Semantics

BASIC CONCEPTS II 47
Also connected to the importance given to innate endowment for
language acquisition, are certain philosophical theories (Plato, the French
rationalism, Kantian idealism...), supporting the idea that there are pure
idealized forms which the minds of human beings recognize. These theories
are linked to formal theories of language, whose preferred method of
scientific analysis —when assessing the grammaticality of a sentence, for
instance— is to rely on the intuition of the native speakers of that particular
language.
On the other hand, functional approaches are historically linked to the
Aristotelian idea that all knowledge human beings have about the world
around them comes from the information obtained by means of the five
senses which is then processed and interconnected by the mind. Later on,
other philosophical trends in the same line (empiricism) developed the
idea that scientific knowledge is only built upon observable data.
The consequence of these differences for linguistic analysis is that
formal approaches favour the idea that linguistic data is based on
grammaticality, which, in turn, is based on intuition and introspection.
Functionalists, on the other hand, hold that linguistic data should be
based on real language use, and retrieved from corpora. Grammaticality,
in turn, is considered to be a function of information transmission and
communication, but not the only and indisputable source of data.
Finally, because of the importance that formalists give to innate
linguistic forms, the basic unit of analysis that formalists recognize, is the
clause, which is a clear cut type of unit. In contrast, functionalists accept
the idea that linguistic units may not always be that clear cut and with
well delimited units, and that their boundaries, sometimes, overlap among
them. Because of this, functionalists also claim that linguistic units,
sometimes, have fuzzy limits.
It can be concluded that language, as a symbolic system, allows for
both communicative and symbolic functions. However, it is not the
communicative character of language that allows abstraction, but its
symbolic capacities.
The emphasis on considering language as, both an information
transmission system and as a human communication system, leads
functionalists and cognitivists to see the organization of language (with
grammar as one of its most important subcomponents) basically dependent
on the different roles that each element plays, towards a more efficient
information transmission. In addition, to see human experience as a central
organizational element in language has determined cognitivist theories
of language.