1.

Record Nr.

UNINA9910822006803321

Titolo

Functional approaches to language / / edited by Shannon T. Bischoff, Carmen Jany

Pubbl/distr/stampa

Berlin ; ; Boston : , : De Gruyter Mouton, , [2013]

©2013

ISBN

3-11-048476-5

3-11-028533-9

3-11-028532-0

Edizione

[1st ed.]

Descrizione fisica

1 online resource (260 p.)

Collana

Trends in Linguistics. Studies and Monographs [TiLSM] ; ; 248

Trends in linguistics. Studies and monographs ; ; 248

Classificazione

ER 765

Altri autori (Persone)

BischoffShannon T

JanyCarmen <1970->

Disciplina

418

410.18

Soggetti

Functional discourse grammar

Functionalism (Linguistics)

Structural linguistics

Lingua di pubblicazione

Inglese

Formato

Materiale a stampa

Livello bibliografico

Monografia

Note generali

International conference proceedings.

Nota di bibliografia

Includes bibliographical references and index.

Nota di contenuto

Front matter -- Contents -- Introduction / Bischoff, Shannon T. / Jany, Carmen -- On the Intellectual Roots of Functionalism in Linguistics / Givón, T. -- Functional Explanation and its Uses / Itkonen, Esa -- Structure and Function: A Niche-Constructional Approach / Harder, Peter -- Toward a Thought-Based Linguistics / Chafe, Wallace -- Changing Language / Kaschak, Michael P. / Ann Gernsbacher, Morton -- An Outline of Discourse Grammar / Heine, Bernd / Kaltenböck, Gunther / Kuteva, Tania / Long, Haiping -- Towards an Experimental Functional Linguistics: Production / Menn, Lise / Duffield, Cecily Jill / Narasimhan, Bhuvana -- Acknowledgements -- References -- Index

Sommario/riassunto

Functionalism, as characterized by Allen, (2007:254) "holds that linguistic structures can only be understood and explained with reference to the semantic and communicative functions of language, whose primary function is to be a vehicle for social interaction among human beings."  Since the 1970's, inspired by the work of Jespersen,



Bolinger, Dik, Halliday, and Chafe, functionalism has been attached to a variety of movements and models making major contributions to linguistic theory and to various subfields within linguistics, such as syntax, discourse, language acquisition, cognitive linguistics, typology, and documentary linguistics. Further, functional approaches have had a major impact outside linguistics in fields such as psychology and education, both in terms of theory and application. The main goal of functionalist approaches is to clarify the dynamic relationship between form and function (Thompson 2003:53). Functionalist perspectives have gained more ground over the past decades with more linguists resorting to functional explanations to account for linguistic structure. The authors in this volume present the current state of functional approaches to linguistic inquiry expanding our knowledge of language and linguistics.