Overview

This book aims to reorient the study of language by taking into serious consideration the perspective on linguistic matters taken by lay speakers themselves. Linguistics is in need of such a reorientation as a response to the now inescapable conclusion that traditional linguistic theory, with its focus on revealing 'the facts of language in general', cannot handle the necessary indeterminacy of what is said and understood. The focus of the book is on the uses to which English speakers, on the one hand, and linguistic theorists, on the other, put the word word. This analysis serves as an example of the more general contrast between how an 'average' person and how a professional linguist treat meta-linguistic remarks. To investigate the views of lay speakers, an ask-the-speaker methodology is employed, using fieldwork and interview techniques. This study is the first attempt to make such an analysis and to draw the relevant theoretical conclusions concerning the status of the linguistic units in question.

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9780700713769

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Hayley G. Davis

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