How we can differentiate functionalists, cognitivists, and structuralists?

By: | Post date: 2017-04-10 | Comments: No Comments
Posted in categories: General Language, Linguistics

I’m not contradicting Warren M Tang (see Warren M Tang’s answer to How we can differentiate functionalists, cognitivists, and structuralists?), but let me try a different formulation.

  • A functionalist explains language structures by appealing to the communicative function of those structures. (They do linguistics by metaphors.)
  • A cognitivist explains language structures by appealing to general psychological processes of cognition. (They do linguistics by diagrams.)
  • A structuralist explains language structures as a coherent system of signs. (They do linguistics by tables.)

These approaches are not mutually exclusive in principle—though they tend to be in execution.

Where’s Chomsky fit in all of this? He wishes he was a cognitivist; he’s actually a structuralist.

Leave a Reply

  • Subscribe to Blog via Email

    Join 324 other subscribers

  • May 2023
    M T W T F S S
    « Nov    
    1234567
    891011121314
    15161718192021
    22232425262728
    293031  
%d bloggers like this: