Language, structure, blending

[Gerald Cohen]

On 3/18/02, Benjamin Fortson first quoted and then added a question:
>  >      Syntactic blends are of interest for producing ellipsis,
>>  redundancy, grammatical change, and semantic change. They are
>>  relevant for possibly challenging the Law of Least Effort, the view
>>  that language is a code, the supposed rigorousness of distributional
>>  rules, the view that language has structure.
>
>How is it that blends challenge the view that language has structure...?

    FWIW, here is what I wrote on the subject in "Contributions To The
Study of Blending" (_Etymology and Linguistic Principles_, vol. 1:
Pursuit of Linguistic Insight_, 1988, pp. 81-96; p, 92:

    "Although structure in language is accepted as an article of
faith, I find myself unable to grasp just what linguistic structure
is supposed to be.  Is it synonymous with order, system, or
grammatical rule, the latter seemingly implied in the term 'syntactic
structures'?
     'Structure' is a term introduced in linguistics from the natural sciences
as part of the effort to make linguistics a science, subject to the
same precise description as e.g., biology.  It is clear that the
distinction structure vs. function has relevance in biology, e.g. the
structure of the liver vs. its functions; but it is not at all clear
that this distinction can be applied with equal success in
linguistics.
     "I therefore look upon 'structure' in linguistics as meaningless
until the term is better defined.  But even undefined, 'structure'
has influenced linguists' conception of the nature of language.
Structure suggests firmness and unchangingness, at least at a given
point in time, and this is a suggestion I would like to challenge
with my work on blending.  Blending suggests a dynamism within
language, even synchronically, and this dynamism is in direct
conflict with the basically static view of language as suggested by
the term 'structure'. ..."


     Over the years I have been interested in various processes
occurring within language--processes that sometimes create
disorder--and my writings on the subject are scattered. I hope some
day to tie things together.

--Gerald Cohen