INTRODUCTION TO IMPORTANCE AND RELEVANCE OF LINGUISTIC THEORY

Prepared by: RUSTOM M. GATON

RELEVANCE

To understand current ideas, we need to know where they came from.

Can’t we just observe language and describe it without bothering with difficult things like
theories? The human mind always operates with some notion of the way the universe
works. The human mind finds it easier to understand things if we break it down into
smaller pieces

Language exists in people’s heads Language is ‘rules’ that we know: competence

You can observe what goes in and out of the box, but you can’t observe what goes on
inside which changes the input to the output –By studying the input and output we can
imagine what must be going on inside –Imagined processes = theory

American structuralism (C1900 – 1960) Transformational Grammar (1957 – 1964)

Standard Generative Theory (1964 – 1980) Government and Binding Theory
Generalised Phrase Structure Grammar Lexical Functional Grammar (1980 – present)
Minimalist Programme Optimality Theory (1993 – present)

We can only study what we can observe We can observe sound – So we can study
phonetics If we assume that phonology is based on phonetics, we can study phonology
too If we assume that morphology is based on phonology, we can study morphology If
we assume that syntax is based on morphology, we can study syntax We can’t study
semantics – leave that to philosophers

The unit of phonology (phoneme) is a collection of phones (observable) and

distinguished in terms of the distribution of phones –The unit of morphology
(morpheme) is a combination of phonemes and distinguished in terms of distribution –
The unit of syntax (word) is a combination of morphemes, distinguished by distribution

Rationalist approach –The mind exists and can be studied –Some knowledge comes
from the mind itself Discovery procedures are foolish and limiting –You get your data
from wherever you can find it (not limited to observable data – i.e. Intuition also
acceptable)

What is Linguistic Theory?

It is that branch of linguistics that is most concerned with developing models of linguistic
knowledge.
Articulatory phonetics analyses the movements of speech organs by which certain
sounds are produced. Auditory phonetics is concerned with the perception of speech
sounds through the ear (hence auditory), and begins with the anatomy of this organ in a
similar way to articulatory phonetics. Acoustic phonetics studies the physical aspects of
speech sounds.

Auditory phonetics is the branch of theoretical linguistics concerned with speech sounds
at a higher level than phonetics, i.e their structure and organisation in human
languages.

Acoustic phonetics is the study of word structure.

“A person who knows a language has mastered a system of rules that assigns sound
and meaning in a definite class of possible sentences.” - Noam Chomsky

Speakers of a language recognize the grammatical sentences of their language and

know how the words in a sentence must be ordered and grouped to convey a certain
meaning. All speakers are capable of producing and understanding an unlimited
number of new sentences that have never before been spoken or heard.

They also recognize ambiguities, know when different sentences mean the same thing,
and correctly interpret the grammatical relations in a sentence, such as subject and
direct object. This kind of knowledge comes from their knowledge of the rules of syntax.

The notion of structure stays –Words group into phrases –Phrases group into sentences
New type of rule for producing structure –S NP VP A set of such rules makes a
Phrase Structure Grammar –Grammar is a set of rules that are part of the mind

But phrase structure rules are not enough to describe human languages –Discontinuous
constituents [A man with blue eyes] walked into a shop [A man] walked into a shop [with
blue eyes] To describe this phenomena we need transformations –Rules which alter
structures to form other structures (e.g. By moving things about)

What does the grammar manipulate? – From structuralism we have always assumed
that words are the basis of syntax – But transformational analyses started to discover
that units smaller than words undergo syntactic processes: He is always sad He always
phones his mother – Some have suggested that this leads to a theory where syntax
always manipulates items smaller than the word and that words are constructed by
syntax

SOURCES

www.wikipedia.com Barker, Chris: Oxford Studies in Theoretical Linguistics; Oxford

University Press;2007. Chomsky, Noam Current Issues in Linguistic Theory. The
Hague: Mouton.1964 Fromkin, Victoria: Introduction to Linguistics: Cengage Leraning
Asia, 2010. Lyons, John: Introduction to Theoretical Linguistics; Cambridge University
Press; Melbourne, Australia; Digital Printing 2001.