MATH 190 Lecture Notes - Lecture 20: Neogrammarian, Leonard Bloomfield, Markedness
Document Summary
History of linguistics: historical linguistics (early 19th c): reconstructing proto- languages, mapping historical changes, neogrammarians (late 19th c): followed falsifiability with the first period of sound change, focused on idiolect, structuralism. (1857-1913): distinguished between langue (language) and parole (speaking), language = system of meaningless signs and consists of the signifier and the signified. The prague school": roman jakobson & nikolai. 1949): austronesian and algonquian languages: modern theories. Generative linguistics (noam chomsky 1950s): underlying and surface structure. Cognitive linguistics and functional linguistics: focus on the use of language, language as similar to other cognitive functions. Language as an instinct: b. f. skinner: language as a form of conditioning. Operant conditioning: reinforcing positive behaviour and punishing negative behaviour = change in behaviour. Applied to language e. g. children positively reinforced for saying please" and thank you": noam chomsky: language as innate and instinctual. Language is already within us, cannot be conditioned. Occurs when we are exposed to a specific language.
