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American Structuralism

American structuralism emerged from the Institute of Anthropology and was developed by American scholars influenced by European structuralism. They focused on descriptively analyzing the structure of indigenous languages using organized methods like recording, segmenting, and classifying linguistic units. The most influential figures were Franz Boas, Edward Sapir, and Leonard Bloomfield. Bloomfield's work established structural linguistics in the US and emphasized analyzing current spoken languages as systems of stimuli and responses. Post-Bloomfieldian theories like tagmemics, systemic grammar, and stratificational grammar further developed structural analysis while addressing some of its limitations like neglecting meaning and deep structure.

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Rima Tri Suryani
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651 views3 pages

American Structuralism

American structuralism emerged from the Institute of Anthropology and was developed by American scholars influenced by European structuralism. They focused on descriptively analyzing the structure of indigenous languages using organized methods like recording, segmenting, and classifying linguistic units. The most influential figures were Franz Boas, Edward Sapir, and Leonard Bloomfield. Bloomfield's work established structural linguistics in the US and emphasized analyzing current spoken languages as systems of stimuli and responses. Post-Bloomfieldian theories like tagmemics, systemic grammar, and stratificational grammar further developed structural analysis while addressing some of its limitations like neglecting meaning and deep structure.

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Rima Tri Suryani
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AMERICAN STRUCTURALISM -

EMERGED FROM THE INSTITUTE OF ANTHROPOLOGY


- AMERICANS SCHOLARS WHERE ANTHROPOLOGISTS WHO DEVELOPED THE
EUROPEAN STRUCTURALISM
- THEY WORKED ON AMERINDIAN LANGUAGES
- THEY AVOID PRESCRIPTIVE ATTITUDE AND DEVELOPED DESCRIPTIVE
FRAMEWORK.
- EMPHASIZES *LANGUAGE UNIQUENESS*
- MOST FAMOUS ARE FRANZ BOAS. EDWARD SAPIR. LEONARD BLOOMFIELD.
- FEATURES OF AMERICAN STRUCTURALISM:
1- DESCRIBE CURRENT SPOKEN LANGUAGE
2-FOCUSING ON FORM.NEGLECTING MEANING
3-USING ORGANIZED METHODS TO ALLOW EXTRACTING GRAMMAR BY
USING 4 STEPS:
* RECORDING.
* SEGMENTATION TO) PHONEME. MORPHEME.WORD .GROUP CLAUSE AND
SENTENCES(
*MAKING A LIST FORMS OBTAINED AND DISTRIBUTION AT EACH LEVEL.
*CLASSIFYING FORMS AND UTTERANCE BY GIVING THEM NAMES.
---THIS METHOD ALLOWED AMERICAN STRUCTURALIST TO FOCUS ON THE
STRUCTURE OF THE "TARGET LANGUAGE"

LEONARD BLOOMFIELD (1887–1949)


*FATHER OF MODERN AMERICAN LINGUISTICS
*WROTE HIS FAMOUS BOOK "LANGUAGE" 1933
* LED TO THE DEVELOPMENT OF STRUCTURAL LINGUISTICS IN THE USA -
* INFLUENCED BY BEHAVIOURISTIC PSYCHOLOGY "I.E: REJECT ALL THAT IS NOT
PHYSICAL /NON-OBSERVABLE" -
* CONCEIVED LANGUAGE AS COUPLE OF "STIMULI -RESPONSE " SAID THAT LANGUAGE
SHOULD BE STUDIED LIKE NATURAL SCIENCE
*CONTRIBUTED STRONGLY TO THE DEVELOP OF LANGUAGE ANALYZES.
*BESIDES HIS CONTRIBUTION ON PHONOLOGY AND MORPHOLOGY FIELDS,
BLOOMFIELD NAME IS ALSO RELATED TO (ICA) IMMEDIATE CONSTITUENT ANALYSIS
WICH IS A GRAMMAR ANALYSIS OF SENTENCES BY DIVIDING THEM TO SMALL
COMPONENTS.
* SENTENCES IS MADE OF LAYERS OF GROUPS OR CONSTITUENTS.
* THE CONSTITUENTS ARE A GROUP OF RELATED MOREPHES OR WORDS.
* THE CONSTITUENTS IS PART OF A LARGE UNIT.
*)ICA( DIVIDE SENTENCE INTO TWO IMMEDIATE CONSTITUENTS; THE TWO PARTS ALSO
WILL BE DIVIDED INTO TWO PARTS "IMMEDIATE CONSTITUENTS" TILL THE SMALLEST
INDIVISIBLE UNITS" MORPHEMES "
* MORPHE " ULTIMATE CONSTITUENT"
*)ICA( PARTITION IS BINARY / DIVIDES INTO TWO PARTS.
* WE CAN USE 2 STYLE TO ILLUSTRATE )ICA( : TREE AND BRACKTING
Weaknesses of ICA
*IT'S NOT ALWAYS CLEAR WHERE DIVISION SHOULD BE.
* CONSTITUENTS ARE NOT LABELLED IN )ICA( AND IT DIDN'T INDICATE THEIR ROLE OR FUNCTION (
WE RESORT TO SOME IMPLIED GRAMMATICAL INFORMATION).
*)ICA( DIVISION IS ARBITRARY BINARY BUT SOME SENTENCES MAY HAVE OTHER ANALYSIS
* MORPHE IS THE SMALLEST CONSTITUENT AND )ICA( DOESN'T GO BEYOND IT
* )ICA( IS UNABLE TO SHOW DIFFERENCES BETWEEN SUPERFICIALLY SIMILAR SENTENCES LIKE
BETWEEN (PASSIVE/ ACTIVE-- POSITIVE /NEGATIVE) BECAUSE IT FOCUS ONLY ON THE SURFACE OF
THE SENTENCE
* )ICA (CANNOT MANAGE LEXICAL AND SYNTACTIC AMBIGUITY /OR SENTENCES WITH INTERRUPTED
ELEMENTS /OR COMPLEX SENTENCES.
*)ICA( DOESN'T SHOW HOW TO CREATE NEW SENTENCES.

