Structuralism & Generativism This document provides an overview of structuralism and generativism in linguistics. It discusses European structuralism beginning in the 1920s based on Saussure's work, as well as American structuralism from the 1930s-1960s influenced by behaviorism. Generativism emerged in the late 1950s with Chomsky's work and emphasized the creativity and productivity of language. It separated competence from performance and focused on universal grammar. Generativism marked a departure from structuralism by emphasizing what languages have in common rather than their diversity.

1. Structuralism & Generativism
Lecture on Structuralism and Generativism
Fall92
S. Shokooh
English Language Teaching, MA

2. Structuralism:
1. European Structuralism 1920s
2. North American Structuralism
1930s_1960s
American and European structuralism had the same
objective : describe and classify linguistic units, though they
do not share the same perspective. European structuralists
deal with Saussure's notion of langue, whereas Americans'
perspective is derived from the limitations of their
behaviorist method.

3. European Structuralism
• Date of its birth
From the publication of
Saussure‟s “A Course in General Linguistics”(1916)
5 dichotomies of Saussure‟s theory:
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
Synchronic vs. Diachronic
Prescriptive vs. Descriptive
Langue vs. Parole
Signifier vs. Signified
Syntagmatic vs. Paradigmatic

4. Definition of the first dichotomy
1. Synchronic vs. Diachronic:
Synchronic explanation differs from diachronic, or historical,
explanation in being structural, rather than causal.
It gives a different answer to the question, “Why are things as
they are?” Instead of following the historical development, Synchronic
description demonstrates how all the forms and meanings are
interrelated at a particular point in time in a particular languagesystem. It is important to mention that Saussure was not denying
the validity of historical explanation. He believed that these two
modes are complementary.
A structural description of a language tells us how all the
components fit together.

5. Definition of the second and third
dichotomies
2. Prescriptive vs. Descriptive:
Prescriptive linguistics are a normative approach concerned
with what is <right> and <wrong>. On the other hand,
descriptive linguistics are only concerned with, well,
describing what is (rather than what should be).
3. Langue vs. Parole:
The dichotomy of langue and parole would more accurately
have to be described as a <trichotomy>, because Ferdinand de
Saussure introduced not only these two, but also a third term,
language.

6. Continuance
•
Langue, as used by Saussure, describes the general linguistic
system of a given language. it does not refer to a single
person's knowledge about his or her language, but to the
system as a whole, the shared knowledge in a given
community.
• Parole, on the other hand, describes a given utterance. It is
not possible for linguists to directly examine langue, they can
only study parole and infer from it.
• language is the term Saussure uses to describe the abstract
ability to learn and communicate via language. In Persian we
say <

7. Definition of the forth dichotomy
4. Signifier vs. Signified:
The signifier is the actual combination of sounds (or
letters, i.e. graphemes) that comprise a sign. It is, so to speak,
the word itself. The signifier points towards the signified, i.e.
the conceptual idea behind the word, its <meaning>. At the
same time, the signified automatically makes us think of the
signifier. Only by putting it into words can we talk about it.

8. Definition of the fifth dichotomy
5. Syntagmatic vs. Paradigmatic:
The last of Saussure's key dichotomies is concerned with the way signs
are combined and thus belongs to the linguistic field of semiotics (the study
of signs).
The relationship between signs, according to Saussure, is a
syntagmatic one, i.e. linear and direct. If you take a sentence, we have one
sign following another, the whole sentence having a distinct meaning. For
example; <she can go> is a meaningful sentence, as is <I may
come>.(
The paradigmatic relationship is between similar signs taking up the
same spot in a syntagm. In linguistics, this spot is called slot. The example
sentences have three slots. Paradigmatically related signs can now be used
in the same slot in order to change the meaning of the sentence: <I can
come> or <she may go> have quite a different meaning even
though, syntagmatically, they are the same.(

9. American Structuralism
• Most important figure in American structuralism;
Leonard Bloomfield (1930s_1960s)
•
Behaviorism and Science;
Behaviorism was a school of psychology. According to this
school science can only deal with physical facts. Statements
must be based on these physical characteristics. Thus, science
must observe, describe physical facts and induce descriptive
generalizations.

10. Continuance:
• Language : Stimulus and Response;
Stimulus: Any action that makes an organism to react.
Response: how the organism reacts to an stimulus and
change the behavior.
Human behavior is studied in terms of stimulus and response,
consequently linguistic behavior becomes also a pattern of
stimulus and response, where language plays a mediating role.
For Example:
S → r ……….. s → R
S: the girl feels hungry
r: the girl asks the boy to pick an apple
s: the boy hears the girl‟s request
R: the boy picks an apple and gives it to the girl

11. Generativism
(Transformational-Generative Grammar)
Chomsky’s Generativism
Late 1950s
Generativism is usually presented as having developed out of, and in
reaction to, the previously dominant school of postBloomfieldian American Structuralism.
Dichotomy of Chomsky:
Competence vs. Performance
Chomsky separates competence and performance; he
describes 'competence' as an idealized capacity that is located as a
psychological or mental property or function and „performance‟ as
the production of actual utterances. In short, competence involves
“knowing” the language and performance involves “doing”
something with the language. The difficulty with this construct is
that it is very difficult to assess competence without assessing
performance.

12. Example:
Competence
an idealized
capacity
Vs.
Performance
actual utterance

13. Generativism
Language- systems are productive, in the sense that they
allow for the construction and comprehension of
indefinitely many utterances that have never previously
occurred in the experience of any of their users.
Chomsky drew attention to this fact, in his criticism of the
widely held view that children learn their native language
by reproducing the utterances of adult speakers.
Obviously, if children from a fairly early age, are able to
produce novel utterances which a competent speaker of the
language will recognize as grammatically well-formed,
there must be something other than imitation involved.

14. Generativism
They must have inferred, learned, or acquired the
grammatical rules by which the utterances that they produce
are judged to be well-formed.
Chomsky: language is the knowledge that enables to
understand and produce complex grammatical relations.
Productivity is not to be identified with creativity: but there
is an intrinsic connection between them. Our creativity in the
use of language manifests itself within the limits set by the
productivity of the language-system.
There are significant differences between Chomskyan
Generativism and Bloomfieldian structuralism. One of these is
their attitudes towards linguistic universals,

15. Generativism
Bloomfield and his followers emphasized the structural diversity
of languages. Generativists, in contrast, are more interested in what
languages have in common.
In this respect, generativism represents a return to the older
tradition of universal grammar which both Saussure and Bloomfield
condemned as speculative and unscientific.
Saussure gives the impression that the sentences of a language
are instances of parole; both he and his followers talk of a langue as
a system of relations and say little or nothing about the rules that are
required to generate sentences.
Chomsky, on the other hand, has insisted from the outset that the
capacity to produce and understand syntactically well-formed

16. Generativism
sentences is a central part of a speaker‟s linguistic
competence. In this respect, Chomskyan generativism
undoubtedly constitutes an advance upon Saussurean
structuralism.

17. Resource:
Resources:
“Language and Linguistics” by John Lyons
eka1.wordpress.com
www.ualberta.ca
www.unm.edu
www.en.wikipedia.org