Defining Language: Usage, Texts, Utterances, the Language Faculty, Competence and Languages
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.34257/LJRHSS229283UKKeywords:
competence, conventions, faculty of language, languages, texts, usage, utterances.Abstract
The purpose of the article is to delimit and relate the entities mentioned in the title. Each of them is discussed, with a focus on languages or linguistic systems. Languages should be distinguished from their conventional use (usage) and its product: texts and the utterances they consist of, as well as from the users’ language faculty and competence. Especially the relation between languages and usage, utterances, and competence is discussed. The author argues for a consistently usage-based view of languages, which is incompatible with Mentalism, as usage and texts consist of physical units like sounds or letters. The conclusion is that languages are social products: institutions, more precisely sign systems comprising the
units of expression. The article discusses if languages are «multimodal» or independent of expression, and concludes that they are not. Spoken, written and gestural languages are different types of sign systems. Utterances are the maximal sign and define the actual language.
References
(1991) Atkinson, M., Kilby, D. & Roca, I.
(2000) Barlow, M. & Kemmer, S. (eds.).
Renate Bartsch (1987) Norms of Language.
Derek Bickerton (1995) Language and Human Behavior.
(2009) Adam’s Tongue.
Leonard Bloomfield (1926) 1926 A set of postulates for the science of language. 2(3), 153-164. https://doi.org/10.2307/408741
(1933) Language.
Johan Bolhuis, Ian Tattersall, Noam Chomsky, Robert Berwick (2014) How Could Language Have Evolved?. (8). https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pbio.1001934
Denis Bouchard (2013) The Nature and Origin of Language.
(2010) Language Usage and Language Structure.
Kasper Boye, Peter Harder (2012) A Usage-Based Theory of Grammatical Status and Grammaticalization. 88(1), 1-44. https://doi.org/10.1353/lan.2012.0020
Robbins Burling (2000) Comprehension, Production and Conventionalisation in the Origins of Language. 27-39.
Joan Bybee (1996) The Seeds of Speech. Language Origin and Evolution.
(2001) Phonology and Language Use.
(2006) From usage to grammar: The mind's response to repetition. 82(4), 711-733.
(2010) Language, Usage and Cognition.
Wallace Chafe (1998) 1998 Language and the Flow of Thought In: M. 93-111.
Noam Chomsky (1957) Syntactic Structures.
(1965) Aspects of the Theory of Syntax.
Michael Corballis (2002) From Hand to Mouth. The Origins of Language.
Florian Coulmas (2003) Writing Systems. An Introduction to their Linguistic Analysis.
William Croft (1991) Syntactic Categories and Grammatical Relations. The Cognitive Organization of Information.
(2000) Explaining Language Change.
(2009) Toward a social cognitive linguistics. 395-420.
(2010) Ten unwarranted assumptions in linguistic argumentation. 313-350.
W. Croft, D. Cruse (2004) Cognitive Linguistics.
G. Crookes (1990) 1990 The utterance, and other basic units for second language discourse analysis. 11(2), 183-199. https://doi.org/10.1093/applin/11.2.183
David Crystal (2007) How Language Works.
Ewa Dabrowska (2015) 221-235. https://doi.org/10.1093/benz/9780199773787.article.b2254303
J. Daems, E. Zenner, K. Heylen, D. Speelman, H. Cuyckens (2015) Change of Paradigms - New Paradoxes.
(1995) Davis.
Terrence Deacon (1997) The Symbolic Species. The Co-evolution of Language and the Brain.
Simon Dik (1997) The Theory of Functional Grammar, Part 1: The Structure of the Clause (second.
Robert Dixon (2010) 2.
(2012) Basic Linguistic Theory.
Helge Dyvik (1991) 1993 Normbegreper, systembegreper og individueringen av norske skriftspråk In: Standardspråk og dialekt. 1992, 159-174.
(1995) Språk, språklig kompetanse og lingvistikkens objekt. 20-41.
(1998) Hva er språk?. 11-23.
Umberto Eco (1984) Semiotics and the Philosophy of Language.
(2009) Evans, V. & S. 2.
Jan Faarlund, Terje (1990) Syntactic Change. Toward a Theory of Historical Syntax.
J. Faarlund, S. Lie, K. Vannebo (1997) Norsk referansegrammatikk.
(1995) Fabricius-Hansen, C. & Vonen, A. 19.
W. Fitch, Tecumseh (2010) The Evolution of Language.
V. Fromkin, R. Rodman, N. Hyams (2019) An Introduction to Language.
Paul Garvin (1943) 1954 Review of the English translation of Hjelmslev 1943. 30, 69-96.
Dirk Geeraerts (2016) 2016 The sociosemiotic commitment. 27(4), 527-542. https://doi.org/10.1515/cog-2016-0058
Ingemund Gullvåg (1991) 12-34.
W. Haas (1970) Phono-graphic Translation.
(1982) Review of Haas (1982): Standard Languages-Spoken and Written. 1-36.
