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The Axiom of categoricity is a term coined by J.K. Chambers in 1995 to refer to the once-widespread tenet of linguistic theory that in order to properly study language, linguistic data should be removed or abstracted from all real-world context so as to be free of any inconsistencies or variability. This principle was, for different theorists and schools of thought, taken as a prerequisite for linguistic theory,〔For example, in Chomsky (1965)〕 or as a self-evident falsehood to be rejected.〔Such as Bakhtin (1986)〕 It remains an influential idea in linguistics. ==History== Ferdinand de Saussure divided language into two categories, ''langue'' (the abstract grammatical system a language uses) and ''parole'' (language as it is used in real-life circumstances). Historically, the range of language study had been limited to ''langue'', since the data could easily be found in the linguist's own intuitions about language and there was no need to look at the often inconsistent and chaotic language patterns found in everyday society. In the 20th century, scholars began to further embrace the assumption that linguistic data should be removed from its social, real-life context. Martin Joos stated the axiom this way in 1950:
In 1965, Noam Chomsky offered a more substantial definition, incorporating his concepts of linguistic competence and linguistic performance, terms that closely parallel Saussure's ''langue'' and ''parole''.
Around this time, several linguistic studies began to acknowledge not only the presence, but importance of variability found in speaker data. Instead of dismissing this variability on the grounds that the variants either belonged to different coexisting linguistic systems or demonstrated unpredictable free variation as had been done before, they recognized that it might be influenced by the speaker's circumstances. Sociologist John L. Fischer conducted one of the first systematic studies of language variation in 1958 to address variation in the speech of New England schoolchildren. Finding free variation to be an unsatisfactory explanation, he wrote:
Fischer eventually discovered a correlation between the linguistic variants and independent social variables such as class and sex. By gathering variable data and analyzing it, he proved that the inconsistencies were indeed manageable, resisting the Axiom of categoricity's premise that the data be abstracted from social contexts in order to make it coherent and manageable. By invalidating this premise, it proved that acceptance of the Axiom of categoricity is not a requirement but rather an idealistic option that may or may not be useful to a study. Fischer's work created the basis for sociolinguistic analysis in the coming years, notably William Labov's studies in Martha's Vineyard and New York City during the 1960s. 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Axiom of categoricity」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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