schools and subdisciplines (nitpicking)

[Scott Delancey]

On Sat, 6 Nov 1999, Dan Parvaz wrote:

> It's almost as confusing as the distinction between Functional Syntax and
> FG ("Why are we reading so many disparate sources on 'Functional' syntax
> when Simon Dik has published a Prolog-based grammar?") -- at least for the
> first fifteen minutes or so...
>
> Maybe there's a paper out there on the semantics of labeling linguistics
> sub-disciplines :-)

Functionalism is a school of linguistics, not a sub-discipline.
Subdisciplines are enterprises which deal with some particular aspect
or subset of the problems of linguistics--phonetics, sociolinguistics,
neurolinguistics, stuff like that.  Functionalism, cognitive linguistics,
generative linguistics, etc., aren't--they endeavor to provide a
framework for the whole of the linguistic enterprise (even when they
differ about the details of what is actually part of "linguistics").

I don't mean to pick particularly on Dan here, I've seen this usage
on FUNKNET more than once before.  And maybe it doesn't matter at all,
except that I fear it reinforces the widespread confusion that equates
functional linguistics with the subdiscipline of discourse analysis.


Scott DeLancey