The Practice of Language

by Gustafsson, Martin; Hertzberg, Lars

• ISBN13: 9781402006913
• ISBN10: 1402006918
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 2002-06-01
• Publisher: Kluwer Academic Pub

Summary

How is linguistic theory related to linguistic practice? What do theoretical notions and models tell us about real-life language use? Are there any limits to what such notions and models can reasonably be taken to accomplish? These questions are fundamental to any serious investigation into the phenomena of human communication. The essays in this book show that philosophers and linguists of quite different brands have tended to give undue priority to their own favourite theoretical framework, and have presupposed that the descriptive scheme invoked by that framework constitutes a pattern to which any linguistic practice somehow has to conform. What unites the contributors to this volume is a critical attitude towards such essentialist aspirations. By investigating several concrete examples of this tendency - examples collected from such seemingly disparate areas as structuralism, contemporary analytic philosophy and feminist epistemology - the authors collectively manage to cast doubt on the very attempt to fit the whole of linguistic practice into a general theoretical mould.

Table of Contents

Acknowledgments	1	(2)
Introduction	3	(8)
PART I. HISTORICAL PERSPECTIVES
On the Linguistic Turn in Philosophy	11	(40)
Soren Stenlund
Humboldt: Grammatical Form and ``Weltansicht''	51	(26)
Olav Gundersen
Language as Sign and Use: A Study of Certain Aspects of Saussure's View of Language	77	(22)
Michael Gustavsson
PART II. PREJUDICED PRECONCEPTIONS: NOTIONS OF LANGUAGE WITHIN LINGUISTICS AND FEMINIST EPISTEMOLOGY
Expression and Content in Linguistic Theory	99	(10)
Sven Ohman
The History of Swedish Grammar and Professor Chomsky	109	(12)
Saara Haapamaki
How Ordinary is Ordinary Experience? Language in Feminist Epistemology and Philosophy of Science	121	(26)
Sharon Rider
PART III. THE PRACTICE OF MEANING AND TRUTH
Putnam on Truth	147	(30)
Frederick Stoutland
Meaning, Saying, Truth	177	(24)
Martin Gustafsson
PART IV. THEMES FROM WITTGENSTEIN
Wittgenstein, Meursault and the Difficulty of Philosophy	201	(12)
Par Segerdahl
Wittgenstein, Logical Form and Grammatical Remarks	213	(12)
Thorsten Johansson
On Rule-Following	225	(12)
Juan Wilhelmi
Are We all Trapped in Nonsense?	237	(10)
Gudmundur Steingrimsson
On the Need for a Listener and Community Standards	247	(14)
Lars Hertzberg
References	261	(6)
Notes on the Contributors	267	(2)
Index	269