Schools of Linguistics

1. Structuralism - 3
The Prague School
Dr. AbdulMahmoud Idrees Ibrahim

2. Structuralism
Dr. AbdulMahmoud Idrees Ibrahim

3. The Prague School
Prague Linguistic Circle:
 Started by V. Mathesius in 1926, with Jacobson, Trubetzkoy
and Firbas
 The Circle stood at the heart of important developments in
structural linguistics and semiotics in the 1930's.

4. The Prague School
Three important points:
 SYNCHRONIC study of language is stressed for it can draw on complete
and controllable material for investigation.
 Language is SYSTEMIC in that no element of language can be satisfactorily
analyzed or evaluated in isolation and assessment can only be made if its
relationship is established with the coexisting elements in the same
language system.
 Language is FUNCTIONAL in that it is a tool for performing a number of
essential functions or tasks for the community using it.

5. Prague School: Phonology
 N. Trubetzkoy: Principle of Phonology (1939).
 Phonetics vs. phonology:
 parole vs. langue.
 Phoneme: an abstract unit of the sound system; to
distinguish meaning
 Classifying distinctive features: phonological oppositions.

6. Trubetzkoy’s contributions
 Showed distinctive functions of speech sounds and gave an
accurate definition of the phoneme.
 Defined the sphere of phonological studies be making the
distinction between phonetics and phonology.

7. Trubetzkoy’s contributions
 Revealed interdependent relations between phonemes by
studying the syntagmatic and paradigmatic relations
between phonemes.
 Put forward a set of methodologies for phonological
studies.

8. Functional Sentence Perspective
 FSP is a theory of linguistic analysis which refers to an
analysis of utterances in terms of the information they
contain.
 The principle is that the role of each utterance part is
evaluated for its semantic contribution to the whole.
 A functional point of view

9. A sentence contains a point of departure and a goal
of discourse
 A sentence contains a point of departure and a goal of discourse.
 The point of departure, called the theme, is the ground on which the
speaker and the hearer meet.
 The goal of discourse, called the rheme, presents the very
information that is to be imparted to the hearer.
 Movement from theme to rheme reveals the movement of the mind
itself.

10. Theme Rheme
 The theme is the starting point of a clause; that is what the clause
is about.
 The remainder of the clause is the rheme.
 Theme-Rheme structure in English is the configuration that the
sender of a message maps onto the text in relation to what he or
she believes the receiver needs to know .

11. Theme Rheme
 Therefore, the functional sentence perspective (FSP) aims to
describe how information is distributed in sentences.
 It deals particularly with the effect of the distribution of known
(given) info and new info in discourse.
 Sally stands on the table. Theme Rheme
 On the table stands Sally. Theme Rheme

12. Communicative dynamism (CD)
 J. Firbas, says Linguistic communication is dynamic, not
static.
 CD measures the amount of info an element carries in a
sentence.
 The degree of CD is the effect contributed by a linguistic
element, for it pushes the communication forwards.

13. Communicative dynamism (CD)
 Example
 He was angry.
 CD: The lowest degree of CD is carried by he, and the
highest degree of CD is carried by angry, with the degree
carried by was ranking between them.

14. Communicative dynamism (CD)
 Normally the subject carries a lower degree of CD than the verb
and/or the object and/or adverbial provided either the verb or the
object and/or adverbial are contextually independent.
 This is because a known or unknown agent expressed by the subject
appears to be communicatively less important than an unknown
action expressed by the finite verb and/or an unknown goal (object
or adverbial of place) at or towards which the action is directed.

15. Communicative dynamism (CD)
 For example, A man broke into the house and stole all the
money.
 The ultimate purpose of the communication is to state the
action and/or its goal, not the agent.

16. Communicative dynamism (CD)
 However, if the subject is followed by a verb expressing
“existence or appearance on the scene” and is contextually
independent, then it will carry the highest degree of CD,
because an unknown person or thing appearing on the
scene is communicatively more important than the act of
appearing and the scene itself, e.g. An old man appeared in
the waiting room at five o’clock.

17. Communicative dynamism (CD)
 CD is both related to the semantic contents and the linear
arrangement of the elements.
Compare:
– He went to Prague to see his friend.
– In order to see his friend, he went to Prague.
– He gave a boy an apple.
– He gave an apple to a boy.

18. Three levels of a sentence
1. Grammatical Sentence Pattern (GSP)
2. Semantic Sentence Pattern (SSP)
3. Communicative Sentence Pattern (CSP)
– John has written a novel.
1. Subject Verb Object (GSP)
2. Agent Action Goal (SSP)
3. Theme Transition Rheme (CSP)

19. CONCLUSION
 The general approach in the study of language for the
Prague school can be described as the combination of
structuralism and functionalism.
 In addition, synchronic and diachronic approaches are seen
as interconnected and influencing each other.

20. CONCLUSION
 They regard language as a system of subsystems, each of
which has its own problems. But they are never isolated for
they are the part of a larger whole.
 As such a language is never in state of equilibrium but
rather has many deviations.
 These deviations allow the language to develop and
function as a linguistic system.

21. THE END
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