Usage-based models of language

The usage-based linguistics is a <a href="/facts/Linguistics/oQuamvf2">linguistics</a> approach within a broader <a href="/facts/Functional_linguistics/kjkTVX2L">functional</a>/<a href="/facts/Cognitive_linguistics/Qu4DApFf">cognitive</a> framework, that emerged since the late 1980s, and that assumes a profound relation between linguistic structure and usage. It challenges the dominant focus, in 20th century linguistics (and in particular in <a href="/facts/Formal_linguistics/Bs8RLuwF">formalism</a>-<a href="/facts/Generativism/Pm1AMX5U">generativism</a>), on considering language as an isolated system removed from its use in human interaction and human cognition. Rather, usage-based models posit that linguistic information is expressed via context-sensitive mental processing and mental representations, which have the cognitive ability to succinctly account for the complexity of actual language use at all levels (<a href="/facts/Phonetics/ljAVT8fv">phonetics</a> and <a href="/facts/Phonology/qWAsvnok">phonology</a>, morphology and <a href="/facts/Syntax/6PxSV98p">syntax</a>, <a href="/facts/Pragmatics/KkK08yyI">pragmatics</a> and <a href="/facts/Semantics/1L4WwLAP">semantics</a>). Broadly speaking, a usage-based model of language accounts for <a href="/facts/Language_acquisition/bwdh0CVG">language acquisition</a> and processing, synchronic and diachronic patterns, and both low-level and high-level structure in language, by looking at actual language use.
The term usage-based was coined by <a href="/facts/Ronald_Langacker/TXhEyXQn">Ronald Langacker</a> in 1987. Usage-based models of language have become a significant new trend in linguistics since the early 2000s. Influential proponents of usage-based linguistics include <a href="/facts/Michael_Tomasello/FwMMBWK8">Michael Tomasello</a>, <a href="/facts/Joan_Bybee/D2bM5x6d">Joan Bybee</a> and <a href="/facts/Morten_H._Christiansen/9YeJ8jsa">Morten Christiansen</a>.
Together with related approaches, such as <a href="/facts/Construction_grammar/dpPLkX3w">construction grammar</a>, <a href="/facts/Emergent_grammar/vVLYuYud">emergent grammar</a>, and language as a <a href="/facts/Complex_adaptive_system/mbhhM88D">complex adaptive system</a>, usage-based linguistics belongs to the wider framework of <a href="/facts/Evolutionary_linguistics/bVB3dPbV">evolutionary linguistics</a>. It studies the lifespan of linguistic units (e.g. words, suffixes), arguing that they can survive language change through frequent usage or by participating in usage-based generalizations if their syntactic, semantic or pragmatic features overlap with other similar constructions. There is disagreement as to whether the approach is different from <a href="/facts/Memetics/MD7vEuTw">memetics</a> or essentially the same.

Usage-based models of language open-in-new

Usage-based models of language