Approaches to Cross-Linguistic Studies in Functional and Cognitive/Constructional Theories of Language

This chapter discusses the choices made by adherents to a selection of functional and cognitive/constructionist theories in relation to the importance accorded to cross-linguistic studies and the methodology used in these studies. The centrally functional theories under focus are Hengeveld and Mackenzie’s Functional Discourse Grammar, Van Valin’s Role and Reference Grammar and Halliday’s Systemic Functional Linguistics; the centrally cognitive and constructionist approaches are Langacker’s Cognitive Grammar, Goldberg’s Cognitive Construction Grammar and Croft’s Radical Construction Grammar. The analysis is based on the study presented in Butler and Gonzálvez-García’s book Exploring Cognitive-Functional Space (Butler CS, Gonzálvez-García F Exploring cognitive-functional space. (Studies in Language Companion Series 157). John Benjamins, 2014), updated by reference to more recent work. Brief sketches of each approach are given, followed by an analysis of the responses of experts in the theory to three items in a questionnaire on which the study was based. These items were concerned with (i) whether, during the development of the theory, applicability to the whole range of language types was a major factor, (ii) whether data from a range of languages were used in arguing for particular constructs proposed, (iii) whether there was a preference for describing single languages in detail and only then making comparisons. The six theories are then compared, and a broad division into typological and non-typological approaches is made. A finer-grained classification then allows the placing of the theories on a cline from more to less typological. Finally, this ordering is examined in relation to conclusions from the overall proximities of the theories on a multidimensional scaling plot and a hierarchical clustering dendrogram, revealing further interesting mappings.