TY - CHAP

T1 - Variation, structure and norms

AU - Harder, Peter

N1 - Ny udgivelse af tidligere publikation

PY - 2014

Y1 - 2014

N2 - After a period when the focus was essentially on mental architecture, the cognitivesciences are increasingly integrating the social dimension. The rise of a cognitivesociolinguistics is part of this trend. The article argues that this process requiresa re-evaluation of some entrenched positions in linguistics: those that seelinguistic norms as antithetical to a descriptive and variational linguistics. Oncesuch a re-evaluation has taken place, however, the social recontextualization ofcognition will enable linguistics (including sociolinguistics as an integral part),to eliminate the cracks in the foundations that were the result of suppressing thesociocultural underpinnings of linguistic facts. Structuralism, cognitivism andsocial constructionism introduced new and necessary distinctions, but in theirstrong forms they all turned into unnecessary divides. The article tries to showthat an evolutionary account can reintegrate the opposed fragments into a wholepicture that puts each of them in their ‘ecological position’ with respect to eachother. Empirical usage facts should be seen in the context of operational normsin relation to which actual linguistic choices represent adaptations. Variationalpatterns should be seen in the context of structural categories without whichthere would be only ‘differences’ rather than variation. And emergence, individualchoice, and flux should be seen in the context of the individual’s dependenceon lineages of community practice sustained by collective norms.

AB - After a period when the focus was essentially on mental architecture, the cognitivesciences are increasingly integrating the social dimension. The rise of a cognitivesociolinguistics is part of this trend. The article argues that this process requiresa re-evaluation of some entrenched positions in linguistics: those that seelinguistic norms as antithetical to a descriptive and variational linguistics. Oncesuch a re-evaluation has taken place, however, the social recontextualization ofcognition will enable linguistics (including sociolinguistics as an integral part),to eliminate the cracks in the foundations that were the result of suppressing thesociocultural underpinnings of linguistic facts. Structuralism, cognitivism andsocial constructionism introduced new and necessary distinctions, but in theirstrong forms they all turned into unnecessary divides. The article tries to showthat an evolutionary account can reintegrate the opposed fragments into a wholepicture that puts each of them in their ‘ecological position’ with respect to eachother. Empirical usage facts should be seen in the context of operational normsin relation to which actual linguistic choices represent adaptations. Variationalpatterns should be seen in the context of structural categories without whichthere would be only ‘differences’ rather than variation. And emergence, individualchoice, and flux should be seen in the context of the individual’s dependenceon lineages of community practice sustained by collective norms.

M3 - Book chapter

SN - 9789027202789

T3 - Benjamins Current Topics

SP - 53

EP - 73

BT - Cognitive Sociolinguistics

A2 - Pütz, Martin

A2 - Robinson, Justyna

A2 - Reif, Monika

PB - John Benjamins Publishing Company

CY - Amsterdam/Philadelphia

ER -