Different explanations in grammar are mutually compatible: Structural, evolutionary and biocognitive

Martin Haspelmath
Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology / Leipzig University

Abstract: Linguists often act as if they had to choose between different approaches or frameworks or research communities, and sometimes these choices appear as “commitments” or firm beliefs. Thus, structuralists, functionalists and generativists have often regarded each other’s work as if the approaches were competitors rather than potentially complementary. Here I note that they can be complementary and that there is no reason for ideological divisions in the field of linguistics. However, it is important to keep structural analyses distinct from biocognitive explanations, as these have often been conflated.

Keywords: methodology of linguistics, explanation, structural linguistics, generative linguistics, evolutionary linguistics

For citation: Haspelmath M. Different explanations in grammar are mutually compatible: Structural, evolutionary and biocognitive. Typology of Morphosyntactic Parameters. 2024. Vol. 7, iss. 2. Pp. 133–151. doi:10.37632/PI.2024.48.13.008