26/10/2012

Lecture No. 7 - FUNDAMENTALS OF Language STUDIES IN GRAMMAR

Key words: language unit • diagram • distribution • function • hierarchy • language rank • linguistic system / structure • macrosystem • microsystem • realization • markedness (of a language unit) • synchrony • diachrony • taxonomy

1. Introduction to the language studies

Human language is thought to be a system of interconnected or interwoven signs and symbols that are used by people to reflect our perceptions and communicate ideas. It is said to be composed of linguistic units that are characterized by the inner structure of different degree of complexity, thereupon among traditional approaches to the language study there stand: the observation of a language unit structure (formal and semantic factors including), the analysis of its relationships with other language units of the same rank, including regulations on its distribution in a word group or sentence.

As opposed to the phonological system, which may be called the sub-foundation of language, and the lexical system, that is vital for denoting concepts and ideas, the grammatical system is considered to be a core that keeps language firmly established but alive. Due to that idea in earlier periods of linguistics grammar was mainly thought as a prescriptive pattern of the language correctness, and grammarians believed that their mission was to present ‘strict’ rules of correctness in writing and speaking. However, in spite of the fact that these regulations are essential for the language survival, a lot of cases contradicted the rational opposition of being right or wrong as the practice demonstrated variability in language forms that might represent similar meanings in different contexts.

Innovative principles of systematic approach to language description were presented in the works by the Russian scholar Beaudoin de Courtenay and the Swiss scholar Ferdinand de Saussure. The two linguists developed their ideas about the complexity of such notions as ‘language system’ and ‘language structure’, considering systematic relations between language units in the light of lingual synchrony (coexistence of lingual elements at a certain time period) or diachrony (changes in the language and its units due to the historical development). They and their followers insisted that language should be viewed as a synchronic system of meaningful elements at a certain stage of its historical evolution and offered a unit to be a complex phenomenon within which formal and semantic features are joined.

Their ideas laid a foundation for the structural approach to language studies in the 20^th cen. Firstly, it was widely accepted that the body of the language consists of a set of material units – sounds, morphemes, words, word-groups, etc., together they make language layers (language systems of various ranks with certain types of relations and rules of combinability inside them). Secondly, the linguistic analysis should be directed at language layer stratification and revelation of the inner structure of every type of a unit at every level separately.

The impact of Saussure's ideas on the development of linguistic theory in the 20^th century was impressive. At least two currents of linguistic thought emerged independently of each other – one in Europe, the other in America.

The results of each incorporated the basic notions of Saussurian thought in forming the basis of structural linguistics. In Europe, the most important work was done by Prof. Nikolay Trubetzkoy and Roman Jakobson who headed the efforts of their school (the Prague School). They set the course of phonological theory in the decades following 1940. The ideas of Prof. Jakobson: universals of structural-functional theory of phonology, based on markedness and hierarchy of distinctive features of language units.

Louis Hjelmslev and the Copenhagen School supporters proposed new interpretations of linguistics presenting structuralism theoretical frameworks that laid the basis for modern branches of Applied Linguistics.

In America, Saussure's ideas enlivened the distributional approach of Leonard Bloomfield and the ‘post-Bloomfieldian Structuralism’ (analyses of language by Eugene Nida, Bernard Bloch, George L. Trager, Rulon S. Wells III, Charles Hockett. Zellig Harris and the young Noam Chomsky, who spent their utmost energy on discovering formal and semantic features of units’ taxonomy thus having set the basis for modern cognitive approach to language studies). It is necessary to underline that the Russian schools of Linguistics have always been at the front line of functional and cognitive-semantic approach to language studies targeting at presenting through language system mental activities of the human.

However, the existing interpretations of Saussure's theories contained some ambiguities, and their applications led to theoretical discussions that criticized pure structuralism in linguistics. The long-lasting prescriptive period in the language studies gave place to the descriptive route which is considered to be fundamental for modern branches of linguistics. It lays a stress on language taxonomy – the systematic character of language is viewed as a system of signs that are closely connected and fully interdependent; besides it could indirectly present through its hierarchical arrangement the systematic character of mental activity of a person.

Thus, any situation from the real world could find its representation in combinations of discrete components – both of mental (concepts and their frames) and linguistic nature. The situation that is presented in Picture 1 (below) is reflected in the sentence ‘Elsie the cat is sitting on the mat’. The words, their grammatical forms and functions obviously nominate concepts that are referred to logical cluster (categories) of different ranks; by grammatical regulations they are joined into logical units. Together they encode information about the situation in mind.

Pic. 1. Coordination between logical and grammatical conceptualization.

Agent

activity

place

Elsie

the

cat

is

sitting

on

the

mat

= =========================================

Cat

has

Fur

lives

Animal

Mammal

House

domestic

P rocess

mat

Cat = a carnivorous mammal (Felis catus) long domesticated as a pet and for catching rats and mice

Sit = to rest with the torso vertical and the body supported on the buttocks.

Mat = a flat piece of coarse fabric or other material used for wiping one's shoes or feet, or in various other forms as a floor covering.

The units are viewed as ranked classes and subclasses which form various microsystems within the framework of the macrosystem of the language. Each system is a structured set of elements related to one another by a common language function and generalized grammatical (categorial) meaning.

The value of grammar is evident in such an approach since grammar regulates not only the language system but the general organization of utterance content. Being an integral part of language fundamentals it determines clearness of conceptual representation through its categorically accurate indexation (taxonomy) both mental and lingual.