LINGUISTIC STRUCTURE AND CHANGE by Thomas Berg ( 9780198299851 )

Item Details

Title:

LINGUISTIC STRUCTURE AND CHANGE
AN EXPLANATION FROM LANGUAGE PROCESSING

By:

Thomas Berg

Format:

Paperback

List price:

£18.99

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£16.62

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£2.37

ISBN 10:

0198299850

ISBN 13:

9780198299851

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Publisher:

OXFORD UNIVERSITY PRESS

Pub. date:

15 February, 2001

Pages:

350

Description:

Thomas Berg analyses language as a psychological phenomenon in order to reach a clearer understanding of why the structure of language is the way it is and how it changes. He claims that real explanations of the structure of language can only emerge by establishing connections between language and its context. The explanatory power of one of these contexts, the psychological one, is examined in detail.

Synopsis:

Thomas Berg challenges context-free theories of linguistics; he is concerned with how 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 interactive activation 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, and the author concludes 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.

Illustrations:

4 black and white line figures

Publication:

Imprint:

Oxford University Press

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Returnable

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