Danish
Functional
Linguistics |
About Danish Functional Linguistics
Since the structural revolution in early 20th century, linguistics has been
divided into approaches based on the autonomy thesis and approaches focusing
on language as a medium for cognitive, communicative and social processes.
On both sides of the divide there has been a gradual increase in the level
of sophistication, theoretically as well as empirically. Among other things,
the emergence of the umbrella discipline of cognitive science has sparked
off a new development where the description of language is part of an
integrated exploration of the overall cognitive potential of the human mind.
Since 1989 a number of Danish linguists based in RUC, CBS, and the
University of Copenhagen, have formed a research community that has made a
distinctive contribution to the development of linguistics by exploring how
morphosyntactic, semantic and pragmatic features of language can be
integrated into an overall approach based on function. A key interest is to
preserve the valid parts of the structural tradition by viewing structure
within (rather than outside) an overall functional and cognitive framework:
Structural features may present a misleading picture of language when they
are artificially isolated from the rest but they have an important role to
play if they are seen as ways of structuring and formalizing functional
properties of languages. In the bibliography are listed a number of books
and articles where Danish linguists associated with the functional
linguistic working community have discussed issues in modern linguistics.
Among the aims are to make contributions to international discussions
without taking part in sectarian warfare, and to emphasize the distinctive
properties of individual languages.
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