GENERAL LINGUISTICS

for Master Students

SEMINAR ONE

Topics for discussion in class

1. General Linguistics: Key questions, theory and its application. Linguistics vs.
Traditional grammar (Prescriptive Linguistics).
2. The scope of Linguistics. Synchronic and diachronic Linguistics. New
branches of Linguistics.
3. Language as an object of linguistic theory. Functions of language.
4. Language and other sign systems: Similarities and differences. Human
language vs. animal communication. Non-verbal communication. Artificial
languages.

Study questions and tasks (to be done in writing)

1. Compare the speculations on words by well-known novelists, essayists, and

philosophers given below. What functions of language do they highlight? Give
your reasoning. Comment on theoretical and applied aspects of Linguistics.

Worry about words, Bobby. Your grandmother is right. For, whatever else you may
do, you will be using words always. All day, and every day, words matter. Though
you live in a barrel and speak to nobody but yourself, words matter. For words are
the tools of thought, and you will find often that you are thinking badly because you
are using the wrong tools, trying to bore a hole with a screwdriver, or draw a cork
with a coal-hammer.
(A.P. Herbert, What a Word! Methuen, 1935)

In that part of the text Herbert highlights the importance of the word as a fundamental
tool which holds the power of thoughts. Here we can see that the quality of the
thinking is strongly intertwined with the used vocabulary. That it is a great sign of
congnitive function of the language, where the main focus is on the words which
build up our worldview and ways of communication.

Words are the works of art that make possible science.

Words are the abstractions that make possible poetry.
Words signify man's refusal to accept the world as it is.
With words man has been able to create a world, and it is fitting that the author of
 Genesis should have proposed that the world of sense experience, too, was created with
words.
(Walter Kaufmann, Critique of Religion and Philosophy, 1958)
Kaufmann presents words as artistic tools which are needed during discovering and
investigating further into the abstract and imaginary concepts. He introduces the word
through the perspective of the metaphorical senses, which are mostly recognizable in
constructive function of the language and the aesthetical one.

The "engaged" writer knows that words are action. . . . He knows that words, as
Brice-Parain* says, are "loaded pistols." If he speaks, he fires.
(Jean-Paul Sartre, "What Is Writing?" What Is Literature? and Other Essays,
1966)
Here author is trying to implement the thought of the word as tools which cause
actions to happen and even compare them to “loaded pistols” this can be a type of
communicative aspect of language with mostly emotive function where the focus is
on emotions and expressions.

I am, by calling, a dealer in words; and words are, of course, the most powerful
drug used by mankind. Not only do words infect, ergotise, narcotise, and
paralyse, but they enter into and colour the minutest cells of the brain, very much
as madder mixed with a stag's food at the Zoo colours the growth of the animal's
antlers. Moreover, in the case of the human animal, that acquired tint, or taint, is
transmissible.
(Rudyard Kipling, speech to a gathering of surgeons, delivered on February 14,
1923)
Kipling is mostly concentrated on showing the word as a manipulative tool which
can be a feature of communicative function.

Words, as is well known, are the great foes of reality. . . . To a teacher of

languages there comes a time when the world is but a place of many words and
man appears a mere talking animal, not much more wonderful than a parrot.
(Joseph Conrad, Under Western Eyes, 1911)
Conrad is measuring view as a tool that can not only clarify the reality but make it
even more complex as it is. Words here are also presented according to the
referential function.

Words and the meanings of words are not matters merely for the academic
amusement of linguists and logisticians, or for the aesthetic delight of poets; they
 are matters of the profoundest ethical significance to every human being.
(Aldous Huxley, "Words and Their Meanings." The Importance of Language, ed.
by Max Black, 1940)
Huxley emphasizes the ethical importance of words, asserting that they
significantly influence the moral lives of individuals and society. So, we can
connect it to the social function.

A word leaves a smoke trail behind it that curls into the past. Every word is
surrounded by complex energies. There are meanings underneath a word as well
as its obvious meaning.

