Schools of thought Linguistics

1. 1
UNIT 3
A BRIEF INTRODUCTION TO LINGUISTICS
Linguistics is the scientific study of language. The word was first used in the middle of the 19th century
to emphasize the difference between a newer approach to the study of language that was then developing
and the more traditional approach of philology. The differences were and are largely matters of attitude,
emphasis, and purpose. The philologist is concerned primarily with the historical development of
languages as it is manifest in written texts and in the context of the associated literature and culture. The
linguist, though he may be interested in written texts and in the development of languages through time,
tends to give priority to spoken languages and to the problems of analyzing them as they operate at a
given point in time.
The field of linguistics may be divided in terms of three dichotomies: synchronic versus diachronic,
theoretical versus applied, and microlinguistics versus macrolinguistics. A synchronic description of a
language describes the language as it is at a given time; a diachronic description is concerned with the
historical development of the language and the structural changes that have taken place in it. The goal of
theoretical linguistics is the construction of a general theory of the structure of language or of a general
theoretical framework for the description of languages; the aim of applied linguistics is the application of
the findings and techniques of the scientific study of language to practical tasks, especially to the
elaboration of improved methods of language teaching. The terms microlinguistics and macrolinguistics
are not yet well established, and they are, in fact, used here purely for convenience. The former refers to
a narrower and the latter to a much broader view of the scope of linguistics. According to the
microlinguistic view, languages should be analyzed for their own sake and without reference to their
social function, to the manner in which they are acquired by children, to the psychological mechanisms
that underlie the production and reception of speech, to the literary and the aesthetic or communicative
function of language, and so on. In contrast, macrolinguistics embraces all of these aspects of language.
Various areas within the comprehensive and vast paradigm of macrolinguistics, have been given
terminological recognition: psycholinguistics, sociolinguistics, anthropological linguistics, dialectology,
mathematical and computational linguistics, and stylistics. Macrolinguistics should not be identified with
applied linguistics. The application of linguistic methods and concepts to language teaching may well
involve other disciplines in a way that microlinguistics does not. But there is, in principle, a theoretical
aspect to every part of macrolinguistics, no less than to microlinguistics.
HISTORICISM
Historical linguistics, also called Diachronic Linguistics, the branch of linguistics concerned with the
study of phonological, grammatical, and semantic changes, the reconstruction of earlier stages of
languages, and the discovery and application of the methods by which genetic relationships among
languages can be demonstrated. Historical linguistics had its roots in the etymological speculations of
classical and medieval times, in the comparative study of Greek and Latin developed during the
Renaissance, and in the speculations of scholars as to the language from which the other languages of the
world were descended. It was only in the 19th century, however, that more scientific methods of
language comparison and sufficient data on the early Indo-European languages combined to establish the
principles now used by historical linguists. The theories of the Neogrammarians, a group of German
historical linguists and classical scholars who first gained prominence in the 1870s, were especially
important because of the rigorous manner in which they formulated sound correspondences in the Indo-
European languages. In the 20th century, historical linguists have successfully extended the application
of the theories and methods of the 19th century to the classification and historical study of non-Indo-
European languages.

2. 2
FUNCTIONALISM
Functionalism, in linguistics refers to the approach to language study that is concerned with the functions
performed by language, primarily in terms of cognition (relating information), expression (indicating
mood), and conation (exerting influence). Especially associated with the Prague school of linguists
prominent since the 1930s, the approach centres on how elements in various languages accomplish these
functions, both grammatically and phonologically. Some linguists have applied the findings to work
on stylistics and literary criticism.In the functional paradigm a language conceptualized as an instrument
of social interaction, based on communicative relationships. It centers on the instrumentality of language
with respect to what people do and achieve with it in social interaction. A natural language, in other
words, is seen as an integrated part of the communicative competence of the natural language user.
Prague school of linguistics
Prague school refers to a school of linguistic thought and analysis established in Prague in the 1920s
by Vilém Mathesius. It included among its most prominent members the Russian linguist Nikolay
Trubetskoy and the Russian-born American linguist Roman Jakobson; the school was most active during
the 1920s and ’30s. Linguists of the Prague school stress the function of elements within language, the
contrast of language elements to one another, and the total pattern or system formed by these contrasts,
and they have distinguished themselves in the study of sound systems. They developed distinctive-
feature analysis of sounds; by this analysis, each distinctive sound in a language is seen as composed of a
number of contrasting articulatory and acoustic features, and any two sounds of a language that are
perceived as being distinct will have at least one feature contrast in their compositions. The concept of
distinctive-feature analysis in studying the sound systems of languages has been incorporated within the
standard model of transformational grammar.
The Prague school is also renowned for its interest in the application of functionalism—the study of how
elements of a language accomplish cognition, expression, and conation—to syntax and the structure of
literary texts.
STRUCTURALISM
Structural linguistics, or structuralism, in linguistics, denotes schools or theories in which language is
conceived as a self-contained, self-regulating system, whose elements are defined by their relationship to
other elements within the system. It is derived from the work of Swiss linguist Ferdinand de
Saussure and is part of the overall approach of structuralism. Saussure's Course in General Linguistics,
published posthumously in 1916, stressed examining language as a dynamic system of interconnected
units. Saussure is also known for introducing several basic dimensions of semiotic analysis that are still
important today. Two of these are his key methods of syntagmatic and paradigmatic analysis, which
define units syntactically and lexically, respectively, according to their contrast with the other units in the
system.
Structural linguistics was actually developed by Ferdinand de Saussure between 1913 and 1915, although
his work wasn’t translated into English and popularized until the late 1950s. Before Saussure, language
was studied in terms of the history of changes in individual words over time, or diachronically, and it was
assumed that words somehow imitated the objects for which they stood. Saussure realized that we need
to understand language, not as a collection of individual words with individual histories but as a
structural system of relationships among words as they are used at a given point in time,
or synchronically. This is the structuralist focus. Structuralism doesn’t look for the causes or origins of
language (or of any other phenomenon). It looks for the rules that underlie language and govern how it
functions: it looks for the structure.

