Linguistic Structure and Change: An Explanation from Language Processing (Hippocrene Standard Dictionary) - Hardcover

Berg, Thomas

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0198236727 ISBN 13: 9780198236726

Publisher: Clarendon Press, 1998

Synopsis

Thomas Berg challenges context-free theories of linguistics; he is concerned with the way the term 'explanation' is typically used in the discipline. He argues that real explanations cannot emerge from a view which asserts the autonomy of language, but only from an approach which seeks to establish a connection between language and the contexts in which it is embedded.

The author examines the psychological context in detail. He uses an interactiveactivation model of language processing to derive predictions about synchronic linguistic patterns, the course of linguistic change, and the structure of poetic rhymes. The majority of these predictions are borne out, leading the author to conclude that the structure of language is shaped by the properties of the mechanism which puts it to use, and that psycholinguistics thus qualifies as one likely approach from which to derive an explanation of linguistic structure.

About this title

Review

The book can be praised for the breadth of linguistic and psycholinguistic patterns that are discussed, and for the way the results are integrated into a complete model of linguistic patterning . . . a much needed contribution to a relatively understudied area of linguistic research that is gradually entering the theoretical realm. This work has broad implications for many of the foundational issues of linguistic theory. (Stefan Frisch, University of Michigan, Journal of Linguistics 35, 1999)

About the Author

Thomas Berg is Professor of Linguistics at the University of Hamburg.

Edition details

• Publisher: Clarendon Press
• Publication date: 1998
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0198236727
• ISBN 13: 9780198236726
• Binding: Hardcover
• Number of pages: 352