1. Linguistics, its characteristics, semiotic triangle.

Linguistics tries to answer the basic question: What is language? And How does language
work?
Linguist- person who studies linguistics, an expert who must have a wide experience of
different types of languages, he analyses and attempts to explain linguistic phenomena.He is
an observer and a consumer of language rather than a participant of a producer.
Linguistics is descriptive (not prescriptive). Linguists decribe language in all its aspect but
does not prescribe rules of correctness. Linguistics regards to spoken language as primary.(differerence from traditional school grammar). So linguists look first at the spoken word,
which preceded the written word everywhere in the world. Also, most writing systems are
derived from the vocal sounds. Linguists therefore regard spoken and written forms as
belonging to different systems which must be analysed seperately- the spoken first, then the
written.
General linguistics covers a wide range of topics and its boundaries are difficult to define.
Phonetics- the study of human speech sounds. Linguistics analyses the shape or form of these
patters of sounds rather than psysical substance out of which the units of language are made.
Phonetics is surrounded by phonology, the phonology is surrounded by syntax the
arrangement form of words.Phonology, syntax and semantics (meaning) are the bread and
butter of linguistics- together they constitute the grammar of language.
Syntax is restricted to the arrangement of words, and the term morphology is used fo their
different forms.
Other branchces of linguistics- psycholinguistics, sociolinguistics, anthropological linguistics,
pshilosophical linguistics, mathematical linguistics, stylistics, and language teaching.
Psycholinguistics- the relationship between language and the mind.
Sociolinguistics- the relationship between language and society.
Historical linguistics (diachronic linguistics)- the study of language change.
Linguistics- the systematic study of language a discipline which describes language in
all its aspects and formulates theories how it works.
Man probably acquired his sound signalling system at a fairly late stage in his evolution,
because all the organs used in speech have som more basic function. The symbols used are
arbitrary- there is no intrinsic connection, e.g. between the word elephant and the animal it
symbolises.(onomatopoeic words such quack- quack or bang are exceptions).
Human language is by no means totally conditioned by the environment. The long learning
process is needed to acquire human language. Each language has a stock of sound units or
phonemes which are similar in number to the basic sounds possessed by animals, the average
number is between 30 and 40. But each phoneme is normally meaningless in isolation. It
becomes meaningful only when it is combined wich other phonemes. This organisation of
lanuage into 2 a layer of sound which combine into a second layer of larger units is known
as duality or double articulation.

Human language, by contrast with animal language, can communicate about things that are
absent as easily as about things that are present. This apparently rare phenomenon is known as
displacement.
Human language is essentially creative (productive)- a human can produce a novel utterance
whenever he wants to.
Language can be regarded as an intricate network of interlinked elements in which every item
is held in its place and given its identity by all the other items. Language operations are
structure dependent they depend on an understanding of the internal structure of a sentence,
rather than on the number of elements involved, e. g. The penguin / It/ The penguin which
slipped on the ice squawked.
In human language the symbols are mostly arbitrary, and the system has to be painstakingly
transmitted from one generation to another.
Duality and displacement the organisation of language into two layers, and the ability to talk
about absent objects and events.
Creativity- the ability to produce utterances.
To summarise: language is a patterned system of arbitrary sound signals, characterised by
structure dependence, creativity, displacement, duality, and cultural transmission.(this is true
of all languages in the world). There is no evidence that any language is more primitive
than any other.
19th century: historical linguistics
-

Before the 19th century language was interest mainly to philosophers. (Plato and
Aristotle made mayor contributions to the study of language. Plato was the 1 st person
to distinguish between nouns and verbs.
1786 birth of linguistics. Sir William Jones read a paper to the Royal Asiatic Society
in Calcutta pointing out that Sanskrit (the old Indian language) , Greek, Latin, Celtic
and Germanic all had structural similarities.
Hypotheses about the way it split into various modern languages were made.
Darwin publishes Origin of Species putting forward the theory of evolution, natural
attempt to chart the evolution of language alongside the evolution of species.
A group of scholars centered around Leipzig nicknamed Young Grammarians claimed
that language change is ,,regular,, If in any word of a given dialect, one sound changes
into another, the change will also affect all other occurrences of the same sound in
similar phonetic surroundings.(e.g. Old English chin was pronounced kin...as it
changed it affected all others k-sounds words, so now we get cheese, chill, chicken
etc.).

