Chapter 12 Theories of Linguistics

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Chapter 12Theories of Linguistics
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• Functionalism

• Formalism

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1. The functional perspective

• The Prague School

• The London School

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1.1 The Prague School

• Prague Linguistic Circle
• Started by V. Mathesius (1882-1946) in 1926, with
  such activists as R. Jacobson (1896-1982), N.
  Trubetzkoy (1890-1938) and later J. Firbas
  (1921-2000).
• The Circle stood at the heart of important
  developments in structural linguistics and
  semiotics in the 1930's.

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Three important points

• Stressed synchronic linguistics, but not rigidly
  separated from diachronic studies.
• L is systemic in that no element of L can be
  satisfactorily analysed or evaluated in isolation
  and assessment can only be made if its
  relationship is established with the coexisting
  elements in the same language system.
• L is functional in that it is a tool for
  performing a number of essential functions or
  tasks for the community using it.

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1.1.1 Prague School Phonology

• N. Trubetzkoy Principle of Phonology (1939).
• Phonetics phonology different for parole
  langue.
• Phoneme an abstract unit of the sound system.
• Distinctive features phonological oppositions.

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1.1.2 Trubetzkoys contributions

• Showed distinctive functions of speech sounds and
  gave an accurate definition of the phoneme.
• Defined the sphere of phonological studies.
• Revealed interdependent syntagmatic and
  paradigmatic relations between phonemes.

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• Put forward a set of methodologies for
  phonological studies.
• Analysis of utterances (or texts) in terms of the
  information they contain.
• The role of each utterance part is evaluated for
  its semantic contribution to the whole.

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• A sentence contains a point of departure and a
  goal of discourse. The point of departure, called
  the THEME, is the ground on which the speaker and
  the hearer meet.
• The goal of discourse, called the RHEME, presents
  the very information that is to be imparted to
  the hearer.
• Movement from Theme to Rheme reveals the movement
  of the mind itself.

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• Therefore, the functional sentence perspective
  (FSP) aims to describe how information is
  distributed in sentences. It deals particularly
  with the effect of the distribution of known
  (given) info and new info in discourse.
• New info to be transmitted to the reader or
  hearer.
• Sally stands on the table.
• Theme Rheme
• On the table stands Sally.
• Theme Rheme

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1.1.3 Three levels of a sentence

• Grammatical Sentence Pattern (GSP)
• Semantic Sentence Pattern (SSP)
• Communicative Sentence Pattern (CSP)
• John has written a novel.
• Subject Verb Object (GSP)
• Agent Action Goal (SSP)
• Theme Transition Rheme (CSP)

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1.1.4 Communicative dynamism (CD)

• J. Firbas
• Linguistic communication is dynamic, not static.
• CD measures the amount of info an element carries
  in a sentence. The degree of CD is the effect
  contributed by a linguistic element. For example,

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• He was cross.
• CD The lowest degree of CD is carried by he, and
  the highest degree of CD is carried by cross,
  with the degree carried by was ranking between
  them.

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• Normally the subject carries a lower degree of CD
  than the verb and/or the object and/or adverbial
  provided either the verb or the object and/or
  adverbial are contextually independent. This is
  because a known or unknown agent expressed by the
  subject appears to be communicatively less
  important than an unknown action expressed by the
  finite verb and/or an unknown goal (object or
  adverbial of place) at or towards which the
  action is directed. For example,

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• A man broke into the house and stole all the
  money.
• The ultimate purpose of the communication is to
  state the action and/or its goal, not the agent.
• However, if the subject is followed by a verb
  expressing existence or appearance on the scene
  and is contextually independent, then it will
  carry the highest degree of CD, becausean unknown
  person or thing appearing on the scene is
  communicatively more important than the act of
  appearing and the scene itself, e.g.

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• An old man appeared in the waiting room at five
  oclock.
• If the subject is contextually dependent, a
  contextually independent adverbial of time or
  place becomes an important local and temporal
  specification, carrying greater degree of CD than
  both the subject and the finite verb, as in
• The old man was sitting in the waiting room.

