model (n./v.)

This central notion of scientific enquiry has been applied in several areas of LINGUISTICS and PHONETICS. A model is a specially designed representation of concepts or entities, used to discover or explain their structure or function. All models involve the MAPPING in a new conceptual dimension of a set of ELEMENTS recognized in the situation being modelled. For example, the PHONOLOGIST builds models of the organization of the speech continuum, using such concepts as PHONEMES (sc. the ‘phonemic model of analysis’) or DISTINCTIVE FEATURES (sc. the ‘distinctive feature model’); the GRAMMARIAN uses TREE diagrams, BRACKETS and other such devices to help model SYNTACTIC STRUCTURE. One of the earliest uses of the term in linguistics was by the American linguist, Charles Hockett (1916–2000), in a discussion of models of DESCRIPTION in MORPHOLOGY – a distinction being made between the ‘ITEM-AND-ARRANGEMENT model’ and the ‘ITEM-AND-PROCESS model’ (and, later, the ‘WORD-AND-PARADIGM model’). In discussion of GENERATIVE grammar, and related developments in linguistic theory, the term is often used in the sense of ‘formal representation of a theory’, as when one contrasts the ‘Syntactic Structures model’ of generative grammar with the ‘Aspects model’. Sometimes, though, the term ‘model’ is used synonymously with ‘theory’ by some authors; usage is not entirely consistent. However, there is now increasing awareness of the role of models in linguistic enquiry, and of their strengths and limitations in generating testable hypotheses.

In several areas of APPLIED LINGUISTICS, one encounters the traditional sense of a model as someone or something used as an exemplar of a level of language achievement. For example, foreign-language teaching may use a NATIVE-SPEAKER, or a STANDARD DIALECT, as a model of the language to be learned; speech therapists may use themselves as models for language-disordered patients; English teachers may use a certain piece of writing as a model of attainment for their class.