structralism

7/30/2019 structralism

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Structuralism(De Saussure, F . / Bloomfield, L. et alii).

UNIVERSIDAD PEDAGGICA EXPERIMENTAL LIBERTADORINSTITUTO PEDAGGICO CARACAS

VICERRECTORADO DE INVESTIGACIN Y POSTGRADO

COORDINACIN NACIONAL DE POSTGRADOMaestra en Enseanza del Ingls como Lengua Extranjera

Prof. Hctor Escalona


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Structuralism

European1920s

North American

1930s 1960s


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Linguists tried to reconstruct

dead languages on the basis

of the similarities that were

found to exist between

languages thought to be

related historically to those

dead languages.

In short, during the 19th centuryscholars in linguistics worked from ahistorical, diachronic, perspective.


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European Structuralism

Ferdinand de Saussure

1857 - 1913

De Saussure was not satisfied

with the historical comparison

of language. He stated that

such comparison only

answered where a language

comes from, but not what

language is.
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Main tenets

1) Language has a structure

2) Language is a system of sings

3) Language operates at two levels:langueand parole



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1) Language has a structure

Language is a structure in

which each elements interact.


Main tenets
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2) Language is a system of signs

Noise is language only when

it expresses or communicatesideas.


Main tenets
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Signified Signifier

Physical dimension of language

Sign

Car

/ka:r/



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Langue

The abstract system

Parole


Actual speech

Main tenets


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North American Structuralism

Beginning: a group of

anthropologists describing

fast-disappearing American-

Indian tribes.

They found that there was nomethodology for them to

follow in order to describe

these languages.


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A new step in the American

Structuralism

Leonard Bloomfield

1887-1949

NA Structuralism centers in

what people actually say



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1) Linguistics is a descriptive science.

2) The primary form of language is the spoken one.

3) Every language is a system on its own right.

4) Language is a system in which smaller units arrange systematicallyto form larger ones.

5) Meaning should not be part of linguistic analysis.

6) The procedures to determine the units in language should beobjective and rigorous.

7) Language is observable speech, not knowledge.

Main tenets


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1) Linguistics is a descriptive science.

Describe what people say, not

what people should say.


Main tenets


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2) The primary form of language is the spoken one.Reasons:

1) Not every language has a

written form.

2) Everybody learns an oral

language.

3) The spoken form comes

first than the written one.


Main tenets


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3) Every language is a system on its own right.

Language should not be

described in terms of another

language, but rather, it should

be described on its own terms.


Main tenets


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4) Language is a system in which smaller unitsarrange systematically to form larger ones.

These linguists proposed a

procedure in which they

began analyzing the smallestunits and classifying them,

and describing the patterns

into which they combined to

form larger units.

/l/

[lang-gwI ]

Language is a system


Main tenets


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5) Meaning should not be part of linguistic analysis.

Bloomfield and many other

structuralism followers

consider meaning as abstractand unobservable, therefore,

unscientific.

Prato?


Main tenets


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6) The procedures to determine the units in

language should be objective and rigorous.

NA Structuralism rejected

traditional definitions of, for

example, a noun as the wordthat refers to persons, animals

or things (definition based

on meaning).


Main tenets


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6) The procedures to determine the units in

language should be objective and rigorous.


In this respect, they providetwo observable criteria for

defying the items of language:

Form and Distribution.

Main tenets


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7) Language is observable speech, not knowledge.

Langue and parole were rejected as

unscientific abstractions. The main

objective would be to make a taxonomyof language based on observable samples

of speech (corpus/corpora)

Phonemes-morphemes-sentences patterns.

Main tenets


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Thanks

REPBLICA BOLIVARIANA DE VENEZUELAUNIVERSIDAD PEDAGGICA EXPERIMENTAL LIBERTADOR

INSTITUTO PEDAGGICO CARACASVICERRECTORADO DE INVESTIGACIN Y POSTGRADO

COORDINACIN NACIONAL DE POSTGRADOMaestra en Enseanza del Ingls como Lengua Extranjera

Prof. Hctor Escalona


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Aitchison, J. (1978). Linguistics. London: Hodder and Stoughton. Chomsky, N. (1959). Review of B.F. Skinner, Verbal behavior. Language. 35: 26-57. --------------- (1965). Aspects of the theory of syntax. Cambridge, Mass.: The MIT Press. --------------- (1966-1973) Linguistic theory. In Oller J. and J. Richard (eds.) Focus on the

Learner. Rowley, Mass.:Newbury House. Culler, J. (1976). Ferdinand de Saussure. London : Penguin Books.

Department of Linguistics. The Ohio State University (1972). Language Files.Reinoldsburg, Ohio: Advocate Publishing Group. Halliday, M.A.K. (1973). Explorations in the functions of language. London: Edward Arnold. Hymes, D. (1971/1979). On communicative competence. In Brumfit, C. and K. Johnson

(eds.) The communicative approach to language teaching. Oxford: Oxford UniversityPress.

Lyons, J. (1968). Introduction to theoretical linguistics. Cambridge: Cambridge UniversityPress.

Mackey, W. (1966/1973). Language didactics and applied linguistics. In J. Oller and J.Richard (eds). Focus on the learner. Rowley, Mass.: Newbury House. OGrady, W., M. Dobrovolsky and M. Aronoff. (1989). Contemporary linguistics: an

introduction. New York: St. Martins Press. De Saussure, F.

References


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Structuralism

Let us discus these questions together:

1) How Structuralism, Functionalism andGenerativism have contribute to our presentunderstanding of language?

2) Why havent the questions what is language

and how does language workhavent beencompletely answered?

3) In which aspects European and NorthAmerican Structuralism meet and differ?

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structralism