Dirk Geeraerts, University of Leuven

This course offers a synthetic view of the development of 20th and 21st century linguistics. Distinguishing between three main theoretical currents (structuralism, formal grammar, and cognitive and usage-based linguistics), the presentation will focus on the undercurrents that drive the evolution from one framework to the other. These lines of development include the dynamics of system and usage, the role of semantics and the position of the lexicon in the grammar, and the relationship between a psychological and a social conception of language. Overall, the course argues that the theoretical evolution of linguistics is not a random succession of approaches, but that it is characterized by an underlying logic of decontextualization and recontextualization.