SEX OF THE WORDS: A PSYCHOANALYTIC APPROACH TO GRAMMAR
SÖZCÜKLERİN SEKSİ: DİLBİLGİSİNE PSİKANALİTİK BİR YAKLAŞIM

Author : Emrullah ŞEKER
Number of pages : 172-187

Abstract

In this theoretical study, where I virtually study instinctive characteristics of grammar in terms of universal principles, what I try to put forth is the existence of a relation between the organisation of words and morphemes into larger units of a language and the human’s most basic and primal instincts. The organisation of words and morphemes into larger units of a language are not thought independent from the three aspects of the human mind: the id, ego, and super ego, theorized by Freud’s psychoanalytic theories. The logical frame of the ideas suggested in the study is based on respected linguistic and psychoanalytic theories and approaches. Chomsky’s ideas on grammar are interpreted by Freudian psychoanalysis in order to question psychoanalytic origins of grammar in mind. Accordingly, universal grammar modules as well as traditional ones are categorized according to three aspects of mind and their instinctive origins. Based on the assumption that the relation between the universal grammar principles and the lexical or functional categories emerging as a result of those principles, just like other conscious or unconscious behaviours, are in fact related to basic instincts and mental aspects, I tried to reinterpret and explain the psychoanalytic grounds of grammar principles and modules. As a consequence, I arrived at a conclusion that since grammar is a product of mind, it is not independent from the aspects of the human mind: the id, ego, super ego and basic instincts.

Keywords

psychoanalysis; grammar; instincts; syntax; representation

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