LINGUIST List 14.2076

Tue Aug 5 2003

Diss: Typology/Lang Desc: Kirtchuk-Halevi

Editor for this issue: Naomi Fox <foxlinguistlist.org>

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  • pihalevi, Deixis, anaphore, Accords, Classification

    Message 1: Deixis, anaphore, Accords, Classification

     Date: Mon, 04 Aug 2003 14:48:56 +0000
    From: pihalevi <pihalevibgumail.bgu.ac.il>
    Subject: Deixis, anaphore, Accords, Classification


    Institution: Sorbonne (Universite Paris 4) Program: Phonetics and Linguistics Dissertation Status: Completed Degree Date: 1993

    Author: Pablo Isaac Kirtchuk-Halevi

    Dissertation Title: Deixis, anaphore, Accords, Classification: Morphogenese et Fonctionnement

    Linguistic Field: Typology Syntax Pragmatics Morphology Language Description General Linguistics Cognitive Science

    Dissertation Director 1: Bernard Pottier Dissertation Director 2: Claude Hagege

    Dissertation Abstract:

    In my Ph.D work I point to deixis as being the primary function of language. This is based on a cross-linguistic analysis of data, both in diachrony and in synchrony, in ontogeny and phylogeny, and considering the different levels of linguistic analysis: phonetics and phonology, morphology, syntax, semantics, pragmatics. The conclusion is that nouns are pro-pronouns, and not the other (traditional) way round; that pragmatics precede syntax and that the Saussurean dogma according to which parole is an emanation of langue should be inversed: langue, namely each and every human tongue, but also the property of language as such, emerge from the communicative needs and from communicative factors which end up acquiring specific biological forms. Communication in context, which linguistics call deixis, emerges prior to communication out of context, which needs much more sophisticated brain capacities of calculation and stockage. This, however, is not only an evolutionary or diachronic statement: deixis is the central function of language in any synchronic state of any language at any age of the speaker-hearer. The relationship between Saussurean linguistics and mine is akin to the relationship between Newtonian physics and quantum physics, or between Euclidean geometry and Riemannian geometry. Only in very specific conditions there might be a point in the Saussurean view. If, however, we generalize and look at language as part of human evolution both in phylogenesis and in ontogenesis, thus including more than actual languages of adult people and as a part of human nature, which includes more elements than calculation capacity and memory, then it is our approach that is adequate. Iconicity, namely the correlation in language berween form and meaning, is a major device in this framework. I also point to several properties of language which distinguish it from other so-called 'languages' (e.g. of computers). Finally, I furnish the first description of the Pilaga language, from the Guaykuru family, spoken in North-eastern Argentina..