Conversations with Viktor Markovich and the notion of disposition in language

Usage (речь, speech, parole, performance) cannot be predicted fully from system (язык, grammar, langue, competence). Usage has a life of its own. Usage is repeated (habitual) performance; usage is learned, along with its pragmatics and social contexts; change occurs directly in usage.

Usage is consistent with (but not predicted by) abstract principles we might call dispositions. Dispositions allow (but do not dictate) various historical effects, such as: preserving prior usage (as South Slavic enclitics do); extending an already ongoing change (animacy marking in the history of Russian)—two forms of linguistic inertia; providing a model for potential change (Watergate > Camilla-gate); governing variation in ongoing change (animacy marking in Russian); or reflecting broad cultural attitudes in concrete usage (post-89 Polish utopian confidence in technology manifested in pseudoanimacy, kupić laptopa). My interest in the relationship between usage and disposition extended over a dozen years of intermittent discussion with friend and colleague—and exceptional interlocutor—V. M. Zhivov.