3. 3
In order to differentiate between the structure that governs language and the millions of individual
utterances that are its surface phenomena, Saussure called the structure of language langue (the French
word for language), and he called the individual utterances that occur when we speak parole (the French
word for speech).
For the structuralist, of course, langue is the proper object of study; parole is of interest only in that it
reveals langue.
According to structuralism, the human mind perceives difference most readily in terms of opposites,
which structuralists call binary oppositions: two ideas, directly opposed, each of which we understand by
means of its opposition to the other. For example, we understand up as the opposite of down, female as
the opposite of male, good as the opposite of evil, black as the opposite of white, and so on.
Furthermore, unlike his predecessors, Saussure argued that words do not simply refer to objects in the
world for which they stand. Instead, a word is a linguistic sign consisting, like the two sides of a coin, of
two inseparable parts: signifier + signified. A signifier is a “sound-image” (a mental imprint of a
linguistic sound); the signified is the concept to which the signifier refers. Thus, a word is not merely a
sound-image (signifier), nor is it merely a concept (signified). A sound image becomes a word only when
it is linked with a concept. Furthermore, the relationship between signifier and signified, Saussure
observed, is arbitrary: there is no necessary connection between a given sound-image and the concept to
which it refers. There is no reason why the concept of a tree should be rep- resented by the sound-image
“tree” instead of by the sound-image “‫کتاب‬”; the concept of a book is just as well represented by the
sound-image “‫کتاب‬” as the sound-image “book.” The relationship between signifier and signified is merely
a matter of social convention: it is whatever the community using it says it is.
In the 1950s Saussure's ideas were appropriated by several prominent figures in Continental
philosophy, anthropology, and from there were borrowed in literary theory, where they are used to
interpret novels and other texts. However, several critics have charged that Saussure's ideas have been
misunderstood or deliberately distorted by continental philosophers and literary theorists and are
certainly not directly applicable to the textual level, which Saussure himself would have firmly placed
within parole and so not amenable to his theoretical constructs.
GENERATIVISM
Generative Grammar
Generative grammar is a theory of grammar, first developed by Noam Chomsky in the 1950s, that is based
on the idea that all humans have an innate language capacity.
Linguists who study generative grammar are not interested in prescriptive rules; rather, they are interested
in uncovering the foundations that guide all language production.
Generative grammar accepts as a basic premise that native speakers of a language will find certain
sentences grammatical or ungrammatical and that these judgments give insight into the rules governing
the use of that language.
Generative grammar is a theory of grammar that holds that human language is shaped by a set of basic
principles that are part of the human brain (and even present in the brains of small children). This
"universal grammar," according to linguists like Chomsky, comes from our innate language faculty.
Generative Vs. Prescriptive Grammar
Generative grammar is distinct from other grammars such as prescriptive grammar, which attempts to
establish standardized language rules that deem certain usages "right" or "wrong," and descriptive
grammar, which attempts to describe language as it is actually used (including the study
of pidgins and dialects). Instead, generative grammar attempts to get at something deeper—the
foundational principles that make language possible across all of humanity.

