Linguistica Generale | Sintesi del corso di Linguistica

THE NATURE OF LANGUAGE

Linguistics is the name of the discipline which studies human language.

According to the Bible “In the Beginning was the Word” and to the Talmud “God created the world by a Word”

Through language, we discover our identity as both individuals and members of society, and is a tool for boh

cognition and communication. It allows us ti think and cooperate.!

Linguistics investigates aspects of communication, such as how we produce, receive, exchange massages and how

these are influenced by the shared worldview and the contrary.!

Linguistics have been studies Chimpanzees, our closest evolutionary relatives. Was recognized that they don’t have

vocal organs that can suit with human speech.!

Human Children, instead, acquires language with impressive ease and with no needs for intensive instruction. Are we

humas born with it? Some argue that language is both genetically and generically unique. The most important

theories are:!

1. Chomsky’s Transformational-Generative Grammar, for who Humans are born with an Innate Language Acquisition

Device (LAD), that provides a set of universal grammatical principle known as Universal Grammar.From this perspective,

languages diﬀer only at the level of surface structures, while they share the same deep structure. Language is therefore

viewed as an abstract and cognitive system of knowledge, largely independent of the social contexts in which it is used.!

2. Halliday’s Systemic-Functional Grammar, emphasizes the social and functional aspect of language. He sees it as a

system of signs (social semiotics) developed to meet the communicative needs of people living in communities. Unlike

Chomsky, Halliday does not consider language as simply a biological faculty of the brain, but rather as the result of a

socio-cultural evolution, shaped by the human need to communicate within society.!

THE DESIGN OF LANGUAGE

Other species communicate as well (birds sing for example), but in a reactive way, an instinctive response to a stimulus.!

Human Language is proactive, shapes our reality, creates new meanings. Its studies is divided into specific branches:

lexis, syntax, semantics, pragmatics, morphology and phonology.!

Language is influenced by both physical and cognitive dimentions of human communication. Its a flexible tool. The core

features are:!

- arbitrariness - the forms of linguistics signs bear no resemblance to their meaning, based on conventions !

- duality - human language operates on two structural levels - 1 elements with no meaning on their own (sounds,

phonems) and 2 combined elements to ceeate words with meaning (letters - words - phrases)!

- medium - the physical or sensory channel through which language is transmitted, written or oral or spoken language,

so how it’s structured !

- mode - the particular way in which language is used - the five primary modes of communication are visual, linguistic,

spatial, aural and gestural modes. There is also the multimodal text, combines multiple modes, common in digital

communication or adv.!

THE SCOPE OF LINGUISTICS

How can the study of language ne considered scientific? Widdowson “In other words, to study language, we must take

a step back and engage in abstraction- the process of distancing ourselves from specific instances ti grasp broader

patterns and structures. This ability to abstract is a key feature of human thought, and it enables us to conduct

intellectual enquiry”

Linguistics uses the abstracting potential of language itself in order to categorize and explain how language

works.

MODELS IN LINGUISTICS

Linguistics are so able to construct models of linguistic description. A model is an idealized version of reality, created to

study language, reveal features and emphasize those essential.!

The most important linguistic models include De Saussure, Chomsky and Halliday.!

FERDINAND DE SAUSSURE

The father of modern Linguistic. According to him, the study should focus on the shared social code ( The Langue), the

abstract system of a language, rather than on the individual ( Parole).!

LANGUE is a system of internalized, shared rules that govern a language’s vocabulary, grammar and sound

structure, while the PAROLE is the actual oral or written communication produced by individuals of a

community.

Langue allows the manageable object of study, analysis and generalization. Parole is too varied.!

He supported a synchronic approach to studying the language, in the given moment and not the historical development

of a diachronic study.!

Language is acquired through socialization, not individually. And its the language itself that provides rules.!

Saussure model is limited, becouse language is a dynamic process and to fully understand it you must considere both

diachronic an synchronic dimentions. And then, also in the same community there arr many diﬀerent people and way to

use language.!

