Foundations of Modern

Linguistics
Nature of Linguistic Enquiry

Linguistics is the scientific study of human

language. It tries to formulate hypotheses
about language, i.e. general statements which:

a. are consistent with observed data;

b. make correct predictions about

unobserved data
Nature of Linguistic Enquiry

Linguists often refer to this

enterprise as “capturing linguistic
generalizations.”

Thus linguistics is descriptive, not

prescriptive.
Structuralism

- In sociology, anthropology and linguistics,

structuralism is the theory that elements of
human culture must be understood in terms
of their relationship to a larger, overarching
system or structure.

- It works to uncover the structures that

underlie all the things that humans do, think,
perceive, and feel.
Structuralism

Early 20th century. Ferdinand de

Saussure,  (born Nov. 26,
1857, Geneva, Switz.—died Feb. 22,
1913, Vufflens-le-Château), Swiss
linguist whose ideas on structure in
language laid the foundation for much of
the approach to and progress of the
linguistic sciences in the 20th century.
Structuralism

- Saussure’s major contribution is Cours

de linguistique générale (1916; Course
in General Linguistics), a reconstruction
of his lectures on the basis of notes by
students carefully prepared by his
junior colleagues.

- The publication of his work is

considered the starting point of 20th-
century structural linguistics.
Structuralism
- Saussure contended that language must be
considered as a social phenomenon, a
structured system that can be viewed
synchronically (as it exists at any particular
time) and diachronically (as it changes in the
course of time).

- He thus formalized the basic approaches to

language study and asserted that the
principles and methodology of each
approach are distinct and mutually exclusive.
Structuralism

- Saussure also introduced two

terms that have become common
currency in linguistics—“parole,”
or the speech of the individual
person, and “langue,” the system
underlying speech activity.
Structuralism

- Saussure argued for a distinction between

langue (an idealized abstraction of language)
and parole (language as actually used in daily
life).

- He argued that the "sign" was composed of

both a signified, an abstract concept or idea,
also called meaning and a "signifier", the
perceived sound/visual image, known as form.
Structuralism

- Because different languages have different

words to describe the same objects or
concepts, there is no intrinsic reason why a
specific sign is used to express a given
signifier. It is thus "arbitrary".

- Signs thus gain their meaning from their

relationships and contrasts with other signs.
Structuralism

- de Saussure wrote, "in language, there are

only differences without positive terms.”

- As observed by philosopher John Searle,

de Saussure established that 'I understand the
sentence "the cat is on the mat" the way I do
because I know how it would relate to an
indefinite—indeed infinite—set of other
sentences, "the dog is on the mat," "the cat is
on the couch," etc.'
Structural linguistics involves collecting a corpus of
utterances and then attempting to classify all of the
elements of the corpus at their different linguistic levels:

- phonemes

- morphemes

- lexical categories

- noun phrases

- verb phrases

- and sentence types.

Structuralism

One of Saussure's key methods was

syntagmatic and paradigmatic
analysis that respectively define units
syntactically and lexically, according
to their contrast with the other units
in the system.
 Parole and Langue

Parole - “living language” or

individual speech acts.

Langue - the shared system of

language in a society.
 Synchronic and Diachronic

Synchronic: to describe the pieces

on the board at any given moment
(Static linguistics).

Diachronic: to describe how they

have reached these positions
(Evolutionary linguistics).
 Language as a system of signs

Language is a process of naming, but

this does not mean that “ready
made ideas exist before words”
(Saussure), but rather:

“The linguistic sign unites, not a

thing and a name, but a concept and
a sound-image”
The Nature of the Linguistic “Sign”

Signifier (the mental

impression of the
sound image “tree”)

+ Signified (the
concept “tree”)

= Sign
 Words are arbitrary

The relationship between signifier

and signified is purely arbitrary.

There is nothing that logically links

a particular sound image to a
concept.
 Arbitrariness cont.

