Publication details
Úskalí zjednodušení
| Title in English | Pitfalls of simplification |
|---|---|
| Authors | |
| Year of publication | 2010 |
| Type | Article in Proceedings |
| Conference | Slovo - Tvorba - Dynamickosť: na počesť Kláry Buzássyovej; Šimková, M. (ed.) |
| MU Faculty or unit | |
| Citation | |
| Field | Linguistics |
| Keywords | generalization in linguistcs; simplifikation of linguistics date |
| Description | Simplification in linguistics can be viewed as excessive generalization on the basis of limited data or repetition of knowledge acquired at another time and with another goal. The linguist recurs nowadays to simplification particularly if compelled to make, in a very condensed form, an assertion about a general problem or if he wants to be understood by a layman. A simplified formulation, whatever its origin, lives then its own life. It is apparently because the first knowledge (acquired at school) stays in the memory for the whole life. However, other aspects play their role, too: the fact that a language does not exist outside its users, that it is an object of research and that, at the same time, it is lived through. Moreover, traditional formulations strengthen the continuity over generations in the way we get to know with the language and live with it. A revision of some simplified piece of knowledge handed down though generations would also necessarily result in a need for the change of a great number of texts which have, in a good faith, made use of it. When speaking about language we always simplify, even though we make effort to express the whole reality. The more particular problem we choose as our topic, the less it is subject to simplification. However, language is a whole and the descriptions of its particular aspects, resulting from different perspectives and necessarily also at different times, are nothing but simplifications of the total living whole. |
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