A Dictionary of Linguistics and Phonetics David Crystal

axis 47
of an axiomatic system will contain a ‘syntax’, which determines the wellformedness
of its propositions, and a ‘vocabulary’, which lists the terms of
the system. The application of these ideas in linguistics has come mainly
from the influence of Chomskyan ideas, concerning the formalization
of language, and is central to mathematical linguistics. In pre-generative
attempts at systematizing ideas about language, the weaker term postulates
was usually used. A specifically non-generative approach is axiomatic functionalism,
a paradigm of enquiry developed in the 1960s by J(ohannes) W(ilhelmus)
F(ranciscus) Mulder (b. 1919), in which linguistics is presented as a formal
axiomatic-deductive system within a broad semiotic frame of reference. The
approach applies a network of postulates, supporting definitions, and associated
theorems to the structural analysis of core areas of language as well as to areas
which are conventionally handled under other headings (such as pragmatics).
axiomatic (adj.), axiomatics (n.)
see axiom
axis (n.) (1) A term sometimes used in linguistics to refer to intersecting
dimensions of linguistic analysis, especially those introduced by Ferdinand de
Saussure (see Saussurean). The distinction between synchronic and diachronic
is characterized as the ‘axis of simultaneities’ v. the ‘axis of successions’.
Likewise the syntagmatic/paradigmatic distinction may be referred to in
terms of axes (‘syntagmatic axis’, ‘axis of chain relationships’, etc.).
(2) In some models of grammatical classification, the term refers to the
second element in an exocentric construction, the other being the director,
e.g. in the garden, see the car.