Introduction to Linguistics, Autumn 2019
Week 13, Session 12      Thursday, December 12
Prague school of linguistics;
structuralism, functionalism


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AGENA     GAGENDA TODAY:
tomkat


•Remind me when you‘re too tired – we‘ll sing
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•Predecessors of structuralism:
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•Comparative and historical grammars of the 19th century
•Turn of the 19th and 20th centuries:
•     natural sciences, geograhy, dialectology, psychology, sociology, aesthetic
•       idealism, the schools of Kazan and Moscow, “the lonely American“
•       W.D. Whitney
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Structural Linguistics
•Parallel beginnings at Geneva, Prague, later Copenhagen. •Other structural approaches: Kurylowicz
(Poland), Guillaume and Martinet (France), the U.S.S.R., Halliday and the British School, American
Structuralism (=Descriptivism)

GROUNDWORKS
•Cours de linguistique générale (F. de Saussure 1916)
•     language=structure=an underlying formal system of mutually related
•        forms=langue x realization of this system in the actual act of
•        speech=parole
•        new discipline of semiotics
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•On the potentiality of the phenomena of language (V. Mathesius, 1911)
•       synchronic oscillation; functional approach (speaker‘s intention and
•       listener‘s understanding

The Prague School of Linguistics
•Classical period: 1926-1939
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•Members: Vilém Mathesius, Roman Jacobson, Bohuslav Havránek, Jan Mukařovský, Vladimír Skalička,
Bohumil Trnka, Nikolai Trubetskoy, Josef Vachek (mention prof. Garvin)

Followers
•Jan Firbas
•Josef Hladký
•Libuše Dušková
•Ludmila Urbanová
•Jana Chamonikolasová

Key concepts
•Analytical comparison
•Automatisation (habitualisation) versus foregrounding
•Communicative dynamism, theme, rheme
•Distinctive features of phonemes
•FSP
•Markedness
•Binary oppositions

Key theses
• Language like any other activity is goal-oriented. Whether we analyse language as expression or
communication, the speaker‘s intention is the most evident and most natural explanation. In
liguistic analysis, therefore, one should adopt the functional perspective. From the functional
point of view, language is a system of goal-oriented means of expression. No linguistic phenomenon
can be understood without regard  to the system to which it belongs.
•An important factor in the stratification of language is the relationship among the interlocutors:
the degree of their social cohesion, their professional, territorial, and familial connections, and
also their membership in multiple collectivities, as expressed in the mixture of linguistic systems
in the language of cities.
•Preceded Pragmatics, Sociolinguistics, Semantics, Dialectology…
•and will never be outdated.

THE 12 DAYS OF CHRISTMAS



THANK YOU FOR YOUR KIND ATTENTION, Merry Christmas <3



QUESTION TIME…
•If you don´t ask, I will!


QUESTIONS
•Q1: Why doesn´t a student´s speaking performance always reflect their extensive listening
experience?
•Q2: Is it always an advantage to present in your mother tongue? What are the perks (if any) of
being a non-native speaker of E presenting in E?
•Q3: Does posture and obvious breaking of rules really matter?