July 18, 2004 Journal article Open Access

Haspelmath, Martin

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{
  "description": "<p>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 &ldquo;correct&rdquo;, i.e. cognitively realistic, description. Thus, there are two ways in which linguistic explanation does not presuppose linguistic description.</p>\n\n<p>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.</p>\n\n<p>I distinguish sharply between &ldquo;phenomenological description&rdquo; (which makes no claims about mental reality) and &ldquo;cognitively realistic descrip- tion&rdquo;, and I show that for functional explanation, phenomenological description is sufficient.</p>", 
  "license": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/legalcode", 
  "creator": [
    {
      "affiliation": "Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology", 
      "@type": "Person", 
      "name": "Haspelmath, Martin"
    }
  ], 
  "headline": "Does linguistic explanation presuppose linguistic description?", 
  "image": "https://zenodo.org/static/img/logos/zenodo-gradient-round.svg", 
  "datePublished": "2004-07-18", 
  "url": "https://zenodo.org/record/831412", 
  "keywords": [
    "language universals, linguistic typology, Universal Grammar, functional explanation"
  ], 
  "@context": "https://schema.org/", 
  "identifier": "https://doi.org/10.1075/sl.28.3.06has", 
  "@id": "https://doi.org/10.1075/sl.28.3.06has", 
  "@type": "ScholarlyArticle", 
  "name": "Does linguistic explanation presuppose linguistic description?"
}