History of linguistics
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- Tagmemic, stratificational, and other approaches
- 22. Semiotics. Semantic triangle. Ideational (conceptual) approach (John Locke, Charles Peirce) and functional approach to language meaning.
- 23. Sign systems. Types of signs: indices, icons, symbols. General principles of relationship between forms and meaning.
- 24. The cognitive basis of language. Word, concept and meaning. Linguistic and conceptual categories.
Transformational grammar The most significant development in linguistic theory and research in recent years was the rise of generative grammar, and, more especially, of transformational-generative grammar, or transformational grammar, as it came to be known. Two versions of transformational grammar were put forward in the mid-1950s, the first by Zellig S. Harris and the second by Noam Chomsky, his pupil. It is Chomsky's system that has attracted the most attention so far. As first presented by Chomsky in Syntactic Structures (1957), transformational grammar can be seen partly as a reaction against post-Bloomfieldian structuralism and partly as a continuation of it. What Chomsky reacted against most strongly was the post-Bloomfieldian concern with discovery procedures. In his opinion, linguistics should set itself the more modest and more realistic goal of formulating criteria for evaluating alternative descriptions of a language without regard to the question of how these descriptions had been arrived at. The statements made by linguists in describing a language should, however, be cast within the framework of a far more precise theory of grammar than had hitherto been the case, and this theory should be formalized in terms of modern mathematical notions. Within a few years, Chomsky had broken with the post-Bloomfieldians on a number of other points also. He had adopted what he called a “mentalistic” theory of language, by which term he implied that the linguist should be concerned with the speaker's creative linguistic competence and not his performance, the actual utterances produced. He had challenged the post-Bloomfieldian concept of the phoneme (see below), which many scholars regarded as the most solid and enduring result of the previous generation's work. And he had challenged the structuralists' insistence upon the uniqueness of every language, claiming instead that all languages were, to a considerable degree, cut to the same pattern—they shared a certain number of formal and substantive universals. Tagmemic, stratificational, and other approaches The effect of Chomsky's ideas has been phenomenal. It is hardly an exaggeration to say that there is no major theoretical issue in linguistics today that is debated in terms other than those in which he has chosen to define it, and every school of linguistics tends to define its position in relation to his. Among the rival schools are tagmemics, stratificational grammar, and the Prague school. Tagmemics is the system of linguistic analysis developed by the U.S. linguist Kenneth L. Pike and his associates in connection with their work as Bible translators. Its foundations were laid during the 1950s, when Pike differed from the post-Bloomfieldian structuralists on a number of principles, and it has been further elaborated since then. Tagmemic analysis has been used for analyzing a great many previously unrecorded languages, especially in Central and South America and in West Africa. Stratificational grammar, developed by a U.S. linguist, Sydney M. Lamb, has been seen by some linguists as an alternative to transformational grammar. Not yet fully expounded or widely exemplified in the analysis of different languages, stratificational grammar is perhaps best characterized as a radical modification of post-Bloomfieldian linguistics, but it has many features that link it with European structuralism. The Prague school has been mentioned above for its importance in the period immediately following the publication of Saussure's Cours. Many of its characteristic ideas (in particular, the notion of distinctive features in phonology) have been taken up by other schools. But there has been further development in Prague of the functional approach to syntax (see below). The work of M.A.K. Halliday in England derived much of its original inspiration from Firth (above), but Halliday provided a more systematic and comprehensive theory of the structure of language than Firth had, and it has been quite extensively illustrated. P. S. аффтор выпей йаду 22. Semiotics. Semantic triangle. Ideational (conceptual) approach (John Locke, Charles Peirce) and functional approach to language meaning. Language is usually regarded to be the system of communication, like all other systems language makes use of signs. The systematic study of signs is usually included in semiotics, which analyses verbal and non-verbal systems of hhuman communication as well as animal communication. When we speak about Saussure, we usually remember that he spoke about the connection between 3 different sides of a linguistic sign. According to him one of the sides which is connected with the phonological form was called a sign; the other side of this triangle was called a signifie (a concept), which exists in the speaker’s or listener’s mind. Between sign and concept, the relation btween them is shown by a solid line and it usually concerns linguistics. But nowadays the sign is not a unity of the phonological form and a grammatical form. It is a unity