Exploring Functional-Cognitive Space: (157 Studies in Language Companion Series)

This book, intended primarily for researchers and advanced students, expands greatly on previous work by the authors exploring the topography of the multidimensional “functional-cognitive space” within which functional, cognitive and/or constructionist approaches to language can be located. The analysis covers a broad range of 16 such approaches, with some additional references to Chomskyan minimalism, and is based on 58 questionnaire items, each rated by 29 experts on particular models for their importance in the model concerned. These ratings are analysed statistically to reveal overall patterns of (dis)similarity across models. The questionnaire ratings and experts’ comments are then used, together with the authors’ close reading of the literature, in detailed discussion leading to a final dichotomous rating for each feature in each model, the results again being analysed statistically. The final chapter presents the overall conclusions and suggests how existing collaborations between approaches could be strengthened, and new ones created, in future research. Exploring Functional-Cognitive Space has been awarded the 2016 prize of the Spanish Association for Applied Linguistics (Asociación Española de Lingüística Aplicada, AESLA) for work by experienced researchers.

Table of Contents:
1. Acknowledgment; 2. Abbreviations for models; 3. Figures and Tables; 4. Chapter 1. Introduction; 5. Chapter 2. Profiles; 6. Chapter 3. Features for the characterization of models: The questionnaire; 7. Chapter 4. Statistical analysis of the questionnaire data; 8. Chapter 5. Characterization of models: Introduction; communication and motivation; 9. Chapter 6. Characterization of models: Coverage; 10. Chapter 7. Characterization of models: The database for description; 11. Chapter 8. Characterization of models: Explanation; 12. Chapter 9. Characterization of models: The form of the grammar; 13. Chapter 10. Characterization of models: Applications; 14. Chapter 11. Statistical analysis of final ratings; 15. Chapter 12. Compatibilities and contrasts; 16. References

Review :
An excellent, tremendously useful piece of work that is sure to promote a fruitful dialogue between researchers of different functionalist frameworks. This book is a major achievement in linguistic theory. It dissects a whole array of functional, cognitive and/or constructionist approaches to language, and by exhaustively searching for the similarities and differences among them, it places each account, with mastery, along what the authors aptly refer to as the “functional-cognitive space.” This work thus explores areas where the different accounts on language converge or diverge and highlights those areas where some of the accounts could definitely benefit from considering the solutions provided in others. I see Exploring Functional-Cognitive Space as much more than an encyclopedia-like venture. If correctly used, it will be an unprecedented tool for further development of linguistic theory in the 21st century. The authors are to be congratulated and thanked for their up-to-date, thoroughly researched and enthusiastic account of the achievements of functional, cognitive and constructionist linguistics. This book will be massively helpful to everyone working in these areas, from confused students to time-pressured professors. [This] volume is thus the kind of work which helps scholars understand the relevance and advantages of each of the theoretical options (i.e., tools) in the field and it is precisely for that reason that this volume should be on every linguist’s bookshelf. To this it must be added that it is a rigorous piece of academic work, constructed with scientific honesty as a basic pillar and, above all, deep fine-grained knowledge of the field. In all, it is an excellent service to the linguistic community. In this book Chris Butler and Francisco Gonzálvez-García provide exactly the sort of up-to-date coverage of key issues, concepts, and ideas that curious linguists need to bridge the gap between their own knowledge and the often rather vast primary literature on diverse functional, cognitive, and constructional approaches. This book is an indispensable resource for anyone interested in how the various alternative approaches to Chomskyan generative linguistics operate, what they have in common, and how they differ from each other. The authors guide the reader through the most relevant concepts and present a thought-provoking comparison of the different approaches. This book should be on the bookshelf of any linguist interested in comparison of linguistic models, concepts, and ideas.