2. THE RISE OF COMPARATIVE METHOD
• Development of the comparative method was the
outstanding 19th
century linguistic achievement
• A set of principles to systematically compare languages
with respect to their sound systems, grammatical
structure, and vocabulary.
• As all Romance languages evolved from Latin, so Latin,
Greek, and Sanskrit …Celtic, Germanic, and Slavic
languages… had evolved from some earlier Proto-Indo-
European language.
.
4. SIR WILLIAM JONES
• The main impetus for the development of this
comparative philology came toward the end of the 18th
century, when it was discovered by an english orientalist,
sir William Jones.
• In the year 1786,sir William Jones,a judge in British court
in India,read his famous paper to the royal Asiatic
society in Calcutta,wherein he established beyond doubt
the historical kinship of Sanskrit,the classical language of
India,with Latin,Greek and the Germanic languages.
5. Early 19th
century
• Four best known scholars in the linguistic
science of the early 19th
century are:
1.Dane r Rask
2.J Grimm
3.F .Bopp
4.Von Humboldt
6. Ramsus rask
• Rask, Grimm and Bopp were the founders of
scientific historical linguistics.
• Rasmus Rask wrote the first systematic
grammars of old Norse and old English.He
drew together the various threads of
historical linguistics of the day into a
coherent system of principles for
establishing the relatedness of languages.
7. J.GrimmF.bopp
• Grimm's work is hailed as the start of German
linguistics. ’Grimm's law’ is considered one of the
first sound law to form the structure and support of
indo-european language families.
• Franz Bopp established the importance of Sanskrit
in the comparative study of indo-European
languages.he attempted to describe the original
grammatical structures of the languages,trace their
phonetic laws,and investigate the origin of their
grammatical forms.
8. Wilhem von humboldt
• The Prussian statesman, von Humboldt conceived
a theory of “inner” and “outer” form in language…a
structural conception…outer - the raw sounds the
language; inner - the pattern of grammar - meaning
imposed upon the raw material and differentiated
languages.
• Another idea of Humboldt is language as dynamic -
an activity…not the product of activity…not a set of
actual utterances produced by speakers but the
underlying principles or rules. These ideas influence
- or emerge again in - Ferdinand de Saussure’s
structuralism and Noam Chomsky’s
transformational-generative grammar.
9. Modern linguistics
• Modern linguistics emerged in the late 19th
and
early 20th
centuries with the shift of focus from
historical concerns of changes in languages
over time,to the idea that a language can be
viewed as a self contained and structured
system situated at a particular point in
time.this forms the basis for structuralist
linguistics.
10. structuralism
• The Swiss linguist Ferdinand de Saussure is widely
acknowledged as the founding father of modern
linguistics for his book ‘course in general
linguistics’.
• Historically de Saussure's ideas may be put under
three heads.
1. He formalized and made explicit the fundamental
and indispensable dimensions of linguistic study i.e
synchronicdescriptive linguistics and
diachronichistorical linguistics.
11. Ferdinand de saussure
2. He distinguished linguistic competence of
the speaker and the actual phenomena or
data of linguistic utterances as langue and
parole.
3. His theory of signs has been very
influential. His linguistic sign is a union of
the signifier (the form, sound) and the
signified(the meaning, function).the
relationship of sound and meaning is
arbitrary.
13. Phonetics and phonology
• Phonetics and phonology were dominant in early
modern linguistics.
• The international phonetic association (IPA)was
established in 1886 by a group of European
phoneticians. The British phonetician Henry sweet
was one of the leading figures in phonetics in 2nd
half of the 19th
century.
• Sweet and polish linguist Courtenay were
independently instrumental in development of the
notion of the phoneme or distinctive sound.
14. The Prague school
• . The prague school is a tradition of
linguistic thought that is associated with a
group of czech and other linguistic circle of
prague,established in 1926.
• The group held regular meetings and
published a journal.
• The primary interest of the circle was
phonological theory.
15. The Prague school…
• Prague school phonology succeed in
placing the notion of the phoneme in the
centre of linguistic theory,as one of the
most fundamental units.
• They also made contributions to the field of
syntax.
17. Franz boas
• Franz boas is considered the founder
of American linguistics and american
anthropology.A major concern for him
was to obtain information as native
American languages and cultures
before they disappear.
18. Edward Sapir
• Edward Sapir (boas' student) was highly
admired during is life and is still something
of a hero to many linguists.
• He published extensively in both linguistics
and anthropology, did first hand field work
on many American Indian languages,
contributed to historical linguistics and wrote
theoretical works.
19. Leonard Bloomfield
• Bloomfield is credited with giving American
structuralism its fundamental form, making
linguistics an autonomous field.
• His principal concern was to develop
linguistics as a science. Bloomfield’s
‘language’ is considered a milestone in
linguistics, the foundation of American
structuralist linguistic thinking.
• He was heavily influenced by behaviour
psychology.
20. Noam chomsky and linguistic
theory since 1957
The main stream of linguistics since 1957,the year in
which Chomsky's ‘syntactic structures’ appeared has
been dominated by Noam Chomsky.it is difficult to
overestimate his impact on both linguistics and
contemporary ideas in general.
21. NOAM CHOMSKY
• Unlike the bloomfieldians,Chomsky brought
back Mentalism.For him the goal of grammar
is to account for the native speaker’s
competence, defined as what a native
speaker knows of hisher language.
• A generative grammar is a system of formal
rules, principles and parameters which makes
explicit the finite mechanism available to the
brain to produce infinite sentences.
22. Chomsky…
• In his review of skinner’s verbal
behavior he refuted the behaviorist
psycology.he believed that language
is rooted in the biology, not behavior.
23. Contemporary approaches to linguistics
Formal approach Functional approach
In formal approach
linguistic structures
are independent of
their functions and
meaning.(syntactic)
In functional approach
Linguistic structure
are motivated by
functional and
cognitive forces.
(semantic)
25. references
1. A short history of linguistics
By R.H Robins
2. An outline of the history of linguistics
link: continuum books
3. The history of linguistics
by Lyle Campbell
link: Blackwell
reference online
26. Class activity
Title of the book author
Course in general
linguistics
language
Syntactic structures
Language and mind
