Schools of Modern Linguistics 现 代 语 言 学 流 派.doc

Schools of Modern Linguistics 现 代 语 言 学 流 派 Ferdinand de Saussure and his Work father of modern linguistics establish the structural study of language emphasize the arbitrary nature of linguistic sign emphasize the relational nature of language units make several pairs of distinctions Saussures most influential work: Course in General Linguistics (1916) give definition of language outline the scope of linguistics present principles for phonology and writing systems General principles Synchronic linguistics Diachronic linguistics Geographical linguistics Retrospective linguisticsThe Arbitrary Nature of the Linguistic Signs language as a system of signs: the sign as a union of the signifier and the signified no natural or inevitable connection between the signifier and the signified an arbitrary way of organizing the world into concepts and categories two important characteristics of linguistic signs: the arbitrary relation between the signifier and the signified the linear nature of the signified The Relational Nature of Language Units n no essential core of meaning for a signified to be the proper signified for that signifier n signifiers as members of system defined by their relations to the other members of that systemn language units as relational identity n the comparison between language and chessSaussures Dichotomies n Langue and parolen Synchronic and diachronic linguisticsn Syntagmatic and paradigmatic relationsLangue and Parole Langue is the system of a language it is what the individual assimilates when he learns a language; it is social and abstract; It enables the members of a speech community to communicate linguistically. Parole is actual speech it is individual and concrete; it is the realization of the language system. Distinction between langue and parolen separate what is social from what is individual and what is essential from accidentaln lead to the distinction between phonetics and phonologyn phonetics studies speech sounds from a physical point of view n phonology studies the functional units within the linguistic systemn lead to the distinction between utterance and sentencen an utterance is a unit of parolen a sentence is a unit of langueSynchronic and Diachronic Linguistics n Synchronic linguistics:concerned with language at one point in timen Diachronic linguistics: concerned with the development or evolution of languagen Distinction between synchronic and diachronic study: synchronic study is given priorityn there cannot be logical comparisons or diachronic studies without synchronic studiesn notion of language change should be carefully usedn there is a close connection between the study of diachronic change and synchronic variation Syntagmatic and Paradigmatic Relations n Syntagmatic relations:n relations a linguistic element enters into with other elements in a serial or linear structure in writing or in the temporal stream of speechn relations of cooccurrencen relations that link the whole structure to its parts and vice versan Paradigmatic relations:n relations that obtain between elementsn Priority is given to paradigmatic relations in modern linguistics. Saussures Contributions to Semiotics n Be the first to define the symbolic nature of human language.n Sign: an intersection or relationship or form and meaning, where form is something concrete, and meaning is something mental or cognitive.n Three types of signs: icon, index, and symbol.n Icon: a sign whose form has actual characteristics of its meaning; n Index: a sign whose form has characteristics which are only associated in nature with its meaning;n Symbol: a sign whose form is arbitrarily or conventionally associated with its meaning.Saussures Contributions to Semioticsn with respect to the study of the syntactic and semantic dimensions of textsn a rich working hypothesis demonstrating the systematic character of language (or literature) at each particular period of lifen The application of the two categories of parole and langue to literatureChapter Two European Functionalism The Prague SchoolIntroduction one of the most influential schools of linguistic thought in pre-war linguistics the approach to the study of language as a synchronic system the importance of the social function of language three points are of special importance: the synchronic study of language emphasis on the systemic character of languageContributions of The Prague School distinction between phonetics and phonology phonetics belongs to parole phonology belongs to langue the notion of the phoneme as an abstract unit of the sound system the functional conception of language as manifested in the analysis of sentences Mathesiuss distinction between theme & rheme the theme, which is a fact or facts already known the rheme, which contains all the new information to be transmitted others investigation of the functions of language Phonology and Phonological Oppositions Trubetzkovs distinction between phonetics and phonology Trubetzkovs notion of phoneme it has discriminative power it cannot be analyzed into smaller segments it can only be determined by distinctive features phonemes as being composed of a number of phonologically significant distinctive features Phonology and Phonological Oppositions Trubetzkovs nine phonological oppositions: Bilateral opposition（双边对立） Multilateral opposition（多变对立） Proportional opposition（均衡对立） Isolated opposition（孤立对立） Privative opposition（否定对立） Gradual opposition（分级对立） Equipollent opposition（等价对立） Neutralizable opposition（抵消对立） Constant opposition（永恒对立） Trubetzkovs Contributions to Phonological Theory distinctive functions of speech sounds and an accurate definition