| dc.description.abstract | In this dissertation, I propose to reconcile Generative Grammar and Cognitive Linguistics within the emerging theoretical framework of Biolinguistics. I specifically intend to combine these two fields of Linguistics into a variation of Ray Jackendoff's Parallel Architecture (1997, 2003, 2010), in which the semantic-conceptual structure is unfolded into a semantic structure and a pragmatic structure. To do so, I will firstly support Jackendoff's (1997, 2003, 2007, 2010, 2011a, 2011c, 2014) critiques of Noam Chomsky's (1975a [1965], 1981a, 1999b [1995]) syntacticocentrism, adding in also critiques of Ronald Langacker's (1987, 1991a, 1991b) semanticocentrism, of George Lakoff's and Mark Johnson's (2003b [1980], 1999) metaphorocentrism as well as of Michael Tomasello's (1999, 2003a, 2014, 2016, 2019) culturalism. Secondly, I will refute the premise that Cognitive Linguistics and Generative Grammar are incompatible and irreconcilable. Instead, I claim that cognitivism and generativism are complementary fields of study since generativists and cognitivists focus on different aspects of language in their studies. Finally, I aim at contributing to the acknowledgement of a greater empirical adequacy of linguistic models in Parallel Architecture in comparison to competing theoretical frameworks, such as Chomsky's Minimalist Program (1999b [1995]), Lakoff and Johnson's cognitivism (2003b [1980], 1999) and Langacker's (1987, 1991a, 1991b) and Tomasello's Cognitive-Functional Linguistics (1995, 1999, 2003a, 2008, 2019). | |
