LANGUAGE AS AN OBJECT OF

APPLIED LINGUISTICS’ RESEARCH

LECTURE 2.
 What is language?
• To the philosopher, language may be
an instrument of thought;
• to the sociologist – a form of
behaviour;
• to the psychologist – a cloudy window
through which he glimpses the
workings of the mind;
•
 What is language?
• to the logician – it may be a calculus;
• to the engineer – a series of physical
events;
• to the statistician – a selection by choice
and chance;
• to the linguist – a system of arbitrary
signs.
 ‘Psychic distance’
• All people possess an ‘informal theory of
language’.
• ‘informal’ means it is not explicit and formalized,
not expressed in a strictly logical form.
• A linguist has to achieve an objective point of
view on language by means of achieving ‘psychic
distance’ from language (N. Chomsky).
• ‘Psychic distance’ means making statements and
assumptions based on objective study, not on
intuitive private knowledge.
 Language and Linguistics
The linguistic approach to language is concerned
with :
• language as a system,
• it aims to elucidate the structure of language;
• It classifies linguistic entities
• It establishes relations between entities;
• It is concerned with the relations between
meanings and sounds;
• It sets up various levels of linguistic description
 Modern Theories of Language
• Modern theories of language, unlike
those of ancient and medieval times,
are more concerned with how language
works than with why it exists.
• They therefore tend to base their
principles on the observation of
language and languages.
 Modern Theories of Language
• The theory will therefore depend on
what is observed and how it is
observed.
• In each field of knowledge
concerned with language, there are
different and often contrary ways of
observing linguistic facts.
 Language and Philosophy
• In the field of philosophy, some
writers regard language as an
external expression of universal
thought.
• Others would reduce all differences
in philosophy to differences in the
use of language.
 Language and Psychology
• In the field of psychology, theories of
language tend to differ according to
both the school of psychology and the
branch of psychology practiced – social,
educational, or child psychology.
• For some psychologists, language is a
type of symbolism with many functions;
• for others, it is a man-made instrument
of communication.
 Language and Linguistics
• Linguists, whose special field is the study of
language, maintain an even greater
divergence of theories.
• To the linguist, language may be form and not
matter.
• It may be a system of arbitrary vocal symbols.
• It may be a system of systems, a system of
hierarchies, or even a hierarchy of systems.
 Language and Linguistics
• If there are differences within each field,
there are also points of similarity between
theories in different fields, e.g.:
• the agreement, for example, of certain
linguists, psychologists and philosophers on
the non-material nature of language,
• admitting the necessity of the
implementation of technology into linguistic
research.
 Two approaches to studying language
“Dividing language into words and rules is
exclusively the result of the ‘dead’ scientific
analysis” (W. Humboldt)
• 1) Language as the result of the action
(static approach) - Philology
• 2) Language as the action itself
(dynamic approach) - Linguistics
 Language as the result of the action
(static approach)
• Philology deals with the study of language
fixations (language “monuments”).
• Philology is closely related to Historical
Linguistics.
• Philology concentrates on the written
fixations of language.
• Philology establishes the ‘normativity
approach ‘ to language study.
 Language as the action itself
(dynamic approach)
• Language activity is studied by Psychology
(Speech Activity, Verbal Behaviour).
• Dynamic approach to Linguistics defines it as
the study of human communicative
behaviour, treating language as the primary
means of communication.
• New perspective:
MAN – LANGUAGE – MACHINE
 Language and Applied Linguistics
An applied theory may consider language
from three different points of view. It
may be interested in
(1)how the language sounds or looks
(language as a state),
(2)how it works (language as an activity),
(3) how it develops (language as change).
 Language as a state
• If it is interested in how the language sounds or
looks, the theory will include something on
language considered as a fixed state—either (1)
as a state dependent on what people think and
do, or (2) as one which is independent of this.
• 1. Dependently, language may be considered as:
• a)human thought
• b) human behaviour.
• 2. Independently language may be viewed as:
• a) structure,
• b) a system of communication.
 Language as activity
• It is concerned with the way language
operates or is operated by man.
• From this point of view, language may
be considered as
• (1) an activity of the mind,
• (2) an activity of the brain.
 Language as change
• Language is regarded as something which is
continually changing
• (1) in time, when a theory may cover variations in
language over a period of time, either (a) in the
individual, or (b) in the society in which the
language has been used.
• (2) in space, studying the variations in space of a
single language in the present or of a group of
languages traceable to a common ancestor. The
first of these disciplines is known as area
linguistics, the second as comparative linguistics.