M. Halliday (1974) Language and Social Man.
E. Hansen, L. Heltoft (2011) Grammatik over det Danske Sprog.
Peter Harder (1996) 1996 Linguistic structure in a functional grammar In: E Engberg-Pedersen, M Fortescue, P Harder, L Heltoft & L F. 423-452.
(2003) The Status of Linguistic Facts: Rethinking the Relation between Cognition, Social Institution and Utterance from a Functional Point of View. 18(1), 52-76.
Meaning in Mind and Society (2010) Meaning in Mind and Society. A Functional Contribution to the Social Turn in Cognitive Linguistics.
(2015) Cognitive sociolinguistics, language systems and the fall of empires. 237-251.
Louis Hjelmslev (1943) Omkring sprogteoriens grundlæggelse.
(1947) Louis Hjelmslev, Essais linguistiques II. (Travaux du Cercle Linguistique de Copenhague, vol. XIV). Copenhague: Nordisk Sprog- og Kulturforlag, 1973. Pp. ii+278. 119-153.
Charles Hockett (1958) A Course in Modern Linguistics.
(1960) The Origin of Speech. 203(3), 88-97.
Richard Hudson (1984) Word Grammar.
James Hurford (2014) The Origins of Language. A Slim Guide.
(1983) Semantics.
Esa Itkonen (1978) Itkonen, Esa. 1978. Grammatical Theory and Metascience. 5.
Ray Jackendoff (2002) Foundations of Language. Brain, meaning, grammar, evolution.
Sverker Johansson (2005) Origins of Language. Constraints on Hypotheses.
S. Kemmer, M. Barlow (2000) Introduction: a usage-based conception of language. VII-XXVIII.
H. Kofoed (1971) Sprog og sprogvidenskab. En oversigt over synspunkter og metoder i moderne lingvistik.
Sydney Lamb (2000) Bidirectional processing in language and related cognitive systems. 87-119.
Ronald Langacker (1987) Foundations of Cognitive Grammar.
(1991) Cognitive Grammar. 295-306.
(1998) Conceptualization, Symbolization, and Grammar. 1-39.
(2000) A dynamic usage-based model. 1-63.
(2009) Constructions and constructional meaning. 225-267.
(2010) How not to disagree. 107-143.
(2013) Essentials of Cognitive Grammar.
(2016) Working toward a synthesis. 27(4), 465-477.
Geoffrey Leech (1981) Semantics. The study of Meaning.
Eric Lenneberg (1967) Biological Foundations of Language.
David Lewis (1974) Convention. A Philosophical Study.
Philip Lieberman (1984) The Biology and Evolution of Language.
(2006) Toward an Evolutionary Biology of Language.
Marit Lobben (2023) Språkhjernen - om menneskers og dyrs språkevner.
John Lyons (1968) Introduction to Theoretical Linguistics.
(1981) Language and Linguistics.
(1995) Linguistic Semantics.
(1965) La linguistique synchronique.
Peter Matthews (2001) A Short History of Structural Linguistics.
Frederick Newmeyer (2003) 2003 Grammar is grammar and usage is usage. 79(4), 682-707. https://doi.org/10.1353/lan.2003.0260
(1995) What can conversation tell us about syntax?. 213-271.
Eric Papazian (2025) 2025 a The linguistic sign and the subsystems of language. 13(1), 11-18. https://doi.org/10.11648/j.ijll.20251301.13
(2025) Language as a Sign System: Redefining the Linguistic Sign. 25(13), 59.
Steven Pinker, Paul Bloom (1990) 1990 Natural language and natural selection. 13, 707-784.
Eli Raanes (2024) 2024 Utviklingen av et norsk hjemmetegnspråk. 116(1), 157-190. https://doi.org/10.52145/mom.v116i1.2279
Ferdinand Saussure, de (1916) Saussure, Ferdinand de. [1916] 1967.
John Searle (1969) Speech Acts.
Robert Seyfarth, Dorothy Cheney, Peter Marler (1980) Cheney & Peter Marler 1980 Monkey responses to three different alarm calls: evidence of predator classification and semantic communication. 210(4471), 801-803. https://doi.org/10.1126/science.7433999
Chris Sinha (2009) Language as a biocultural niche and social institution. 289-309.
(1998) Tomasello, Michael. (ed.).
George Trager (1974) Trager, George L. 1974. Writing and writing systems. In: Thomas A. 12, 373-496.
Hans Uldall, Jørgen (1944) [1944] 1995 Speech and writing In: E P Hamp, M Joos, F W Householder & R. 214-216.
Josef Vachek (1989) Written Language Revisited.
Lars Vikør (2007) Språkplanlegging. Prinsipp og praksis.
Tor Åfarli (2000) Grammatikk - kultur eller natur? Elementær innføring i det generative grammatikkstudiets vitskapsteori.
Downloads
Published
Issue
Section
License
Copyright (c) 2026 Authors and Global Journals Private Limited
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.