for the phoneme the sphere of phonological studies the interdependent relations between phonemes methodologies for phonological studiesJokobsons Concept of Distinctive Features The distinctive features are explicitly regarded as binary choices and hence they could be listed as paired oppositions, e.g. vocality v. consonantality, vocality v. non-vocality. These features were defined with reference not only to articulatory positions but also to acoustic properties of speech-sounds. It was hoped that the proposed list of distinctive features would be universal.Functional Sentence Perspective (FSP) Interests in FSP: Mathesius (1924, 1939) Firbas (1960s) Halliday (1967, 1968, 1970) Definition and scope of FSP: an analysis of utterances or texts in terms of the information they contain the effect of the distribution of known (or given) information and new information in discourse. Firbass notion of Communicative Dynamism (CD): Linguistic communication is not a static but a dynamic phenomenon. CD is meant to measure the amount of information an element carries in a sentence(e.g. He was angry.) The various elements of an utterance is thought to have varying degrees of communicative dynamism.Firbas: concept of “context” 区分了四种语境： 交际双方共有的经验知识（一般语境）； 语言交际正在进行时的直接语境（范围稍窄）； 刚刚出现的上文（范围更窄）； 句子本身（范围最窄，“语境依赖”指的是这种语境）。Thematic Progression in Discourse Danes (1974) suggests that theme has two functions: Connecting back and linking into the previous discourse Serving as a point of departure for the further development of the discourse Danes (1974) proposes three main types of thematic progression (TP): Simple linear TP TP with a continuous (constant) theme TP with derived TsThe Copenhagen School Louis Hjelmslev (1899-1965) who constituted the Copenhagen Linguistic Circle in the mid-1930s who developed an approach to linguistics known as Glossematics（语符学）or Neo-Saussurean Linguistics Relational grammar : Linguistics can describe only relations or more precisely, dependences or functions between items. three types of functions planes of languageThe focus of Glossematics: three types of function interdependence (依存关系): A presupposes B, and B presupposes A determination (决定关系): A presupposes B, but B does not presupposes A constellation (共存关系): A does not presupposes B, and B does not presuppose A Planes of language Two distinctions of language: Form vs substance: the overall linguistic structure vs the physical realization of language (phonic or graphic substance) Content vs expression: meaning vs speech-sound or writing four strata of the distinctions: content-substance content-form expression-form expression-substance.French Functionalism Function: the identification & classification of linguistic units the description of linguistic structure the explanation of scope and regularities of language change Two types of function: the function language in human interaction the function a linguistic unit in contrast to other units at each level of analysis Principle of economy the needs of communication human inertiaMartinets Contributions 语言观： 交际功能是语言的“中心功能” 将功能主义贯穿于语言研究的各个方面： 语言事实的确定 语言单位的划分 语言结构的分析 语言演变的描述 经济原则： 概念：经济省力和成功表达思想的平衡 应用：语音变化的基本规律；语言运作的基本原则。Holland Functionalism:Simon Diks Functional Grammar: A functional view of language: it takes a functional view of language; it attaches primary importance to functional relations at different levels in the organization of grammar; it wishes to be practically applicable to the analysis of diverse aspects of language and language use.Holland Functionalism:Simon Diks Functional Grammar: Three types or levels of function: Semantic function (Agent, Goal, Recipient, etc.), which define the roles that participants play in states of affairs, as designated by predications. Syntactic functions (Subject, Object, etc.), which define different perspectives through which states of affairs are presented in linguistic expressions. Pragmatic functions (Theme and Tail, Topic and Focus), which defines the informational status of constituents of linguistic expressions as used in given settings. Chapter Three The American StructuralismAmerican linguistics before TG grammarn Franz Boas (1858-1942): recorded and described many American Indian languages and developed a whole set of procedures and techniques for their investigation. n Edward Sapir (1884-1939): expanded and developed this tradition.n Leonard Bloomfield (1887-1949): who was the figure most closely associated with distinguishing and developing a structuralist approach.Properties of American Structuralismn Language as a structure of levels and interrelated parts instead of an unanalysable continuum.n Linguistic description has to be objective dealing with facts physically manifested.n Segmentation and classification as the principal techniques of analysis and description.n Structuralist thinking associated with behaviourist psychology.n Relativism: a characteristic stemmed from Boas with the Sapir-Whorf Hypothesis.The Immediate Constituent Analysis (IC Analysis)n Definition: a kind of pure segmentation, that is, to simply divide a sentence into its constituent elements referred to as the relation between a construction and its constituents.n Advantage: it helps to account for the ambiguity of certain constructions it helps to account for the ambiguity of certain constructions.n Problems: it is not always possible to cut a phrase or sentence into two parts; constructions with discontinuous constituents will pose technical problems for tree diagrams in IC analysis. n Behaviourist psychology in structuralismBloomfields theory (Language, 1933):n Bloomfield views language as a complex of stimulus-response relationships.n Bloomfield attempts to