结构主义

American structuralism
美国结构主义
作者姓名王德洁
专业英语
指导教师姓名郑众
专业技术职务
Contents
Abstract (1)
摘要 (2)
Introduction (3)
Chapter 1 Background (4)
Chapter 2 The Development (5)
2.1Early period：Boas and Sapir (5)
2.1.1Boas (5)
2.1.2Edward Sapir (5)
2.2The Bloomfieldian Period (5)
2.2.1L.Bloomfield (5)
2.3Post-Bloomfieldian Linguistics (6)
2.3.1Harris (6)
2.3.2Hockett (6)
2.3.3K.Pike (6)
Chapter 3 A Comparision with Traditional Grammar (7)
Chapter 4 A Comparision with Transformational-Generative Grammar (8)
Conclusion (10)
Bibliography (11)
Acknowledgements (12)
Abstract
American Structuralism is a branch of Synchronic Linguistics that emerged independently in the United States at the beginning of the 20th century.It developed in a very different style from that of Europe, under the leadership of the anthropologist F.Boas.
American Structualism’s development can be divided into three periods. Every period has its particular figures. The theories of them are diffirent from each other . But based on one fundation. Through these diffirences , we can point out a progress in the development of Sructualism.
Key words:structuralism; Synchronic Linguistics; anthropologist.
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摘要
美国结构主义是20世纪初独立诞生于美国的一个共时语言学分支。

