The teleological illusion in linguistic 'drift': choice and purpose in semantic evolution

Authors

David Butt, Macquarie UniversityFollow
Alison Moore, University of WollongongFollow
Kathryn Tuckwell, Macquarie University

RIS ID

85807

Publication Details

Butt, D. G., Moore, A. R. and Tuckwell, K. 2013, 'The teleological illusion in linguistic 'drift': choice and purpose in semantic evolution', in T. Bartlett, L. Fontaine and G. O'Grady (eds), Systemic Functional Linguistics: Exploring Choice, Cambridge University Press, Cambridge. pp. 37-55

Additional Publication Information

ISBN: 9781107036963

Abstract

Linguistic models of all varieties have invoked the notion of ‘choice’, whether explicitly as in Systemic Functional Linguistics (SFL) or implicitly through various fundamental concepts like ‘paradigm’ and ‘associative axis’, ‘agnation’, or even ‘optional’ versus ‘obligatory transformations’. The idea of choice as ‘meaning potential’ seems congruent also with the experience of language: as Halliday (this volume) has put it: “All human activity involves choice: doing this rather than doing that . . . meaning this rather than meaning that.”