The History of Linguistics [2]
论文作者:佚名论文属性:短文 essay登出时间:2009-04-15编辑:刘宝玲点击率:4227
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关键词:History of LinguisticsIndiaGreeceregular sound correspondencesphilosophyrhetoricliterary analysis
means to say that a word or sentence 'means' a particular thing and how these meanings are conveyed when we communicate with each other. Two popular ideas about what meanings are go back to the ancient Greeks: One is that meanings are mental representations of some sort; another is that the meaning of an expression is purely a function of how it is used. Both ideas have launched research programs that are active today. They have been joined by a third approach, building on work by philosophers such as Gottlob Frege and Bertrand Russell, which applies formal methods derived from logic and attempts to equate the meaning of an expression with reference and the conditions under which it might be judged to be true or false. Other linguists have been looking at the cognitive principles underlying the organization of meaning, including the basic metaphoric processes that some claim to see at the heart of grammar. And still others have been examining the ways that sentences are tied together to form coherent discourse.
Language Use: The Social Side of Language
In the past 50 years, there has been increasing attention to the social side of language as well as the mental. The subfield of sociolinguistics has come of age in part as a consequence of post World War II social movements. The national liberation movements active in third world countries after the war posed the question of what would be their official language(s) after independence, a pressing question, since almost all of them are multilingual. This led to scholarly study of the language situation in the countries of the world. In addition, the movements for minority rights in the United States and other Western countries has led to a close examination of social variation that complements earlier work in geographical variation. Scholars have turned the analytical tools of linguistics to the study of nonstandard varieties like African American Vernacular English and Chicano Spanish. And the women's movement has led many linguists to investigate gender differences in speech and whether our language has to perpetuate sexual inequality.
Suggested Readings
Harris, Randy A. 1993. The linguistics wars. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Lepschy, Giulio C. 1972. A survey of structural linguistics. London: Faber and Faber.
Newmeyer, Frederick J. 1986. The politics of linguistics. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.
Robins, R. H. 1979. A short history of linguistics. London: Longman. 2nd edn.
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