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Part of
Essays on Linguistic Realism
Edited by Christina Behme and Martin Neef
[Studies in Language Companion Series 196] 2018
► pp. 79–138

Chapter 5
Describing linguistic objects in a realist way

| Freie Universität Berlin

The essay is divided into four Parts A to D: Part A (Sections 1 to 3), Topic and background; B. Grammatical description (Sections 4 to 6); C. Grammars and theories of language: motivating axiomatization (Sections 7 to 9); and D. Grammars as axiomatic theories (Sections 10 and 11). The essay characterizes grammatical description, both informal and formal, from a realist point of view as the description of abstract objects, not to be confused with the concrete data to which the description must be ultimately related. The importance of theories of natural human languages for grammars is emphasized, also in view of comparative grammar writing, and is demonstrated by the detailed analysis of a grammatical statement taken from an informal grammar. There is a discussion of adequacy problems that arise in current frameworks for formal grammars due to an absence of theories of language from such frameworks. A format for axiomatic grammars is outlined by which an axiomatic grammar ‘presupposes’ a theory of language, in a technical sense. The view of grammars is non-reductionist; concepts of theory integration are characterized that allow us to integrate grammars with linguistic and non-linguistic theories. The conception of linguistics itself is non-reductionist, too, through applying a concept of inter-discipline that relates linguistics to other disciplines.

Keywords: Modified Realism, grammars and theories of language, ‘comparative concepts’, grammars as axiomatic theories
Article outline
  • A.Topic and background of the essay
    • 1.Topic
    • 2.Modified Realism
      • 2.1The position
      • 2.2Three components of Modified Realism
        • Constructive realism
        • Non-cognitivist mentalism (intentionalism)
        • Weaker functionalism
    • 3.Discussion
      • 3.1Explanations: A reason for realism
      • 3.2Objects and data
      • 3.3Linguistic inter-disciplines
      • 3.4Placing Modified Realism
  • B.Grammatical description
    • 4.Preliminaries: Informal grammars
      • 4.1Some basic distinctions
      • 4.2Grammars as texts
      • 4.3Remarks on idiolects and idiolect systems
      • 4.4Sample statement from an informal grammar
      • 4.5Terms in an informal grammar: Language specific and language overarching
      • 4.6Grammatical terms in linguistic theories: Descriptive and comparative linguistics
    • 5.Formal grammars: Problems for grammar adequacy
      • 5.1Types of formal grammars: The requirement of semantic analogues
      • 5.2Problems with language names and domain names
      • 5.3Problems with grammatical terms
    • 6.How to solve the problems
      • 6.1First Solution: The Irrelevance Conception
      • 6.2Second Solution: The Language-Feature Conception
      • 6.3Rejecting the Language-Feature Conception
      • 6.4Third Solution: Cover-all Conceptions of Grammatical Terms
      • 6.5Fourth Solution: Relativizing Conceptions of Grammatical Terms
        • ‘article’ relativized
        • ‘subject’ relativized
      • 6.6Overcoming the opposition of ‘comparative concept’ vs. ‘descriptive category’
      • 6.7Conclusion
  • C.Grammars and theories of language: Motivating axiomatization
    • 7.Advantages of an axiomatic grammar format
      • 7.1Introduction
      • 7.2Important features of axiomatic theories
      • 7.3Discussion and explanations
      • 7.4Clarifying informal grammars by partial axiomatic reformulation
    • 8.Grammatical statements: Informal and semi-formal
      • 8.1Example
      • 8.2Variables and constants
      • 8.3Evaluation
    • 9.Grammatical terms taken over from a theory of language
      • 9.1A basic assumption
      • 9.2Defining terms in a theory of language: Example
      • 9.3Using terms in a grammar as defined in a theory of language: Example
      • 9.4The identification of categories
  • D.Grammars as axiomatic theories
    • 10.Grammars G of D and σ (1): The format
      • 10.1The theory-of-language requirement
      • 10.2Presupposing a theory of language
      • 10.3The language name: Language-determination and language-identification sentences
      • 10.4The language system name: System-determination sentences
      • 10.5The axioms
      • 10.6The theorems: Example
    • 11.Grammars G of D and σ (2): Application and integration
      • 11.1Application
      • 11.2Example
      • 11.3Discussion
      • 11.4Integration
      • 11.5Accounting for quantitative aspects
      • 11.6Integrating linguistic and non-linguistic theories: The interconnection problem
      • 11.7Concluding remarks
  • Acknowledgements
  • Note
  • References
Published online: 26 July 2018
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https://doi.org/10.1075/slcs.196.05lie
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