Emergent grammar
Emergent grammar is an approach to the study of syntax, originally proposed by Paul Hopper, which postulates that rules for grammar and syntactic structure emerge as language is used. It is distinguished from what Hopper calls the A Priori Grammar Postulate,[1] which posits that grammar is a set of rules existing in the mind before anything else, and is exemplified by the school of generative grammar and the concept of Universal Grammar. Whereas Universal Grammar claims that features of grammar are innate,[2] emergent grammar claims that the human language faculty has no innate grammar and that features of grammar are learned through experience; the term "emergent" in this context is synonymous with "non-innate."[3]
Emergent grammar was formally proposed in 1987.[4] Since then, it has been an approach common in linguistic discourse analysis and conversation analysis and has been used to investigate the relationship between grammatical structure and real-time interaction and language use.[5]
[edit] References
- ^ Hopper, Paul (1988). "Emergent Grammar and the A Priori Grammar Postulate." In Linguistics in Contact, ed. Deborah Tannen.
- ^ Hornstein, Norbert, Jairo Nunes, and Kleanthes K. Grohmann (2005). Understanding Minimalism. New York: Cambridge University Press. pp. 99–100.
- ^ Mielke, Jeff (2005). "Ambivalence and ambiguity in laterals and nasals". Phonology 22 (2): 193. doi:10.1017/S0952675705000539.
- ^ Hopper, Paul. "Emergent Grammar". Berkeley Linguistics Society 13: 139–157. http://web.archive.org/web/20080918233214/http://home.eserver.org/hopper/emergence.html. Retrieved 2008-09-18.
- ^ Fox, Barbara (2007). "Principles shaping grammatical practices: an exploration". Discourse Studies 9 (3): 299. doi:10.1177/1461445607076201. http://dis.sagepub.com/cgi/content/abstract/9/3/299. Retrieved 2008-10-16.
