语言学概论 - 图文(7)

语言学讲义

time, it is called synchronic linguistics. When we study language developments through time, it is called diachronic or historical linguistics. Synchronic linguistics focuses on the state of language at any points in history while diachronic linguistics focuses on the differences in two or more than two states of language over decades or centuries. Saussure’s DIACHRONIC linguistics is the study of a language through the course of its history. In modern linguistics, synchronic study seems to enjoy priority over diachronic study.

3.Langue vs. Parole (语言与言语)

The Swiss linguist F. de Saussure in the early 20th century distinguished the linguistic competence of the speaker and the actual phenomena or data of linguistics (utterances) as langue and parole. Langue

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语言学讲义

refers to the abstract linguistic system shared by all the members of a speech community. Parole refers to particular realizations of langue.

4.Competence vs. Performance (语言能力与语言应用)

Similar to Saussure’s distinction between langue and parole is the distinction between competence and performance, which was proposed by the American linguist N. Chomsky in the late 1950’s. This fundamental distinction was discussed in his Aspects of the Theory of Syntax 《句法理论面面观》. A language user’s underlying knowledge about the system of rules is called his linguistic competence. Performance refers to the actual use of language in concrete situations.

While Saussure’s distinction and Chomsky’s are

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语言学讲义

very similar, they differ at least in that Saussure took a sociological view of language and his notion of langue is a matter of social conventions, and Chomsky looks at language from a psychological point of view and to him competence is a property of the mind of each individual.

5.Speech and writing（口头语和书面语） Speech and writing are the two major media of communication. Modern linguistics regards the spoken language as primary, not the written.

6.Traditional Grammar vs. Modern Grammar (传统语法与现代语法)

Traditional grammar can be considered as prescriptive; it is based on “high” (religious, literary)

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语言学讲义

written language. It sets models for language users to follow.

But modern linguistics is descriptive; its investigations are based on authentic and mainly spoken language data. It is supposed to be scientific and objective and the task of linguists is supposed to describe the language people actually use, whether it is “correct” or not.

7. Linguistic Potential vs. Actual Linguistic Behavior (语言潜能与实际语言行为)

Halliday thinks that with language, there is a wide range of things that a speaker can do in the culture he is in. The set of possibility for “doing” is termed linguistic potential from a functional language’s view. What a speaker actually says on a particular occasion to a particular individual is what he has selected from

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语言学讲义

the many possible things he could have said. This actual selection of things from what one could have is termed actual linguistic behavior.

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