History of Linguistics
Introduction to Linguistics II
Yanbu University college
First semester-121
Ms.Sahar Deknash
Early Traditions
For a long time, linguists were trying to
record the historical origins and developments
of linguistics through different periods of time.
Linguistics started in societies with a writing
system like most sciences, and early
developments in linguistics were considered
part of philosophy, rhetoric, logic, psychology,
biology, pedagogy, poetry and religion.
It was difficult to separate the history of
linguistics from the study of general history, so
the study of linguistics has contributed a lot to
the study of history in general. Therefore, to
explain the developments in linguistics, we
have to take into account the historical and
cultural changes and developments in general.
The Early Grammar
Traditions:
The Old Babylonian Tradition:
- The first linguistic texts were composed in
Sumerian, the language of the religions and
legal texts. Then, it was replaced by the
Akkadian language.
- Most of the texts were administrative
documents, inventories, receipts and rosters.
Hindu Tradition:
- It was based on the oldest religion text known
as Vedas which was written in Sanskrit.
- It contained a set of rules formed to learn
and understand the archaic language.
The Greek Grammatical Tradition:
- It was developed by schoolmasters and
philosophers as Homer whose works were
considered basic in early Greek education.
- Plato, Aristotle and Stoics made use of earlier
school grammar.
- The Greek tradition kept ancient themes as the
origin of language, parts of speech (grammatical
categories) and the relation between language and
thought.
The Greek Grammatical Tradition:
- In Greek tradition, morphology was dealt with
as a historical matter as part of etymology.
- Syntax was not described directly, but was
treated in rhetoric and logic.
The Roman Tradition:
- The Roman linguists continued the Greek
themes.
- The Roman linguistics became more important in
the Middle Ages.
- The Roman linguists didn't treat syntax (only they
discussed the parts of speech).
- Morphology dominated on an approach that
focuses on the noun declensions and verb
conjugations.
O
The Arab Tradition:
- The Arab linguists followed the Greek
tradition especially Aristotle.
- Arabic grammarians considered Arabic
language as sacred and immutable as
mentioned in the Qur'an.
- Arabic grammarians were concerned with
explaining why Arabic was perfect.
- The major impetus for grammatical study
came from the desire to preserve the integrity
of the holy language of the Qur'an.
- Famous Arabic grammarians:
* Abu Al-Aswad Al-Douali
* Sibawayhi
* Al-Khalil Ibn Ahmad Al-Frahidi
The Hebrew Tradition:
- The linguists of Hebrew language were
concerned with establishing the correct
Hebrew text of the Old Testament.
- They borrowed descriptive methods from
Arabic tradition, and then they developed a
system of analysis for morphology.
European ( Christian) Tradition:
- The early Christian writers returned to the
philosophical themes of Aristotle.
- Classical Latin grammar was adapted to
church education.
European ( Christian) Tradition
- The early Christian linguists were interested
in finding and discussing the origins of
languages.
- The idea that Hebrew is the original language
was a predominant idea.
The Development of
Linguistics
Linguistics developed as a subject in its
own right in the late 18th century when
language in the Western World (Christian) had
been the interest of philosophers and
grammarians. In 1786, an Englishman Sir
William Jones showed that the Old Indian
Language had structured similarities to Greek,
Celtic, Latin, Germanic languages.
The Development of
Linguistics
He insisted that all these languages must
have originated from one common source.
Thus, for the next 100 years, the scholars
were occupied to trace this common source
and consequently, linguistics became the
dominant branch of linguistic enquiry.
The scholars started comparing languages
in terms of phonology, morphology and lexis.
They finally formed an individual lineage that
shows the relationship between these
languages that are grouped under the
hypothetical
origin
(INDO-EUROPEAN
LANGUAGE).
Toward the end of the 19th century, a
group of German linguists began studying the
effect of sound changes with a given language
on other related sounds in the same language.
They discovered that once a change occurs, it
tends to work productively through the
language.
Ferdinand de Saussure
A Swiss linguist who lived in the 19th
century. He had the vision to see a larger role
for linguistics. Despite he became known as
the " father of Modern Linguistics", he never
published a major book in linguistics
Ferdinand de Saussure
After his death, his students collected
together his lecture notes and published them
with the title " Course de Linguistique
generale". The published book was influential
in linguistics.
Saussure was interested in Structural
Linguistics. He likened language to a game of chess
where each piece is defined according to its own
situation on the board and its relationship with the
other pieces. Saussure discussed the theory of
semantic space.
