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Article In:
Evolution and Revolution in Language and Linguistics
Edited by Janine Berns, Marie Steffens and Esther Baiwir
[Nota Bene 1:1] 2024
► pp. 88–114

Dynamic Linguistics

An aperitif

 | Radboud Universiteit Nijmegen
As opposed to static approaches, the dynamic approach (DA) emphatically distances itself from the routinised use of the concept of language (as in the English, French or Quechua language), the sole reliance on the dichotomised model of language history explained by vertical change (the Stammbaum approach) and horizontal change (the contact approach), and the eccentrification of creole language emergence. The notion of a DA to language surfaced at several points in time, reaching two climaxes, namely the advent of Wave Theory (Schmidt 1872) and the incorporation of variation in the machinery of a modular approach to grammar (Bailey 1973; Bickerton 1971; Seuren 1982). In a nutshell, the DA advocates for the polylectal nature of linguistic competence (in the transformationalist/generative semantic sense), the fluid nature of language variation over time and space, as well as for the notions of functionality and the Principle of Semantic Transparency as guiding forces throughout the history of languoids.
In this article, the basic tenets of this approach are outlined, embedded in a historical frame within the advent of Generative Semantics and variation-centred approaches to language. These tenets are illustrated with case studies from languoids used in Northwestern Amazonia, Balgo in Western Australia, as well as Senegambia in West Africa.
Keywords: Dynamic Linguistics, historical linguistics, polylectal competence, SMARS, Semantic Syntax
Article outline
  • 1.Historical background and main tenets
  • 2.Time capsule of the first dynamists: From Schmidt to Seuren and the main tenets of DL
  • 3.The Flux approach and the global South: Shawi, Kukatja, and Wolof
    • 3.1The Flux Approach
      • 3.1.1Kawapanan in layers
      • 3.1.2Kukatja/Yingkutja in layers
      • 3.1.3The Berber layer in Wolof through triangulation
  • 4.Future avenues for dynamic linguistics
  • Acknowledgements
  • Notes
  • References
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