define the meaning of a language form as the situation in which the speaker utters it and the response it calls forth in the hearer. n Post-Bloomfieldian linguistics: a grammar is discovered through the performing of certain operations on a corpus of data.n Harris (Methods in Structural Linguistics 1951)n Hockett (Course in Modern Linguistics 1958)n Pike: Tagmemics (法位学）The Sapir-Whorf hypothesisn Ones thinking is completely determined by his native language because one cannot but conceive the world in terms of the categories and distinctions encoded in the language.n The categories and distinctions encoded in one language system are unique to that system and incommensurable with those of other systems.n Sampson: both critical and complimentary, conducting an in-depth analysis of the hypothesis n mans language could mould his perception of reality n language had a life of its ownChapter Four Transformational Generative GrammarChomsky and his works Background: Harriss idea of transformations: procedures of describing relations of sentences; Chomskys idea of transformational grammar. Chomskys Syntactic Structures (1957): the beginning of the Chomskyan Revolution a linguistic theory rather than an operational methodology; grammar as a theory of language and not as something which could be discovered; transformational grammar : phrase structure and transformational syntactic rules Chomsky and his theories Chomskys “Standard Theory” (Aspects of the Theory of Syntax 1965) rationalist and mentalist perspectives opposed to empiricism and behaviorism a grammar: generative syntactic component, interpretive semantic & phonological components “Extended Standard Theory”(1970s) “Revised Extended Standard Theory”(1970s) the theory of government and binding (On Binding (1978) Chomsky and his theories John Lyons (1970, 1977, p1-2): “Chomskys position not only is unique within linguistics at the present time, but is probably unprecedented in the whole history of the subject. His first book, published in 1957, short and relatively nontechnical though it was thought it was, revolutionized the scientific study of language, and for many years now he has been speaking with unrivaled authority on all aspects of grammatical theory Right or wrong, Chomskys theory of grammar is undoubtedly the most dynamic and influential, and no linguist who wishes to keep abreast of current developments in his subject can afford to ignore Chomskys theoretical pronouncements.”Chomskys Innateness Hypothesis Language Acquisition Device (LAD) language is somewhat innate; children are born with knowledge of the basic grammatical relations and categories; this knowledge is universal; a unique kind of knowledge that fits them for language learning; the study of language can throw some light on the nature of the human mind.Chomskys Innateness Hypothesis Several observations for Chomskys Innateness Hypothesis: Children learn their native language very fast and with little effort; In their first language acquisition, childrens difference is amazingly small; A child learns the total grammar of the language during a limited period of time, from limited exposure to speech.What is a generative grammar? Definition (Chomsky, 1965): “a system of rules that in some explicit and well-defined way assigns structural descriptions to sentences”. “Thus a generative grammar attempts to specify what the speaker actually knows, not what he may report about his knowledge” It is not limited to particular languages, but to reveal the unity of particular grammars and universal grammars. It aims to explore the universal rules in the hope of revealing human cognitive systems and the essential nature of human beings.Stages of TG development The Classical Theory: make linguistics a science; The Standard Theory: deal with how semantics should be studied in a linguistics theory; The Extended Standard Theory: focus discussion on language universals and universal grammar; The Revised Extended Standard Theory (GB): focus discussion on government and binding; Minimalist Program: a further revision of the previous theory.The Classical Theory three features ( Syntactic Structures, 1957): emphasis on generative ability of language; instruction of transformational rules; grammatical description regardless of meaning. three kinds of grammar (Syntactic Structures, 1957): Finite state grammar: the simplest type of grammar which can generate an infinite number of sentences with a finite amount of apparatus. Phrase structure grammar: consists solely of phrase-structure rules that formalize some of the traditional insights of constituent structure analysis. Transformational grammar: distinguish transformational rules into two kinds: obligatory and optional. The Standard Theory a generative grammar : syntactic, phonological & semantic(Aspects of the Theory of Syntax, 1965) Transformations can only change the forms of sentences and are not allowed to alter the meaning. There is a selectional restriction to ensure that an animate noun appears before the verb and an inanimate noun appears after the verb. Restrictions are put on transformations in order not to generate ill-formed sentences. In re-writing rules the symbol S is introduced on the right of the arrow. The rules are properly ordered and there is a set order in which the rules apply.The Extended Standard Theory semantic interpretation in the surface structure. problems to be solved: Transformational rules are still too powerful. Derived nouns have the same semantic properties with their corresponding verbs. Semantic interpretations are determined by the deep structure, and transformational processes will not change the sentence meaning. The St