PEOPLE’S DEMOCRATIC REPUBLIC OF ALGERIA

MINISTRY OF HIGHER EDUCATION AND SCIENTIFIC RESEARCH

DJILLALI LIABES University of Sidi Bel-Abbes

Faculty of Languages, Letters and Arts
Department of English

2nd Year LMD English

Linguistics
All Groups
Instructor: Mrs. Daoudi Khadidja
daoudi221993@hotmail.com
Lecture 1
Modern Linguistics

Modern linguistics emerged almost simultaneously in Europe and the USA in the early decades of the

20th century. In Europe the study of language at the beginning of the 20th century was characterized by the

inherent shortcomings of traditional approaches to language study. Modern linguistics appeared as a kind of

revolt against this background. In 1916, De Saussure’s Cours de linguistique générale (Course in General

Linguistics) was published where the main ideas of structuralism were formulated.

Linguistics is descriptive, not prescriptive: It means that linguists describe the rules and facts of

language exactly as they find them without making judgments. They do not try to impose norms of

correctness and do not try to change the actual usage of the language of the native speakers. This contrasts

with the previous view of traditional grammar which was very strongly prescriptive.

De Saussure’s Theoretical Linguistic Concepts

a. Langue and Parole

Langue: is the language system which is shared by all the members of the speech community. Parole: is

the actual manifestation of language in speech or writing. In other words, Langue is a system in that it has a

large number of elements whereby meaning is created in the arrangements of its elements and the

consequent relationships between these arranged elements. Parole is the concrete use of the language, the

actual utterances. It is an external manifestation of langue. It is the usage of the system, but not the system.
 b. Signifier and signified

Signifier (signifiant): is the word given arbitrarily to the concept it defines. It is also referred to sound

image. It is different from one language to another. Signified (signifié): is the concept referred to. It is the

same in all language.

The bond between the signifier and signified is arbitrary. De Saussure says language is a symbolic

system based on pure or arbitrary conventions infinitely extendable and modifiable according to the

changing needs and conditions of the speakers. There is nothing in either the thing or the word that makes

the two go together, no natural, intrinsic, or logical relation between a particular sound image and a concept.

c. Synchronic and Diachronic views

Diachronic linguistics deals with the development of languages through time, the similarities and the

differences that exist between them, and the families they descend from. However, Synchronic linguistics is

the study of the state of a language at a given point in time.

Saussure focuses on synchronic linguistics, in contrast to diachronic linguistics, because in a diachronic

study people ignore the history of their language, whereas, in a synchronic study they can check the validity

of the statements by studying the utterances of living speakers. The twentieth century has known a shift from

historical linguistics to synchronic linguistics

d. Syntagmatic VS paradigmatic relations

The syntagmatic relationship is a horizontal relationship, which exists between the signs that follow one

another in a complex unit. For example, the four words in: This coffee is strong are in a syntagmatic

relationship: they are placed one after the other along the syntagmatic axis. The paradigmatic relationship

is a vertical relationship, which exists between a sign present in a particular environment and all the other

signs that could replace it while still yielding a well-formed complex unit. For instance, coffee in the above

sentence is in a paradigmatic relationship with tea, student, girl, wall, light…

Bloomfield’s Application Methodology

Even though de Saussure’s theoretical assumptions and postulated approach stimulated new interest in

descriptive linguistics, the starting point of linguistics as an autonomous, empirical and scientific discipline

truly began with the publication of Leonard Bloomfield’s book language (1933). This book was the first
coherent synthesis of both theory and application of linguistic analysis. Linguistics came to be seen as the

scientific study of data that is observable and physically measurable.

a. Behaviorism

Bloomfield adopted the behaviorist view, founded by J.B. Watson, to linguistic description, i.e. the study

of human behavior in observable stimulus-response situations. The connection between stimulus-response

can be illustrated using Bloomfield’s example

Jill is hungry, sees an apple. (S)

Jill asks Jack to pick up the apple.

Jack gets the apple for Jill. (R)

This situation can be divided into three main events:

1. Practical events preceding the act of speech (S)

2. Speech

3. Practical event following the act of speech (R)

The relevance of this mechanistic explanation for such symbolic process lies in developing an empirical

methodology to the description of language.

The meaning for Bloomfield was a weak point in linguistic theory. Bloomfield asked for the separation

between the study of grammar and the study of meaning. He also argued in favor of defining grammatical

categories wholly in terms of the form of the language, the actually observable features. Thus, formal

features, not meaning, should be the starting point of linguistic discussion.

References

http://seas3.elte.hu/coursematerial/VargaLaszlo/ICEL-2010.pdf

http://www.cscanada.net/index.php/sll/article/download/j.sll.1923156320130602.3131/4126