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RESEARCH PRODUCT
Topological linguistics and the study of linguistic variation
A. López-garcíasubject
Variation (linguistics)Linguistic descriptionLimit (mathematics)Topological spaceSet (psychology)TopologyObject (philosophy)Contrastive linguisticsLinguisticsQuantitative linguisticsMathematicsdescription
Publisher Summary This chapter focuses on topological linguistics and the study of linguistic variation. It discusses the problem of linguistic variation. A topological model has been developed for internal linguistics, starting from the epistemological problem that all linguists must deal with. A topological space could be conceived of as a set of elements where some elements limit the others and are said to be open-sets, and the former and the latter together constitute the closed-sets. Linguistics, when approaching its object of study, is faced with a very similar situation: a language is a set of elements—from utterances to minimal phonic items—where each is described by other surrounding elements, either in the chain or in the memory. It follows that linguistic elements could be considered closed when they are described, and open when they are describing.
| year | journal | country | edition | language |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1994-01-01 |