Grammar is Grammar and Usage is Usage

Abstract

A number of disparate approaches to language, ranging from cognitive linguistics to stochastic implementations of optimality theory, have challenged the classical distinction between knowledge of language and use of language. Supporters of such approaches point to the functional motivation of grammatical structure, language users' sensitivity to the frequency of occurrence of grammatical elements, and the great disparity between sentences that grammars generate and speakers' actual utterances. In this article I defend the classical position, and provide evidence from a number of sources that speakers mentally represent full grammatical structure, however fragmentary their utterances might be. The article also questions the relevance of most corpus-based frequency and probability studies to models of individual grammatical competence. I propose a scenario for the origins and evolution of language that helps to explain why grammar and usage are as distinct as they are.

Variation and linguistic theory

“…Both interspeaker and intra-speaker variation can be seen to pose problems for linguistic theory, and, as we have seen, some theorists consciously decide to ignore these problems, believing that theoretical linguistics should deal only with categorical phenomena, or at most should describe what is possible, not what is likely or unlikely (for example, Newmeyer 2003Newmeyer , 2005 summarises a range of arguments as to why theoretical linguistics should ignore variation). We have also seen that some considerable thought has been devoted to tackling these problems head-on, however.…”

Grammar Games: A Case for Instructionist Game Models to Enhance Grammar Awareness and Accuracy

“…Linguists continue to debate whether grammar and usage should be -ley, 2013; Newmeyer, 2003), a dichotomy closely related to prescriptive and descriptive perspectives on grammar (e.g., Myhill & Watson, 2014). Likewise, compositionists and educators discuss -cit or part of a learning process (e.g., Rose, 1985).…”

La liaison : approches contemporaines

“…La montée en puissance des bases et banques de données linguistiques et le développement d'outils de fouille particulièrement puissants et efficaces liés au développement de la linguistique computationnelle gique, empirique que proprement méthodologique (Keller, 1998 ;Le Prieult, 2006 ;Schütze, 1996 (Newmeyer, 2003 ;Cf. également Laks, 2008.…”