between the outer side of the unit and the inner side of unit represented by the grammatical and phonological forms related to a concept. The third side of the triangle according to Sassure is the referent. Originally this triangler skeamer was suggested by a German mathematician Gottieb Frede. Afterwords the American linguist Ogden and Richards adopted the 3 sided schemer with modofications. According to their idea a sign is a two-faced unit which is characterized by the phonological and graphical form and is known to be a symbol. The referent is usually named by a linguistic unit. 1 2 Δ 3 1- referent, 2 – sign, outer side (symbol), 3 – signifie, innet side (cocept) Nowadays this scheme is known as a semantic triangle, but instead of the concept linguists prefer to speak about the meaning. In general this approach is called the referential approach because the referent is reflected in a name. In American descriptive linguistics a word meaning was understood as an object of linguistic studies which deal with externalized by dictionary definition which is associated with the physical phonetic and spelled form of a word. This kind of abstraction is very useful for many important goals: 1) it can help to describe peculiarities of a particular language (in teaching) as well as contrastive studies. The other approach wich is usually opposed to referential approach is assiciated with the idea expressed and this approach is usually called the ideational theory. It is considered to be the first in the description of the meaning. It was defined by medieval grammarians: meaning originates in the mind in the form of ideas and words are just symbols of them. This idea goes to Aristotle, but it is usually associated with the name of the British philosopher John Locke, who in the 17-th century tried to repeat the words of Aristotle and his famous work was concerned with human understanding and there he wrote: “words in their primarly or immediate signification stand for nothing but the idea existing in the human mind”. He points out that ideas are private and individual, they are connected with a particular person though the largest component of meaning derives from common perception of the world in which we live. These ideas are connected with our abilities to reason, to think, which is a guarantee of sameness of meaning. Locke thinks that individual ideas preexist their linguistic expression. The difficulty with this theory is as follows: it is not clear why commnunication and human understanding of different things are possible if linguistic expressions stand for only individual experience. And the reference to God as a mediator of everything is not helpful enough, but the ideational theory is deeply rooted in modern semantics. The main thing of this theory whether language or thought exist earlier is still debatable nowadays. But Russian and Western linguists think that thought usually appears before language. This viewpoint studies meaning as a mental experience represented by linguistic expressions is very influential. Many linguists especially those who are interested in psychology and human cognitive abilities point out that meaning is mainly a psychological phenomena. It exists in our minds with specific structure. This view point is represented by Anna Wierzbicka and Ray Jackendoff. The difference between the word meaning and the concept is concerned with the problem that not all the concepts are named with the help of language units. That’s why not all the concepts may be called lexicalized. Understanding the meaning as a concept seem quiet promising because only the direct association of the word with the ever changing and active concept gives the word a dynamic, a creative and a generative character. It provides variation and the use in different contexts. Some important questions remain unanswered within this linguistic framework. If the meaning is the concept, why do people of different nations speak different languages and why do they have different conceptual systems in their minds? If people speaking different languages have the same conceptual systems how does it happen that identical concepts are represented by different words having different lexical meanings? Ex: палец = a finger If the meaning is different from the concept it must be related through the referent to the referent in the real world. In this case the ideational theory presupposes to decide the following questions:
These problems are becoming problems of hot debate and besides words be characterized by different meaning, different kinds of knowledge and different parts of the conceptual system. Ex: to go, to take, to want – these verbs do not include any encyclopedic knowledge, but if we turn to scientific terms: atom, coloury, conformation – these terms are based on encyclopedic knowledge. Besides some verbs are connected with the human being (to travel), but some others are becoming more abstract and in this case we pay more attention to the context than to the definition of a word in the dictionary. Nowadays the ideational approach is assosiated with the cognitive perspective in linguistics. This theory holds that language is a part of the cognitive system of a human being which may also include some other cognitive systems (perceptions, emotions, abstraction processes, reasoning). All these abilities interact with the language and are influenced by language. Thus the study of a language is devoted to the study of the way we express and exchange ideas and thoughts.
