2nd year Liiinguistics *** History of linguistics : >>> textetc/theory/linguistics.html *** Traditional Grammar : Traditional grammar refers to the type of grammar study done prior to the beginnings of modern linguistics. Grammar, in this traditional sense, is the study of the structure and formation of words and sentences, usually without much reference to sound and meaning. In the more modern linguistic sense, grammar is the study of the entire interrelated system of structures—sounds, words, meanings, sentences—within a language. Traditional grammar can be traced back over 2,000 years and includes grammars from the classical period of Greek, India, and Rome; the Middle Ages; the Renaissance; the 18th and 19th century; and more modern times. The grammars created in this tradition reflect the prescriptive view that one dialect or variety of a language is to be valued more highly than others and should be the norm for all speakers of the language. Traditional grammars include prescriptive rules that are to be followed and proscriptive rules of usage to be avoided. “When describing an emotion, use of an English word descended from Latin is preferred over an Anglo-Saxon word” is an example of a prescriptive rule, and “Never split an infinitive” is an example of a proscriptive rule. The analytical study of language began around 500 B.C. in Greece and India. The work of Greek scholar Dionysius Thrax is the model for all grammars of European languages that follow. His Hē grammátikē tékhnē (c. 100 B.C.; The Art of Letters) was the first widely recognized text to provide a curriculum for learning proper Greek. His lessons included an introduction to the alphabet, lessons on how to join syllables together properly, and instruction in the appreciation of word arrangement (syntax). To Thrax, grammar was the technical knowledge necessary to produce the prestige language of poets, orators, and writers. Around the same time, the Roman scholar Marcus Terentius Varro produced the 25 volumes of his De lingua latina (c. 100, About the Latin Language). Varro contrasted Latin with Greek, changed Greek grammatical terms into Latin, and formed his grammar of Latin by adapting Greek rules. Other Latin grammars, influenced by the works of Thrax and Varro, were produced in the Middle Ages. Aelius Donatus published Ars Grammatica (c. fourth century, Art of Letters), and Donat Priscianus Caesariensis (Priscian) wrote Institutiones grammaticae (c. sixth century, Grammatical Foundations), which is the only complete surviving Latin grammar. As printing became more widely available in the Renaissance, European grammarians began the mass production of grammars of their languages by mirroring the Latin grammars of Varro, Donatus, and Priscian. These traditional grammarians presumed that the grammatical descriptions of Latin could be routinely applied to their own languages; this perception, however, was not accurate and resulted in many artificial prescriptive and proscriptive rules. Many of these false assumptions still carry over to attitudes about English today. Continuing with this tradition, grammarians in the 18th century studied English, along with many other European languages, by using the prescriptive approach in traditional grammar; during this time alone, over 270 grammars of English were published. During most of the 18th and 19th centuries, grammar was viewed as the art or science of correct language in both speech and writing. By pointing out common mistakes in usage, these early grammarians created grammars and dictionaries to help settle usage arguments and to encourage the improvement of English. One of the most influential grammars of the 18th century was Lindley Murray’s English Grammar (1794), which was updated in new editions for decades. Murray’s rules were taught for many years throughout school systems in England and the United States and helped to create modern attitudes about the existence of a correct or standard variety of English. Murray’s grammar represents a practice that continued to develop throughout the 19th century and was still dominant in the 1960s when linguistics began to focus more on generative and transformational grammar due to Noam Chomsky’s groundbreaking and influential ideas. Even though linguists today view traditional grammar as an unscientific way to study language and grammar, many of the basic Latin-based notions of grammar can still be found in all levels of the classroom and in textbooks and usage guides available to educators and the public. Traditional grammar books usually provide lists of grammatical terms, definitions of those terms, and advice on using so-called “standard” grammar, including suggested correct usage of punctuation, spelling, and word choice. This advice is usually based on the prescriptive rules of prestige varieties of English, varieties often only able to be used by those in power either economically or politically. Linguists, along with many English faculty, would rather have students study language with a descriptive approach that includes the analysis of real samples of a mixture of English dialect varieties, not just the prescribed, and sometimes inconsistent, prestige forms. Linguists or teachers using a descriptive approach say that it allows students to investigate language on a deeper level, enabling students to see the system at work, instead of teaching them isolated prescriptive and proscriptive rules based on Latin, a dead language no longer in flux as English constantly is. Linguists also believe that the rules of traditional grammar are inadequate because many of the rules are oversimplified, inconsistent, or not consistently conformed to. The grammars of classical Greece and Rome were based on the best orators or poets of the day. However, the best poets or speakers of our day are lauded for their poetic use of language that breaks prescriptive rules. For example, a traditional grammar rule of modern English, often found in usage guides and student handbooks, forbids the use of