Early to mid- 20th century: descriptive linguistics

-

The emphasis shifted from language change to language description.

Linguists began to concentrate on describing single languages at one particular point
in time. Swiss scholar Ferdinand De Saussure (responsible for this change) the
father of modern linguistics suggested that language was like a game of chess,
a system in which each item is defined by its relationship to all the others. His
insistence that language was a carefully built structure of interwoven elements
initiated the era of structural linguistics. All linguistics since de Saussare is
structural.
2

Leonard Bloomfields comprehensive work Language attempted to lay down

rigorous procedures for the description of any language. He considered that linguistics
should deal objectively and systematically with observable data. He had immense
influence- Bloomfieldian era- lasted for more than 20 years.
Discovery procedures- set of principles which would enable a linguist discover
(uncover) in a foolproof way the linguistic units of an unwritten language. Because of
their overriding interest in the internal patterns of structure of the language, such
linguists are sometimes labelled structuralists. The Bloomfieldians laid down
a valuable backround for future generations.

Mid to late-20th century: generative linguistics

-

In 1957 linguistics took a new turning. Noam Chomsky published Syntactic

Structures which revolutionised the study of linguistics. He suggested that
Bloomfieldian linguistics was both far too ambitious and far too limited in scope. A
grammar he claimed should be more than a catalogue of old utterances. Every person
who knows a language must have the ,,grammar,, of that language inside him
somewhere- a store of knowledge which enables him to produce and comprehend an
indefinite number of new utterances.
Competence- internalised set of principles which unables a person who knows
a language to recognise and produce well formed utterances, and reject ill formed
ones.
Descriptive grammar- a grammar which describes actual utterances.
Generative grammar-a grammar which consists of a set of statements or rules which
specify which sequences of a language are possible and which impossible. Chomsky
initiated era of generative linguistics. In his words, grammar must also be perfectly
explicit: nothing may be left to the imagination.

Summary:
In the 19th century scholars concentrated on historical linguistics- the study of language
change (diachronic approach), later it became relatively unpopular. In the early 20 th century,
there was a shift to descriptive linguistics- attention to the description of unwritten languages.
Halfway through the century the attention of linguistics turned to generative grammars- which
try to encapsulate a speaker - hearers knowledge of his language by specifying in an explicit
way all and only the permitted sequences of taught language. The best known of generative
grammars is a Transformational grammar.
The use of language is an integral part of being human. Language and abstract thought are
closely connected, and many people think that these two characteristics above all separate
human beings from animals. Language adequately can affect a mans status in society and
may even alter his personality.
Linguistics tries to answer the basic questions: What is language? How does it work? It
probes into various aspects of these problems, such as: What do all languages have in
common? What range of variation is found among languages? How does human language
differ from animal communication? How does a child learn to speak? How does one write
down and analyse an unwritten language? Why do languages change? To what extent are
social class differences reflected in language? and so on.
1. Linguistics is descriptive, not prescriptive.
2. Linguists regard the spoken language as primary, not the written.
3. Linguistics does not force languages into a Latin-based framework.
3

Scientific circle
Observation - hypothesis test hypothesis modify hypothesis test hypothesis
modify hypothesis
Goal: to account for competence
-

To construct a model of the native speakers knowledge of his language

(=competence)
To explain how knowledge of a language is attained
To describe the nature of language

Universal grammar
Common properties of numerous languages. This represents the conviction that observed
differences across languages are variations. Therefore any natural language will share
fundamental properties with all natural languages. Universal grammar is shared by all humans
because it is innate.