Ex: a traffic sign: children crossing the road
Indexical signs are the most primitive. They are restricted to the situations of here and now. If we try to depict the relationship between the form and meaning of this sign it may be represented by a restangular which links the form with the meaning. These are the relations of contiguity. The icon is a more complex sign which is based on similarity between the form and the meaning. It reflects the more general principle of using the image for the real thing. In the case of symbols people use these signs for the help of communicative needs to point to different things and replicating things but in many cases these signs are more abstract in nature, because they may represent not only concrete objects but also different events, phenomena of reality, objects which are from us, hopes etc. Humans usually rceate symbols for the purpose of communication, the link between form and meaning is based on connection that allows the human beings to go beyond the limitations of contiguity and similarity. Ex: a rose stands for love an owl stands for wisdom the name for the thing stands for the referent The semiotic framework concentrated on the link between the form and the meaning of linguistic sign.This link is realized in language units and especially in words, but language exists not in the dictionaries, but in the minds of speakers of the language. That’s why it is necessary to look at our conceptual world and to speak about how the world shapes the science. 24. The cognitive basis of language. Word, concept and meaning. Linguistic and conceptual categories. 24. The cognitive basis of language. Word, concept, meaning. Linguistic & conceptual categories. > > In American descriptive linguistics a word meaning was understood as an object of linguistic studies which deal with externalized by dictionary definition which is associated with the physical phonetic and spelled form of a word. This kind of abstraction is very useful for many important goals: > 1) it can help to describe peculiarities of a particular language (in teaching) as well as contrastive studies. > The other approach which is usually opposed to referential approach is associated with the idea expressed and this approach is usually called the ideational theory. It is considered to be the first in the description of the meaning. It was defined by medieval grammarians: meaning originates in the mind in the form of ideas and words are just symbols of them. This idea goes to Aristotle, but it is usually associated with the name of the British philosopher John Locke, who in the 17-th century tried to repeat the words of Aristotle and his famous work was concerned with human understanding and there he wrote: words in their primarly or immediate signification stand for nothing but the idea existing in the human mind". He points out that ideas are private and individual, they are connected with a particular person though the largest component of meaning derives from common perception of the world in which we live. These ideas are connected with our abilities to reason, to think, which is a guarantee of sameness of meaning. > Locke thinks that individual ideas preexist their linguistic expression. The difficulty with this theory is as follows: it is not clear why communication and human understanding of different things are possible if linguistic expressions stand for only individual experience. And the reference to God as a mediator of everything is not helpful enough, but the ideational theory is deeply rooted in modern semantics. The main thing of this theory whether language or thought exist earlier is still debatable nowadays. But Russian and Western linguists think that thought usually appears before language. This viewpoint studies meaning as a mental experience represented by linguistic expressions is very influential. > Many linguists especially those who are interested in psychology and human cognitive abilities point out that meaning is mainly a psychological phenomena. It exists in our minds with specific structure. This view point is represented by Anna Wierzbicka and Ray Jackendoff. The difference between the word meaning and the concept is concerned with the problem that not all the concepts are named with the help of language units. That's why not all the concepts may be called lexicalized. Understanding the meaning as a concept seem quiet promising because only the direct association of the word with the ever changing and active concept gives the word a dynamic, a creative and a generative character. It provides variation and the use in different contexts. Some important questions remain unanswered within this linguistic framework. If the meaning is the concept, why do people of different nations speak different languages and why do they have different conceptual systems in their minds? If people speaking different languages have the same conceptual systems how does it happen that identical concepts are represented by different words having different lexical meanings? > Ex: палец = a finger > If the meaning is different from the concept it must be related through the referent to the referent in the real world. In this case the ideational theory presupposes to decide the following questions: > 1) the relations between the lexical meaning (knowledge) and encyclopidic knowledge > 2) the semantic and the conceptual levels of information > 3) the difference between different conceptual systems > These problems are becoming problems of hot debate and besides words be characterized by different meaning, different kinds of knowledge and different parts of the conceptual system. > Ex: to go, to take, to want - these verbs do not include any encyclopedic knowledge, but if we turn to scientific terms: atom, coloury, conformation - these terms are based on encyclopedic knowledge. Besides some verbs are connected with the human being (to travel), but some others are becoming more abstract and in this case we pay more attention to the context than to the definition of a word in the dictionary. > Nowadays the ideational approach is assosiated with the cognitive perspective in linguistics. This theory holds that language is a part of the cognitive system of a human being which may also include some other cognitive systems (perceptions, emotions, abstraction