AMERICAN STRUCTURALISM -

EMERGED FROM THE INSTITUTE OF ANTHROPOLOGY

- AMERICANS SCHOLARS WHERE ANTHROPOLOGISTS WHO DEVELOPED THE
EUROPEAN STRUCTURALISM
- THEY WORKED ON AMERINDIAN LANGUAGES
- THEY AVOID PRESCRIPTIVE ATTITUDE AND DEVELOPED DESCRIPTIVE
FRAMEWORK.
- EMPHASIZES *LANGUAGE UNIQUENESS*
- MOST FAMOUS ARE FRANZ BOAS. EDWARD SAPIR. LEONARD BLOOMFIELD.
- FEATURES OF AMERICAN STRUCTURALISM:
1- DESCRIBE CURRENT SPOKEN LANGUAGE
2-FOCUSING ON FORM.NEGLECTING MEANING
3-USING ORGANIZED METHODS TO ALLOW EXTRACTING GRAMMAR BY
USING 4 STEPS:
* RECORDING.
* SEGMENTATION TO) PHONEME. MORPHEME.WORD .GROUP CLAUSE AND
SENTENCES(
*MAKING A LIST FORMS OBTAINED AND DISTRIBUTION AT EACH LEVEL.
*CLASSIFYING FORMS AND UTTERANCE BY GIVING THEM NAMES.
---THIS METHOD ALLOWED AMERICAN STRUCTURALIST TO FOCUS ON THE
STRUCTURE OF THE "TARGET LANGUAGE"

LEONARD BLOOMFIELD (1887–1949)

*FATHER OF MODERN AMERICAN LINGUISTICS
*WROTE HIS FAMOUS BOOK "LANGUAGE" 1933
* LED TO THE DEVELOPMENT OF STRUCTURAL LINGUISTICS IN THE USA -
* INFLUENCED BY BEHAVIOURISTIC PSYCHOLOGY "I.E: REJECT ALL THAT IS NOT
PHYSICAL /NON-OBSERVABLE" -
* CONCEIVED LANGUAGE AS COUPLE OF "STIMULI -RESPONSE " SAID THAT LANGUAGE
SHOULD BE STUDIED LIKE NATURAL SCIENCE
*CONTRIBUTED STRONGLY TO THE DEVELOP OF LANGUAGE ANALYZES.
*BESIDES HIS CONTRIBUTION ON PHONOLOGY AND MORPHOLOGY FIELDS,
BLOOMFIELD NAME IS ALSO RELATED TO (ICA) IMMEDIATE CONSTITUENT ANALYSIS
WICH IS A GRAMMAR ANALYSIS OF SENTENCES BY DIVIDING THEM TO SMALL
COMPONENTS.
* SENTENCES IS MADE OF LAYERS OF GROUPS OR CONSTITUENTS.
* THE CONSTITUENTS ARE A GROUP OF RELATED MOREPHES OR WORDS.
* THE CONSTITUENTS IS PART OF A LARGE UNIT.
*)ICA( DIVIDE SENTENCE INTO TWO IMMEDIATE CONSTITUENTS; THE TWO PARTS ALSO
WILL BE DIVIDED INTO TWO PARTS "IMMEDIATE CONSTITUENTS" TILL THE SMALLEST
INDIVISIBLE UNITS" MORPHEMES "
* MORPHE " ULTIMATE CONSTITUENT"
*)ICA( PARTITION IS BINARY / DIVIDES INTO TWO PARTS.
* WE CAN USE 2 STYLE TO ILLUSTRATE )ICA( : TREE AND BRACKTING
Weaknesses of ICA
*IT'S NOT ALWAYS CLEAR WHERE DIVISION SHOULD BE.
* CONSTITUENTS ARE NOT LABELLED IN )ICA( AND IT DIDN'T INDICATE THEIR ROLE OR FUNCTION (
WE RESORT TO SOME IMPLIED GRAMMATICAL INFORMATION).
*)ICA( DIVISION IS ARBITRARY BINARY BUT SOME SENTENCES MAY HAVE OTHER ANALYSIS
* MORPHE IS THE SMALLEST CONSTITUENT AND )ICA( DOESN'T GO BEYOND IT
* )ICA( IS UNABLE TO SHOW DIFFERENCES BETWEEN SUPERFICIALLY SIMILAR SENTENCES LIKE
BETWEEN (PASSIVE/ ACTIVE-- POSITIVE /NEGATIVE) BECAUSE IT FOCUS ONLY ON THE SURFACE OF
THE SENTENCE
* )ICA (CANNOT MANAGE LEXICAL AND SYNTACTIC AMBIGUITY /OR SENTENCES WITH INTERRUPTED
ELEMENTS /OR COMPLEX SENTENCES.
*)ICA( DOESN'T SHOW HOW TO CREATE NEW SENTENCES.

