Some Fundamental Concepts And Distinctions In Linguistics Flashcards
Langue is ___, a set of conventions shared by all speakers of a language
Social
Parole is the ___ of language in speech or writing
Individual performance
Langue is ___ and these conventions exist in the minds of speakers in that society
Abstract
Parole is ___ and makes use of ___ like speech organs to form utterances.
Concrete, uses physiological mechanisms
Langue is the __ side of langauge. It maintains social order, relatively fixed
Legislative
Parole is the ___side and uses law ie Langue for its individual acts
Executive
According to Sassure, we can only study ___ because it is well defined and homogenous in the brain
Langue
According to Sassure, we cannot study parole as it is an___
Unpredictable mass of speech acts
Langue is signs with associations that can be converted into __ and studied
Written symbols
Individual acts of speaking ie Parole cannot be studied as they cannot be___
Accurately represented
How many differences between langue and Parole? Who gave langue and parole?
5, Sassure
Modern linguistics is based on some fundamental concepts which were explained in which century?
Beginning of 20th century
Most influential modern Linguists?(2 pts)
1) American school of structural anthropologists like Noam Chomsky and Leonard Bloomfield 2) European linguists like Sassure
Noam Chomsky made a similar dichotomy to Langue/Parole called ___
Competence/Perfomance
___ is the individual speakers mastery over rules of language (Chomsky)
Competence
____ is the production of sentences in real life situations( Chomsky)
Perfomance
Competence is ideal and gives a coherent picture of the language while…
Perfomance is difficult to be coherent
Difference between parole/langue and competence/performance is that…
Sassure emphasises social aspect while Chomsky emphasises individual psychology aspect
Chomskys competence is also based on the idea of ___ in humans that enables a person to internalise a language
Inbuilt language acquisition
Recently some sociolinguists regard dichotomies as unreal. They say langue and parole are interrelated ….why?(4pts)
1)Just like parole is not possible without langue, parole gradually brings changes to langue
2) Sassure himself said one can’t be studied without other( individual and social side of speech)
3) Parole has some predictable features in social contexts
4) it is easier to study parole now with audio and video recording
Sassure said __ is the central fact of language
Sign
A sign is a physical marker carrying information meaning something ___
Direct
Sign is opposed to ___ which contains information indirectly Eg Waving ones hand is a social sign but ___ of farewell, dismissal etc
Symbol, Symbolic of
Our entire culture is made up of signs with special meaning. The study of operation of signs in culture is ___
Semiotics
Linguistic signs consists of 2 parts:
Signifier and signified
Signifier is the __ and signified is the __
Word/sound and Object
Does the word tree intrinsically signify the object tree? Why?(2 pts)
No. 1)Because tree is represented by different words in different languages 2) the word represents the CONCEPT of the object in our minds
There is no logical reason why we choose a certain word to represent a concept. Therefore___
Relationship between signifier and signified is arbitrary
Sign is the relationship between _____&___
This relationship is established by society and is arbitrary.
Signifier and signified
A__ is built of several associative relationships between signifier and signified
Symbol
So, langauge is a system of _____ with complex relations between signifier and signified
Symbolic signs
WE say that language is structured and a system of systems. This means that it’s elements in structure are __
Interrelated
Interrelated elements in language structure form a __ at each level of structure Eg phonology
System
Who compares the structure of language to an orchestra?
Robins
The members of an orchestra are all related to each other by specific roles as orchestra players and as smaller groups within orchestra eg Violinists.
So each___
Performs his function by seeing his place in relation to others
Define structure(3 pts)– Therefore each part is a system.
An ordered composition of many parts, each part related to whole and also to other elements within it
Within each system, elements are selected and ___ in building up structure
Combined
In the selection process we select one element from among a class of ____(similar/different)
Similar elements
The relationship between those similar elements in same class are ___
Paradigmatic
In the combination process of elements, there is a linear sequence followed, this relation is called ___
Syntagmatic
(Syntagmatic and Paradigmatic) Each category has elements which are separate from elements in another category therefore___
Elements in each category can act as representative of that category
(Syntagmatic and Paradigmatic) Eg At the sound level there is a phonological ___(consisting of vowels and consonants) and a phonological ____( determining their combinations)
System, structure
Alphabets are raw material of a language as they are the ___(sound) and ___(written)substance
Phonic, graphic
Substance is the ___ or ___ as Sassure said.
Mere sound or word, ( Sassure ) signifier
Substance to make sense has to linked with the meaning of __
Signified; the concept
Sassure emphasises syntagmatic arrangement in language. Because?
Arrangement itself gives form to the substance of the language.
At one level of expression Linguistics deals with form alone, without taking into account meaning. Eg we get sentences like
The bachelor gave birth to a boy. ( Semantically wrong but grammar correct )
Form included both..
Grammar and semantics
Diachronic and synchronic are differences in
Approach to study of language
The synchronic approach sees langauge as a_ existing as a _at one particular time.
Living whole, state
Therefore to study language synchronically, samples of this language can be taken ___ regardless of history
As it exists presently
Diachronic approach traces ___ and records the changes that have taken place in language between certain points in time
Historical development
Sassure gives priority to_. Why?
Synchronic approach.
Because what strikes us first when we study language is the state of the language used by us at the given time.
If AB (sleeping line) is synchrony and CD( standing line) is diachrony, then_
AB can intersect CD at any point in time as there are number of simultaneous facts about language coexisting from history and present.
X is the point on CD( Diachrony, standing line) where…
The particular point in time can be isolated and that language described
Rules exist in language such that change affects only isolated elements. Only __ do changes affect whole language
Successively
Language should be described synchronically because…
At each point in time all parts of a language exist relative to one other and we cannot say what their ultimate fate will be at that point( chess analogy)
Sassure says that diachronic study conditions the language system, but still keeps the two studies apart to…
Avoid confusion