Post-Bloomfieldianism :
INFLUENCED BY BROOMFIELD’s IDEAS MANY POST-BLOOMFIELDIENS HAD
CONTRIBUTED ON MANY FIELDS ( GRAMMAR. PHONOLOGY. SEMANTICS AND OTHER
ASPECTS OF LINGUISTICS ) THEY EITHER REFUTED OR ADAPTED " BLOOMFIELDIEN
LINGUISTICS"
*****************************************
1STtheory : TAGMEMICS THEORY : KENNETH PIKE (1912-2000)
* WHILE BLOOMFIELD OVER CONCENTRATE ON "CLASSES" AT THE EXPENSE OF
FUNCTION ;TAGMEMICS MAKES FOCUSES ON RELATING : FORMS TO FUNCTION..*
*PIKE DEVELOPED TAGMEME NOTION WHICH COMBINED BETWEEN CLASS (V/
VP/N/NP/ADJ/ADV) AND FUNCTION (SUBJECT /PREDICATE /OBJECT /COMPLEMENT ....) .
*TAGMEME = PLACE + CLASS -- IT LOOKS LIKE A SLOT FULFILLED BY FILLER .
* SENTENCES ANALYZED INTO THE SEQUENCES OF TAGMEMES; EACH OF THESE
SEQUENCES GIVES INFORMATION ABOUT CLASS AND FUNCTION .
* TAGMEMICS THEORY DEALS ALSO WITH WORD STRUCTURE /PHRASES/ CLAUSES.
* IN TAGMEMICS, WE CALL THE DIFFERENT SIZE OF UNITS AND TAGMEMES "LEVELS".
* TAGMEMICS REAFFIRM FUNCTION IN A STRUCTURAL CONTEXT

2nd theory :Systemic Grammar (Neo-Firthian linguistics)


BY M.A.K HOLIDAY DISCIPLE OF J.R.FIRTH .
*HALLIDAY IS CLOSER TO EUROPEAN FUNCTIONALIST
* HALLIDAY STATES THAT LANGUAGE IS THE STUDY OF HOW PEOPLE EXCHANGE MEANINGS
THROUGH THE USE OF LANGUAGE.
* THE THEORY WAS CALLED SCALL AND CATEGORY GRAMM AR
* IN 1970 IT WAS CALLED SYSTEMIC GRAMMAR
* HALLIDAY USED CATEGORies OF STRUCTURE( SYSTEM / UNIT /CLASS) AND THREE
SCALES(RANK/DELICACY/ EXPONANCY "i.e RELATION BETWEEN TWO DIFFERENT LEVELS OF
LINGUISTIC STATEMENT " ) WHICH CONNECTED CATEGORIES BETWEEN THEM AND WITH DATA .
* LANGUAGE HAS THREE LEVELS (1-SUBSTANCE -2-FORM -3-SITUATION )
* UNITS ARE ARRANGED IN RANKS
* MEANING ARE PART OF ANALYSIS AND IT'S EXPRESSED IN THE CONTEXT " context in text "

3rd theory : Stratificational Grammar


* FOUNDED BY S.M. LAMB (B. 1929) AMERICAN LINGUIST IN THE LATE 1950’S.
* LANGUAGE AS A SYSTEM OF RELATED LAYERS (STRATA ‫ ) طبقات‬OR (‫ صفوف‬RANKS) OF A SENTENCE.
SO, LANGUAGE IS A HIERARCHICAL SYSTEM.
* LANGUAGE HAVE FOUR STRATA ‫ طبقات‬: SEMOTACTICS, LEXOTACTICS, MORPHOTACTICS, AND
PHONOTACTICS.
* STRATIFICATIONAL GRAMMAR HAS TO CLARIFY ALL KINDS OF LINGUISTIC PROCESSES, I.E.,
CONCERNING BOTH COMPETENCE AND PERFORMANCE.
* IT SHOWS “COGNITIVE APPROACH‫ " منهج إدراكي معرفي‬SEPARATING IT FROM CLASSICAL POST-
BLOOMFIELDIAN THEORIES AND IT CLOSE IT TO GENERATIVE GRAMMAR, EVEN THOUGH IT IS VERY
DIFFERENT FROM IT BOTH IN (DOCTRINES‫ )المذهب‬AND (METHODOLOGY‫) المنهجية‬

CRITICISM « the 3 theories »


* ALL THE 3 THEORIES DEAL WITH "THE CLASSIFICATION" "IDENTIFYING" AND "NAMING" UNITS OF
LANGUAGE AND DEAL WITH ONLY SIMPLE SENTENCES.
* THEY, WITH (ICA) CONSIDER THE SURFACE OF SENTENCE, NEGLECTING DEEP STRUCTURE.
*SOME OF THEM INCLUDES MEANING IN THE ANALYSIS LANGUAGE IS MEANINGFUL.
* SYSTEMIC GRAMMAR HAVE LARGE VISION OF LANGUAGE BECAUSE IT INCLUDES CONTEXT IN
ANALYSIS

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