Post-Bloomfieldianism :
INFLUENCED BY BROOMFIELD’s IDEAS MANY POST-BLOOMFIELDIENS HAD
CONTRIBUTED ON MANY FIELDS ( GRAMMAR. PHONOLOGY. SEMANTICS AND OTHER
ASPECTS OF LINGUISTICS ) THEY EITHER REFUTED OR ADAPTED " BLOOMFIELDIEN
LINGUISTICS"
*****************************************
1STtheory : TAGMEMICS THEORY : KENNETH PIKE (1912-2000)
* WHILE BLOOMFIELD OVER CONCENTRATE ON "CLASSES" AT THE EXPENSE OF
FUNCTION ;TAGMEMICS MAKES FOCUSES ON RELATING : FORMS TO FUNCTION..*
*PIKE DEVELOPED TAGMEME NOTION WHICH COMBINED BETWEEN CLASS (V/
VP/N/NP/ADJ/ADV) AND FUNCTION (SUBJECT /PREDICATE /OBJECT /COMPLEMENT ....) .
*TAGMEME = PLACE + CLASS -- IT LOOKS LIKE A SLOT FULFILLED BY FILLER .
* SENTENCES ANALYZED INTO THE SEQUENCES OF TAGMEMES; EACH OF THESE
SEQUENCES GIVES INFORMATION ABOUT CLASS AND FUNCTION .
* TAGMEMICS THEORY DEALS ALSO WITH WORD STRUCTURE /PHRASES/ CLAUSES.
* IN TAGMEMICS, WE CALL THE DIFFERENT SIZE OF UNITS AND TAGMEMES "LEVELS".
* TAGMEMICS REAFFIRM FUNCTION IN A STRUCTURAL CONTEXT

2nd theory :Systemic Grammar (Neo-Firthian linguistics)

BY M.A.K HOLIDAY DISCIPLE OF J.R.FIRTH .
*HALLIDAY IS CLOSER TO EUROPEAN FUNCTIONALIST
* HALLIDAY STATES THAT LANGUAGE IS THE STUDY OF HOW PEOPLE EXCHANGE MEANINGS
THROUGH THE USE OF LANGUAGE.
* THE THEORY WAS CALLED SCALL AND CATEGORY GRAMM AR
* IN 1970 IT WAS CALLED SYSTEMIC GRAMMAR
* HALLIDAY USED CATEGORies OF STRUCTURE( SYSTEM / UNIT /CLASS) AND THREE
SCALES(RANK/DELICACY/ EXPONANCY "i.e RELATION BETWEEN TWO DIFFERENT LEVELS OF
LINGUISTIC STATEMENT " ) WHICH CONNECTED CATEGORIES BETWEEN THEM AND WITH DATA .
* LANGUAGE HAS THREE LEVELS (1-SUBSTANCE -2-FORM -3-SITUATION )
* UNITS ARE ARRANGED IN RANKS
* MEANING ARE PART OF ANALYSIS AND IT'S EXPRESSED IN THE CONTEXT " context in text "

3rd theory : Stratificational Grammar

* FOUNDED BY S.M. LAMB (B. 1929) AMERICAN LINGUIST IN THE LATE 1950’S.
* LANGUAGE AS A SYSTEM OF RELATED LAYERS (STRATA ‫ ) طبقات‬OR (‫ صفوف‬RANKS) OF A SENTENCE.
SO, LANGUAGE IS A HIERARCHICAL SYSTEM.
* LANGUAGE HAVE FOUR STRATA ‫ طبقات‬: SEMOTACTICS, LEXOTACTICS, MORPHOTACTICS, AND
PHONOTACTICS.
* STRATIFICATIONAL GRAMMAR HAS TO CLARIFY ALL KINDS OF LINGUISTIC PROCESSES, I.E.,
CONCERNING BOTH COMPETENCE AND PERFORMANCE.
* IT SHOWS “COGNITIVE APPROACH‫ " منهج إدراكي معرفي‬SEPARATING IT FROM CLASSICAL POST-
BLOOMFIELDIAN THEORIES AND IT CLOSE IT TO GENERATIVE GRAMMAR, EVEN THOUGH IT IS VERY
DIFFERENT FROM IT BOTH IN (DOCTRINES‫ )المذهب‬AND (METHODOLOGY‫) المنهجية‬

CRITICISM « the 3 theories »

* ALL THE 3 THEORIES DEAL WITH "THE CLASSIFICATION" "IDENTIFYING" AND "NAMING" UNITS OF
LANGUAGE AND DEAL WITH ONLY SIMPLE SENTENCES.
* THEY, WITH (ICA) CONSIDER THE SURFACE OF SENTENCE, NEGLECTING DEEP STRUCTURE.
*SOME OF THEM INCLUDES MEANING IN THE ANALYSIS LANGUAGE IS MEANINGFUL.
* SYSTEMIC GRAMMAR HAVE LARGE VISION OF LANGUAGE BECAUSE IT INCLUDES CONTEXT IN
ANALYSIS