For example: English has two words ( sheep –
mutton) , one for the living animal and the other is
for the cooked object. In French, there is only one
word to refer to both items. This means that the
French word occupies more semantic space than
the English word and consequently it has a larger
meaning. If English didn't have the word sheep,
possibly the word mutton will expand in meaning to
cover the gap.
Saussure was sure that words:
- keep circulating continuously.
- Define themselves against each other.
- Adjust their value.
Saussure's Concept:
Saussure treated words as signs. Signs
have no natural relationship to the things they
represent. The word dog has no intrinsic
connection with the animal it refers to. Any
other word could do the same, so the
relationship is essentially arbitrary.
This idea became known as Saussure's
Principle of Arbitrariness. Later , it became a
basic idea of modern linguistics. It is one of
the properties that distinguishes human
language from animals' communication
systems.
Saussure's Methodology
Saussure's methodology is based upon the
binary model of language. His methodology
involves working with two term oppositions.
Saussure dealt with language as a selfenclosed system. " Words are related to each
other as signs and can be strung together in
various combinations to form sentences."
Saussure's Methodology
Saussure imagined sentences as having two
axes on which items could be stored in these
ways. The axes of substitution which he
termed as paradigmatic and the axis of
combination which he termed syntagmatic.
Paradigmatic VS. syntagmatic
Paradigmatic is a linguistic term that describes the
substitutional relationship which a linguistic unit has
with other units. You can substitute a unit without
affecting the basic syntactic arrangements:
On the other hand, syntagmatic is a linguistic term
that refers to the sequential characteristics of
language. When we construct words and sentences,
we follow a certain order in arranging the individual
items. For example, When we try to form the word
/pit/,we are obliged to utter the particular phonemes
in that order, that means, any other order would either
make a different word or nonsense word.
If we are going to construct a sentence, we follow
certain patterns to make an acceptable one. For
example the sentence the dog ate the cat is different
than the cat ate the dog . There are certain rules that
capture the use of words in each slot in the sentence
and The choice of one word conditions the choice of
the next, and of the next again.
The constituents of the sentence (words) are referred
to as syntagms , and the relationship which they enter
into with the other words on either side is referred to
as syntagmatic relationship.
The other terms that Saussure
dealt with are:
Langue/Parole
Langue: (French, meaning "language") and parole
(meaning "speech") are linguistic terms used by
Ferdinand de Saussure. Langue describes the social,
impersonal phenomenon of language as a system of
signs, while parole describes the individual, personal
phenomenon of language as a series of speech acts
made by a linguistic subject. ( Wikipedia Definition)
In other words, langue is the conceptual knowledge
of language, the abstract system of rules which
compromises it. ( competence)
Parole is the representation of the rules of language
in actual sentences and utterances. ( performance)
Synchronic/Diachronic
Synchronic Study
The study of a language or one aspect of that language at
a particular point of time,
regardless of any historical
considerations which might have influenced that language.
Diachronic Study
The study of one language or one aspect of that
language at different times of its evolution.
Sign- Signifier- Signified
Saussure dealt with the these terms in his
study of language to refer to the combination
of a linguistic form with its meaning or
function. Saussure argued that words (signs)
comprise two elements: a sound image (
phonetic aspect- pronunciation form- signifier),
and a meaning ( signified)
Structuralism
It is an approach to the human sciences that attempts
to analyze a specific field (for instance, mythology)
as a complex system of interrelated parts. It began in
linguistics with the work of Ferdinand de Saussure
(1857-1913), but many French intellectuals perceived
it to have a wider application, and the model was
soon modified and applied to other fields, such as
sociology, anthropology, psychology, psychoanalysis,
literary theory and architecture.
Structuralism in linguistics
Structuralism states that human culture is to be
understood as a system of signs. Robert Scholes
defined structuralism as a reaction to modernist
alienation and despair. Structuralists attempted to
develop a semiology (system of signs).
Key notions in structural linguistics are the
notions of paradigm, syntagm and value, though
these notions were not yet fully developed in
Saussure's thought.
A structural paradigm is actually a class of
linguistic units (lexemes, morphemes or even
constructions) which are possible in a certain
position in a given linguistic environment (like a
given sentence), which is the syntagm.
The different functional role of each of these
members of the paradigm is called value (valeur
in French).