LINGUISTIC SIGN (according

Saussure)

Characteristics of linguistic sign:

Arbitrary
Conventional

Obligatory (for all members of

language community)
Linear (utterances are realized
in place and time and are
ordered in sequence)

1. Phonic substance significant (when we hear a word we assign it to the concept)

2. Concept signifi

SEMIOTIC TRIANGLE
The triangle was published in The Meaning of Meaning (1923) by Ogden and Richards.

A linguistic sign is not isolated it enters into relations with other signs and with users of these
signs. The relations are:

The relationship of designation between the referent and the concept

The relationship of denotation between the sign and the referent

The relationship of signification between the sign form and the concept
The relationship between language users and the sign form pragmatics
The relationship between the sign form and other sign forms: paradigmatic
syntagmatic

Syntagmatic: the value of each linguistic sign is determined by the relationship with other
linguistic signs within an utterance
Paradigmatic: other sings could be replaced a linguistic sign in its position (term
associative)
Syntagmatic relations are relations on a horizontal axis between elements, in a sentence for
instance. You then look at the possibilities of combination between the elements. For instance:
"John loves Mary" => John+loves+Mary.
Paradigmatic relations are relations on a vertical level and look at all the possible elements
that could come at the place of a certain element. In my example, "John" could be replaced by
an endless set of possibilities, for instance "Edward/my brother/He/..", "loves" could be
replaced by "bites/hates/..." What matters is that the sentence should still make sense with the
possibilities.

2. Main linguistic schools Prague school, Copenhagen school, American

descriptivism (structuralism, generative grammar, functional grammar) and
their contribution.
Structural Linguistics
Structural linguistics is an approach to linguistics originating from the work of Swiss
linguist Ferdinand de Saussure (Course of General Linguistics, 1916, published after the
death by students) and is part of the overall approach of structuralism. He is thus known as a
father of modern linguistics or Copernicus of linguistics for bringing about the shift
from diachronic (historical) to synchronic (non-historical) analysis, as well as for introducing
several basic dimensions of semiotic analysis that are still important today, such
as syntagmatic and paradigmatic analysis (or 'associations' as Saussure was still calling them).
Saussure is the author of linguistic terms such as: lanuge, parole, synchrony, diachrony,
signifiant, signifi, linguistic value, opposition, model, sign, syntagma etc.
Langue: a system of all rules that must be observed by all the speakers of the community, an
abstract system of conventional rules. It is a system that enables to communicate between
speakers of the community.
Parole: an individual phenomenon, a concrete manifestation of the langue uttered by an
individual in a given moment.
He worked out a theory of semiology which studies signs in human society. He defines a
language as a system of mutually interrelated signs. The value of the individual sign is
determined by its meaning and the relationship between other signs in a system. The system is
based on opposition among signs.

Structural linguistics thus involves collecting a corpus of utterances and then attempting to
classify all of the elements of the corpus at their different linguistic levels:
the phonemes, morphemes, lexical categories, noun phrases, verb phrases,
and sentence types. One of Saussure's key methods was syntagmatic and paradigmatic
analysis that respectively define units syntactically and lexically, according to their contrast
with the other units in the system.
According to stucturalists language system is a system of signs with their internal structural
interrelations.
Structuralist school: 1. Geneva school (Saussare),
2. Prague school (Mathesius),
3. Copenhagen school (Hjemslev)
Other representatives: A. Marty, H. Sweet and R. Rask.

