Abstracties en idealisaties: de constructie van de moderne taalkunde

This paper deals with the question of how modern linguistics has constructed its objects of study, such as ‘language’, ‘grammar’, ‘competence’, ‘meaning’ and ‘rule’. Apparently, a major factor that explains the success and prestige of modern linguistics is that it has succeeded in coming up with scientific characterizations of its core concepts that have allowed linguists to develop theories that are both descriptively and explanatorily adequate. The paper focuses on a particular aspect of this complicated process that has not received adequate attention in the literature to date, viz., the nature of the kind of constructions that modern linguistics employs.