A questão das fronteiras interdisciplinares em linguística

Abstract

Departing from Saussure, linguistic studies establish a delimitation of the theoretical object that is strengthened by a conception of what is “scientific”. Complementarily, linguistic studies establish what is not scientific, as well. It follows, then, as a corollary, that some disciplines are considered to be central to linguistic studies, while others are assigned a peripheral role. At the same time, the same conception that yields central and peripheral disciplines establishes hegemonic relationships for some theoretical frames but not to others. This scenery defines the companionship of the disciplines until the middle 70s, when there’s strong evidence, in the inner of these disciplines, for the debate on the limits and the nature of the theoretical object. It seems that the growth of areas concerning language studies which appeared and have been established in the same period worked this way. Theoretical perspectives, then, set formal approaches as the core in linguistic studies and the other disciplines are considered to be supporting devices: they are taken as auxiliary devices from the perspective of European structuralism and as interpretative devices from the perspective of American generativism. This paper presents a reflection on this movement in the linguistic studies as it is concerned with the redefinition of the status of linguistic data and their theoretical characterization, as well as with the epistemological status of the discipline. So, departing from the observation of phenomena related to the sounds of the language and syntactic phenomena, as well as phenomena that can be considered to be semantic and either pragmatic – depending upon the theoretical framework that is assumed – we discuss the redefinition of the theoretical object and, as an outcome, the redefinition of interdisciplinary boundaries.