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THE NATURE OF LANGUAGE

Linguistics is the name of the discipline which studies human language. According to the Bible “ In the Beginning was the Word ” and to the Talmud “ God created the world by a Word” Through language, we discover our identity as both individuals and members of society, and is a tool for boh cognition and communication. It allows us ti think and cooperate. Linguistics investigates aspects of communication, such as how we produce, receive, exchange massages and how these are influenced by the shared worldview and the contrary. Linguistics have been studies Chimpanzees, our closest evolutionary relatives. Was recognized that they don’t have vocal organs that can suit with human speech. Human Children, instead, acquires language with impressive ease and with no needs for intensive instruction. Are we humas born with it? Some argue that language is both genetically and generically unique. The most important theories are:

Chomsky’s Transformational-Generative Grammar, for who Humans are born with an Innate Language Acquisition Device (LAD), that provides a set of universal grammatical principle known as Universal Grammar.From this perspective, languages differ only at the level of surface structures, while they share the same deep structure. Language is therefore viewed as an abstract and cognitive system of knowledge, largely independent of the social contexts in which it is used.
Halliday’s Systemic-Functional Grammar, emphasizes the social and functional aspect of language. He sees it as a system of signs (social semiotics) developed to meet the communicative needs of people living in communities. Unlike Chomsky, Halliday does not consider language as simply a biological faculty of the brain, but rather as the result of a socio-cultural evolution, shaped by the human need to communicate within society. THE DESIGN OF LANGUAGE Other species communicate as well (birds sing for example), but in a reactive way, an instinctive response to a stimulus. Human Language is proactive, shapes our reality, creates new meanings. Its studies is divided into specific branches: lexis, syntax, semantics, pragmatics, morphology and phonology. Language is influenced by both physical and cognitive dimentions of human communication. Its a flexible tool. The core features are:

arbitrariness - the forms of linguistics signs bear no resemblance to their meaning, based on conventions
duality - human language operates on two structural levels - 1 elements with no meaning on their own (sounds, phonems) and 2 combined elements to ceeate words with meaning (letters - words - phrases)
medium - the physical or sensory channel through which language is transmitted, written or oral or spoken language, so how it’s structured
mode - the particular way in which language is used - the five primary modes of communication are visual, linguistic, spatial, aural and gestural modes. There is also the multimodal text, combines multiple modes, common in digital communication or adv. THE SCOPE OF LINGUISTICS How can the study of language ne considered scientific? Widdowson “ In other words, to study language, we must take a step back and engage in abstraction- the process of distancing ourselves from specific instances ti grasp broader patterns and structures. This ability to abstract is a key feature of human thought, and it enables us to conduct intellectual enquiry” Linguistics uses the abstracting potential of language itself in order to categorize and explain how language works. MODELS IN LINGUISTICS Linguistics are so able to construct models of linguistic description. A model is an idealized version of reality, created to study language, reveal features and emphasize those essential. The most important linguistic models include De Saussure, Chomsky and Halliday. FERDINAND DE SAUSSURE The father of modern Linguistic. According to him, the study should focus on the shared social code ( The Langue), the abstract system of a language, rather than on the individual ( Parole). LANGUE is a system of internalized, shared rules that govern a language’s vocabulary, grammar and sound structure, while the PAROLE is the actual oral or written communication produced by individuals of a community. Langue allows the manageable object of study, analysis and generalization. Parole is too varied. He supported a synchronic approach to studying the language, in the given moment and not the historical development of a diachronic study. Language is acquired through socialization, not individually. And its the language itself that provides rules. Saussure model is limited, becouse language is a dynamic process and to fully understand it you must considere both diachronic an synchronic dimentions. And then, also in the same community there arr many different people and way to use language.

NOAM CHOMSKY

He introduced the fundamental dinstiction between competence, the knowledge of native speaker in their language as abstract rules, and performance, the actual language behavior ( influenced also by various external factors). May appear similar to Langue and Parole, but langue derived by being part of a community, while competence is in the human species. For Chomsky language is a biological and psychological phenomenon, not a social knowledge. It’s a branch of cognitive psychology. His highly abstract model is distant from the actual experience of using language in everyday social context. MICHAEL HALLIDAY He created the functional grammar, a model of 60s that focuses on how spoken and written language operate in different social contest and how it varies to suit purposes and needs of its users.This perspective considers the influence of environment, society and highlights the link language evolution-it’s function. Languages are organized around three metafunctions:

ideational function to understand and make sense of the world around us
interpersonal function to interact with and influence others in our environment

