ENGL2653

Western theories of language

Second Semester 2016

Essay Topics

Please write a 2000-word essay on one of the following 31 topics. The word-limit is to
be strictly observed. The essay allows you to demonstrate the breadth of the extra reading
you have undertaken during the semester, and the seriousness with which you have
thought about the themes of the course. Both these factors will be reflected in the way the
essay is marked. The essay is worth 50% of your overall marks for the course.

The essay, which is to be submitted electronically to the assessment dropbox on

the course webpage, is due by 11.59 p.m. on Friday, October 21.

If illness or misadventure prevents you from writing or submitting your essay on

time, you should complete the online application form for extension or special
consideration. Further information on applying for special consideration is available
at http://sydney.edu.au/current_students/special_consideration/index.shtml.

Your essay should observe the conventions of scholarly writing, such as those
described in the English Department’s “Notes on the Presentation and Documentation of
Essays,” which you can find on the department’s website
(http://sydney.edu.au/arts/english/postgrad_research/essay_presentation.shtml). Some
additional notes are at the end of this document.

The essay topics are grouped into four sections. Section A relates to lectures 2–8
(Riemer); Section B to lectures 9–15 (Gardiner and Riemer); and Section C to lectures
17–24 (Riemer). Section D is a thematic section ranging over the course as a whole. Your
choice of essay topic will affect the questions available to you in the examination: you
will not be allowed to answer a question in the exam from the same section
on which you wrote your essay, even if they cover different topics.

SECTION A – Antiquity to Renaissance

1. What are the main problems with the view of language developed in the Cratylus?
Take the dialogue as a whole into consideration.

2. The Soviet semiotician V.N. Voloshinov has described European linguistic

thought as typically approaching language not as a living, social phenomenon, but
as a dead specimen to which the theorist is a complete outsider (Marxism and the
philosophy of language, p. 71). To what extent is this observation justified with
reference to classical and Medieval grammar?

3. What were the consequences of the philological character of ancient grammar for
the nature of the discipline in the classical period?

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4. Discuss the extent to which broader attitudes to education informed the nature of
grammatical study in the classical period, with particular reference to Quintilian’s
description of the grammatical education of the Roman pupil (Institutio Oratoria,
book I).

5. Discuss Sextus Empiricus’ critiques of grammar in Against the Grammarians. Which,

if any, still constitute serious objections to the grammatical enterprise, and which
reflect characteristics of ancient grammar which are no longer relevant? In your
answer, you must consider the whole of Sextus’ treatise.

6. Discuss attitudes to, and the relation between Latin and the vernacular in
Renaissance grammatical thought.

7. To what extent is Ben Jonson’s English grammar representative of contemporary

ideas about language and its structure?

8. Discuss Wilkins’ presentation of grammar in the Essay, with particular reference to

such questions as its conception of the subject, its rhetorical strategies, and its
characteristic modes of argument.

SECTION B — Enlightenment to Nineteenth century

9. Compare two of the following four writers’ arguments about the nature and
function of language. What theses do they propound; how do they defend their
theses; what evidence do they adduce, and how do they handle it? You may
confine yourself to the unit resource book excerpts from each writer, or not, as
you choose.
(a) John Locke
(b) Gottfried von Leibniz
(c) George Berkeley
(d) Wilhelm von Humboldt

10. Compare two of the following four writers’ arguments about the origin and
evolution of language. What theses do they propound; how do they defend their
theses; what evidence do they adduce, and how do they handle it? You may
confine yourself to the unit resource book excerpts from each writer, or not, as
you choose.
(a) Étienne Bonnot de Condillac
(b) Jean-Jacques Rousseau
(c) Johann Gottfried von Herder
(d) Jacob Grimm

11. Compare Joseph Addison and Samuel Johnson’s arguments about the character
and use of the English language. What theses do they propound; how do they
defend their theses; what evidence do they adduce, and how do they handle it?
You may confine yourself to the unit resource book excerpts from the two writers,
or not, as you choose.

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 SECTION C — Twentieth century

12. Compare two twentieth-century reference grammars in terms of their thinking

about language in general, English in particular, their structure, and the place of
written language. Notable grammars include:
Rodney D. Huddleston & Geoffrey K. Pullum, The Cambridge grammar of the
English language (Cambridge: Cambridge Univ. Press, 2002);
Jespersen’s multi-volume A modern English grammar on historical principles
(Copenhagen: Einar Munksgaard); and
Randolph Quirk & al, A Comprehensive grammar of the English language (9th
impression, rev. edn, London: Longman, 1991)

13. American structuralists (Bloomfield, Harris, etc.) set out to place linguistic theory
on a new, scientific footing. How successful were they? How radical a break was
the new movement from the received tradition of grammatical thought?

