Linguistics

The arbitrary nature of the sign means that there is no natural relationship between
signifier and signified, it is convention. Which means when there is a change in the
signifier, the signified does not change. For example, the word “casa” in Spanish,
“house” in English, in every country or place that has a speaking community, the sound
of the words is different (signifier) but the concept is still the same (signified).
The signifier is fixed, which means it is manipulated by the group of people that uses
it. This linguistic phenomenon is known as mutability. When the sign is able to change,
which means when it can adapt to the social and cultural environment. This
phenomenon ensures the language evolution through speech. There is another event,
diachronic, which means that the sign changes through time, this phenomenon allows
the evolution of language and its successions. Diachronic linguistics is the study of the
successions of a language through time, the changes in language, and its evolution.
This is a phenomenon that is very consistent in the present century with the rise of
globalization and new innovations that appears on a frequent basis.
On the other hand, the immutable (non-arbitrary), which means that the sign does
not change through time and it does not accept a linguistic change, which is within
synchrony. Synchrony means that the society is tied to the language. It does not accept
linguistic innovation. This persists because if there is a constant change within the
linguistic structure of a language, there would be chaos. The grammatical rules that
govern a language is not easily changeable. For example, the new inclusive language
within Spanish, if the Real Academia Española would have accepted the new changes
where there would be no gender form within the Spanish language. All the essence of
the Spanish language would disappear and there would be a whole new set of problems
to resolve which would take years to accomplish.

Contrastive linguistics
Contrastive linguistics is a subdiscipline of linguistics that studies the comparison of
two or more languages. It was associated primarily with language teaching. The
descriptive focus of contrastive linguistics is to provide a connection between theory and
application. It focuses on the use of the theoretical findings and models of language
description.
According to Mair (2018), contrastive linguistics is the theoretical, systematic and
synchronic comparison of two or more languages.

Bugarski (1991) cited by García (2002) defined contrastive linguistics as:

...the systematic synchronic study of similarities and differences in the structure and use
of two or more language varieties, carried out for theoretical or practical purposes.
 The comparison of languages has been in existence for a long time in the study of
linguistics. It reached its peak during the development of Indo-European studies in the
nineteenth century when languages where being compared to view their exact
relationships and the reconstruction of proto-language to see from where the languages
were derived. This branch of linguistics is called comparative philology or simply Indo-
European studies because of the emphasis on the languages in this major family.
In the twentieth century, the emphasis was on the structure of the synchronic
aspects of languages, linguists were interested in the comparison of the structures of
two present-day languages. Its focus was improving foreign language teaching, this in
turn was the birth of contrastive linguistics. Contrastive linguistics was synchronically
oriented, not concerned with the genetic similarities between languages, and the
comparison of only two languages.
Contrastive linguistics is restricted to just contrastive linguistic research, in
theoretical, which focuses on the contrastive description of the languages or cultures
involved and the application which serves the needs of a particular application. The
term contrastive linguistics was coined by Benjamin Lee Whorf in his article Languages
and Logic which was published in 1941.
The development of contrastive linguistics started in the 1940s and 1950s (Fries
1945; Lado 1957) as an independent discipline within the field of applied linguistics to
meet the new needs in foreign language teaching. Contrastive linguistics is also known
as contrastive analysis, contrastive studies or cross-linguistic studies. But there are
subtle differences between these terms.
It was Lado who first gave form to the observation of the teachers in which there is
an influence from the first language in the learning of a second language. He stated that
… individuals tend to transfer the forms and meanings and the distribution of forms and
meanings of their native language and culture to the foreign language and culture –
both productively and receptively … that we can predict and describe the patterns that
will cause difficulty in learning by comparing systematically the language and culture to
be learned with the native language and culture… (Lado 1957:2 cited by Hong 1980:22)

Around the 50s and 60s, it was gradually some disillusion towards contrastive
analysis, it might be because contrastive linguists had made exaggerated claims or
because educators had expected too much.
By the late 1970s, the results obtained were unreliable and did not differ much from
what a foreign language teacher could have foreseen on the basis of his daily practice.
Interests in contrastive linguistics returned in the 1990s when new electronic tools were
invented such as the computer; which brought the much need boost in this discipline.
With these new inventions, CL shifted from linguistic systems to more specific issues in
language use. Together with this new view in CL, it shifted from its traditional application
in foreign language teaching to the possible applications for translation.

There are two types of contrastive linguistics, theoretical contrastive linguistics and
applied contrastive linguistics. Applied contrastive linguistics has a direct aim which is
concerned with second language learning where the attempts are made at predicting
the difficulties in which speakers of a foreign language might have.

Contrastive linguistics and translation share the same objective, which is to study
how discourse are formed in one or two languages. Contrastive linguistics studies the
interlinguistic differences and similarities, while translation studies the differences and
similarities of two cultures and worlds which are different but similar at the same time.

Contrastive linguistics in translation

Although contrastive linguistics started out as a way in the study of foreign language
teaching, it has developed to be used in translation studies. At a practical level,
contrastive linguistics in useful to differentiate a term or phrase in direct translation
which would not be conveyed accurately in the target language with the same meaning
as the original language. At a global level, it lets the translator be able to take a broader
picture at the issues of the structure of the discourse to see if the same message is
being conveyed into the target language.

The study of two languages in contrast is known as contrastive analysis. Contrastive

analysis investigates the differences between pairs of languages with similar
backgrounds with the purpose of providing input to foreign language teaching and
translation studies.
Contrastive Analysis in Translation
Interlanguage

Its function is to study and analyse the correct and mistakes made during the
learning process. The study of interlingua appeared due to the necessity of finding
general principles which determines the learning process of a foreign language. The
discovery of the psycholinguistics processes which determines these general principles
provides the possibility to apply it in the selection, organization and sequence of the
didactic materials with the goal of optimizing the teaching process.

Bibliografia
Importance and uses of contrastive linguistics, StudyMoose, (8 de marzo, 2016)
Recuperado 8 de octubre de 2019 de https://studymoose.com/importance-and-uses-of-
contrastive-linguistics-essay
García N. 2002. Contrastive Linguistics and Translation Studies Interconnected: The
Corpus-based Approach. Recuperado 8 de octubre de 2019 de https://lans-
tts.uantwerpen.be/index.php7LANS-TTS/article/view/27/26