Saussure acknowledges two possible

objections to the principle that all signs
are purely arbitrary: onomatopoeia and
interjections.

However, he claims that these also only

have meanings that have been agreed
upon within the community.
 Linguistic Value

Value is determined by relations between

signs within the system of signification, not
by the relationship between signified and
signifier:

“Language is a system of interdependent

terms in which the value of each term results
solely from the simultaneous presence of the
others” (Saussure).
 Difference

Linguistic value depends on Difference:

“Each linguistic term derives its value
from its opposition to all the other
terms” (Saussure).

This aspect of language leads to binary

opposites and the linearity of language.
 Saussure and Structuralism
The application of the linguistic theory of
structuralism to literature is informed primarily by
three elements defined by Saussure:

Language as synchronic rather than diachronic

The arbitrariness of the linguistic sign

Linguistic value depends of DIFFERENCE

Linguistic Competence

- Linguists seek to understand the nature of

human linguistic competence, the system of
knowledge possessed by a member of a
speech community that enables him/her to use
the language of that community for
communication.

- One usage of the term grammar refers to this

system, which is also called mental grammar.
Linguistic Competence

- Another usage of the term grammar refers

to a linguist’s attempt to write down (or
embody in a computer prog ra m) a precise
description of this system (or part of it).

- A grammar in this sense, also called a

linguist’s grammar, is a scientific theory of
what a particular system of linguistic
competence is like.
Language Universals

- Linguists are concerned with:

(a) providing as complete descriptions as
possible of particular languages, and

(b) determine what is universal (shared by

all languages).

- Ideally, they would like to have a general

theory that predicts the range of what is
possible in human language.
Language Universals

- Competence has to be distinguished

from performance, which consists of
actual utterances of linguistic
expressions, with mistakes, false
starts, interruptions, hesitation, etc
Language Acquisition Device (LAD)

- Avram Noam Chomsky is an American

linguist, philosopher, cognitive scientist,
logician, political commentator and
activist.

- Sometimes described as the "father of

modern linguistics", Chomsky is also a
major figure in analytic philosophy.
Language Acquisition Device (LAD)

- Chomsky believes that children are

born with an inherited ability to learn
any human language.

- He claims that certain linguistic

structures which children use so
accurately must be already imprinted
on the child’s mind.
Language Acquisition Device (LAD)

- Chomsky believes that every child has a

‘language acquisition device’ or LAD which
encodes the major principles of a language
and its grammatical structures into the
child’s brain.

- Children have then only to learn new

vocabulary and apply the syntactic structures
from the LAD to form sentences.
LAD

- Chomsky points out that a child could not

possibly learn a language through imitation
alone because the language spoken around
them is highly irregular – adult’s speech is often
broken up and even sometimes ungrammatical.

- Chomsky’s theory applies to all languages as

they all contain nouns, verbs, consonants and
vowels and children appear to be ‘hard-wired’
to acquire the grammar.
LAD

- Every language is extremely complex,

often with subtle distinctions which
even native speakers are unaware of.

- However, all children, regardless of

their intellectual ability, become fluent
in their native language within five or
six years.
Functionalism

- Functionalism, 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).
Functionalism

- 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.
Functionalism

- As characterized by Allen, (2007) “linguistic

structures can only be understood and
explained with reference to the semantic and
communicative functions of language, whose
primary function is to be a vehicle for social
interaction among human beings.”

- The main goal of functionalist approaches is

to clarify the dynamic relationship between
form and function.
Functionalism

- Two major streams have developed in the

current of functional linguistics:

- Cognitive linguistics, which seeks to relate

language to other aspects of the human mind.

- Discourse-functional linguistics, which

observes language in close relation to its
communicative context and interpersonal
functions.
Functionalism

- Cognitive linguistics and Discourse-

functional linguistics seek explanation of
linguistic forms and patterns through factors
outside of language.

- Both thought and communication must be

accounted for and integrated.

- In practice there is a tension between the

two approaches.
Systemic Functional Linguistics (SFL)

- SFL sees language as a social semiotic.

