linguistic axioms

[Ellen Contini-Morava]

Re axioms:  There's Bloomfield's classic "A set of postulates for the 
science of language", Language 2 (1926), pp. 153-64.  The main one, 
slightly rephrased in his 1933 Language (p. 159):  "In a 
speech-community some utterances are alike or partly alike in sound and 
meaning".  Though some have questioned the assumption of a "shared code" 
(e.g. Roy Harris, "On redefining linguistics". In Hayley Davis and 
Talbot Taylor (eds.), Redefining Linguistics. London: Routledge 1990, 
pp. 18-52.)

Happy new year,

Ellen