它在人类学家博厄斯的领导下，形成的风格完全不同于欧洲传统。

美国结构主义的发展过程可以细分为三个阶段。

每一个阶段都有代表人物。

他们所持的观点不尽相同，但有着共同的基础。

通过这些差别，我们可以看到美国结构主义的发展过程。

关键词：美国结构主义共事语言学人类学家
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Introduction
Modern linguistics began from the Swiss linguist Ferdinand de Saussure(1857-1913), who is often described as “father of modern linguistics” and “a master of a discipline, which he made modern ”.
Then many theories and schools appeared. For example ,the Prague School, the London School,American Structualism and Transformational-Generative Grammar.
American Structualism emerged in the United States at the beginning of the 2oth century. Its style is totally different from European style.
Today American Structualism as a newborn school has developed rapidly and estabilished a complete system.
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Chapter 1Background
AMERICAN STRUCTUALISM which is also called American descriptive linguistis, is a branch of SYNCHRONIC LINGUISTICS that emerged independently in the United States at the beginning of the 20th century. It developed in a very different style from that of Europe, under the leadership of the anthropologist F.Boas.
The European linguistics started their research 2000 years before the Americans. The pioneers who took an interest in linguistics in American were anthropologist who found that “the indigenous languages of the American Indian were dying out rapidly and they felt the urgent need to record these languages.” The troditional grammar is infeasible to deal with the Native American Indian languages. So to record this kind of language seemed more suitable and then much discussion on “descriptive procedures” occurred.
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Chapter 2 The Development
—Three Periods of American Structualism
2.1Early period：Boas and Sapir
2.1.1Boas
As an anthropologist in North America, Boas worked as an organiser of a survey of many indigenous languages of Ameica north of Mexico. And finished Handbook of American Indian Languages. Starting from an anthropological view ,Boas regarded linguistics as a part of anthropology and failed to establish linguistics .
In the preface of his book Handbook of American Indian Languages. Starting,he emphasized that during the process of describing language, the linguists should try to “discovery , for ech language under study, its own particular grammatical structure” and “to develop descriptive categries appropriate to it ” but not impose the rules of other languages or traditional grammar on it.
Starting from an anthropological view, Boas regarded linguistics as part of anthropology and failed to establish linguistics as an independent branchi of science. But his basic theory ,his observation ,and his descriptive methods paved the way for American descriptive linguistic.
2.1.2Edward Sapir
Edward Sapir was also an eminent anthropological linguist. Sapir undertook the description of American Indian languages after Boas’s method .
His great contribution was sumed up in his book An Introduction to the Study of Speech. He started from an anthropological viewpoint to describe tha nature of language and its development.
In discussing the relations between speech and meaning,Sapir holds that the association of speech and meaning is a relation that may be ,but need not be,present. In discussing the relation between language and thought ,Sapir holds that although they are intimately telated, they are not to be considered the same. Language is the means, and thought is the end product: wiithout language, thought is impossible. He also insisted that , language is the oldest human legacy ,and no other aspects of any culture can be earlier than language. Without language,there is no culture.
2.2The Bloomfieldian Period
2.2.1L.Bloomfield
L.Bloomfield is the principal representitive of American descriptive linguistics.
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He is a landmark figure in the history of American linguistics that the period between 1933 and 1950 is known as Bloomfield Era, in which American descriptive linguistics formally came into being and reached its prime development.
His book Language was once held as the model of scientific methodology and the greatest work in linguistics in the 2oth century.
Bloomfield held three principles in his stimulous-response theory. The first one is :when one individual is stimulated ,his speech can make another individual react accodingly. The second one is :the division of labour and all human activities based on the division of labour are dependent on language. The third one is :the distance between the speaker and hearer ,two separate nervous system, is bridged up by sound waves. From this,Bloomfield put forward the well known formula:
S→r…s→R
Here S stands for practical stimulus ,r stands for the substitute reaction of speech, s stands for the substitute stimulous,and R stands for external practical reaction.
Bloomfield’s Language started American structualism as a school of thought. He is the founder of American Structualism.
2.3Post-Bloomfieldian Linguistics
2.3.1Harris
Harris formulated “a set of strict descriptive prodesures which took th e logic of distributional relations as the basic of structual analysis”,holding that the analysis of language should ba done without referring to the meaning. And he also gave the basic steps of the language analysis , which are “distribution and substitution”
2.3.2Hockett
Hockett’s A Course in Modern Linguistics is a well-known textbook in the American descriptive traditon. It contains and develops many of the insights gained from the work carried out within the structualist paradigm from the 1930s onwards. Hockett did not run after any “school”if linguistics,evidence of his being influenced by American linguistics,especially by Bloomfield ,can be found on every page.
2.3.3K.Pike
K.Pike may be the most significant figure in continuing the structualist tradition .
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Chapter 3 A Comparision with Traditional Grammar
The structualism focuses on “how words from and how those words are usd together to form larger structures”. Traditional grammar focuses on “the meaning of the collection of words portrayed”.
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Chapter 4 A Comparision with
Transformational-Generative Grammar
In the late 1950s,A.N.Chomsky, tried to open up a new route when he found that the classification of structual elements of language according to distribution and arrangement had its limitations. From this practice Chomsky gradually establishied the well-known Transformational-Generative Grammar.
TG Grammar was first founded within the framework of American Atructualism. Then Chomsky found that there was some limititions.Chomsky thought that Structualism hadn’t exlpained clearly the nature of language and some language phenomenons. So he put forward a hypothesis that there exit a grammar that could fit all kinds of languages. A generaltive grammar is not limited to particular languages,but to reveal the unity of particular grammars and universal grammars. It does not describe one language in the end ,but as a means to explore the universal rules in the hope of revealing human cognitive systems and the enssential nature of human beings.
The aims are diffirent. American Structualism pay more atttention to one single language. Acctually it has something to do with the situation the linguistic faces.
There also exits some diffirences in the methods.Contrary to Bl oomfield’s data-oriented discovery procedure,Chomsky insists on the Hypothesis-Deduction method and his research is called evaluation process. Thus ,TG method can not only describe the surface structure of a sentence, but also interpret the internal grammatical relationships within a sentence,getting closer to the truth of language than structualism.
Chomsky’s TG Grammar differs from the structual grammar in a number of ways . And the diffirences can be sumed up as followed.(1)rationalism;(2)innatencess;(3)deductive methodology;(4)emphesis on interpretation;(5)formalization;(6)emphasis on linguistic competence;(7)strong generative powers;(8)emphasis on linguistic universals.
First,Chomsky defines languages as a set of rules or principles . Second,Chomsky believes that the aim of linguistics is to produce a generative grammar which captures the tacit knowledge of the native speaker of his language. This concerns the question of learning theory and the question of linguistic universals. Third,Chomsky and his followers are interested in any data that can reveal the native
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speaker’s tacid knowledge. They seldom use what native speakers actually say ,they rely on their own intuition. Fourth ,Chomsky’s methodology is hypothesis-deductive, which operates at two levels:(a)the linguist formulates a hypothesis about language structure—a genera linguistic theory;this is tested by grammars for particular languages,and(b) each such grammar is hypothesis on the general linguistic theory. Finally ,Chomsky follows rationalism in philosophy and mentalism in psychology.
After TG Grammar theory rode in the late 1950s,the American Structualism,which is used to ba famous for its describing of the language had gradually lost its vital status and leading role. And to some extent has been forgotten.Its descriptive tradition is still worth learning and referring today for with its describing techniques, “languages we don't know or understand can be observed and described into terminology that we, as outsiders, can comprehend” (Romanine Suzanne 1994) And we all say that today the global is becoming a village but actually, to achieve this aim, we still need to do more jobs as there are so many kinds of languages in the world, which are a great obstacle. And for “within language lies communication, and within communication lies understanding of the world and the people around us” (Romanine Suzanne 1994), we should still look back at the American Structuralism’s classical theories and methods from now and then and make full use of it to get the basic data of varied languages to develop more serious linguistics theories and finally to sever our own life.
Conclusion
To summarize , structualismis based on the assumption that grammatical categories should be defined not in terms of meaning but in terms distribution,and that the structure of each language should be described without reference to the alleged university of such categories as tense ,mood and parts of speech.
Firstly ,structual grammar describes evething that is found in a language instead of laying down rules. However ,its aim is confined to the description of languages,without explaining why language operates the way it does.
Secondly, structual grammar is empirical,aiming at objectivity in the sense that all definitions and statesments should be verifiable or refutable. However , it has produced almost no complete grammars comparable to any comprehensive traditional grammars
Thirdly , structual grammar examines all languages,recognising and doing justice to the uniqueness of each language. But it does not give an adequate treatment of meaning.
Lastly ,structual grammar describes even the smallest contrasts that underlie any construction or use of a language, not only those discoverable in some particulat use.
Bibliography
[1]Dai Weidong and He Zhaoxiong, A New Concise Course in Linguistics for Students of English
[M]上海外语教育出版社2010,7
[2] Hu Zhuanglin, Linguistics [M] 北京大学出版社2006,9
Acknowledgements
At the end , I would like to thank my dear teacher, Mr.Zheng. I really enjoy and appreciate the study experience with Mr.Zheng.
Since I was a freshman , I learned Second Language Acquisition from Mr.Zheng.
I remembered clearly that at that time , I was very confused with this course. Actually it is a little difficult for me to acquire those knowledge.
At the beginning of this semester . I choose this course Schools of Linguistics which is taught by Mr.Zheng. I hope that I could make a new progress .
During the study this semester, I acknowledged that Linguistic has its own charm. And I become more and more interested in the study of linguistic and the schools of linguistic.。