The Language Builder
An essay on the human signature in linguistic morphogenesis
Linguistics, as a social science, should have something to teach us about humans as social beings. However, modern grammatical theories regard languages as autonomous systems, so these theories are little concerned with speakers and hearers, their interactions, and their relationship to the world around them. Further, these theories tend toward excessive concern with methodology and the properties of linguistic systems, neglecting, in fact, the languages themselves and those who use them in everyday life. Even the shift toward cognitive approaches, promising for their new insights into the brain, still misses an equally important aspect of language, namely a framework which would account for the social activity by which speakers build linguistic structures in order to meet the requirements of communication. Based on a wide range of languages, Hagège's work sheds light on the human language building activity. He argues that the conscious and unconscious 'signatures' of human nature are written everywhere in language. The study of these signatures gives insight into basic characteristics of human beings, tends to re-humanize linguistics, and stresses the importance of language as a dynamic activity as opposed to a self-contained system.
[Current Issues in Linguistic Theory, 94] 1993. xii, 283 pp.
Publishing status: Available
Published online on 18 October 2011
Published online on 18 October 2011
© John Benjamins Publishing Company
Table of Contents
-
Preface | p. ix
-
List of abbreviations used in glosses | p. xi
-
Introduction | p. 1
-
I: Levels of linguistic consciousness and human intervention in language
-
1. The problem of consciousness in Language building | p. 9
-
2. Adaptation of linguistic systems to meet LBs’ needs | p. 41
-
II: The place of humans in language morphogenesis
-
3. Languages as anthropocentric systems | p. 91
-
4. The presence of LBs in creologenesis | p. 121
-
5. LBs and the linguistic cycle | p. 147
-
III: Two aspects of language morphogenesis
-
6. Lexicalization | p. 173
-
7. Grammaticalization | p. 231Conclusion
-
Notes | p. 233
-
-
Index of subjects | p. 264
-
Index of languages | p. 269
-
Index of names | p. 279
Cited by (69)
Cited by 69 other publications
Minhas, Shahid & Abiodun Salawu
Halliday, M. A. K. & Geoff Williams
2023. Exploring the “language” part of language education. Language, Context and Text. The Social Semiotics Forum 5:2 ► pp. 282 ff.
Urban, Matthias
Bornes-Varol, Marie-Christine & Anne Szulmajster-Celnikier
Glikman, Julie, Adeline Patard, F. Neveu, S. Prévost, A. Steuckardt, G. Bergounioux & B. Hamma
Lenoble, Christophe
Matushansky, Ora
Zhirova, Irina, Olga Dmitrieva, Dmitriy Lukin, Elena Anashkina, A. Zheltenkov & A. Mottaeva
Akhmet, Marat
Fujimura, Itsuko
Lamarre, Christine
2020. Chapter 16. Deixis personnelle et deixis spatiale. In The Expression of Tense, Aspect, Modality and Evidentiality in Albert Camus’s L'Étranger and Its Translations / L'Étranger de Camus et ses traductions : questions de temps, d'aspect, de modalité et d'évidentialité (TAME) [Lingvisticæ Investigationes Supplementa, 35], ► pp. 304 ff.
Kuteva, Tania, Bernd Heine, Bo Hong, Haiping Long, Heiko Narrog & Seongha Rhee
Willems, Dominique & Filip Verroens
Azzopardi, Sophie
Do-Hurinville, Danh Thành & Huy Linh Dao
Garachana, Mar
Griffith, Aaron
2018. Chapter 5. Diachrony and the referential hierarchy in Old Irish. In Typological Hierarchies in Synchrony and Diachrony [Typological Studies in Language, 121], ► pp. 191 ff.
Móia, Telmo
Nordquist, Dawn
2018. look up about. In Functionalist and Usage-based Approaches to the Study of Language [Studies in Language Companion Series, 192], ► pp. 225 ff.
Ragot, Pierre
Robert, Stéphane
2018. The challenge of polygrammaticalization for linguistic theory. Cognitive Linguistic Studies 5:1 ► pp. 106 ff.
Szulmajster-Celnikier, Anne & Marie-Christine Bornes Varol
Akhmet, Marat & Mehmet Onur Fen
Akhmet, Marat & Mehmet Onur Fen
Labeau, Emmanuelle & Anne Dister
Levie, Yordanka
Mick, Carola
Viti, Carlotta
2015. Historical syntax. In Perspectives on Historical Syntax [Studies in Language Companion Series, 169], ► pp. 1 ff.
Viti, Carlotta
2017. Semantic and cognitive factors of argument marking in ancient Indo-European languages. Diachronica 34:3 ► pp. 368 ff.
Do-Hurinville, Danh Thành
Trabelsi, Hamida
2014. Étude diachronique des prépositions latinesadetde. Lingvisticae Investigationes 37:1 ► pp. 23 ff.
Ziegeler, Debra
Bentein, Klaas
Bres, Jacques & Emmanuelle Labeau
BRES, JACQUES & EMMANUELLE LABEAU
Bres, Jacques & Emmanuelle Labeau
Bres, Jacques & Emmanuelle Labeau
van Gelderen, Elly
Vigier, Denis
Bit-Chee, Kwok, Andy C. Chin & Benjamin K. Tsou
HEINE, BERND & KYUNG-AN SONG
Adamou, Evangelia
Sarrazin, Sophie
Marchello-Nizia, Christiane
Hagège, Claude
Hagège, Claude
Kriegel, Sibylle
Mufwene, Salikoko
Mufwene, Salikoko S. & Sheri Pargman
Mufwene, Salikoko S.
Mufwene, Salikoko S.
Eloy, Jean-Michel
Eloy, Jean-Michel
Kuteva, Tania
[no author supplied]
[no author supplied]
[no author supplied]
[no author supplied]
This list is based on CrossRef data as of 13 november 2024. Please note that it may not be complete. Sources presented here have been supplied by the respective publishers. Any errors therein should be reported to them.
Subjects
Main BIC Subject
CF: Linguistics
Main BISAC Subject
LAN009000: LANGUAGE ARTS & DISCIPLINES / Linguistics / General