American Descriptivism (Am. form of structuralism is called descriptivism)

The descriptivist approach to linguistic science is most closely associated with the American
linguist Leonard Bloomfield. Descriptivism originated in America at the beginning of the 20th
century. Descriptivism represented a sharp break with the traditions of European linguistics.
The initial surprise, which never ceased to impress descriptivists, was the enormous range of
linguistic diversity they unearthed. Seemingly, each new language they came across possessed
quite unique structures and categories.
In order to cope with the barrage of alien concepts and constructions in their analyses,
descriptivists made strenuous efforts to set aside their preconceptions about language.
Methods of analysis appropriate for Latin and Greek could easily give a distorted picture
when applied to a Native American language. This technique failed in its assumption that any
set of procedures or techniques of analysis are entirely independent of the object studied.
The representatives moved from the diachronic approach to synchronic approach. American
structuralism is related to anthropology and etnology, because they studied the Indian
languages (usually lack the written form), but not only languages but also the habits and
behaviour of the tribes. The lexical meaning was disregarded. They focused on mathematic
methods in linguistics. Edwars Sapir the founder of American structuralism, investigated
American-Indian languages. He is also one of the founders of etnolinguistics. He conceives
languages as a system of symbols. He focused the reaseach on phonological and grammatical
issues. He conceives language as a dynamic system which is in the constatnt process of
change.
Leonard Bloomfield:

Introduction to the Study of Languge

Language

He wanted to implement scientic approach to linguistics by using mathematic methods. His

approach is mechanistic. Bloomfield emphasize the importance of meaning (in contrast with
Am. Structuralism). He assumes that each linguistic form has a constant and definite meaning.
His contribution is phonological theory, that the description of language begins with
phonology, the distinctive features of phonemes are important. He divides phonemes into
primary (basic stock) and secondary phonemes (stress and pitch). In terms of morphology, he
also distinguished primary words (consisting of a single morpheme man) and secondary
words (compounds and derivations). He also conceives tha language in its development.
Noam Chomsky pleads for a dynamic approach as represented in his theory of
transformational and generative grammar. He was influenced by Panin, Plato, Humbolt and
Descartes. His linguistic theory is mentalistic discovering a mental reality underlying actual
behaviour. He studied mental processes and intellectual capacity. TG grammar Chomsky
called for a grammar of a certain language supplemented by universal grammar the
principles valid for (majority) all languages. The description of a language should pertain to
the linguistic competence of a native speaker who applies his knowledge into language
performance. Chomsky introduces a system of rules a creative capacity of a native speaker
to generate and to understand an infinite number of sentences.

Generative Grammar
Generative grammar of a language attempts to give a set of rules that will correctly predict
which combinations of words will form grammatical sentences. In most approaches to
generative grammar, the rules will also predict the morphology of a sentence.
Generative grammar arguably originates in the work of Noam Chomsky, beginning in the late
1950s. However, Chomsky has said that the first generative grammar in the modern sense
was Panini's Sanskrit grammar. Chomsky also acknowledges other historical antecedents.
To say that a grammar generates a sentence means that the grammar "assigns a structural
description" to the sentence. A generative grammar is not a model of linguistic production,
i.e., it is not an attempt to explain what speakers are actually doing when they formulate a
grammatical sentence. Instead, it is a model of a speaker's knowledge of what sentences and
words are part of their language and what sentences and words which are not part of their
language.
Chomsky:

Syntactic Structures (1957) introduced transformational grammar (TG)

Aspects of the Theory of Syntax (1965) proposed a modified version,

Standard theory: deep structures contain all the information necessary for the semantic interpretation
of sentences, and are the sole input to the semantic component
Components of a TG: a syntactic, phonological and semantic component
- syntactic: the base and the transformational rules

SYNTACTIC

COMPONENT
BASE

SEMANTIC COMPONENT

T-RULES

PHONOLOGICAL COMPONENT

base contains rules for the formation of deep structures they then pass to the transformational rules
in order to be converted into the surface structures the surface structure of a sentence is still abstract,
it doesnt yet have a phonetic form

