WHAT SORT OF STATEMENT IS '/P/ IS A PHONEME OF ENGLISH'

• Authors: Rastall Paul
• Languages of publication: EN

Abstracts

EN

The article considers the nature of descriptive statements and the ontological status of descriptive constructs in linguistics, taking the example of a phoneme of English. It is argued that descriptive statements should be seen as expressions of the content of descriptive models or as hypotheses. Furthermore, it is argued that descriptive models and constructs in linguistics have a purely explanatory function in relation to speech events and without ontological commitment to corresponding entities in the real world.

Keywords

EN

DESCRIPTIVE CONSTRUCTS; ENGLISH LANGUAGE; HYPOTHESES; IDENTIFICATION; LINGUISTIC DESCRIPTION; ONTOLOGY

Discipline

• PHILOSOPHY: PHILOSOPHY

• Publisher: Institute of Philosophy of the Slovak Academy of Sciences and Institute of Philosophy of Academy of Sciences of Czech Republic
• Journal: Organon F. medzinárodný časopis pre analytickú filozofiu
• Year: 2010
• Volume: 17
• Issue: 2
• Pages: 143-149
• Document type: ARTICLE

Contributors

author

Rastall Paul

• Paul Rastall, Division of Language Studies, Community College, City University of Hong Kong, Tat Chee Avenue, Kowloon, Hong Kong

Identifiers

CEJSH db identifier

11SKAAAA090520