Description
Linguistics often tries to present itself as a natural science. It is claimed that language users are driven by a blind linguistic instinct and that their linguistic behavior can be described purely in physiological-biological terms. Itkonen shows that this notion is fundamentally misguided. His argumentation is based on the idea that language is a set of millions of so-called shared, three-level knowledge existing in what is termed the intersubjectivity of the minds of its users - and that because of this, it has an inherently normative character. This original conceptualization of language allows him to explain a number of challenging questions that are relevant in contemporary Czech thinking about language and in the Czech linguistic situation - for example, that 'what ought to be cannot be derived from what is' (normativity), but that 'what is can influence what ought to be' (language change), or that 'we do not have language, but language has us' (linguistic correctness).
Information
Author: Itkonen Esa
Publication date: April 14, 2025
Manufacturer: Středisko spol. činností AV ČR, v. v. i.
Genres: Books, Philosophy, Specialized and technical literature, Social sciences
Type: Hardcover books
Pages: 274
ISBN/EAN: 9788020035998