formal/functional

[Jon Aske]

I must strongly object to Dick's definitions about functional and
functionalism.  I am surprised that these misconceptions still exist, even
among formalists:

> 'formal' = involving relations within language
> 'functional' = involving relations between language and its use
> 'formal grammar' = (study of) grammar where external relations are left
> unanalysed
> 'functional grammar' = (study of) grammar where some formal patterns are
> explained in terms of functional patterns.

This presupposes that a functional analysis takes a formal analysis and adds
something to it (explanation, relation to language use, etc.).  That is not
what functionalism is about as I -- and as I believe most people on this
list (at least until recently) -- understand it.  Dick's functionalism is
the functionalism of formalists who sprinkle some functional notions on
their autonomous formal analyses as an afterthought.  People who believe
that on this list have joined the wrong list, as far as I am concerned.

Functionalism and functional analyses have at their core the belief that you
cannot separate form and function/meaning.  They form an inseparable unit at
every level, from the word (cf. Saussure) to the many different types of
constructions that there are at every level (from the morphological level to
the discourse level).  Sometimes the function motivates (I am not saying
predicts or explains 100%) the form in rather obvious ways, without
necessarily explaining it, and figuring out those ways is also a crucial
aspect of functionalism.  Often times, however, form takes a life of its own
and it cannot be explained or motivated by function, but the formal pole of
any linguistic unit still does not exist without the functional pole.  They
are the two sides of the coin.

Isn't that what this list is all about?  Maybe I'm wrong.  Have those who
think like me become a minority on this list?  Or is it that the other guys
are a very vocal minority.  Don't those guys have their own lists?

Note that I am not saying that anyone should leave this list, but if such an
eclectic group is going to have meaningful discussions, we should be very
clear about what our different beliefs and presuppositions are.  It seems to
me that there is an awful lot of confusion about that, as evidenced by
Dick's definitions above.

Jon
_____________________________________________________
Jon Aske
Department of Foreign Languages, Salem State College
jaske at salem.mass.edu - http://www.salem.mass.edu/~jaske/
personal: aske at basqueland.com - http://basqueland.com
_____________________________________________________
Get the facts first. You can distort them later. --Mark Twain