- Language is not well understood as a free

standing formal system.

- Language re-presents the data of sense

experience as symbols (construal: ideational
work); enacts social relationships (enacting:
interpersonal work); and weaves ideational
meanings and interpersonal meanings into
coherent messages.
SFL

- A systematic exploration of grammar has

largely disappeared from our English teaching
curriculum, in large part because prevailing
understanding reinforced the belief that
grammar is innate, largely formal, and
unrelated to higher level concerns.

- Functional approaches to language, in

contrast, see grammar as deeply tied to those
concerns.
SFL

- Usage based theories of language

acquisition emphasize that
acquisition of language is directly tied
to social and cognitive maturation.

Functional approaches can heal the

split between grammar and
discourse, grammar and teaching.
- Cognitivists think of social
interaction as grounded in the
knowledge of individuals.

- Discourse-functional linguists think

of cognitive patterns as emergent
from social interaction, which is
taken to be more fundamental.
Sense and Reference

- Frege sets out to ascertain if there is "a

relation between objects, or between
names or signs of objects."

- Frege explains that there is a problem in

the fact that, if there are two words used
for an object, then a=b will mean the same
thing as a=a, even though one is an
analytic statement and one is a synthetic
statement.
Sense and Reference

- A word's reference is the specific object to

which it refers, so that the reference for "desk"
would be a desk.

- A word's sense is the way that a word refers to

a particular object.

- Frege also demarcates the criteria of "sign" or

"name" to designate a proper name that refers
to a specific member of a class or group of
objects.
Sense and Reference

- According to Frege, "the reference and

sense of a sign are to be distinguished
from the associated idea."

- In other words, we all may have

slightly different ideas of a sense-
feelings, thoughts, moods, etc. that go
along with our memory of the image
or object we have in mind.
Sense and Reference

- Frege uses the example of viewing the moon

in a telescope.

- Even though the viewers would be looking at

precisely the same object, what they actually
saw would differ slightly depending upon the
quality of the viewer's vision, the exact
moment that she looked into the telescope,
and other minute variables that can all add up
to a qualitatively different experience.
Sense and Reference
- Frege points out that some readers may
have an objection to this argument because
we cannot be sure that the object referred
to as the moon has any actual reference.

- He explains that when we refer to the

moon, it is not our intention to refer to our
idea of or feelings associated with the
moon. Instead, we "presuppose a
reference."
Language and Culture

Franz Boas,  (1858- 1942), German-born

American anthropologist , the founder of the
relativistic, culture-centred school of American
anthropology that became dominant in the 20th
century. Boas was a specialist in North American
Indian cultures and languages, but he was, in
addition, the organizer of a profession and the
great teacher of a number of scientists who
developed anthropology in the United States,
including A.L. Kroeber, Ruth Benedict, Margaret
Mead, Melville Herskovits, and Edward Sapir.
Linguistic Relativity: Sapir–Whorf hypothesis

- A hypothesis holding that the structure of a

language affects the perceptions of reality of
its speakers and thus influences their thought
patterns and worldviews.
Linguistic Relativity: Sapir–Whorf hypothesis

The linguistic relativity principle, or the

Sapir–Whorf hypothesis, is the idea that
differences in the way languages encode
cultural and cognitive categories affect the
way people think, so that speakers of
different languages will tend to think and
behave differently depending on the
language they use.
Sapir-Whorf Hypothesis

The hypothesis is generally understood as having

two different versions:

(i) the strong version that language determines

thought and that linguistic categories limit
and determine cognitive categories

(ii) the weak version that linguistic categories and

usage influence thought and certain kinds of
non-linguistic behavior.
- Currently a balanced view of linguistic
relativity is espoused by most linguists
holding that language influences certain
kinds of cognitive processes in non-trivial
ways but that other processes are better
seen as subject to universal factors.

- Current research is focused on exploring

the ways in which language influences
thought.