitive ability to succinctly account for the complexity of actual language use at all levels ([[phonetics]] and [[phonology]], morphology and [[syntax]], [[pragmatics]] and [[semantics]]). Broadly speaking, a usage-based model of language accounts for [[language acquisition]] and processing, synchronic and diachronic patterns, and both low-level and high-level structure in language, by looking at actual language use. The term ''usage-based'' was coined by [[Ronald Langacker]] in 1987.<ref>{{Cite journal|last=Serafima Gettys, Patricia Bayona, Rocío Rodríguez|title=From a Usage-Based Model to Usage-Based Instruction: Testing the theory|url=http://ijehd.cgrd.org/images/vol4no2/6.pdf|journal=International Journal of Education and Human Developments|volume=4|pages=50}}</ref> Usage-based models of language becamehave become a significant new trend in linguistics since the early 2000s.<ref name="Mengden2014" />

== Disciplinary roots ==

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West Coast cognitive functionalism (WCCF) played a major role in the creation of the usage-based enterprise.

Firstly, a crucial point in WCCF was [[Eleanor Rosch]]’s paper on semantic categories in human cognition,<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Boyes-Braem, P |last2=Johnson,D |last3=Gray, W.|last4=Mervis, C.B.|first1=Rosch E. |title=Basic objects in natural categories |journal=Cognitive Psychology |date=1976}}</ref> which studied fuzzy semantic categories with central and peripheral concepts. Subsequently, [[Robin Lakoff]] (1987) applied these concepts to linguistic studies. For usage-based models of language, these discoveries legitimized interest in the peripheral phenomena and inspired the examination of the ontological status of the rules themselves.<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Iverson, G.K. |last2=Corrigan, R.L. |first1=Lima, S.D. |title=The reality of linguistic rules |journal=Amsterdam: John Benjamins |date=1994}}</ref>

Secondly, WCCF focuses on the effects of social/ textual context and cognitive processes on human thought, instead of established systems and representations, which motivated the study of external sources in usage-based language research. For example, in analyzing the differences between the grammatical notions of subject vs. topic, Li and Thompson (1976), found that the repetition of certain topics by a [[speech community]] resulted in the surfacing and crystallization of formal properties into syntactic entities, namely the subject.<ref>{{cite journal |first1=Givon, T |title=From discourse to syntax: Grammar as a processing strategy. In T. Givón (Ed.)|journal=Discourse and Syntax. (Syntax and Semantics, Vol. 12, Pp. 81-109). New York: Academic Press. |date=1979b}}</ref><ref>{{cite journal |first1=Givon, T |title=On understanding grammar.|journal=New York: Academic Press.|date=1979c}}</ref><ref>{{cite journal |first1=Givon, T |title=Modes of knowledge and modes of processing. The routinization of behavior and information.|journal=Mind, Code, and Context: Essays in Pragmatics. (Pp.237-268). Hillsdale, NJ: Erlbaum.|date=1989}}</ref> This notion of syntax and morphology being an outcome of pragmatic and cognitive factors,<ref>{{cite journal |first1=Hopper, P.J. |title=When 'Grammar' and Discourse Clash: The Problem of Source Conflicts.|journal= In J. Bybee, J. Haiman, & S. A. Thompson (Eds.), Essays on Language Function and Language Type: Dedicated to T. Givón. (Pp. 231-247). Amsterdam: John Benjamins.|date=1997}}</ref> was influential in the development of usage-based models.

Thirdly, the WCCF methodology of [[linguistic typology]] <ref>{{cite journal |first1=Greenberg, J.H. |title=A quantitative approach to the morphological typology of language.|journal= International Journal of American Linguistics, 26, 178-194.|date=1960}}</ref> is similarly practised in usage-based models, in collecting data from real communicative contexts and analyzing them for typological regularities. This highlights an important aspect of usage-based research, the study of methods for the integration of synchrony and diachrony.