Reflexivity of Language and Linguistic Inquiry

<p>This book explores the reflexivity of language both from the perspective of the lay speaker and the linguistic analyst. Linguistic inquiry is conditional upon linguistic reflexivity but so is language. Without linguistic reflexivity we would not be able to make sense of everyday linguistic communication and the idea of <i>a language</i> would not be conceivable. Not even fundamental notions such as <i>words</i> or <i>meaning</i> would exist. Linguistic reflexivity is a feature of the communication process and it essentially depends on situated participants and time. It is a defining characteristic of the human language but despite its obvious importance it is not very well understood theoretically and it is strangely under-researched empirically. Throughout history and in modern linguistics it has mostly either been taken for granted misconstrued or ignored. Only integrational linguistics fully recognizes its specifically linguistic implications. However integrational linguistics does not provide the necessary methodological basis for investigating linguistic phenomena empirically. This catch-22 situation means that the goal of the book is twofold: one part is to explore the reflexivity of language theoretically and the other part is to propose an applied integrational linguistics and to implement this proposal in practice.</p>