The study of Language
Nineteenth century: historical linguistics
1786 is the year which many people regard as the birthdate
of the linguistics. On 27th of September, 1786, an Englishman, Sir
William Jones, read a paper to the Royal Asiatic Society In Calcutta pointing
out that Sanskrit, Greek , Latin, Celtic and Germanic all had striking
structural similarities. It was an
important step forward for linguistics to realize that language changes were
not just optional tendencies, but definite and clearly stateable ‘laws’.
Early to-mid-20th
century: descriptive linguistics
In the 20th century, the emphasis shifted
from language change to language description. If any person can be held responsible for this
change of emphasis, it was the Swiss scholar Ferdinand de Saussure. De Saussure’s crucial contribution was his
explicit and reiterated statement that al language items are essentially
interlinked. His insistence than
language is a carefully built structure of interwoven elements initiated the
era of structural linguistics. All linguistics since de Saussure is structural,
as ‘structural’ in this broad sense merely means the recognition that language
is a patterned system composed if interdependent elements, rather than a
collection of unconnected individual items.
Mid- to late-20th
century: generative linguistics and the search for universals
In 1957, linguistics took a new turning. Noam Chomsky,
published a book called Syntactic structure. Chomsky point out that anyone who knows a
language must have internalized a set of rules which specify the sequence
permitted in their language. A grammar
which consist in a set of statements or rules which specify which sequence of a
language are possible, and which impossible, is a generative grammar.
Applied Linguistics and
Linguistics
Generative linguistics
Chomsky’s second work presented the theory known as
“standard theory” were he explained for first time the terms competence and
performance, and other terms. Finally he
argued that his theory had a psychological reality. The claim of a
psychological reality, proposed in the early 1960s, provided a strong impetus
for the field of psycholinguistics.
Current Generative Theory
The idea of Chomsky was to create a grammar capable to
be teaches to adults and children. In
1979 Chomsky departed from the revived extended standard theory (REST) in a
series of lecture known as government-and-biding” (CB) that was first presented
in Lectures on government and binding (1981).
Descriptive Syntax
Much linguistics contributed to the development of
sociolinguistic. Sociolinguistic
research comparing oral and written varieties of language make extensive use of
descriptive grammar. Lexicographer and
grammarians base their dictionaries and reference grammars on the results of
corpus data base, particularly in England.
Functional and typological
theories
The most consistent proponent of a functional grammar
one which explains its central role in communication and its adaptation to this
purpose is Holiday’s systemic functional theory. For holiday, each language elements chosen
plays a meaningful role in furthering communication in that its choice
represents a binary decision not to say something else. Other functional theories whit less applied
concerns have developed in the 1970s as researchers, many of whom were trained
in generative linguistics, became discouraged by the absence of discourse
influences and the abstraction away from communicative function of language by
formal generative theories. These
researchers study how language differ from one another, what generalization may
be made cross-linguistically based on the data analyzed, and how universal
statements about language structure may be derived from the patterns of
typological variation. This approach is
not to be equated with Chomsky’s universal grammar perspective.
While groups of functionalist linguistics were
concerned about the discourse, their interest lies primarily in examining how
discourse exerts influence on the shape and frequency of occurrence of
syntactic construction in various contexts. Also final group was concerned in examine how
language is used in term of its pragmatic function.
Anthropological Linguistics and
Sociolinguistics
The anthropological linguistics grounded in European
structuralism and influenced by Sapir’s later work, expanded their research
interests to include the study of discourse uses of language in various social
contexts, as well as the study of language changes resulting from contact among
language and dialects.
The sociolinguistics derived from the reactions of
Hymes and other to Chomsky’s notion of competence and performance in the
1960s. Hymes proposed that real object
of linguistic research should be the study of communicative competence. By the mid-1970s sociolinguistics was
recognized as a major alternative discipline to ‘formal’ approaches to
linguistics.
Linguistic research and applied
linguistics
The descriptive researchers make use of
sociolinguistics research to explain stylistic variation in their corpus
data. Tagmemic theory was also among the
few approaches that stressed the importance of discourse analysis, having an
impact on America rhetorical theory and the teaching of composition at the
tertiary level.
Phonetics and Phonology
It is the more traditional articulatory phonetics and
phonology that still make the greatest contribution to applied
linguistics. The traditional
articulatory approach is still the basis for most discussion of pronunciation
and oral language instruction generally in second-language context.
Morphology
Applied-linguistics research on lexicography,
terminology development, second-language acquisition, and language teaching is
still employing descriptive approaches that have been in use for some time.
Syntax
The descriptive syntax texts have been used for
grammar course and for resource references in language policy and
planning-particularly in the development of language standards in school, in
second-language acquisition, in discourse analysis, in computational stylistics
and in lexicography.
Semantic and Pragmatics
Researches in second-language acquisition and
lexicography have both used lexical semantics as a resource for research on how
words may be related, and on how they differ in various ways. Therese same
concerns become important issues in vocabulary development as well, in both the
learning of language arts and the teaching of second language. Pragmatic, a historical development out of
semantics has had a much greater impact on applied linguistics, primarily
because the issues raised and the theories developed directly inform discourse
analysis. While pragmatics can take on
formal characteristics, many interpretations of pragmatics amount to an
exploration of the uses of language in discourse context and the study of the
intentions of speakers underlying the literal message.
Sociolinguistics and Discourse
Analysis
Other direct contributions from the sociolinguistics
to applied- linguistics research include the fields of conversational analysis
and conversational style. Conversation
analysis include research on interactional structure such as turn-taking, topic
initiation, conversation closing, etc., all of which would come under the
heading of ethnomethodology. The basic
premier of this research is that most of which are difficult to observe except
when communication breaks down for some reason.