Linguistics in the 20th Century:
The most important developments in linguistics
took place in America due to the American
anthropologists who were concerned with recording
the culture and languages of the Native Indian tribes
which were disappearing quickly because of the
dominance of the white race in America.
In 1933, the linguist, Leonard Bloomfield, published
a book called language, in which he proposed a
methodology for the description of any language which
became known as descriptive linguistics or
structuralism. Bloomfield asserted that the task of
linguists was to collect data from native speakers of a
language and then to analyze it by studying the
phonological and syntactic patterns.
Bloomfield argued that one of the principal ways in
which items are ordered in a language is in terms of
their constituency. Any sentence can be analyzed in
terms of immediate constituents which in its turn can
be analyzed into further constituents. The sentence is
dominated by a hierarchical relationship of
constituents. The hierarchical relationship is
represented in the form of a tree diagram.
The descriptive linguistics of Bloomfield provided
a powerful means of analyzing the surface structure of
language, but it ignored two important aspects: first, it
was not interested in meaning or semantics. Second, it
worked with the strong believe that description alone
was sufficient for arriving at a set of language rules,
the matter that proved its failure later on.
Noam Chomsky argued that description alone
is not enough for the linguists to set rules for a
language, but more important than description is
explanation.
Who is Noam Chomsky?
He is the most influential linguist in contemporary
linguistics. He published his book " Syntactic Structure"
in 1957 and afterward he constantly provided the
linguistic studies with his theories and observations. He
believed that it is not enough for a grammar to take
account of existing sentences only, but it should
account for sentences which have not yet been written
or uttered.
Who is Noam Chomsky?
Chomsky was interested in Language Creativity ( its
capacity to generate completely new sentences
endlessly). This can be obtained if speakers have a
internalized set of rules or grammar that can judge
which sentences are acceptable and which are not.
Who is Noam Chomsky?
Chomsky believed that the task of the linguist is to
understand the mental grammar. The way that led
Chomsky to propose two levels of structure: surface
and deep and he referred to as Transformational
Grammar. Deep/surface structure provided explanation
to ambiguous sentences as well as the passive and
active structures.
In late 20th century, the combined influence of
Saussure and Chomsky increased the
importance of the study of the language by
linguists and non- linguists. New disciplines as
sociology, psychology and literary criticism
began to leave their own marks and
contributions on linguistics.
Michael Halliday
influenced by Saussure more than Chomsky,
proposed the idea of systemic grammar
(functional). His approach is more functional
than Chomsky's. He considers language as
existing entity to fulfill certain human needs,
such as our needs to make sense of the world
and to relate to others.
Halliday draws our attention to the importance
of the world and our relationship to it in the
formation of the linguistic system. He identified
three principal functions for grammar which are:
1. Ideational: to use grammar to conceptualize the
world.
2. Intepersonal: the use of language as a personal
medium.
3. Textual: the use of language to form texts.
To sum up, Halliday sees language as a cultural and
social phenomenon as Saussure and not a biological
phenomenon as Chomsky.
Mega Branches of Linguistics
Theoretical linguistics
It is the branch of linguistics that is most
concerned with developing models of linguistic
knowledge. It is related to the descriptive
linguistics as well as the prescriptive
linguistics.
Mega Branches of Linguistics
Descriptive linguistics is concerned with the
description of a language with respect to its
phonology, morphology , syntax and semantics.
Mega Branches of Linguistics
The fields that are generally considered the core
of theoretical linguistics are syntax, phonology,
morphology, and semantics. Theoretical
linguistics also involves the search for and
explanation of linguistic universals, that is,
properties all languages have in common.
Prescriptive Linguistics: is an account of how a
language should be used instead of how it is
actually used; a prescription for the `correct'
phonology and morphology and syntax and
semantics
Linguistics takes a descriptive approach to
language: it tries to explain things as they
actually are, not as we wish them to be. When
we study language descriptively, we try to find
the unconscious rules that people follow. The
schoolbook approach to language is typically
prescriptive. It tries to tell you how you should
speak and write.
There is a place for both description and
prescription in language study. For example,
when adults learn a foreign language, they
typically want someone to tell them how to
speak, in other words to prescribe a particular set
of rules to follow, and expect a teacher or book
to set forth those rules.
At some point in time, someone had to describe
the language and infer those rules. Prescription,
in other words, can only occur after the language
has been described, and good prescription
depends on adequate description. We obviously
don't want to be teaching people the wrong
things about language.