14. How can Saussure’s claim that ‘in la langue there are only differences without positive
terms’ be understood?

15. What becomes of the notion of meaning as traditionally understood after the
conceptual innovations of the Course in General Linguistics?

16. Describe and assess the main innovations Vološinov brings to the analysis of
language in Marxism and the Philosophy of Language.

17. ‘We speak only in definite speech genres, that is, all our utterances have definite
and relatively stable typical forms of construction of the whole.’ (Bakhtin, ‘The
Problem of Speech Genres’, p. 78). The fact that speech only exists in generic
forms is stated rather than demonstrated by Bakhtin in this essay. How defensible
is Bakhtin’s statement? What issues does it raise? You may also refer to
Vološinov in your answer.

18. Discuss the connections between Vološinov/Bakhtin’s ideas about language and
their conceptualization of the relation of individual to society.

19. According to Vološinov, ‘the task of understanding does not basically amount to
recognizing the form used, but rather to understanding it in a particular utterance,
i.e., it amounts to understanding its novelty and not to recognizing its identity’
(MPL, p. 68). Assess the validity of this statement, and discuss its place within the
broader vision of language sketched in MPL.

20. The contrast between grammatical and ungrammatical sentences is crucial for
Chomsky’s generative grammar. Discuss the grounds of this distinction as
presented in Aspects of the Theory of Syntax, its difference from the contrast between
acceptable and unacceptable sentences, and possible criticisms of it.

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21. How successful, in your view, is Chomsky’s attempt to interpret the theory of
grammar as an investigation of a human biological capacity?

22. “Linguistic analysis must be polysystemic. For any given language there is no
coherent system which can handle and state all the facts.” – Firth, ‘Linguistic
analysis as a study of meaning’.

Consider how twentieth century grammarians respond to the fact that, in Edward
Sapir’s terms, all grammars “leak.” What does this leakage tell us about the nature
of the subject?

23. Discuss how different understandings of psychology have influenced grammatical

theory and description in the twentieth century.

SECTION D — Thematic questions

24. In 1970, John Lyons wrote of Chomsky:

It is appropriate, and symbolic of his position and influence, that the

institution in which Chomsky carries out his research into the structure of
language and the properties of the human mind should be that citadel of
modern science, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, but that the
views he expresses in summarizing his research should be those more
characteristic of the humanities department of a traditional university. The
contradiction is only apparent. For Chomsky’s work suggests that the
conventional boundary that exists between ‘arts’ and ‘science’ can, and
should, be abolished. (John Lyons, Chomsky. London: Fontana / Collins,
1970, p.15.)

Argue for or against the position that linguistic theory provides support for
abolishing “the conventional boundary that exists between ‘arts’ and ‘science’,”
illustrating your argument with material discussing language from the eighteenth,
nineteenth and twentieth centuries.

25. “Between the middle of the twelfth century and the middle of the thirteenth,
grammarians’ conception of what they were doing underwent a radical change.
Even for a philosophical grammarian as sophisticated as William of Conches,
grammar was an ars whose primary aim was to teach people to write better Latin;
but within a century afterward, grammar had been reclassified as a theoretical
science on a level with physics and mathematics.”
Michael A. Covington, Syntactic Theory in the High Middle Ages (Cambridge:
Cambridge Univ. Press, 1984) p. 19

Grammatical study has always fluctuated between a theoretical and a practical

orientation, between the pure and the applied poles. Discuss this contrast with
reference to grammatical theory between the Renaissance and the end of the
nineteenth century.

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26. What consequences did the importation of Latin grammatical categories have for
the nature of English grammatical thought from the Renaissance onwards?

27. Discuss the conception of the parts of speech in at least three grammarians from
three different centuries. What considerations have influenced their theories?

28. In what ways has grammar been influenced by philosophy? Discuss three different
thinkers from two different centuries.

29. Discuss the relation between authority and reason as grounds for grammarians’
justification of their own expertise, either explicit or implicit. Consider at least
three different grammarians from three different centuries.

30. How children acquire language has been of interest to many writers on the nature
of language. Discuss with respect to at least three writers on language, linguists, or
grammarians, from at least two different centuries.

31. Discuss the interrelation between prescriptive and descriptive aspects of

grammatical theorizing in at least three different writers from three different
centuries.

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 Some general notes on writing essays

Essay writing requires careful thought and planning, and detailed attention to expression.
There’s no one way to write a good essay, but they all require time, preparation, and
reflection. Here are some notes that may help.

