A problematizing view on Critical Linguistics’s use of the concept of “transformation”

Abstract

Critical Linguistics is a branch of Discourse Analysis, created at the end of the 70s as response to the hegemony exercised, within the studies of language, by formal linguistics. The authors who coalesced under that name claimed the study of language in use from a functionalist perspective that took into consideration the links between language, thought and society. However, one of its fundamental terms comes from formal Chomskian linguistics. In this work, we problematize the concept of "transformation" as used in Critical Linguistics. We believe that behind it lies what Lakoff calls "objectivist myth" and that the replacement of this concept - along with other concepts associated with it- would provide greater theoretical coherence without damaging the great methodological potential of this current discourse analysis.