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1.2 The London School

• B. Malinowski (1884-1942), professor of
  anthropology (1927).
• J. R. Firth (1890-1960), the first professor of
  linguistics in the UK (1944).
• M. A. K. Halliday (1925- ), student of Firth.

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• All three stressed the importance of context of
  situation and the system aspect of L.
• Thus also known as systemic linguistics and
  functional linguistics, or systemic-functional
  linguistics/grammar.

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1.2.1 Malinowskis theories

• Language is to be regarded as a mode of action,
  rather than as a counterpart of thought.
• The meaning of an utterance comes from its
  relation to the situational context in which it
  occurs.

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Three types of situational context

• situations in which speech interrelates with
  bodily activity
• narrative situations
• situations in which speech is used to fill a
  speech vacuum--phatic communion.

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1.2.2 Firths theories

• Regarded L as a social process, a means of social
  life. In order to live, human beings have to
  learn and learning L is a means of participation
  in social activities. L is a means of doing
  things and of making others do things, a means of
  acting and living.

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• L is both inborn and acquired.
• The object of linguistic study is L in use.
• The goal of linguistic inquiry is to analyse
  meaningful elements of L in order to establish
  corresponding relations between linguistic and
  non-linguistic elements.
• The method of linguistic study is to decide on
  the composite elements of L, explain their
  relations on various levels, and ultimately
  explicate the internal relations between these
  elements and human activities in the environment
  of language use.

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• Firth attempted to integrate linguistic studies
  with sociological studies because human beings
  are inseparable from cultural values, and L is an
  important part of cultural values, linguistics
  can help reveal the social nature of human
  beings.
• Meaning is use, thus defining meaning as the
  relationship between an element at any level and
  its context on that level. Therefore the meaning
  of any sentence consists of five parts

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• 1. the relationship of each phoneme to its
  phonetic context
• 2. the relationship of each lexical item to the
  others in the sentence
• 3. the morphological relations of each word
• 4. the sentence type of which the given sentence
  is an example
• 5. the relationship of the sentence to its
  context of situation.

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• In analysing typical context of situation, one
  has to carry out the analysis on four levels
• Internal relations of the text
• 1. syntagmatic relations in structure
• 2. Paradigmatic relations in system
• Internal relations of the context of situation
• 3. relations between text and non-linguistic
  elements
• 4. analytical relations between elements of the
  text and elements within the situation

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• A model covering both the situational context and
  the linguistic context of a text
• 1. The relevant features of the participants
  persons, personalities
• a. verbal action of participants
• b. non-verbal action of participants
• 2. The relevant topics, inc. objects, events, and
  non-linguistic, non-human events.
• 3. The effects of the verbal action.

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• Prosodic analysis prosodic phonology
• Since any human utterance is continuous speech
  flow made up of at least one syllable, it cannot
  be cut into independent units. Mere phonetic and
  phonological descriptions are insufficient.
• It is not phonemes that make up the paradigmatic
  relations, but Phonematic Units, the features of
  which are fewer than those of phonemes and are
  called prosodic units.

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• He did not define prosodic units, but his
  discussion indicates that they include such
  features as stress, length, nasalisation,
  palatalisation, and aspiration. In any case,
  these features cannot be found in one phonematic
  unit alone.

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1.2.3 Systemic-functional grammar

• M A K Halliday (1925- ).
• Two components and inseparable parts
• systemic grammar internal relations in L as a
  system network, meaning potential.
• functional grammar L as a means of social
  interaction, uses or functions of language form.

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Systemic grammar
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Functional grammar

• Ideational function (experiential logical) to
  convey new info, communicate a content unknown to
  the hearer
• Interpersonal function to express social and
  personal relations
• Textual function to make any stretch of spoken
  or written discourse into a coherent and unified
  text and make a living passage different from a
  random list of sentences.

