July 18, 2004 Journal article Open Access

Haspelmath, Martin

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  <identifier identifierType="URL">https://zenodo.org/record/831412</identifier>
  <creators>
    <creator>
      <creatorName>Haspelmath, Martin</creatorName>
      <givenName>Martin</givenName>
      <familyName>Haspelmath</familyName>
      <affiliation>Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology</affiliation>
    </creator>
  </creators>
  <titles>
    <title>Does linguistic explanation presuppose linguistic description?</title>
  </titles>
  <publisher>Zenodo</publisher>
  <publicationYear>2004</publicationYear>
  <subjects>
    <subject>language universals, linguistic typology, Universal Grammar, functional explanation</subject>
  </subjects>
  <dates>
    <date dateType="Issued">2004-07-18</date>
  </dates>
  <resourceType resourceTypeGeneral="JournalArticle"/>
  <alternateIdentifiers>
    <alternateIdentifier alternateIdentifierType="url">https://zenodo.org/record/831412</alternateIdentifier>
  </alternateIdentifiers>
  <relatedIdentifiers>
    <relatedIdentifier relatedIdentifierType="DOI" relationType="IsIdenticalTo">10.1075/sl.28.3.06has</relatedIdentifier>
  </relatedIdentifiers>
  <rightsList>
    <rights rightsURI="https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/legalcode">Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International</rights>
    <rights rightsURI="info:eu-repo/semantics/openAccess">Open Access</rights>
  </rightsList>
  <descriptions>
    <description descriptionType="Abstract">&lt;p&gt;I argue that the following two assumptions are incorrect: (i) The properties of the innate Universal Grammar can be discovered by comparing language systems, and (ii) functional explanation of language structure presupposes a &amp;ldquo;correct&amp;rdquo;, i.e. cognitively realistic, description. Thus, there are two ways in which linguistic explanation does not presuppose linguistic description.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;The generative program of building cross-linguistic generalizations into the hypothesized Universal Grammar cannot succeed because the actually observed generalizations are typically one-way implications or implicational scales, and because they typically have exceptions. The cross-linguistic generalizations are much more plausibly due to functional factors.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;I distinguish sharply between &amp;ldquo;phenomenological description&amp;rdquo; (which makes no claims about mental reality) and &amp;ldquo;cognitively realistic descrip- tion&amp;rdquo;, and I show that for functional explanation, phenomenological description is sufficient.&lt;/p&gt;</description>
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