INDYWIDUALIZM W UJMOWANIU JĘZYKA I KULTURY JAKO KONSEKWENCJA KOGNITYWIZMU
I HE INDIVIDUALISTIC APPROACH TO LANGUAGE AND CULTURE AS A CONSEQUENCE OE COGNITIVISM

Summary/Abstract: The paper, organized around the background of the traditional opposition between individualism and holism, discusses the consequences of cognitivism for the study of language. The validity of the opposition in linguistics has been recognized since the times of the Saussure, whose arguments in favour of holism were, however, unconvincing. Chomsky's theories of language, on the other hand, are individualistic in nature. Sociolinguistic theories, in turn, in spite of stressing the social context, include an irremovable factor of an individual speech competence. An analysis of cultural phenomena does not provide arguments against individualism, either, as the cognitivist assumes that there is no culture beyond individual conceptual systems. Cultural paradigms are merely results of experience being captured into relevant conceptual schemata. A distinction is drawn between individualistic and institutional explication. The former relates to motives, desires or anxieties of individuals, the latter to an individual's convictions about myths, ideas etc. The overall line of argument presented in the paper is that someone studying culture in a cognitivist fashion must be ready to accept a change in the subject matter of his or her research. The focus shifts from social institutions (supraindividual entities) to individual conceptual systems and subjective matters of the mind.

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