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4 - Functional-Typological Approaches to Hispanic Linguistics

from Part I - Theories and Approaches to Spanish Linguistics

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  13 August 2018

By
Rosa Vallejos
Edited by
Kimberly L. Geeslin
Kimberly L. Geeslin
Affiliation:
Indiana University
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Summary

This article explores the close partnership between functional linguistic and linguistic typology, as well as their contributions to Hispanic linguistics. One of the most striking facts about the languages of the world is that they are both similar and unique at the same time. To explain this fact, functionalism stars with the fundamental assumption that languages are the way they are because they have evolved so as to serve their users’ demands. Language is a tool for conceptualization, communication and socialization among human beings. Typology focuses on recurrent patterns in a large number of languages which allows generalizations as to what is possible in human languages. It compares patterns in genetically unrelated languages and categorizes linguistic systems into types. On the basis of this categorization, typological studies arrive at implicational universals, which are then explained in terms of functional pressures, iconic principles, processing and learning constraints, and diachronic changes. Functional-typological approaches play a prominent role in language change studies, and Spanish linguistics has made contributions to this area of research. Studies on synchronic variation and change in progress had shed light on the mechanisms of change, plausible diachronic pathways, and the circumstances under which universal principles influence emerging structures.
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The Cambridge Handbook of Spanish Linguistics , pp. 72 - 94
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2018

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