Most grammatical models assume that linguistic structure represents a fairly monolithic system of mental and linguistic activity. Some lines of recent research, however, suggest that human cognitive behaviour, in general, and linguistic discourse, in particular, cannot reasonably be reduced to a single, monolithic system of mental processing but has in fact a dualistic organisation. This talk presents such a dualistic model of grammatical structure and processing, viz. Discourse Grammar (Kaltenböck et al. 2011, Heine et al. 2013), which comprises two distinct components: Sentence Grammar and Thetical Grammar. The paper will furthermore demonstrate the application of such a model for the classification of formulaic sequences (e.g. Wray 2002). Based on the analysis of formulaic sequences in hemispheric speech disorder, the paper argues against a simple equation of ‘formulaic’ with right-hemisphere and ‘novel’ with left-hemisphere, as proposed for instance by the dual process model (e.g. Van Lancker Sidtis 2009, Van Lancker Sidtis and Postman 2006). Instead, it suggests that formulaic expressions fall into essentially two different categories according to their function in discourse: those that operate within the clausal scope of Sentence Grammar (left-hemisphere dominated) and those that are anchored in the immediate situation of discourse, as accounted for by Thetical Grammar (right-hemisphere dominated).

Heine, Bernd, Gunther Kaltenböck, Tania Kuteva, and Haiping Long 2013. An outline of discourse grammar. In Bischoff, Shannon and Carmen Jany (eds.), Functional approaches to language. Berlin : Mouton, 175-233.

Kaltenböck, Gunther, Bernd Heine, and Tania Kuteva 2011. On thetical grammar. Studies in Language 35, 4: 848-93.

Van Lancker Sidtis, Diana. 2009. Formulaic and novel language in a ‘dual process’ model of language competence: evidence from surveys, speech samples, and schemata. In R. Corrigan, E. A. Moravcsik, H. Ouali , & K. M. Wheatley (eds.), Formulaic language. Volume 2: Acquisition, loss, psychological reality, and functional explanations (Typological Studies in Language, 83). Amsterdam & Philadelphia: Benjamins, 445 – 470.

Van Lancker Sidtis, D., & Postman, W. A. 2006. Formulaic expressions in spontaneous speech of left- and right-hemisphere damaged subjects. Aphasiology 20, 5: 411 – 426.

Wray, Alison. 2002. Formulaic language and the lexicon. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

This event was cancelled due to Covid-19.