Style as a Statistical Concept

Abstract

The deterministic view of language regards language as the deliberate choice of such linguistic units as are required for expressing the idea one has in mind. This may be said to be a definition in accordance with current views. Introspective analysis of linguistic expression would seem to show that it is a deterministic process, no part of which is left to chance. A possible exception seems to be that we often use a word or expression because it ‘happened’ to come into our mind. But the fact that memory may have features of accidental happenings does not mean that our use of linguistic forms is of the same character. Supposing a word just happened to come into our mind while we are in the process of writing, we are still free to use it or not, and we shall do one or the other according to what is needed for expressing what we have in mind. It would seem that the cause and effect principle of physical nature has its parallel in the ‘reason and consequence’ or ‘motive and action’ principle of psychological nature, part of which is the linguistic process of giving expression to thought. Our motive for using a particular expression is that it is suited better than any other we could think of for expressing our thought.