This document discusses language and applied linguistics. It provides definitions of key linguistic concepts like langue and parole from Saussure and perspectives on language from Chomsky and Halliday. It also defines areas of linguistic study like phonetics, phonology, morphology, syntax, semantics, pragmatics and discourse analysis. The relationship between politics and discourse is discussed in the context of critical discourse analysis.

1. Licenciatura en Lengua Inglesa y Pedagogía en Inglés Sede: Los Ángeles
Applied Linguistics I, Questionnaire
1- WHAT'S LANGUAGE?
Along with history there have been a great deal of argumentation regarding this matter, and
given that language is at the very core of human life, there the complexity of a staightforward
definition.
Language can be viewed, in an abstract sense, as a restrictively human capacity.
A cultural phenomenon that joins or separates people.
A tool for human interaction.
A structured and accesible product of human evolution and human mind. In this regard,
particular languages (Farsi, Hindi, Urdu, Enlgish, etc. ) would be the factual evidence of the
latter.
Saussure claims that language is a conventional and arbitrary system of signs : ‘Language is a
structure, a functioning whole in which the different parts are determined by one another"
(Course in General Linguistics).
Language, states Saussure, manifests itself as speech (parole), the actual performance of
speakers when they speak or write, also language (langue), which represents the knowledge or
competence that all speakers possess of their language (Course in General Linguistics); He
states that langue, should not be confused with human speech, it is a system or structure of
speech codes.
Later on, other perspectives of language arose in a way of contesting and complementing
Saussure’s definition of language.
The perspectives have gone from claiming that language is a brain device that carries a
‘universal grammar’ (Noam Chomsky) to language as a social phenomenon.
The perspective of ‘Universal Grammar’ claims that according to the stimuli our innate
acquisition apparatus might receive, different ‘parole’s’ (particular language, ‘lengua’ in Spanish)
would be developed by the individual.
Other, not at all less relevant perspective has been the inclusion of aspects of socialization
stating that language is a systematic resource for expressing meaning in context (MAK Halliday).
Nonetheless great efforts to define and stablish what language is, it has not yet been possible to
entirely be defined.
2- WHAT ARE THE STUDY AREAS OF LINGUISTICS?, DEFINE EACH.
Phonetics, the study of the physical properties of sounds of human language.
Phonology, the study of sounds as discrete, abstract elements in the speaker's mind that
distinguish meaning.
Morphology, the study of internal structures of words and how they can be modified.
Syntax, the study of how words combine to form grammatical sentences .
Semantics, the study of the meaning of words (lexical semantics) and fixed word combinations
(phraseology), and how these combine to form the meanings of sentences.
Pragmatics, the study of how utterances are used (literally, figuratively, or otherwise) in
communicative acts.
Discourse analysis, the analysis of language use in texts (spoken, written, or signed)
Applied Linguistics I, Questionnaire 1 Lic. Jordán Masías O.

2. Licenciatura en Lengua Inglesa y Pedagogía en Inglés Sede: Los Ángeles
3- GRAMMAS IS COMPOSED BY …SYNTAX AND SEMANTICS.
Being that grammar (in a very broad sense) is the study of how words and their component
parts combine to form sentences, then, the way words are ordered and combined in a language
(or in language) is called Syntax. And the way in which words are created, and how inflections
change the meaning, [e.g. the form in which the suffix ‘un’ in english make the word carry a
contrary meaning to the one it originally has] is called Morphology.
4- WHAT IS THE DIFFERENCE BETWEEN CHOMSKY'S AND HALLIDAY'S VISION OF LANGUAGE?
The main difference lies on the perspective of language they hold.
On the one hand, Chomsky asserts than language is an innate universal feature of human beings
and that the different languages are mere manifestations of this feature.
To Chomsky humans have an innate "language faculty" and that the universal principles of
human language reflect intrinsic properties of this language faculty. The specific rules that
determine the sound and meaning of utterances in particular languages (Spanish, English,
Afrikaans, etc) reflect, in a deep-structur perspective, this ‘universal grammar’ that is only one
and should be discovered.
“ [...]Chomsky begins from the view that although different groups of people speak different
languages, yet all human language is essentially governed by common rules, or principles, that
are universal. "
On the other hand, Halliday views language in terms of the function of grammar, places the
function of language as central (what language does, and how it does it); starts at social
context, and looks at how language acts upon, and is constrained by, this social context.
Halliday views language as a system and claims Language use is functional. In his perspective,
the function of language is to create meaning and these meanings are determined by the
context in which they are exchanged. Language use is a semiotic process
that is based on choices.
Under Halliday’s view, language, even if it were a universal feature, cannot be separated from
context (and thus culture) and in this sense language must be defined including its function and
occurrence. Hence, this ‘universal grammar’ would not have relevance at all without a real life
situation.
5- DISCOURSE IS…
In order to define discourse we have to make difference between a wide and narrow perspective.
From the wide perspective, discourse is a social practice that takes form through language use.
From a narrow perspective, Discourse is “a continuous stretch of (especially spoken) language
larger than a sentence, often constituting a coherent unit such as a sermon, argument, joke, or
narrative" (Crystal 1992:25)
From the latter, we can infere that a novel, a short piece of text and even a groan could be
considered ‘Discourse’ (Cook, 1990).
Hence, discourse can be considered to be :
• language above the sentence or above the clause
• a continuous stretch of spoken language larger than a sentence, often constituting a
coherent unit.
Applied Linguistics I, Questionnaire 2 Lic. Jordán Masías O.

