Language Study - Structural and Descriptive linguistic

Question 1

Structuralism

Answer 1

• Idea that language is a structure of interrelated and interdepended elements
• 20th century

Question 2

Structural linguistic

Answer 2

• Emphasise synchronic study of language over diachronic
• Schools: The Geneva School, The Prague School, The Copenhagen School

Question 3

The Geneva School

Answer 3

Ferdinand de Saussure
- Father of modern structuralist approach to the study of language
- Introduced basic motions into linguistics such as arbitrariness, value, signifiant and signifé…
- Relationship between signifiant and signifé is arbitrary
- He considers language as an abstract social phenomenon - is actualized in the language behaviour of individual speaker

Question 4

The Prague School

Answer 4

Established in 1920s
Study of language sound system
focused on FOLE OF PHONEMES in distinguishing words
Founder: Nikolay S. Trubetzkoy

Question 5

S. Trubetzkoy

Answer 5

Set up the basis for the development of phonology
Theory of binary final logical oppositions

Question 6

Roman Jakobson

Answer 6

Developed Trubetzkoy’s theory of binary oppositions and applied it to the study of morphemes

Question 7

Vilém Mathesius

Answer 7

Established Prague Uni
Considered language as a system of expressive means manifested in actual communication and depended on non-linguistic factors
Introduced 2 stages of language description - functional onomatology and functional syntax

Question 8

Functional onomatology

Answer 8

1. Stage of language description
   Studies the naming units (basic units of word-formation) in which our thoughts are encoded.
   The elements that are denominated by language units are then mutually related in the sentence and constitue an utterance

Question 9

Functional Syntax

Answer 9

2. Stage of language description by Vilem Mathesius
   Studies the constitution and organisation of sentences

Question 10

The Copenhagen school

Answer 10

Group of scholars using an extreme form of structuralist approach to the study of language
- Hjemslev, Brondal
- Idea that language can be recognised only within its functions, because it is independed of the substance in which it is manifested

Question 11

The Descriptive linguistic

Answer 11

• Structural linguistics in the USA = American descriptivism
• Founded by: Edward Sapir, Franz Boas
• Concentrated on internal structure of language
• Split into two branches: 1. Distributionalism 2. Anthropological linguistics
  Bloomfield - one of the principal of distributionalism - our behaviour is conditioned by the enviroment we live in
  He tried to describe all the positions in which the language units occur and define their distribution