Episode 19: Paradigms

Structured Visions

AFP Photo/Kenzo Tribouillard

The notion of the ‘paradigm shift’ originates from Thomas Kuhn’s Structure of Scientific Revolutions. Kuhn argued that science does not progress in a linear fashion: if new evidence comes in that upsets an established paradigm, it is described as an anomaly and often explained away as human error or flawed research design. When enough new evidence comes in – that is, too much to be explained away – a crisis ensues and a new paradigm emerges.

‘Paradigm’ is a word that’s used in linguistics as well. It’s used in relation to the term ‘syntagm’. Syntagms are linear sequences of language – a string of words in a sentence, for instance. A syntagmatic analysis of the sentence I love broccoli might focus on the order of the words in that sentence. It might also look at ways in which that word order can be changed or added to and still produce a meaningful sentence in English. Add an auxiliary verb and a negative particle to the sequence and the sentence becomes negative: I do not like broccoli. Change the sequence using a cleft construction to alter the focus of the sentence: It’s broccoli I love. Add an auxiliary, change the word order and bingo! You’re Yoda: Love broccoli I do.

If syntagmatic analysis looks at the linear sequence – the ‘horizontal’ structure of a string of words, then paradigmatic analysis goes vertical. Imagine, for instance, a column of words or phrases that you could use to replace the final word in I love broccoli. I love cabbage. I love carrots. I love Tina. I love democracy. I love tree toads with big ideas. All the constituents in the broccoli slot share something with the word broccoli – they’re all nouns or noun phrases.

My research focuses on how close analysis of the grammatical descriptions of people’s social worlds can reveal new ways of thinking about social structure. In times of crisis, when the safe, dependable social structures seem no longer to be in place, descriptions of social worlds can reveal poignant new visions. Consider this courageous conversation between a little boy and his father after the Paris attacks last week. The boy explains to his father that they’ll have to move house because ‘there are bad guys’. His father’s response here represents a syntagmatic shift: ‘there are bad guys everywhere’. It’s a shift at the level of the sequence – a linear shift – he adds the adverb everywhere to his son’s remark, and his son doesn’t seem very comforted.

It’s the paradigmatic shift that changes the vision of the social structure.

‘Daddy, they have guns’.

‘They have guns. We have flowers.’

Now the shift is a shift in paradigm: the guns slot is replaced with another choice, flowers.

One piece of evidence is not enough to shift the paradigm, it would seem from the boy’s response.

‘Flowers don’t do anything’, he says.

‘Flowers are for fighting against guns’, says his father.

Now it’s the son’s turn to shift the paradigm: he replaces fighting with protecting.

‘Flowers are for protecting.’

And the paradigm keeps shifting:

‘Candles are for protecting.’

Let’s imagine a world in which flowers and candles – and the love and solidarity they represent – protect us from the world’s fear. Heartfelt thanks to Angel Le and his son Brandon for providing us with that vision.

Download Episode 19: Paradigms.