4. 4
Principles of Generative Grammar
The main principle of generative grammar is that all humans are born with an innate capacity for
language and that this capacity shapes the rules for what is considered "correct" grammar in a language.
The idea of an innate language capacity—or a "universal grammar"—is not accepted by all linguists.
Some believe, to the contrary, that all languages are learned and, therefore, based on certain constraints.
Proponents of the universal grammar argument believe that children are not exposed to enough linguistic
information to learn the rules of grammar; there is an innate language capacity that allows them to
overcome the "poverty of the stimulus."
DEFINING SOME OF THE CONCEPTS MENTIONED IN THE PRECEDING UNITS
❖Jonathan Swift's A Proposal for the English Tongue
Jonathan Swift (30 November 1667 – 19 October 1745) was an Anglo-Irish satirist, essayist,
political pamphleteer , poet and cleric.
In 1712, the English language, according to the satirist Jonathan Swift, was in chaos. He outlined his
complaints in this public letter to Robert Harley, leader of the government, proposing the appointment of
experts to advise on English use. The model was to be based on that of the Académie Française, which
had been regulating the French language since 1634. His proposal, like all the others he made, came to
nothing. To this day no official regulation of the English language exists.
❖A Dictionary of the English Language
Published on 15 April 1755 and written by Samuel Johnson, A Dictionary of the English Language,
sometimes published as Johnson's Dictionary, is among the most influential dictionaries in the history of
the English language.
❖RP (Received Pronunciation)
The abbreviation RP (Received Pronunciation) denotes what is traditionally considered the standard
accent of people living in London and the southeast of England and of other people elsewhere who speak
in this way. RP is the only British accent that has no specific geographical correlate: it is not possible, on
hearing someone speak RP, to know which part of the United Kingdom he or she comes from. Though it
is traditionally considered a “prestige” accent, RP is not intrinsically superior to other varieties of
English; it is itself only one particular accent that has, through the accidents of history, achieved a higher
status than others. Although acquiring its unique standing without the aid of any established authority, it
was fostered by the public schools (Winchester, Eton, Harrow, Rugby, and so on) and the ancient
universities (Oxford and Cambridge). Other varieties of English are well preserved in spite of the
leveling influences of film, television, and radio. In several Northern accents, RP /a:/ (the first vowel
sound in father) is still pronounced /æ/ (a sound like the a in fat) in words such as laugh, fast, and path;
this pronunciation has been carried across the Atlantic into American English.
❖Germanic
(Germanic is a branch of the Indo-European family to which English belongs. English is a member of the
West Germanic division, together with German, Dutch, etc. The other two divisions are North Germanic
(e.g., Danish, Norwegian) and East Germanic (Gothic)).
❖Lingua franca
(A language of communication used among people with different first languages)

5. 5
❖Orthoepy
(The study of correct pronunciation mostly in conformity with established speech patterns).
❖Periphrasis
The use of separate words to express a grammatical relationship that is otherwise expressed by inflection,
e.g. did go as opposed to went and more intelligent as opposed to cleverer.
❖Philology
(Philology refers to the study of language in its cultural and social contexts. The term may refer
specifically to the study of historical languages before the rise of modern linguistics in the early twentieth
century).
❖Protolanguage
(Protolanguage refers to an unrecorded or unattested language from which a group of historically
attested languages have presumably derived. Hence all Indo-European languages are supposed to
share Proto-Indo-European as parent language. Likewise, Proto-Germanic is the presumed ancestor
of all Germanic languages).
❖Rhotic
(The term rhotic may refer to varieties of English that articulate /r/ in all positions of a word. Non-
rhotic varieties pronounce /r/ before vowels (e.g., red) but not after vowels (e.g., car, third).
❖Grimm’s Law
the observation that certain Indo-European consonants (mainly stops) undergo regular changes in the
Germanic languages which are not seen in others such as Greek or Latin. Examples
include p becoming f so that Latin pedem corresponds to English foot and German Fuss . The
principle was set out by Jacob Grimm in his German grammar (2nd edition, 1822).
❖Verner’s Law
A modification of Grimm's Law accommodating some of its exceptions. It states
that noninitial voiceless fricatives in Proto-Germanic occurring as a result of Grimm's law
became voiced fricatives if the previous syllable had been unstressed in Proto-Indo-European
❖Pictogram
A pictogram is a simple drawing that represents something. Pictograms were used as the earliest form
of writing.
❖Ideogram
A picture or symbol used in a system of writing to represent a thing or an idea but not a particular
word or phrase for it.
❖Logogram
A sign or character representing a word or phrase, such as those used in shorthand and some ancient
writing systems.
❖The Rebus principle
In linguistics, the rebus principle is the use of existing symbols, such as pictograms, purely for their
sounds regardless of their meaning, to represent new words. Many ancient writing systems used the
rebus principle to represent abstract words, which otherwise would be hard to represent with
pictograms.

6. 6
An example that illustrates the Rebus principle is the representation of the sentence "I can see you"
by using the pictographs of "eye—can—sea
Further Readings:
Albert C Baugh & Thomas Cable. (2002). A History of the English Language (Fifth Edition). London: Routledge.
Chomsky, Noam. (1957). Syntactic Structures. (Janua Linguarum series minor 4). Den Haag: Mouton.
Chomsky, Noam. (1965). Aspects of the Theory of Syntax. Cambridge, Mass.: The MIT Press.
Corballis, Michael. (2002). From Hand to Mouth: The Origins of Language. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University
Press.
W. D. Elcock. (1975). The Romance Languages. London: Faber & Faber.
Greenberg, Joseph H. (1990). On the Morpological Typology of Languages. In Denning and Kemmer, eds. On
Language: Selected writings of Joseph H. Greenberg. Stanford: Stanford University Press.
Greenberg, Joseph H. (1966). Language Universals, with Special reference to Feature Hierarchies. (Janua
Linguarum series minor 59) The Hague: Mouton.
Greenberg, Joseph H. (1971). Language, Culture and Communication: Essays by Joseph H. Greenberg. Selected
and introduced by Anwar S. Dil. Stanford: Stanford University Press.
Gross, Maurice. (1979). On the failure of generative grammar. Language 55(4), pp. 859-885.