3. Licenciatura en Lengua Inglesa y Pedagogía en Inglés Sede: Los Ángeles
• a stretch of language perceived to be meaningful unified, and purposive; language in use
(viewed) as social practice determined by social structures
6- THE DIFFERENCE BETWEEN 'LANGUE' AND 'PAROLE' IS…
Saussure in his lectures introduced the terms langue and parole, refering, from a incipient
perspective, to language and speech, however, the implications go far beyond.
Langue is the whole system of language that precedes and makes speech possible, it is the
system that enables people to speak as they do.
Langue is understood as a system because through the arragement of the large number of
elements that compose La Langue, new meanings might be created. However, the consequent
relationships between these arranged elements should be taken into consideration.
The way in which the users make usufruct of Langue, is named Parole.
Parole, therefore, is understood as is the tangible use of the language. It is the language as
spoken, the real manifestation of Langue. It is the use of the system ‘but not the system itself’.
7- NAME 3 FEATURES OF TEXTS
Texts are manifestation of language, they are social phenomena and thus must be considered as
part of discourse.
They are presented in coherent and conventional graphical systems, being these, a writing
system, a symbolic system and even, a visual-artistic system.
Texts, to be considered so, need to be codified in a conventional system, in this way the readers
of it can have access to the information they might contain.
Other importan characteristic of texts is their informative nature, they are created with the
purpose of communicating, hence their ‘informativeness’.
And, another important feature is their cohesion and coherence. A text, to be considered so,
must be ‘readable’, carry information and its information should be purposeful which imply the
need that they would be coherent and cohesive, being so, Cohesion is the grammatical
relationship between parts of a sentence (and text as a whole) essential for its interpretation;
and Coherence is the way the order of statements relates one another by sense.
8- WHAT IS THE DIFFERENCE BETWEEN DISCOURSE ANALYSIS AND CRITICAL DISCOURSE
ANALYSIS (CDA)?
On the one hand: ‘[Discourse Analysis deals] with the examination of discourse attempts to
find patterns in communicative products as well as and their correlation with the
circumstances in which they occur, which are not explainable at the grammatical level’ (Carter
1993:23) (see online: http://www.tlumaczenia-angielski.info/linguistics/discourse.htm).
On the other hand, CDA intends to “uncover the ideological beliefs that are concealed in the
words of our texts or oral speech, so as to resist and prevail over the diverse forms of power
(control) or to obtain an appreciation of the power control we are performing without a proper
realization” (Fairclough, 1989).
9- WHAT'S THE RELATIONSHIP THAT CDA PROPOSES BETWEEN POLITICS AND DISCOURSE?
Applied Linguistics I, Questionnaire 3 Lic. Jordán Masías O.

4. Licenciatura en Lengua Inglesa y Pedagogía en Inglés Sede: Los Ángeles
To CDA, the construction of reality is achieved through cognitive processes subsuming or that
are subsumed by language; in this way, CDA recognizes the existence of a mutual relationship
between language and social reality.
Being so, “The fundamental codes of a culture- the ones that conduct its language, its
percerptive écheme, its changes, its techniques, its values, the hyerarchy of its practices- fix
beforehand, for every man, the empirical orders with which he will have to deal and within
which, he will recognize himself” [translated by J. Masías] (Foucault 1966)
In doing so, beliefs and ideologies are transmitted systematically.
According to van Dijk (1998) Critical Discourse Analysis (CDA) is a field that is
concerned with studying and analyzing written and spoken texts to reveal the discursive
sources of power, dominance, inequality and bias. It examines how these discursive
sources are maintained and reproduced within specific social, political and historical
contexts.
Summarizes, CDA sees how Politicians might use language to validate their practices and their
power, and also how this leaves an imprint in society and this imprint will also be shown through
language use.
11- DEFINE APPLIED LINGUISTICS.
• “AL is the utilisation of the knowledge about the nature of language achieved by
linguistic research for the improvement of the efficiency of some practical task in which
language is a central component.” (Corder)
12- WHAT'S THE DIFFERENCE BETWEEN LINGUISTICS AND APPLIED LINGUISTICS.
Linguistics is the scientific study of language aiming at defining what language is and how it is
represented in the mind; Conversely, Applied Linguistics is a problem-solution oriented
discipline, which aims at solving language-related problems, taking into account all the universe
involved in the given problem, and not only language.
13- WHAT'S THE DIFFERENCE BETWEEN LINGUISTICS APPLIED AND APPLIED LINGUISTICS?
This metathesis implies a difference in the scope or final purpose of the research.
According to Widdowson (see: http://pi2.ingenta.com/content/oup/applij/2000/00000021/00000001/art00003;jsessionid=4ds0mps5nla02.alice), in
Linguistics Applied, problems are reduced and resolved by the IMPOSITION of partial linguistic
importance on the reality of language experience. This, he argues, needs to be distinguished
from Applied Linguistics, which in turn, is a mediating activity, which seeks to accommodate a
linguistic consideration to other partial perspectives on language so as to arrive at a relevant
reformulation of 'real world' problems.
In simpler words, Linguistic Applied is the mere application of linguistic models, whereas Applied
Linguistics studies the whole picture including in the analysis a big ammount of other disciplines
models and theories (psychology, neuroscience, medicine, law, sociology, etc), as well as
linguistic assertions.
14- NAME 6 APPLICATIONS OF APPLIED LINGUISTICS
1. Language teaching and learning 2. Language testing
3. Psycho- and neurolinguistics 4. Sociolinguistics
5. Discourse Analysis 6. Computational linguistics
7. Translation studies
Applied Linguistics I, Questionnaire 4 Lic. Jordán Masías O.