Summary of Part III

By way of a summary of Part III, this chapter shows how the competitive routinization of the four types of associations brings about what we regard as the structure of language on the cognitive level. In the course of this, the important and pervasive role of paradigmatic associations and their routinization is discussed and three principles related to paradigmatic associations are postulated: the paradigmatic strengthening principle, the paradigmatic extension principle, and the paradigmatic support principle. In line with the feedback-loop idea which lies behind the EC-Model, it is argued that this structure is derived from cognitive principles of associative learning, processing, and representation, but can only serve as a means of communication if it is conventionalized in a speech community, which in turn influences what can become entrenched in the minds of individual speakers.