![]() F’s core argument throughout is that form and function-though distinct in the Saussurean sense-are far more interdependent in reality than many linguists have been wont to treat them. Although this is the first thorough-going attempt to connect Whitehead’s ‘philosophy of organism’ with modern linguistics, its outlines were already adumbrated in F’s earlier monograph, A discourse production model for twenty questions (Amsterdam: John Benjamins, 1980). especially Alfred North Whitehead, Symbolism, its meaning and effect, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1928). After answering the anticipated question ‘Why White-head?’ (1–23), F proceeds to apply Whitehead’s writings on symbolism to language behavior (cf. There are nine chapters and two appendices. ![]() The result is a thought-provoking journey into philosophical and sometimes metaphysical realms that proves to be of unexpected relevance to the possible future trajectories of many trends dominant in linguistics today, from optimality theory to emergent grammar. By revealing the linguistics in Whitehead’s ‘philosophy of organism’, F is able to reassess the positions of both generativists and functionalists from a refreshingly neutral vantage, though F himself ‘confesses’ (3) to being more in sympathy with the functionalists. More importantly, he reassesses the contemporary orientational division between formalists and functionalists from a temporally detached perspective. ![]() In this thoughtful essay, published as part of a recently inaugurated series on human cognition and language (the first volume, Ning Yu’s The contemporary theory of metaphor: A perspective from Chinese, Amsterdam: John Benjamins, appeared in 1998), Fortescue revisits the perennial dichotomy between linguistic form and function. Alfred North Whitehead (1861–1947) is remembered largely for his writings on mathematics and philosophy, and it may come as a surprise to see a book devoted to linguistic metatheory written in the context of his world of ideas. ![]()
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