Substance, structural analogy, and universals

This contribution presents a view of language as pervasively substantively based. That is, linguistic categories and structures represent extra-linguistic mental ‘substance’ – conceptions and perceptions – in the sense that the latter determine the range of linguistic categories and their structural behaviour. The distribution of basic categories and the relations between them reflects their substance. Moreover, the dimensions of linguistic structure – notably constituency/dependency and linearity are, like the categories themselves, grammaticalizations of substance – respectively cognitive connectedness and salience and the perception of time. These substantively based dimensions are the basis for sub-modularization within syntax and phonology. Perceived similarities in substance underlie analogies between syntactic and phonological structure, and the lack of them discrepancies in structure. The relative generality of categories and structures throughout languages reflects the cognitive/perceptual salience of what they represent. Language universals, in particular, are substance-based rather than being conventionalized, or autonomous.