Interpreting the question

Make sure you don’t misinterpret the question. You need to decide what the essay is
asking you to do. This should be clear from the question itself. In some cases you may
want to state your interpretation of the question in the first paragraph.

Structure of the argument

The structure of your essay, the clarity of its arrangement on every level (sentence,
paragraph, section), and the logicality of its progression are major aspects of its success.
Apart from showing that you’ve understood the basic issues and that you have an
appreciation of the course’s general thrust, you need to present your ideas in an orderly
and clear way. Writing simply is a good way to bring order and clarity to your work on
the sentence level. Try to put yourself into the reader’s shoes. Make sure that you would
understand what you have written if you were reading it for the first time. Ask yourself
whether you have expressed the intended meaning as clearly as you could. Have you
chosen the simplest possible words and phrasing? On the level of the essay as a whole,
don’t hesitate to divide your argument into different subsections with separate headings:
this is often a good way to structure the content. Make sure the reader knows why you’re
making every point. Don’t oblige them to guess about what a particular paragraph is
doing – tell them. The more explicit you are, the more the reader will realize what you’re
trying to accomplish in each paragraph. Don’t just make a point and hope that the
reader will get it. Introduce the point, make it, and then summarize it. This sounds as
though it will make the essay clunky and inelegant, but that’s not the case: adopting this
sort of style makes the essay flow.

Fact and opinion

People sometimes ask whether essays are about their own opinion on the question. The
answer is ‘yes and no’. It’s ‘yes’ because we want you to reach an independent position.
We’re looking for evidence of original, independent thought, not simply the reproduction
of whatever you find in the readings. It’s ‘no’ because your opinion isn’t enough on its
own. You need to convince the reader that your opinion is a good one to have: you need to
back your opinion up with considerations that can persuade the reader of its soundness.
The answer is also ‘no’ because we’re interested in a balanced assessment of the issue
you’re discussing, the shape of which isn’t simply dictated by your own opinions or
interests. You should approach the topic from as a neutral point of view as possible,
weighing the pros and cons of various positions, and adopting an open-minded attitude to
where the truth lies.

Style and expression

You are expected to observe the ordinary conventions of scholarly writing, as detailed in
the department’s ‘Notes on the Presentation and Documentation of Essays’, available on
the department’s webpage. We often find that people’s writing style is better in exam
answers than it is in essays submitted during the semester. This is because the time

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pressure of an exam leads to a simpler and more direct form of expression which is easier
for the reader to understand. The process of revision and planning that goes into an
essay can often overcomplicate the writing style. So you should make sure that you have
phrased your sentences in the clearest and simplest way to express the meaning you’re
intending. The ideas shouldn’t be simple, but the writing style should be. In particular, pay
attention to the structure of your sentences, and to your choice of vocabulary. Avoid over-
long sentences and unnecessarily complex words. The simpler your language, the more
assured you can be that it expresses your meaning accurately, and the likelier it is that the
reader will follow you.

The university has developed a special website to help you improve your essay writing:
<http://writesite.elearn.usyd.edu.au>. If you have problems with your writing, it’d be
an excellent idea to look at this site.

Referencing
When you quote, you must reference the quotation in a footnote or in the text itself using
the ‘(year: page)’ system. Obviously the extent to which references are needed requires
judgement. You don’t need to refer to Dionysius Thrax every time you mention the term
‘grammar’. But if you’re attributing a point of view to an author, rather than simply
mentioning a term, you do need to refer to the part of their work which you have in
mind. So if you happen to claim, for instance, that ‘Chomsky has asserted that languages
are fundamentally the same’, you need to refer to the part of Chomsky’s writings from
which you have drawn this conclusion. References also need to be as specific as possible:
include page numbers where it’s relevant to do so.

How the essay is assessed

Some important criteria on which the essay will be assessed are these:

• The essay should show evidence of careful, independent and original thought
about the subject. It’s not enough to just reproduce others’ ideas; you need to
justify and argue for them yourself.
• The essay should be informed by a genuine engagement with the secondary
literature. You are meant to have been doing reading from the secondary reading
listed in the course reader; in the essay you should make it obvious that this has
been the case. This means you need to seek out secondary material that’s relevant
to the question you’re answering and engage with it in the body of the essay. It’s
not enough simply to have a bibliography bristling with references: you need to
have used the secondary material in the essay itself.
• The essay should be clearly written.
• It should be logical and well structured.

You should also consult the English department’s ‘Guide to the interpretation of grades’,
available on the departmental webpage
(http://sydney.edu.au/arts/english/postgrad_research/grades.shtml).

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