The Functional Linguistics Circle, Aichi, JAPAN: HOME

"Many linguists prefer to steer clear of what they see as excessive formalism in favour of more human-centered approaches, approaches that focus far more directly upon what people are trying to do when they speak, and how they go about this task.

One such approach, preferred by many linguists, is the functional approach. These linguists try to determine what purposes are being served by a language, and what linguistic forms are available to serve those functions.

But what do we mean by the functions of language? Most people, on being asked what language is for, provide the same reply: it's for communication. But this answer is far too simple.

A functionalist approach--and there are quite a few functionalist approaches in use--attaches little importance to determining precisely what is or is not grammatical. Instead, it focuses on the needs of speakers, and looks at linguistic ways of meeting those needs.

R.L. Trask & Bill Mayblin
Introducing Linguistics, 2000

"Since the inception of linguistics as an empirical science, a justifiably primary concern of grammarians has been the discovery of structural regularities in language. There is no doubt that statements of such regularities are vital to our understanding of the nature of language. It is equally true, of course, that not all aspects of sentence formation can be described by rules stated in terms of grammatical or even semantic properties. Rather, there are a number of facts about sentences that can only be understood in terms of speaker's and hearer's abilities to make inferences beyond what sentences actually say. Furthermore, certain rules that are pragmatically based are conditioned by the perception of the speaker at the time of the utterance. The speaker's perception of the world and his interpretation of the pragmatic factors may change from instance to instance, making such rules difficult to formulate."

Charles N. Li & Sandra A. Thompson
Syntax & Semantics 12, 1979

"One presumably universal feature of natural language is that the objective information conveyed is not conveyed on a single plane. That is, there is an INFORMATIONAL ASYMMETRY in that some units seem to convey or represent 'older' information than others. Given-new distinction can be found on different levels--the sentence, the discourse, the participants' discourse-models… On all levels, however, --and perhaps this is not only universal, but also distinctive of human language--the crucial factor appears to be the tailoring of an utterance by a sender to meet the particular assumed needs of the intended receiver. That is, information-packaging in natural language reflects the sender's hypothesis about the receiver's assumptions and beliefs and strategies."

Ellen F. Prince
Radical Pragmatics, 1981

"Linguistics shares with other sciences a concern to be objective, systematic, consistent, and explicit in its account of language. Like other sciences, it aims to collect data, test hypotheses, devise models, and construct theories. Its subject matter, however, is unique: at one extreme it overlaps with such 'hard' sciences as physics and anatomy, at the other, it involves such traditional 'arts' subjects as philosophy and literary criticism. The field of linguistics includes both science and the humanities, and offers a breadth of coverage that, for many aspiring students of the subject, is the primary source of its appeal."

David Crystal
The Cambridge Encyclopedia of Language, 1987

"When we study human language, we are approaching what some might call the 'human essence,' the distinctive qualities of mind that are, so far as we know, unique to man."

Noam Chomsky
Language and Mind, 1968

"Philosophic truth is to be sought in the presuppositions of language rather than in its expressed statements."

A.N. Whitehead
Modes of Thought, 1938

"What is conversationally implicated by an utterance depends not only on the utterance but on what other utterances the speaker could have produced but did not."

James D. McCawley
Syntax & Semantics 9, 1978

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To Tomoko Yasutake, visit the webpage of Aichi University of Education.