Ecological validity in the study of language
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.12775/ths.2020.004Keywords
epistemology, ecological validity, structural, generative, functional, cognitive approaches to languageAbstract
Having its seat in both realms, the subjective and the intersubjective, as a product of human mind, society and culture, language appears to be the most complex phenomenon in the known Universe. It displays multiple layers of organization in its spoken and written manifestations, none of which can be ignored at the expense of any other, in communication, ideation and information processing. Therefore language, being an organic system of utmost complexity, requires holistic and organic methodology. Such methodology requires meeting the criterion of ecological validity. In the realm of psychological research, Gilliam Cohen, a cognitive psychologist, advocates “a return to real-life situations”, such as “remembering real faces, shopping lists, scenes, etc.” She demonstrated a reaction against “rigorous and artificial” psychological experiments, based on “nonsense syllables or words out of context”.[1] Similarly, ‘ecological validity’ in linguistics requires a naturalistic treatment of linguistic data, real usage instances stemming from field work and/or the study of discourse/texts. Both observation and experimentation in linguistic research require naturalistic methods, where the so-called ‘simplicity should not be sought at the expense of factuality’. In this sense, explorations into real texts within the Systemic-Functional Grammar framework, field work in the Anthropological Linguistics tradition, or the usage-based model proposed in Cognitive Grammar, all meet the criterion of ecological validity.
This paper is bound to grasp some of the questions inherent within multiple spectra organically resting among the constellations that reflect philosophical, psychological and linguistic points of reference. These points of reference also emerged organically and naturally throughout the history of their evolution, in their own terms, as they evolved in their ‘ecosystems’ of ideas. In this way we hope to provide a broad realm for reflection on language and linguistic methodology, allowing to see unity through diversity, thus creating mutual affiliations of a parallel, convergent and complementary character, in the vein of an organic whole. First, we shall take a bird’s eye view on ontological and epistemological questions regarding any kind of exploration within the Universe of natural phenomena. Next, we shall take a general view on linguistic enquiry in the 20th century. Finally, we shall survey key approaches to language articulating overall aspects of structural, functional, generative and cognitive orientations.
[1] Cohen, 1977:6
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