1. The Linguistics of CA Session 3

2. Overview Linguistics Macro and Micro Linguistics Contrastive analysis Goal Mean Framework Levels Categories Models

3. Contrastive analysis Contrastive Analysis – Goal: The examination of L2 Learning – related to the field of psychology – Means: The description of languages – related to the field of linguistics

4. Microlinguistics vs. Macrolinguistics According to the microlinguistic view, languages should be analyzed for their own sake and without reference to their social function, to the manner in which they are acquired by children, to the psychological mechanisms that underlie the production and reception of speech, to the literary and the aesthetic or communicative function of language, and so on. In contrast, macrolinguistics embraces all of these aspects of language. Various areas within macrolinguistics have been given terminological recognition: psycholinguistics, sociolinguistics, anthropological linguistics, dialectology, mathematical and computational linguistics, and stylistics.

5. Macrolinguistics Semantics: the study of meaning, changes in meaning and the principles that govern the relation ship between sentences or words and their meanings. Sociolinguistics: a descriptive study of the effects of any and all aspects of society on the way language is used and the effects of language used on society. Ethnomethodology: It refers to the analysis and interpretation of every spoken interaction Discourse Analysis: It is concerned with how we build up “meaning” in the larger communicative rather than grammatical units, meaning in a text, paragraph, conversation, etc rather than a single sentence. Speech-act Theory: an approach to the meaning of language which stresses the use made of language, rather than the literal meaning of the combined words. Emphasis what we do with language rather than what we say.

6. Focus of CA Originally, the main emphasis of CA was on grammar and phonology for the obvious reason that the close systems of grammar and phonology lend themselves better to systematic CA then the more elusive areas of lexis and culture, but the general absence of contrastive lexical and cultural studies also reflected where the emphasis lay in linguistics in the old days.

7. Framework Levels Phonology Grammar Lexis Categories Unit Structure Class System Models Structural or Taxonomic Transformational generative Contrastive generative Case

8. Levels of Language – Level of phonology – Level of lexis – Level of morphology – Level of syntax Procedure for description of levels – Phonology, then morphology, and then syntax Mixing Levels – Nowadays mixing is sometimes necessary to account for some fact of language. Slow cars held up.

9. Steps in CA 1.Description 2.Juxtaposition for comparison Interlingual level shift – State where a lexical distinction in one language is expressed through another, say grammatical level in another language. Poems vs. شعر I agree vs. من موافقم – I am agree with you

10. Categories of grammar There are four categories : unit, structure, class and system. They are universal, that is they are necessary and sufficient as a basis for the description of any language.

11. Unit The Units of grammar are: 1.Sentence 2.Clause 3.Phrase 4.Words 5.Morphemes In CA a single sentence in L1 correspond on a one-to-one basis with a single sentence in L2. CA is concerned with the possibilities of maintaining 1:1 correspondence of units at ranks below sentence

12. Example We can never go back again, that is certain حقیقت مسلم اینست که ما هرگز دیگر نمیتوانیم برگردیم SentenceClausePhraseWordsMorpheme English12299 Persian132913

13. Structure A structure is an arrangement of elements ordered in “places” (Halliday) He turned off the TV – subj + verb + indirect object تلویزیون را خاموش کرد Object + prep. + verb + subj.

14. Class There are restrictions on which units can operate at given places in structures These comprise shifts from one part of speech to another. An example is “carelessly at first” where the English verb changed into a noun in Farsi ( ابتدا به آن توجهی نداشت

15. Structure Each language allows its speaker choices from sets of elements which are not determined by the place which the element occupies in the structure. CHOICE: “The selection of one particular term at one particular place on the chain in preference to another term or other terms which are also possible at that place” Systems operate over the domains of units: systems of sentences, of clauses, of groups, of words and of morphemes.

16. Structure These are shifts that take place when the SL and TL possess approximately corresponding systems but where “the translation involves selection of a non-corresponding term in the TL system” (Catford, 2000, p. 146). An example is the English “histories” where the Farsi translation is سابقه‬.

17. Microlinguistics - Comparing elements of language systems Systemic contrasting implies : – Contrasting units – Contrasting classes – Contrasting structures – Contrasting systems

18. Contrasting units Absolute correspondence – [m], [n], etc. : these phonemes exist in both English and Persian languages Partial correspondence – there can be no partial correspondence at the units level: either the language possesses a unit, or not Zero correspondence – [K] in English exists at the unit level – it is a phoneme of the English language, whereas [X] exists as a phoneme in Persian but not in English

19. Contrasting classes Absolute correspondence in word classes – Common nouns Computer: کامپوتر Partial correspondence – Faux amis –ادب Arabic: literature; Persian: politeness, good upbringing, for literature we say ادبیات –جامعه Arabic: university; Persian: society Zero correspondence : article system in English/Persian

20. Structures - Absolute correspondence I sat on a chair من نشستم روی آن صندلی that

21. Partial correspondence I sat on a chair من روی آن صندلی نشستم that

22. Zero correspondence Zero correspondence of branching diagrams is very rare in languages (confirms the universality thesis)