Functional Grammar
Functional Grammar (FG) is a general theory of the organization of natural language as
developed by Simon C. Dik and others. The functions of language and its elements are the
key to understanding linguistic processes and structures. Functional theories of language
propose that since language is fundamentally a tool, it is reasonable to assume that its
structures are best analysed and understood with reference to the functions they carry out.
Functional Grammar seeks to define the different elements of language and describe the way
they relate to each other as systems of formal rules or operations. This means that functional
theories of grammar tend to pay attention to the way language is actually used in
communicative context, and not just to the formal relations between linguistic elements.
Prague School
Prague linguistic circle was a group of literary critics and linguists in Prague, who were
mainly focused on structuralist literary analysis and theory of standard language during 19281938.
They had a major influence on linguistics and semiotics. They influenced the theory of
linguistic functionalism. In 1929 publication of their theses and got a very positive response.
The structuralist functionalism of the Prague school was the earliest functionalist framework
developed in the 1920s.
First president of the circle was Vilm Mathesius. The theses were translated into English by
Josef Vachek. They also launched a journal in 1929 called Travaux du Cercle Linguistique de
Prague. The work of this school is also published in Slovo a slovensnost.
Representatives:

Roman Jakobson (ru)

Vilm Mathesius (cz) (Functional Analysis of the Present Day English on a General
Linguistic Basis method of analytical comparison)
Vladimr Skalika (cz)
Nikolai Trubetzkoy (ru)
Ren Wellek (cz)
Havrnek (cz)
Trnka (cz)

Their theory: Language is considered a system of expressive means and serves for
communication. Therefore, it is necessary to investigate certain functions of language. As a
physical phenomenon a language depends on external factors.(We distinguish written and
spoken form, language of literature, newspapers etc.) The investigation should be based on
synchronic approach and comparative method shoul be used.
Prague school influenced mostly the field of phonology and morphology and syntax with their
theory Functional Sentence Perspective.
FSP: The fundamental terms are theme and rheme two parts the sentence can be divided.
Theme: links the previous sentence, does not bring any new information, has lowest degree of
communicative dynamism.
-

usual position: at the beginning of the sentence (objective word order)

the reversed order subjective one

Rheme: actual new information, has highest degree of communicative dynamism.

FSP combines in itself semantic and syntactic approaches to the organization of sentence. It is
affected by context, semantics, sentence linearity (word order), grammatical features (clause
elements) and prosodic features (rhythm).
Copenhagen School
Officially the Linguistic Circle of Copenhagen studied linguistics and was founded by
Louis Hjelmslev and Viggo Brndal in the middle of the 20th century. They were focused on
linguistic structuralism. However, in the course of their existence their approach turned from a
structuralist to functionalists.
The foundation of Copenhagen school was inspired by the Prague one. Hjemslevs objective
was to establish a framework for understanding communication as a formal system plus the
terminology necessary for that. The basic theoretical framework called Glossematics was
present in two main works of Hjemslev.
However, after his death the group was slowly turning into a pragmatic one. Later on some
members former the School of Danish Functional Grammar which wanted to combine the
ideas of their two founders and other important Danish linguists with functional linguistics.
The new generation was represented by Peter Harder or Michael Fortescue. Their basic work
was Funktionel Grammatik by Harder (2006).
The glossematic school: their theory is called glossematics based on abstract logicalmathematic theory

Hjemslev along with Uldall formulated a linguistic theory as an attempt to analyse the
expression (phonetics + grammar) and the meaning of a language on a coherent basis.
Language was, in his opinion, not the only instrument of communication. Therefore he was
interested in semiotics and semiology.
Based on the ideas of Saussure and tried to combine logics and grammar. Hjemslev has also
taken over the psychological interpretation of the linguistic sign.
Principal ideas are:

Language= content+ expression

Language= succession and system
Content and expression are interconnected by communication
There are certain relations in the succession and the system
There are no one-to-one correspodents between content and expression, but the signs
may be divided into smaller components

They were interested more in langue than parole. Language is a form not a substance.
They analysed relational system within the language on a higher level of abstraction.