processes, reasoning). All these abilities interact with the language and are influenced by language. Thus the study of a language is devoted to the study of the way we express and exchange ideas and thoughts. > > > Linguistic & conceptual categories. > The semiotics concentrates on the link between the form & the meaning of linguistic signs. (triangle: form, referent, meaning) > This link is realized on the language units & words. But language exists not in the dictionaries, but in the minds of the speakers, so its necessary to speak about how the word shapes the signs. Language covers not all the concepts existing in the minds but only some part of them=> the notion of concept is usually understood as a person's idea of what smth in the word is like. More specially concepts can relate to single entities such as the concept of my mother & the concept of a vegetable. > Concepts may be simple or complicated (characterized by a certain structure). E.g. vegetable (carrots, cabbage, beetroot) but it doesn't include oranges, apples, bananas. > Slice reality into certain pieces, represented by relevant units, included into a category=> thus conceptual categories are represented by concepts as certain sets. > Whenever we perceive an object, we simply try to characterize it. > The subdivision of conceptual categories was introduced in 1934 by the German linguist TRIER who opposed conceptual fields to semantic fields, represented in the language, but the phenomenon of a conceptual field is a phychological entity, representing human thinking & his interpretation of some piece of reality=> the word is not shaped by our categorizing activity. It usually represents our human experience. Conceptual categories are not equal to linguistic categories. > Besides the process of categorization we are to pay attention to a human- being who characterizes everything=>he is a human conceptualist. > > The outer world > | > Human conceptualist > | > The experienced world > > The outer world is perceived & described as human attitude towards the reality, as a kind of knowledge of the verbal & non-verbal activity of a human- being. => the experienced world is different from the outer world. > Signs represent conceptual categories based on a human conceptualiser & his model of the world but in the minds of different people. > The conceptual world may be also different: e.g. a half-filled glass of water (half-full or half empty- it depends on a person) > If we take one & the same object in different languages, this object is represented by different names. In each lang. the word represents the way people construal or shape the surrounding world. Human- being is represented also in the grammatical categories. > e.g. Look at he rain| it's raining today | and the rain, it raineth every day| => 1 & the same lexical category rain", which ay be illustrated be 2 grammatical classes ( noun & verb). Each lexical category is at the same time the grammatical category which depends on the specific context, which structures the lexical material & the lexical category rain" as a noun & as a verb. > Each grammatical class in the lang. may be made by means of word classes, number, tense, aspect+In all the lang. there may be about 10 parts of speech. The dominant are nouns, adj. & verbs. Besides that, adverbs, prepositions, particals, conjunctions, numerals. The basic ones are nouns, adj. & verbs. They are called prototypical parts of speech. They denote time-stable phenomena & unstable phenomena as adj. & verbs. But even a category of a noun may be described from the point of view of the concrete phenomena. E.g. (man, child), ( animal, tree), (table, chair), ( hatred, affection, love).In the category of a verb we also find out different categories, pointing at actions, processes, mental perceptions=> gr. Categories frame the lang. & describe it as certain entities, existing in the mind of the human- conceptualizer. Lexical categories are different from gr. categories. They cover a wide range of different instances( the category of chair: kitchen chair, armchair, rocking chair, a simple chair, wheel chair). A prototypical member of chair-is a simple chair. A prototype is the most prominent member or category, which is usually represented by a simple word. > 1. This word is usually included into 1000 first basic terms of the language. > 2. This is the psychologically prominent member, representing the culture of a certain nation. > 3. These words are easily remembered & most often used in the every-day speech communication. > 4. They create many derivatives & compound words. > The classification of notions in the lexical category is based on the logical principle. > All those words represent the periphery of the category. This phenomenon is called hyponymy. > Cognitive linguistics studies the structure & dynamics of lang. units from a cognitive & functional prospective. This prospective pays great attention to language meanings which are conceptualized, represented dynamically in the system of the text & discourse. > Cognitive linguistics describes the following processes, which are of vital interest. > Problem 1. There are problems of categorizations & conceptualization processes including prototypicality, metaphor, metonymy& other cognitive models. In this sphere of ling. We are to point works by Rosch, Lakoff. > Problem 2. Relations between lang. & thought, human knowledge & the experienced world, compared to the outer world. > Problem 3. The link between semantics & syntax. Linguists pay much attention to the cases of development of grammatical & lexical categories. Directory: study study -> And lasts until November 30 study -> Know the answers to the following statements for the completion portion of the test study -> Questions for the PowerPoint Europe and the Age of Imperialism study -> Politics in the 1920’s Conservatism, Dominance of the Republican Party Conservatism study -> Unit Test – Georgia after wwii and during the Civil Rights Movement study -> Study Activity 1 study -> Name Study Guide study -> Suhakam’s input for the office of the high commissioner for human rights (ohchr)’s study on children’s right to health – human rights council resolution 19/37 Download 201.88 Kb. Share with your friends:
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