Professional Documents
Culture Documents
Session 3
Overview
Macro and Micro Linguistics
Linguistics
Contrastive analysis
Framework
Categories Models
Contrastive analysis
Contrastive Analysis
Goal: The examination of L2 Learning related to the field of psychology Means: The description of languages related to the field of linguistics
Macrolinguistics
Semantics: the study of meaning, changes in meaning and the principles that govern the relation ship between sentences or words and their meanings. Sociolinguistics: a descriptive study of the effects of any and all aspects of society on the way language is used and the effects of language used on society. Ethnomethodology: It refers to the analysis and interpretation of every spoken interaction Discourse Analysis: It is concerned with how we build up meaning in the larger communicative rather than grammatical units, meaning in a text, paragraph, conversation, etc rather than a single sentence. Speech-act Theory: an approach to the meaning of language which stresses the use made of language, rather than the literal meaning of the combined words. Emphasis what we do with language rather than what we say.
Focus of CA
Originally, the main emphasis of CA was on grammar and phonology for the obvious reason that the close systems of grammar and phonology lend themselves better to systematic CA then the more elusive areas of lexis and culture, but the general absence of contrastive lexical and cultural studies also reflected where the emphasis lay in linguistics in the old days.
Framework
Framework
Levels
Phonology Grammar
Lexis
Unit Structure Class System
Categories
Models
Levels of Language
Levels of Language
Level of phonology Level of lexis Level of morphology Level of syntax
Mixing Levels
Nowadays mixing is sometimes necessary to account for some fact of language.
Slow cars held up.
Steps in CA
1. Description 2. Juxtaposition for comparison Interlingual level shift
State where a lexical distinction in one language is expressed through another, say grammatical level in another language.
Poems vs. I agree vs.
I am agree with you
Categories of grammar
There are four categories : unit, structure, class and system. They are universal , that is they are necessary and sufficient as a basis for the description of any language.
Unit
The Units of grammar are:
1. 2. 3. 4. 5. Sentence Clause Phrase Words Morphemes
In CA a single sentence in L1 correspond on a one-to-one basis with a single sentence in L2. CA is concerned with the possibilities of maintaining 1:1 correspondence of units at ranks below sentence
Example
We can never go back again, that is certain
Sentence Clause Phrase Words Morpheme
English Persian
1 1
2 3
2 2
9 9
9 13
Structure
A structure is an arrangement of elements ordered in places (Halliday) He turned off the TV
subj + verb + indirect object
Class
There are restrictions on which units can operate at given places in structures These comprise shifts from one part of speech to another. An example is carelessly at first where the English verb changed into a noun in Farsi (
Structure
Each language allows its speaker choices from sets of elements which are not determined by the place which the element occupies in the structure. CHOICE: The selection of one particular term at one particular place on the chain in preference to another term or other terms which are also possible at that place Systems operate over the domains of units: systems of sentences, of clauses, of groups, of words and of morphemes.
Structure
These are shifts that take place when the SL and TL possess approximately corresponding systems but where the translation involves selection of a non-corresponding term in the TL system (Catford, 2000, p. 146). An example is the English histories where the Farsi translation is .
Contrasting units
Absolute correspondence
[m], [n], etc. : these phonemes exist in both English and Persian languages
Partial correspondence
there can be no partial correspondence at the units level: either the language possesses a unit, or not
Zero correspondence
[K] in English exists at the unit level it is a phoneme of the English language , whereas [X] exists as a phoneme in Persian but not in English
Contrasting classes
Absolute correspondence in word classes
Common nouns
Computer:
Partial correspondence
Faux amis Arabic: literature; Persian: politeness, good upbringing, for literature we say Arabic: university; Persian: society
that
Partial correspondence
I sat on a chair
that
Zero correspondence
Zero correspondence of branching diagrams is very rare in languages (confirms the universality thesis)