Lesson 2 Principles of Modern Linguistics

Principles of Modern
Linguistics
1.1 Features Common to all Languages
There are a lot of questions that can be asked about language, some scientific,
some not. One such question is: Which is the oldest language in the world? Several
centuries ago, researchers were much concerned with this question, however, it does
not have a reliable answer, simply because we cannot go so far into the history of
humanity.
Another often asked question is about the features that all natural human languages
share. The American linguist Charles Hockett has pointed out a number of such
properties. Here are some of them:
a) all languages have vowels and consonants;

b) all languages have words;
c) all languages can create new words when required and modify their
meanings;
d) all languages are open-ended in the sense that they can produce totally new
utterances which are understood by the users of the language;
e) all languages can form questions;
f) in all languages it is possible to talk about things and situations that are
removed from the immediate situation of the speaker (this is called
displacement);
g) in all languages we can use hypothetical, unreal, and fictional
utterances.
All natural languages are creative, because they allow innovation in response to
new experiences, situations, and scientific discoveries. Creativity is a very important
feature of all natural human languages. The human creative ability in language use is
not just what we choose to say at a particular moment in a particular situation but also
includes our understanding of a new sentence that we have never heard before.
Natural languages are also often redundant, that is, the same meaning may be
signaled more than once. First of all, redundancy may be external, i.e. indicated through
gestures and facial expressions. If I say: “He is my cousin” and at the same time point at
the only man in the room, I am using external redundancy of gestures. If I say: “I don’t
like the taste of this salad” and at the same time frown, I am indicating my dislike
through both my facial expression and the use of the words “don’t like”.
All languages are systematic. In other words, they consist of patterns, which
recur in various combinations, and rules, which are applied to produce these patterns.
All languages change. Of course, they may change in different ways depending
on social, political and other circumstances.
1.2 Principles of Modern Linguistics
Structuralism
Structuralism is a term used in linguistics referring to a theoretical approach to the
analysis of language that describes linguistic items in terms of structures. The basic
claim of structuralism is that language is a structured system.
Ferdinand de Saussure is known as the father of structuralism. In 1916, his Cours de

linguistique générale (Course in General Linguistics) was published, where the main
ideas of structuralism were formulated. He argued that each element in a language is
defined by how it is related to other elements. He also formulated several principles of
linguistic analysis which have become the tenets of modern linguistics.
1. Linguistics is descriptive, not prescriptive

It means that linguists describe the rules and facts of language exactly as they
find them without making judgements. They do not try to impose norms of
correctness and do not try to change the actual usage of the language of the
native speakers. This contrasts with the previous view of traditional grammar
which was very strongly prescriptive. Modern linguistics states that change is a
natural process. The task of a linguist is to describe the way people speak and
write, not to tell them how they ought to use language.
2. Priority of the spoken language

It is one of the main principles of modern linguistics that spoken language is
more basic than written language. For a long time only written language was
studied, and judgements about language on the whole were based on the results
of these studies. However, spoken language is very different from written texts.
There are great variations both in grammar and vocabulary choices which the
written language does not reflect. Therefore, for a full understanding of language
use, both spoken and written language should be studied.
3. Synchronic and diachronic description of language

Two basic principles can be applied to the study of language: synchronic and
diachronic. Diachronic linguistics is the study of languages from the viewpoint of
their historical development. Synchronic linguistics studies languages at a single
point of time. It may be the present-day situation or any given period in the
history of language development. Both ways of describing languages are
important.
4. All languages are equal
For a linguist, all languages serve as the data for objective study. Though it was
common earlier to call certain languages “primitive” (in relation to the cultural and
economic development of certain societies), it was determined that every existing
natural language is a highly developed system and its structure does not directly
correlate with the stage of social development of that speech community.
Functionalism
Functionalism is represented mostly by the works of the Prague School
(established in 1926; the main representatives: V. Mathesius, R. Jakobson,
N.Trubbetzkoj).
In linguistics, functionalism is best seen as a movement continuing the tradition
of Saussurean structuralism. The main claim of this approach is that language is a
system of functionally related units.
The phonological, grammatical, and semantic structures of a language are

determined by the functions that they have to perform. The main function of language is
the communicative one, i.e. language is used by people to communicate. Language
also has the expressive function – to convey the speaker’s feelings and attitudes. B.
Maliowski introduced the term the phatic function, claiming that language is often used
for maintaining social relations (e.g. greetings, leave-taking, comments about the
weather, etc.).
The Prague School also emphasized the distinction between the phonetic and
the phonological analysis of sounds, introducing the notions of phoneme and
distinctive feature. Of particular importance is also their formulation of the theory of
functional sentence perspective (FSP) – a theory that analyses utterances in terms of
the information they express.
Generativism (Generative Grammar)

The term is used to refer to the theory of language developed by Noam
Chomsky. His language theory revolutionized linguistics in 1957, when his book
Syntactic Structures was published.
Chomsky draws a distinction between linguistic competence and performance. A
speaker’s linguistic competence is that part of his knowledge of the native language
system which enables him to make an infinite number of sentences. Performance is
linguistic behavior which is determined both by the speaker’s linguistic competence and
various non-linguistic factors, such as social conventions, emotional attitudes, etc.
Chomsky claims that human language is innate: a child is born with a biological
predisposition to learn language. This feature is species-specific, that is, it dis-
criminates humans and other living creatures. Chomsky was amazed at how rapidly a
little child acquires language. On the whole, he emphasized the role of language as a
basic means to investigate the human mind.

Lesson 2 Principles of Modern Linguistics

Uploaded by

Copyright:

Available Formats

Lesson 2 Principles of Modern Linguistics

Uploaded by

Document Information

Copyright

Available Formats

Share this document

Share or Embed Document

Sharing Options

Did you find this document useful?

Is this content inappropriate?

Copyright:

Available Formats

Lesson 2 Principles of Modern Linguistics

Uploaded by

Copyright:

Available Formats

Principles of Modern

a) all languages have vowels and consonants;

1.2 Principles of Modern Linguistics

Ferdinand de Saussure is known as the father of structuralism. In 1916, his Cours de

1. Linguistics is descriptive, not prescriptive

2. Priority of the spoken language

3. Synchronic and diachronic description of language

The phonological, grammatical, and semantic structures of a language are

Generativism (Generative Grammar)

You might also like