Transcript The Linguistics of CA

The Linguistics of CA
Session 3
Overview
Linguistics
Macro and Micro
Linguistics
Contrastive
analysis
Goal
Mean
Levels
Framework
Categories
Models
Contrastive analysis
• Contrastive Analysis
– Goal: The examination of L2 Learning – related to the field of
psychology
– Means: The description of languages – related to the field of linguistics
Microlinguistics vs. Macrolinguistics
• According to the microlinguistic view, languages should be
analyzed for their own sake and without reference to their
social function, to the manner in which they are acquired by
children, to the psychological mechanisms that underlie the
production and reception of speech, to the literary and the
aesthetic or communicative function of language, and so on.
• In contrast, macrolinguistics embraces all of these aspects of
language. Various areas within macrolinguistics have been
given terminological recognition: psycholinguistics,
sociolinguistics, anthropological linguistics, dialectology,
mathematical and computational linguistics, and stylistics.
Macrolinguistics
• Semantics: the study of meaning, changes in meaning and the principles
that govern the relation ship between sentences or words and their
meanings.
• Sociolinguistics: a descriptive study of the effects of any and all aspects of
society on the way language is used and the effects of language used on
society.
• Ethnomethodology: It refers to the analysis and interpretation of every
spoken interaction
• Discourse Analysis: It is concerned with how we build up “meaning” in the
larger communicative rather than grammatical units, meaning in a text,
paragraph, conversation, etc rather than a single sentence.
• Speech-act Theory: an approach to the meaning of language which
stresses the use made of language, rather than the literal meaning of the
combined words. Emphasis what we do with language rather than what
we say.
Focus of CA
• Originally, the main emphasis of CA was on grammar and
phonology for the obvious reason that the close systems of
grammar and phonology lend themselves better to systematic
CA then the more elusive areas of lexis and culture, but the
general absence of contrastive lexical and cultural studies also
reflected where the emphasis lay in linguistics in the old days.
Framework
Framework
Levels
Phonology
Grammar
Lexis
Categories
Unit
Structure
Class
System
Models
Structural or Taxonomic
Transformational generative
Contrastive generative
Case
Levels of Language
• Levels of Language
–
–
–
–
Level of phonology
Level of lexis
Level of morphology
Level of syntax
• Procedure for description of levels
– Phonology, then morphology, and then syntax
• Mixing Levels
– Nowadays mixing is sometimes necessary to account for some fact of
language.
• Slow cars held up.
Steps in CA
1. Description
2. Juxtaposition for comparison
• Interlingual level shift
– State where a lexical distinction in one language is expressed through
another, say grammatical level in another language.
• Poems vs. ‫شعر‬
• I agree vs. ‫من موافقم‬
– I am agree with you
Categories of grammar
• There are four categories : unit, structure, class and system.
• They are universal , that is they are necessary and sufficient
as a basis for the description of any language.
Unit
• The Units of grammar are:
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
Sentence
Clause
Phrase
Words
Morphemes
• In CA a single sentence in L1 correspond on a one-to-one basis
with a single sentence in L2.
• CA is concerned with the possibilities of maintaining 1:1
correspondence of units at ranks below sentence
Example
• We can never go back again, that is certain
‫• حقیقت مسلم اینست که ما هرگز دیگر نمیتوانیم برگردیم‬
Sentence
Clause
Phrase
Words
Morpheme
English
1
2
2
9
9
Persian
1
3
2
9
13
Structure
• A structure is an arrangement of elements ordered in “places”
(Halliday)
• He turned off the TV
– subj + verb + indirect object
‫• تلویزیون را خاموش کرد‬
• Object + prep. + verb + subj.
Class
• There are restrictions on which units can operate at given
places in structures
• These comprise shifts from one part of speech to another.
• An example is “carelessly at first” where the English verb
changed into a noun in Farsi (‫ابتدا به آن توجهی نداشت‬
Structure
• Each language allows its speaker choices from sets of
elements which are not determined by the place which the
element occupies in the structure.
• CHOICE: “The selection of one particular term at one
particular place on the chain in preference to another term or
other terms which are also possible at that place”
• Systems operate over the domains of units: systems of
sentences, of clauses, of groups, of words and of morphemes.
Structure
• These are shifts that take place when the SL and TL possess
approximately corresponding systems but where “the
translation involves selection of a non-corresponding term in
the TL system” (Catford, 2000, p. 146).
• An example is the English “histories” where the Farsi
translation is ‫سابقه‬.
Microlinguistics - Comparing elements of
language systems
• Systemic contrasting implies :
–
–
–
–
Contrasting units
Contrasting classes
Contrasting structures
Contrasting systems
Contrasting units
• Absolute correspondence
– [m], [n], etc. : these phonemes exist in both English and Persian
languages
• Partial correspondence
– there can be no partial correspondence at the units level: either the
language possesses a unit, or not
• Zero correspondence
– [K] in English exists at the unit level – it is a phoneme of the English
language , whereas [X] exists as a phoneme in Persian but not in
English
Contrasting classes
• Absolute correspondence in word classes
– Common nouns
• Computer:‫کامپوتر‬
• Partial correspondence
– Faux amis
– ‫ادب‬Arabic: literature; Persian: politeness, good upbringing, for
literature we say ‫ادبیات‬
– ‫جامعه‬Arabic: university; Persian: society
• Zero correspondence : article system in English/Persian
Structures - Absolute correspondence
• I sat on a chair
that
‫• من نشستم روی آن صندلی‬
Partial correspondence
• I sat on a chair
that
‫• من روی آن صندلی نشستم‬
Zero correspondence
• Zero correspondence of branching diagrams is very rare in
languages (confirms the universality thesis)