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2. Generative Grammar

• NOAM CHOMSKY (1928- ), institute professor at
  MIT. Linguist, philosopher, and political
  activist.

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• The Logical Structure of Linguistic Theory
  (1955/1975)
• Syntactic Structures (1957)
• Aspects of the Theory of Syntax (1965)
• Cartesian Linguistics (1966)
• The Sound Pattern of English (1968)
• Language and Mind (1968/1972/2006)
• Reflections on Language (1975)
• Rules and Representations (1980)
• Lectures on Government and Binding (1981)
• Knowledge of Language (1986)
• Barriers (1986)
• Language and Problems of Knowledge (1988)
• Language and Thought (1993)
• The Minimalist Program (1995)
• New Horizons in the Study of Language and Mind
  (2000)
• On Nature and Language (2002)

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2.1 Early theories (1957)

• Innateness hypothesis
• Language acquisition mechanism
• Competence and performance
• Generating an infinite set of sentences from a
  finite set of elements
• Deep structure and surface structure
• Phrase structure rules
• Transformations

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Phrase structure rules

• S ? NP VP
• VP ? V NP
• NP ? Det N
• V ? act, beat, catch, dive,
• N ? man, boy, book, flower, ...

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Transformational rules

• NP1 Aux V NP2 ?
• John will write a story
• NP2 Aux be en V by NP1
• a story will be en write by John

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2.2 The standard theory (1965)

• Colorless green ideas sleep furiously.
• ? Subcategorization
• N ? N, ?Common
• Common ? ?Count
• Count ? ?Animate
• -Common ? ?Animate
• Animate ? ?Human
• -Count ? ?Abstract

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• sincerity
• N, Common, -Count, Abstract
• boy
• N, Common, Count, Animate, Human

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2.3
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• Trace theory a phonetically null element to
  occupy the position from which a syntactic
  element has been moved.
• I really love Mary ?
• Mary I really love t

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• Indexing
• Whoi said Mary kissed himi?
• whoi S ti said Mary kissed himi
• Whoi did hei say Mary kissed?
• whoi S hei said Mary kissed ti
• Johni said Mary kissed himi
• hei said Mary kissed Johni

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2.4 GB/PP theory (1981)

• Government and Binding Theory (early)
• or
• Principles and parameters Theory (later)
• 1980s

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2.4.1 Principles

• X-bar theory
• Government theory
• Binding theory
• Case theory
• ?-theory
• Bounding theory
• Control theory

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2.4.2 Government

• speak the language (speak governs the language)
• speak about the language (about governs the
  language, speak governs about the language)

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2.4.3
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2.4.4 Binding

• The logical relation between a quantifier and a
  variable.
• Binding Theory
• A. An anaphor is bound in its governing
  category.
• B. A pronominal is free in its governing
  category.
• C. An r-expression is free.

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Anaphora

• oneself and each other
• John1 likes himself1.
• They1 hit each other1.
• John1 doesnt like Bills2 criticism of himself2.
• John1 likes him2.
• Bill1 says John2 likes him1.
• Bill1 says John2 likes the man3.

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2.4.5 Parameters

• The null subject parameter
• Head parameter
• Wh-parameter

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2.5 The Minimalist Program
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2.5.1 Merge
(1) He has become very fond of Mary.
TP
PRN
T'
He
VP
T
has
AP
V
become
A'
ADV
very
PP
A
fond
P
N
Mary
of
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2.5.2 Move

• (2) You will marry me. (2a) Will you marry me?

CP
CP
C
TP
C
TP
Q
Will
Ø
PRN
T'
PRN
T'
you
you
VP
T
VP
T
will
will
N
V
N
V
me
marry
marry
me
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(3) I care not for her. (Shakespearean English)
CP
TP
C
Ø
PRN
T'
I
T
VP
care
V'
ADV
not
V
PP
care
P
PRN
for
me
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• (3a) Know you not the cause?

CP
TP
C
Know
PRN
T'
you
VP
T
know
(2)
ADV
V'
not
V
DP
(1)
know
the cause