Think of a word as a pendulum instead of a fixed entity. A word can sweep by

your ear and by its very sound suggest hidden meanings,
preconscious association. Listen to these words: blood, tranquil, democracy. You
know what they meanliterally but you have associations with those words that are
cultural, as well as your own personal associations.
(Rita Mae Brown, Starting From Scratch, 1988)
Brown argues that words are not merely definitions but are rich with cultural,
historical, and personal associations. Words are dynamic, capable of evoking
emotions and ideas beyond their literal meanings. This signifies the importance of
one more important language function – connotative.

Theoretical and applied linguistics:

- As for the theoretical one: These ideas show that language is complex and fits
into different linguistic theories like semantics, pragmatics, and
sociolinguistics. They also connect to studies on how language shapes our
thinking (linguistic relativity), how it works in communication.
- Applied Linguistic highlights the importance of choosing the right words in
education, communication, and literature. For teachers, understanding the
power of words can help them teach students to use language effectively. In
fields like communication, psychology, and marketing, these insights can guide
how language is used to persuade, inform, or influence people.

2. Talk on overlapping branches of linguistics. Compare and contrast J. Aitchison’s

and S. Zhabotynska’s charts representing the scope of present-days Linguistics.
Mark the difference, if any? Explain the difference.

Aitchison's chart likely presents a traditional, hierarchical view of linguistics,

dividing it into major branches such as phonetics, phonology, morphology, syntax,
 semantics, and pragmatics. This approach emphasizes the structural components
of language and their relationships to each other.
Zhabotynska's chart may offer a more contemporary perspective, incorporating
interdisciplinary approaches and recognizing the dynamic and evolving nature of
language. It could include branches such as sociolinguistics, psycholinguistics and
applied linguistics, which focus on the social, cognitive, technological, and
practical aspects of language.
Aitchison and Zhabotynska’s charts differ due to their different approaches to
studying linguistics. Aitchison’s chart shows linguistics as a field with separate
parts, like a traditional textbook. This approach is useful for understanding the
basics of language.
Zhabotynska’s chart, however, shows linguistics as more connected to other
fields, like thinking, computers, and social studies. This more modern view
reflects how linguistics is often studied together with these other areas.

3. Match the descriptions of the key issues pertaining to this or that kind of
Linguistics with the name of the concrete linguistic field (there might be several).
You can rely upon the list of Linguistics from Slide Three in Lecture presentation
One (do not forget about General Linguistics).

No Key issues Type/s of Linguistics

1 What is language? How is it organised? General Linguistics
2 What do all languages have in common? Comparative Linguistics,
Typology
3 What are the differences between languages? Typology, Comparative
Linguistics
4 Why do humans talk, or what is the origin of Neurolinguistics,
language? How does a child learb to speak? Anthropological Linguistics
5 What are the differences between human language Anthropological Linguistics,
and animal communication? Cognitive Linguistics
6 In what forms did languages exist before? How do Historical Linguistics
languages changes through time? Why do
languages change?
7 How does one write down the spoken language? Phonetics, Phonology, Syntax
8 How is language used for successful interaction? Pragmatics, Sociolinguistics
9 How is language related to thought? Cognitive/psycholinguistics
10 How does language reflect social and cultural Sociolinguistics,
differences? Anthropological Linguistics,
Ethnolinguistics
11 How can we simulate language and ots workings in Computational Linguistics
computers?
12 How can peculiar features of language use can be Applied Linguistics
helpful in criminal investigations?
13 How does speech communication relate to the Psycholinguistics,
workings of human mind? Neurolinguistics
14 How does language function in literary text? What Stylistics
is a more synonym for this kind of linguistics?
15 Which kinds of linguistics employ quantitative Computational Linguistics
 methods to studying language?
16 What kind of linguistics operates the notion of Discourse Analysis
mode in relation to language and texts?

4. Consider the following extracts from the textbooks on Neuro- and Cognitive
Linguistics. Determine which is which and give your reasoning:
a) What about our brains makes human language possible – why is our
communication system so elaborate and so different from that of other animals?
If you know two languages, how do you switch between them and how do you keep
them from interfering with each other? If you learn two languages from birth, how is
your brain different from the brain of someone who speaks only one language, and
why? Is the left side of your brain really ‘the language side’? If you lose the ability to
talk or to read because of a stroke or other brain injury, how well can you learn to
talk again? What kinds of therapy are known to help, and what new kinds of
language therapy look promising?
b)… is a modern school of linguistic thought and practice. It is concerned with
investigating the relationship between human language, the mind and socio-physical
experience.… has emerged in the last twenty-five years as a powerful approach to
the study of language, conceptual systems, human cognition, and general meaning
construction.