Danish functional school

Attempt to combine functional grammar and cognitive linguistics with the best ideas of early
structuralists. Communication= content + expression. Language is destined for human
communication and it is best analysed through its communicative function. The content
(analysed by methods from semantics and pragmatics) and expression (analysed by traditional
structural methods) are analysed separately. However, it is assumed that the structures are the
same. An utterance should be analysed from the maximal units and down, because speakers
begin the construction of utterances by choosing what to say in a given situation, then by
choosing the words to use and finally by building the sentence by means of sounds.
Danish functional grammar combines Saussurean/Hjelmslevian structuralism with a focus
on pragmatics and discourse.
What does the term structural linguistics denote?
Structural in this broad sense merely means the recognition that language is a patterned system
composed of interdependent elements, rather than a collection of unconnected individual items.
What was for many American Bloomfieldian structuralists the ultimate goal of linguistics?
For many, the ultimate goal of linguistics was the perfection of discovery procedures- a set of
principles which would enable a linguist to discover in a foolproof way the linguistic units of an
unwritten language.
How did Noam Chomsky redefine the goal of linguistics? Compare structuralism and generative
grammar.
Chomsky initiated the era of generative linguistics. In his words, a grammar will be a device which
generates all the grammatical sequences of a language and none of the ungramatical ones.

Explain the meaning of the terms performance and competence.

Performance a random selection of actual utterances. Competence the internalised set of principles,
which enables a person who knows a language to recognise and produce well-formed utterances, and
reject ill-formed ones.
What is generative grammar? How is generative grammar different from a descriptive grammar?
A grammar which describesactual utterances is a descriptive grammar. A grammar which consists of
a set of statements o rules which specify which sequences of a language are possible, and which
impossible, is a generative grammar.
Generative grammar tries to encapsulate a speaker-hearer's knowledge of his language by specifying
in an explicit way all and only the permitted sequences of that language. The best known of these
generative grammars is a transformational one.
Explain the term explicit when used in connection with grammars.
Nothing may be left to the imagination. The rules must be precisely formulated in such a way that
anyone would be able to separate well-formed sentences from ill-formed ones.
What is Universal grammar?
Universal grammar forms the basics of the specific grammars of all possible human languages.

WHAT WE NOW ABOUT LANGUAGE

1. Wherever humans exist, language exists.
2.

There are no primitive languages all languages are equally complex and equally capable
of expressing any idea in the universe. The vocabulary of any language can be expanded to
include new words for new concepts.

3. All languages change through time.

4. The relationships between the sounds and meanings of spoken languages and between the
gestures and meanings of sign languages are for the most part arbitrary.
5. All human languages utilize a finite set of discrete sounds (or gestures) that are combined to
form meaningful elements or words, which themselves form an infinite set of possible
sentences.
6. All grammars contain rules for the formation of words and sentences of a similar kind.
7. Every spoken language includes discrete sound segments, like p, n, or a, that can all be
defined by a finite set of sound properties or features. Every spoken language has a class of
vowels and a class of consonants.
8. Similar grammatical categories (for example, noun, verb) are found in all languages.
9. There are semantic universals, such as male or female, animate or human, found in
every language in the world.
10. Every language has a way of referring to past time, negating, forming questions, issuing
commands, and so on.

11. Speakers of all languages are capable of producing and comprehending an infinite set of
sentences.
12. Any normal child, born anywhere in the world, of any racial, geographical, social, or
economic heritage, is capable of learning any language to which he or she is exposed. The
differences we find among languages cant be due to biological reasons.
SUMMARY
grammar: descriptive (represents the unconscious linguistic knowledge or capacity of its speaker) =
mental describes the rules that are already known
- prescriptive (prescribes)
- teaching (written to help people learn a foreign language or a dialect of their own language)
Universal Grammar forms the basis of the specific grammars of all possible human languages
- a basic property of human language is its creative aspect a speakers ability to combine the basic
linguistic units to form an infinite set of well-formed grammatical sentences, most of which are
novel, never before produced or heard
sign language the ability to hear or produce sounds isnt a necessary prerequisite for language
learning