文档介绍：Language & Communication. Vol. II. No. I/t. pp. 53-62, 1991. 0271-5309191 $ + .OO
Printed in Great Britain. Pergamon Press plc
COGNITIVE VERSUS GENERATIVE LINGUISTICS:
MITMENTS INFLUENCE RESULTS
E LAKOFF
The Chomskyan framework that Newmeyer assumes without question has been rejected
on empirical grounds by a large proportion of the munity, especially those
concerned with cognition municative function. Since the paper concerns the
relationship between cognitive functional theories and the Chomskyan paradigm, a
discussion of the differences in background assumptions is necessary. Let us begin by making
some distinctions.
Empirical linguistics
This is the scientific study of language in all its manifestations. It is defined by the
mitment.
The mitment
mitment to characterize the general principles governing all aspects of human
language. es with a phenomenological characterization of aspects
of language where generalizations are to be sought:
In syntax. Generalizations about the distribution of grammatical morphemes, categories
and constructions.
In semantics. Generalizations about inferences, polysemy, semantic fields, conceptual
structure, knowledge structure, and the fitting of language to what we perceive, experience,
and understand.
fn prugmafics. Generalizations municative function: speech acts, implicat