- textual function to organize our messages to suit for a specific context

THE SCOPE OF LINGUISTIC - What does it mean to know a language? Knowing a language: knowing how to access grammar (formal aspects) and how to express meaning appropriately in di ff erent contexts (functional aspects). People display and act upon what they know and their action are regulated by social conventions. Linguistic competence is the abstract knowledge of a language, but what really matters in practice is communicative competence. This means not only knowing the system, but being able to use it effectively, respecting linguistic and sociolinguistic conventions. Without this ability, our knowledge would stay internal and unusable. When we analyse language, we always move from real-life examples to abstract categories. For instance, if we take a sentence, we can count the actual words and letters – those are tokens – but we can also look at types, like distinct words or letters. This shows how linguistic analysis goes beyond surface counting and explains how abstract categories work in real usage. PRINCIPLE OF CLASSIFICATION In linguistics, classification means grouping elements based on similarity and ignoring irrelevant di ff erences. Which features really count as significant? A useful principle here is duality, which shows how small meaningless units, like sounds or letters, combine to create meaningful units, like words and sentences. Words like safe and save differ only in the final consonant, but that small difference changes the meaning completely. This shows how minimal phonetic distinctions can have phonemic significance. Another case is pot and spot: the “p” is the same letter, but it sounds different depending on position—aspirated at the beginning, unaspirated after s. So, classification in linguistics works at di ff erent levels: phonetic, phonemic, orthographic, and semantic. The principle of duality helps us see how language works on two main axes. On the horizontal, or syntagmatic axis, elements combine in sequence to create larger units: letters form words, words form phrases, and phrases form sentences. Here, order matters, because changing it can completely alter the meaning. On the vertical, or paradigmatic axis, the focus is on substitution: elements can replace each other in the same position without changing the grammatical structure. For example, in I saw a dog, the word dog can be replaced by cat or chimpanzee. The sentence structure stays the same, but the meaning changes. In short, duality shows us that language builds meaning both through combination and through choice, and that even small differences or substitutions can shape the message we communicate. When we talk about phrases, clauses, and sentences, we’re distinguishing levels of complexity. A phrase is a group of words without both a subject and a verb, like after dinner or waiting for the train. A clause has at least a subject and a verb, for example He reads many books. Clauses can be independent, standing alone, or dependent, needing another clause. Finally, a sentence must include at least one subject and one predicate; it can be simple or made up of multiple clauses. So, the combination of syntagmatic and paradigmatic relations explains how language is structured, while the distinction between phrases, clauses, and sentences shows how meaning is built step by step.

A pronoun is a word used in place of a noun to refer to someone or something that has already been mentioned or is known from context. Pronouns help to avoid repetition of nouns. Pronouns can be:

Subject pronouns (I, you, he, she, it, we, they)
Object pronouns (me, you, him, her, it, us, them)
Possessive pronouns (mine, yours, his, hers, ours, theirs)
Demonstrative pronouns (this, that, these, those) — Gender-Neutral Pronouns, do not specify gender and are used to refer to people in general (any, anybody, anyone, each, every, everybody, nobody, none, no one, some, somebody, someone) These are useful in inclusive language and when the gender is unknown or irrelevant. ADJECTIVES Adjectives are words used to describe a noun or to clarify its meaning. They provide additional information about a noun’s quality, quantity, size, color, emotion, or other characteristics. Some words can function as both adjectives and nouns, depending on the context. Example: principal (as an adjective: the principal reason; as a noun: the school principal) Some adjectives are incomparable, meaning they describe absolute qualities or states. These adjectives cannot be modified with comparatives (more, less) or superlatives (most, least), because the condition they describe is already complete ( absolute, certain, complete, definite, essential, false, final, first, impossible, inevitable, only, perfect, true, unique, whole) ADVERBS Adverbs are words used to modify or qualify a verb, an adjective or another adverb. They provide information about how, when, where, to what extent, or in what manner something happens.
Walk slowly. → modifies the verb walk – Really small. → modifies the adjective small – Very quietly. → modifies the adverb quietly Most adverbs are formed by adding -ly to an adjective: – slow → slowly – quick → quickly Exceptions – Same Form as Adjective: Some words function as both adjectives and adverbs, without needing the -ly suffix ( alone, early, enough, far, little, long, much, still, straight) She arrived early. (adverb). It’s an early flight. (adjective) TEXT VS DISCOURSE