Part (A) is highlighting the topic of Neuroliguistics. Here we can see how the brain
and language are connected. It covers things like which side of the brain is used for
language, how the brain handles more than one language, and what happens to
language skills when the brain is injured. These are all important topics in
Neurolinguistics, which studies how the brain uses, understands, and learns language.

Part (B) is highlighting the topic of Cognitive Linguistics. It is mostly about how
language, our minds, and our experiences are connected. These are the main things
Cognitive Linguistics studies. Cognitive Linguistics is about how language shows
how we think, how it works with our thinking, and how our physical and social
experiences affect it.

5. What would you call the variety of Linguistics the conference below is devoted
to? Comment on your choice.

… Lingustics: Exploring Connections between Linguistics and the Environment

Call for Papers
… issues have long been investigated by scholars across sciences and the
humanities; more recently, after the devastating effects of climate change, they have
also come to the attention of politicians, policy-makers and the wider public.
Inspired by a lively debate among linguists as well as scientists, journalists and
activists, PALA 2023 aims to investigate connections between style and the natural
environment broadly conceived as the air, water, and land inhabited by people,
animals, and plants. PALA
2023 will explore such connections in a wide range of historical, geographical and
cultural contexts, across different text-types and genres and from the point of view of
single disciplines, as well as from multidisciplinary, interdisciplinary and multimodal
perspectives.

Such type of Linguistics could be called Ecolinguistics as far as it investigates the

connections between linguistics and the natural environment. The part ‘eco’ is
connected to the nature, green, friendly cohabitance with nature, so now wonder it
was chosen to create a new name for the branch of linguistics. The conference
description highlights the exploration of connections between linguistics and the
environment, including issues related to climate change, the natural environment (air,
water, land), and their representation in different texts and cultural contexts. These
are also the topics Ecolinguistics focuses in their studies.

6. In E.A. Poe’s short story “Murders in the Rue Morgue” the witnesses hear the
shrill voice at the locale of crime. One of them supposes it is the voice of a
Frenchman (however, he doesn’t speak French himself ), another one is sure that it
is that of a German (but, he doesn’t understand German either). The third witness
maintains it to have been that of an Englishman (judging by the intonation), and
the fourth one believes it is the voice of a Russian (though he has never conversed
with a native Russian). The fifth witness hears the voice of an Italian, also judging
by intonation. However, it turns out to be an Ourang-Outang’s voice.
Explain why an alien speech seems to the witnesses so inarticulate that they confused
it with that of animals?

One of the main problem of witnesses is lack of familiarity with foreign languages.
The more you dive into patterns the more you see and recognize it elsewhere. The
second but also important factor is pattern. Human language is build up using patters.
We as humans more orient on them and seek them to clarify the context. So no
wonder that the moment we hear something even close from animals we could start
incorrectly categorize to one of the known languages judging by voice, intonation etc.
Animal sounds, especially those made by apes like orangutans, can sometimes sound
like human speech. This can be confusing because they can have the same pitch,
loudness, and rhythm as human voices.

Literature

Basic literature
Aitchison J. 2010. Linguistics. 6th ed. Chicago: Contemporary Books. Part One (1-2).
Vorobyova O.P. Lectures in General Linguistics. Lecture One.
Zhabotynska S.A. Lectures in General Linguistics. Lecture One, Point One (1-3).

Supplementary literature
Гаджієв Рустем. 2022. Лінгвістика на карті світу. Непорозуміння, кримінал та
інтриги в різних мовах. Київ: Віхола. Частина перша (розділи 5-6), Частина
друга.
Кочерган М.П. 2006. Загальне мовознавства. Київ: Вид. центр "Академія", 2006.
Семчинський С.В. 1996. Загальне мовознавство. Київ: АТ "ОКО".
Pinker S. 1995. The Language Instinct: The New Science of Language and Mind.
London: Penguin Books.