Speaker: Henrik Voss (The University of Tokyo)
Languages: English
Note: Admission Free, No Registration Required

Abstract:
Wittgenstein has had quite some influence on linguistic research -- most notably by the concept of family resemblances. The reverse, however, does not equally hold true, despite various conceptual overlappings between Wittgenstein's late philosophy and functional linguistics in particular.
A first landmark for exploring those similarities is the notion of grammar as use -- a concept that is well inflated beyond its everyday meaning and thus prima facie contradicts Wittgenstein's credo of leaving language as it is. The philosophical implications of such a wide concept and its relation to the notion of grammatical arbitrariness will be discussed with special regard to empirical evidence from functional and cognitive linguistics.

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