Lunch Lecture - Bernd Kortmann (FRIAS Director) and Peter Mühlhäusler (Linguistics)
| When |
Oct 22, 2015
from 02:15 PM to 03:00 PM |
|---|---|
| Where | Freiburg University, KG I, Lecture Hall 1015 |
| Contact Name | Nikolaus Binder |
| Contact Phone | +49 (0)761 203-97398 |
| Attendees |
Öffentlich / Open to public |
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A significant but indeterminate number of approaches to linguistics have been labelled “paradigm” on the grounds of
- redefinition of the object of investigation
- new research questions
- new methods
- new terminology
Many of these claimed new paradigms have failed to attract a critical mass of scholars. Such instances of paradigm shifts that were successful owe their success to socio-historical contingencies rather than their being superior ways of capturing the nature of human language. Importantly, paradigm shift in linguistics is constrained by a body of Western metalinguistic beliefs, deeply entrenched metaphors of communication, and the expectations of the bodies funding, disseminating and benefiting from linguistic research.
A convenient survey of what the vast majority of linguists believe about language is given by Richard Hudson (1981) in “Some issues on which linguists can agree”.
Useful reading: Richard Hudson (1981), "Some issues on which linguists can agree"