In an ideal world, descriptive and prescriptive
approaches to language would follow this
harmonious relationship: linguists would
describe the rules of a language, and educators
and teachers would use those descriptions to
make textbooks to teach language learners.
Branches of Theoretical Linguistics
Phonetics
Is the study of the production, transmission and
perception of speech sounds. It is concerned with
the sounds of language, how these sounds are
articulated and how the hearer perceives them.
Branches of Theoretical Linguistics
Phonetics is related to the science of acoustics in
that it uses much the same techniques in the
analysis of sound that acoustics does. There are
three sub-disciplines of phonetics.
Articulatory Phonetics: the production of
speech sounds
Auditory Phonetics: the study of the perception
of speech sounds
Acoustic Phonetics: the study of the physical
production and transmission of speech sounds
Phonology
Phonology is the study of the sound patterns of
language. It is concerned with how sounds are
organized in a language.
Phonology examines what occurs to speech
sounds when they are combined to form a word
and how these speech sounds interact with each
other. It endeavors to explain what these
phonological processes are in terms of formal
rules.
The phonemes of a particular language are those
minimal distinct units of sound that can
distinguish meaning in that language.
In English, the /p/ sound is a phoneme because it
is the smallest unit of sound that can make a
difference of meaning if, for example, it replaces
the initial sound of bill, till, or dill, making the
word pill. The vowel sound of pill is also a
phoneme because its distinctness in sound makes
pill, which means one thing, sound different
from pal, which means another.
*Morphology
Morphology is the study of word formation and
structure. It studies how words are put together
from their smaller parts and the rules governing
this process. The elements that are combined to
form words are called morphemes
*Morphology
A morpheme is the smallest unit of syntax you
can have in a language. The word cats, for
example, contain the morphemes cat and the
plural-s.
*Syntax
Syntax is the study of sentence structure. It
attempts to describe what is grammatical in a
particular language in term of rules. These rules
describe an underlying word structure and a
transformational process.
The underlying structure of English for example
would have a subject-verb-object sentence order
(John hit the ball). The transformational process
would allow an alteration of the word order,
which could give you something like, the ball
was hit by John.
*Semantics
Semantics is the study of meaning in language. It
is concerned with describing how we represent
the meaning of a word in our mind and how we
use this representation in constructing sentences.
Semantics is based largely on the study of logic
in philosophy.
Applied Linguistics
Historical Background
In the year 1940s, the University of Michigan
established a program in applied linguistics to train
language teachers, and it began publication of the
Journal ( Language Learning: A Quarterly Journal of
Applied Linguistics).
Applied Linguistics
In 1950s, The University of Edinburgh's School of
Applied Linguistics trained teachers in applying the
principles of linguistics to the practice of teaching.
Applied Linguistics
In Washington DC, they established the Center for Applied
Linguistics with the goals of
- improving English language teaching
- promoting the teaching of taught languages
- conducting research into educational processes related to
language use.
There are other professional organizations formed to be
devoted to Applied Linguistics as:
-
American Association for Applied Linguistics ( AAAL
1977)
-
International Association of Applied Linguistics ( AILA
1973)
A journal devoted to Applied linguistics namely
Applied Linguistics appeared in 1980 and in
1981, The Annual Review of Applied Linguistics
appeared.
What is Applied Linguistics?
Applied linguistics takes into consideration not the
nature of language only, but the nature of the particular
world in which the language is used, the beliefs, social
institutions and culture of its users and how they
influence language use.
What is the job of an applied linguist?
An applied linguist is a professional person who is able to:
1. diagnoses a problem in real world language use, brings
the insights of linguistics to bear on the problem and
then suggests solutions.
2. recommend clinical treatment of a language disability.
3. Design an educational program for immigrant children.
4. Advice schools on language policy.
What is relationship between Applied Linguistics and
other professional disciplines?
Applied linguistics works closely with professionals in
other disciplines as: psychology, sociology,
anthropology, and education.
The traditional areas of Applied linguistics are:
Contemporary Areas of AL
-
Language acquisition
-
Psycholinguistics
-
Language planning
-
Language for specific purposes
-
Literacy language
-
Language policy
-
Psychology
-
Discourse analysis
Traditional Areas of AL
The traditional areas of applied linguistics are:
-
Rhetoric and stylistics
-
Translation and interpretation
-
Second language pedagogy
-
Assessment
-
Bilingualism
-
Bilingual education
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