MODULE 6: o Structure

THE DISCIPLINE OF LINGUISTICS  Morphology – studies

language structure from its
Language
morphic units or root words.
 Robert A. Hall  Syntax – studies sentence
o “The institution whereby humans structure such as grammar.
communicate and interact with o Meaning
each other by means of habitually  Semantics – studies the logic
used oral-auditory symbols.” and meanings of words and
 4 main ideas: phrases.
o Language is strictly a human  Pragmatics - studies the use of
capacity which allows us to relate language and its effects to
complex ideas. society.
o Used with little cognitive effort. THE DEVELOPMENT OF LINGUISTICS
o Involves one’s mouth and ears and
is communicated through speech  In the 19th century, linguistics was
and functions with the use of known as philology or the study of the
linguistics signs or words that have history of words.
no direct link to the world.  Philologist studied how and why words
o Multitude of languages – there is transformed over time, and examined
no one way or sound that which social phenomena drove
communicated ideas and objects. language to change.

Linguistics IMPORTANT PERSONALITIES IN HISTORY

 Interdisciplinary in nature, intersecting  Panini of India

with humanities and social science. o First individual to have practiced
 Came from the Greek word: the study of language.
o Lingua o Systematically categorized Sanskrit
 “language” sounds into consonants, vowels,
 People, who study language during the nouns, and verbs.
late 1500s, were called the linguists.  Sibawayh (Middle East)
 Deals with three principles components: o Documented the Arabic language
sound, structure, and meaning. by distinguishing the differences in
o Sound sounds and phonemes.
 Phonetics – studies human  Plato (Western World)
speech sound. o Early scholar of language.
 Phonology – studies the o Cratylus – explored the meaning of
principles of governing sound words by looking into their history.
systems of languages.  Middle Ages
o Linguistic focused on analyzing
religious texts that allowed for a
 deeper understanding and  The Prague School
interpretation of religious dogma. o A.k.a.Prague Linguistic Circle
 Ferdinand de Saussure composed by the Czechs and
o “Father of Structural and Modern linguists who published Travaux de
Linguistic” cercle linguistique de Prague.
o Structural linguistics o Main focus and interest was
 Studies language as system of phonological theory and syntax.
contrast and equivalents. o Notions of:
 Language is structural  Theme (what the discourse is
therefore freeing it form any about)
social, political, cultural, or  Rheme (what is said about the
historical association. discourse)
 Language is defined as “a static  Given (on what the addressee
system of interconnected knows about the discourse)
units”  New (on what information was
o Developed structural linguistic from provide to the addressee)
his exploration of the concept of o Notable members of Prague School:
sign:  Nikolai Trubetzkoy
 Signifier - the sound or  Vilem Mathesius
written letter of an idea  Frantisek Danes
 Signified - the idea  Jan Firbas
addressed by the signifier o Roman Jakobson
 Referent - the actual object  Theorized the functions of
in the real world addressed language ad its corresponding
by the sign model.
o Convention of language – the  For a successful
adherence of a speech community communication these are the
to a specific connection between a factors needed:
signifier and a signified.  Addresser
o Langue – the system governing a  Addressee
particular convention of language  Context
by syntax and phonology.  Contact
o Parole – actual use of the language  Code
by an individual.  Message
o For Saussure, language can be  The London School
understood by: o More of a tradition of linguistic
 Synchrony – looking into a studies rather than a group.
particular time period. o Harry Sweet
 Diachrony – or historical  Established an applied
linguistics, the evolution of a linguistics tradition through his
language over time.
 works which focused on  Noam Chomsky
phonetics and language. o Generative grammar – linguistic
o Daniel Jones theory which states that human
 Stressed that perceiving, beings are capable of forming and
transcribing, and reproducing distinguishing well-formed
minute distinction of speech sentences and rejecting ill-formed
sounds must be emphasized in sentences.
studying language. o According to Chomsky, human
o Harry Sweet & Daniel Jones beings have the ability to
 Tradition established by them understand their language by:
resulted in a more meticulous  Imitation
attention to phonetic details  Repetition
and led “ear training: to  Abstraction
become a major field of study o Universal grammar – the theory
in Britain. that all languages have an
o John Rupert Firth (J.R. Firth) underlying universal structure
 Turned linguistics as a within them that lends them to
recognized academic discipline being cognitively grasped.
in Britain.  The brain – capable of
 Viewed linguistic as an acquiring language.
‘analysis of the meaning of the  Language – structured to be
word’ acquired.
 Rejected the distinction o Generative linguistics – seeks to
between langue and parole, explain:
since language is not to be  How and why language is
studied as a grammatical and produced and understood.
mental system but as a mode  How and why language is
of action to be viewed as acquired and developed.
speech events.  Why and what processes does
 Sapir and Whorf language change and vary.
o Edward Sapir & Benjamin Lee
THE FIELDS OF LINGUISTIC
Whorf
o Developed the principle of  Historical Linguistics
o A.k.a. diachronic linguistics
linguistic relativity or the Sapir-
Whorf hypothesis. o Studies how a particular language
o Linguistic determinism – the idea changed over time.
that language influences the way o Distinct from synchronic linguistics,
people think and shapes the way which studies a language at a given
people perceive the world. time without addressing its
 Language is deeply rooted in previous stages of development.
culture.  Sociolinguistics
 o Examines how language is used in o Social dialect – language in a small
relation to a people’s sociocultural area can be spoken by different
environment. social groups within a community.
o Takes into consideration the:  Discourse – is any connected piece of
1. The social background of the speech or writing, which serves as the
addresser and the addressee. chain that holds communication
2. The relationship of the together.
addresser and the addressee.  Etymology – the study of the history or
3. The context and manner origin of a particular word.
through which the  Functionalism – an approach to
communication transpired. language structure that primarily
 Developmental linguistics focuses on the purpose in which
o Analyzes the development of language is used.
language acquisition, language  Grammar – refers to the rules of
retention, and language loss and constructing words and sentences
bilingualism. within a particular language.
o Heavily supports the synchronic  Grapheme – a single character in a
approach. recognized writing system such as
 Neurolinguistics letters and punctuation marks.
o Studies the physiological  Lexicon – the total words available to a
mechanisms by which the brain speaker or the vocabulary of language.
processes information in relation to RESEARCH METHODS IN LINGUISTICS
language.  Corpus Linguistics
 Content Analysis
KEY CONCEPTS IN LINGUISTICS
 Cohesion – refers to linguistic links such CURRENT APPLICATIONS OF LINGUISTICS
as pronouns and adjectives which  Computational Linguistics – is the study
provide a recognizable structure. of how language can be
 Coherence – the logic within discourse computationally modeled.
that takes into account our knowledge  Lexicography – is a practice of
of the world. collecting words and their meaning in a
 Critical discourse analysis – is the study systematic manner resembling the
of a text within its social context. structure of a dictionary.
 Dialect – is an identifiable regional or
social variety of language.
o Regional dialect – language
communicated over an area can be
spoken differently in some form or
another in different places.