fragment sentences like “The train running up the hill.” However, e.e. cummings or Maya Angelou could use this sentence for poetic effect without question. Many teachers themselves want to be trained in traditional grammar, even though its inconsistencies may not help them when they have to explain grammatical points to their students. The National Council for Accreditation of Teacher Education (NCATE) requires that teachers in training take linguistics or language courses to teach them to examine the differences between traditional grammar and more modern grammars. However, many English teachers view traditional grammar as necessary and newer grammars as little help to them. And even though more modern types of grammatical analysis exist, many students, future teachers, and the general public still believe grammar means the traditional Latin-based grammar of old. **** Branches of linguistics Branches of Linguistics Like most academic disciplines, linguistics has been divided into numerous overlapping subfields--a stew of alien and undigestible terms, as Randy Allen Harris characterized them in his 1993 book The Linguistics Wars (Oxford University Press). Using the sentence Fideau chased the cat as an example, Allen offered this crash course in the major branches of linguistics. Phonetics concerns the acoustic waveform itself, the systematic disruptions of air molecules that occur whenever someone utters the expression. Phonology concerns the elements of that waveform which recognizably punctuate the sonic flow--consonants, vowels, and syllables, represented on this page by letters. Morphology concerns the words and meaningful subwords constructed out of the phonological elements--that Fideau is a noun, naming some mongrel, that chase is a verb signifying a specific action which calls for both a chaser and a chasee, that -ed is a suffix indicating past action, and so on. Syntax concerns the arrangement of those morphological elements into phrases and sentences--that chased the cat is a verb phrase, that the cat is its noun phrase (the chasee), that Fideau is another noun phrase (the chaser), that the whole thing is a sentence. Semantics concerns the proposition expressed by that sentence--in particular, that it is true if and only if some mutt named Fideau has chased some definite cat. **** Langue vs parole >> youtube/watch?v=Bz3XVTNukgw **** signified vs signifier >> Ferdinand de Saussure: The Linguistic Unit – Sign, Signified and Signifier Explained >> Due to his theories on the structure of language, the Swiss linguist, Ferdinand de Saussure (1857-1913) is often known as the founder of modern linguistics. In order to understand Saussure’s linguistic theories, you have to be able to grasp the basics of his psycho-linguistic terminology and his explanation of the nature of language units. Understanding the basic concepts of his linguistic theory is not only essential for linguistic students, but for anyone studying semiotics, or the use of various types of signs to communicate. Semiotics is also a basic element in film theory studies. In Saussure’s Course in General Linguistics, a book summarising his lectures at the University of Geneva from 1906 to 1911, he explained the relationship between speech and the evolution of language, investigating language as a structured system of signs. It is important to note that Saussure perceived a linguistic unit to be a ‘double entity,’ meaning that it is composed of two parts. He viewed the linguistic unit as a combination of: 1. a concept or meaning 2. a sound-image Linguistic Units and Sound – Images are Mental Impressions The first point to understand is when Saussure mentioned ‘linguistic units,’ sound-images’ and ‘concepts,’ he was referring to the mental processes that create these entities. He was not referring to spoken or written words, but to the mental impressions made on our senses by a certain ‘thing.’ It is our perception, or how we view this ‘thing,’ together with the sound system of our language that creates the two-part mental linguistic unit he referred to as a ‘sign.’ Let’s take for example the fairly new concept of ‘Google.’ The sound image, or impression in our minds is of the logo representing Google, and through our language system we know how that image sounds mentally. We know the concept or meaning associated with this ‘sound impression’ that ‘Google’ is a large search engine on the Internet. The connections between the two elements are made mentally without uttering or writing the word ‘Google,’ and the two parts formed are joined and become united as a mental linguistic unit. Saussure calls this two-part linguistic unit a ‘sign.’ Understanding the Terms Sign, Signified and Signifier The part of the sign Saussure calls the ‘concept’ or ‘meaning’ (mental impression/association of the ‘thing’) he named, ‘signified.’ The idea of what ‘Google’ is, for example, is signified. The part he calls the ‘sound-image’ (the mental ‘linguistic sign’ given to the ‘thing’) he named the ‘signifier’ – this is the sound Google’s logo creates in our minds. As Saussure explains, the connection between all ‘signifiers’ which are ‘sound images’ or ‘linguistic signs’ and what they are signifying – their signified object or concept – is arbitrary. In other words, there is not necessarily any logical connection between the two. Again, the word ‘Google’ exemplifies this well. There is nothing in the word ‘Google’ that would suggest that it is a digital means of searching for information on the Internet. It is a random invented word. With the arrival of the Internet, in the waning years of Yahoo! a name, or ‘sound image’/’linguistic sign’ had to be created to describe a new search engine. However, now, when you see the ‘linguistic unit’ ‘Google’ (the ‘sign’), you automatically connect it to its sound image, the signifier ‘Google’ – a ‘linguistic sign‘ which signifies a ‘large search engine on the internet.’
Posted on: Fri, 09 Jan 2015 15:02:54 +0000
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