kasutustavast

Kasutustavast is an Estonian-language term used to describe usage-based approaches in linguistics and related fields. These approaches treat language knowledge as emerging from actual language use, with patterns learned from frequency, distribution, and context rather than from a fixed set of abstract rules.

In practice, kasutustavast emphasizes corpus data, statistical models, and exemplar-based representations. It argues that speakers' mental grammars are shaped by repeated encounters with language in real communication, leading to schematic forms and constructions that capture common patterns.

Applications include the study of lexical semantics, morphosyntax, and phonology; the development of language resources and dictionaries based on observed usage; language teaching that focuses on real usage; and natural language processing that uses large corpora and frequency information.

Relation to other concepts involves contrasting usage-based accounts with traditional rule-based grammars and examining links to construction grammar, exemplar theory, and corpus linguistics. The approach supports cross-disciplinary methods that prioritize observed language use, pattern generalization, and the adaptation of theories to empirical data.