Sounds (or letters) combine to form words -> words combine to form phrases -> phrases combine to form clauses -> clauses can form sentences. These combinations are not random, but are structured to organise the information in a way that is functional the speaker or the writer. When we talk about text and discourse, the two terms are often used interchangeably, but there are some important distinctions. A text is the material trace of communication: it’s the physical product, whether spoken, written, or multimodal. It’s made up of words, phrases, and sentences, but it doesn’t always need to be grammatically perfect—think of everyday exchanges like “Are you ready?” – “They left two hours ago.” A text by itself is just the output of encoding a message. Discourse, instead, is the interpretation and the process: it’s what happens when we relate the language of the text to its social and cultural context. In other words, discourse is co-constructed by participants—what the producer intends to say and what the receiver understands. As Widdowson puts it, discourse is both what the speaker meant and what the hearer interprets. So we can say that text is the product, while discourse is the process. A text without context carries no meaning, but once it’s placed in interaction, it becomes discourse. Successful communication happens when the sender’s intended discourse and the receiver’s interpreted discourse converge. Formula: Text + Context = Discourse. DEFINITION OF TRANSLATION When we define translation, the traditional view is simply the rendering of a text from a source language into a target language, ensuring that the meaning is more or less the same and that the structure of the original is respected without distorting the grammar of the target text. However, this definition is quite limited, because it ignores several crucial dimensions: the relationship between linguistic features and cognitive processes, the impact of socio-cultural backgrounds on both source and target sides, and the pragmatic, communicative nature of interaction between cultures. This narrow perspective is also connected to the historically low status of translators. As Venuti points out, translation has often been perceived as a secondary, mechanical activity, subordinate to the “original” work, with the writer valued more highly than the translator. Belloc, for instance, described translation as a “subsidiary art,” lacking the dignity of original creation. If we look at the history of translation, we can see how its functions and status evolved. In Ancient Rome, translation was mainly about adapting Greek models. Cicero defended a sense-for-sense approach rather than word-for-word, emphasizing meaning over literal wording. Horace introduced the idea of the fidus interpres: fidelity was not about sticking slavishly to the source text, but about being faithful to the target audience. Translation served two main functions: a stylistic one, helping Roman writers refine their rhetorical skills, and a cultural one, enriching Latin by importing Greek concepts. The receivers were usually educated elites who often knew Greek themselves, so translation was more an exercise in style and adaptation than strict mediation. In the Middle Ages, translation retained a strong educational role. It was often used as a training exercise in schools, teaching students how to analyse the source structure and practise rhetorical embellishment. The Bible, however, changed everything. Translating Scripture was not just a linguistic task but a political and ideological act. Since the Bible was the Word of God, accuracy was vital—any deviation could be considered heresy and even punished with death. St. Jerome’s Latin translation adopted a sense-for-sense method, but debates raged over how much stylistic freedom was acceptable before it became unfaithful. Later, Wycliffe’s English Bible pushed this further: he wanted laypeople to access Scripture in their own tongue. His method was systematic—comparing different versions, consulting grammarians and theologians, and revising with a team—but his ideas were attacked as heretical because they challenged clerical authority. In the Renaissance, translation started to be theorised more systematically. Étienne Dolet, in his La manière de bien traduire (1540), laid down five principles: the translator must fully understand the original, master both languages, avoid word-for-word rendering, use natural forms of speech, and choose words carefully to preserve tone. With Dolet, the translator emerges not just as a receiver of meaning but also as a mediator and a kind of co-author, shaping how the original is interpreted and re-expressed One of the first systematic attempts to define the principles of translation came from Alexander Fraser Tytler, in his Principles of Translation (1791). He wanted to set out the “rules of the art” and to describe what makes a good translator. For him, translation was a way to open the archives of ancient knowledge and allow intercultural exchange in science and literature. He was also aware of the problems of his time: many translations were produced by “mercenary hands,” either embellishing the source text or preserving even its imperfections. Tytler formulated three famous laws of translation:

The translation should fully convey the ideas of the original.
The style and manner should reflect the same character as the original.
The translation should read with the ease of an original work. These correspond quite closely to what we now call the cognitive, formal, and pragmatic-functional levels of translation. The problem with Tytler’s model, however, is that it is prescriptive—it tells translators what they “should” do, based on a subjective idea of what counts as a good translation. And this raises a classic dilemma: if translation is an art, can it really be reduced to strict rules? And if it must follow rules, doesn’t it risk becoming a purely mechanical process?

Linguistica Generale, Sintesi del corso di Linguistica

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THE NATURE OF LANGUAGE

NOAM CHOMSKY

- textual function to organize our messages to suit for a specific context