Transcript traditional grammar Vs linguistics

Prepared by : Zainab Hmito
Fatima Akouaou
 Introduction
 Traditional grammar
 Linguistics
 The differences:


Schools of linguistics
 The characteristics:
Weaknesses
 Strengths
 Conclusion

Introduction
Traditional grammar
 The approach to language which was developed
through:
 Greeks
 Roman
 Arabo-Islamic scholarship
 The Middle Ages
 the Renaissance…
Linguistics:
The scientific study of language. According to Fatima
Sadiqi and Moha Ennaji (1999):
“linguistics has two major goals :
1)-bringing our unconscious knowledge of language to the level of
consciousness by familiarizing us with this linguistic knowledge.
2)-studying how the different units of language are combined and
how they operate in the human brain.”
 Components of linguistics:
 It can be subdivided into five major components :





Phonetics: The study of the characteristics of speech sounds.
Phonology: The study of speech sounds of a language and the
way they are combined to form words.
Morphology: The study of the structure ,forms and classes of
words .
Syntax: The study of sentence structure.
Semantics:
Schools of linguistics
 The structuralist school


Ferdinand de Saussure, Leonard Bloomfield.
language is a structure that can be studied independently from other
aspects of human behavior.
 The functionalist school


M.A.K Halliday,John Searl
Both structure and function must be taken into account to
understand the nature of language.
 The mentalist school

Noam Chomsky
“Primarily ,I am intrigued by the possibility of learning something
From the study of language ,that will bring to light inherent
properties of the human mind”.
Noam Chomsky.
Differences
Differences Between Traditional Grammar and
Linguistics
Traditional grammar
Linguistics
 T.G study language in relation
 Linguistics study language as
to other disciplines.
 study is not an
autonomous subject.
 T.G explains how features of
language are related to the
human beings.
a complex and organized
system of communication.
 Language study is an
autonomous subject.
 Linguistics explains how
features of language are
related to each other.
Traditional grammar
linguistics
 T.G pays more attention to
 Linguistics puts emphasis on
the written form of the
language
the spoken medium.
 T.G is prescriptive.
 Linguistics is descriptive.
 T.G is interested more in
 Linguistics has a brooder
syntax.
scope for research.
TRADITIONAL GRAMMAR
LINGUISTICS
 T.G puts emphasis on
 Linguistics analyses all the
grammar than on any other
aspect of the language.
 T.G deals with language
mostly from the diachronic
point of view.
 No notational conventions
were used.
aspects of language.
 Linguistics assumes that
synchronic study has a
priority over diachronic study.
 Specific notational
conventions used to refer to
the data of language .
Characteristics

Strengths & Weaknesses
Strengths: Traditional grammar
 Distinctions:
It distinguishes rational, emotional, and
conventional types of discourse in theory, if not in
grammatical practice.
 Through It, ordinary students and scholars have
mastered many languages successfully for centuries.
Strengths: Traditional grammar
 It is well understood, and applied by most of those
who teach it and have studied it.
Strengths: Linguistics
 Empirical:
A study that examines speech and writing forms through a
justifiable operation.
 Objectivity:
All the languages are equal.
 Universality:
All the languages share aspects beside their uniqueness.
Weaknesses: Traditional grammar
 Inconsistency :
Its rules are based frequently on illogical ground.
 Exclusion :
It excludes usages which are not applicable to it rules by
referring to it as : “ungrammatical”, “exceptions”, “idioms”,…
 Subjectivity :
Some languages are more sophisticated and cultured than
other.
Weaknesses: Linguistics
 It has produced no complete grammars comparing to
the exhaustive treatments by the traditional methods.
Concentrating on critical studies of how grammars
should be written.
 Only description of language was the concern of
linguistics, however, this situation has changed in
recent years.

Conclusion
References:
 Newmeyer, FJ. (ed.) (1988) Linguistics: The Cambridge
Survey. Cambridge: C.U.P.
 Robins, R.H.(1967). A short History of Linguistics. London:
Longmans.
 Fatima Sadiqi, Moha Ennaji.(1999).Introduction To
Modern Linguistics. Afrique-Orient.

Thank you!!