Unit 2: place of contrastive analysis in linguistics

Unit 2 Place of Contrastive Analysis in linguistics Unit 2 Major issues of Contrastive linguistics 1 Place of Contrastive Analysis in linguistics Approaches of Modern linguistics 1 Essential introductory linguistics studies all languages in the world to clarify their characteristics, functions, origins of a particular language in general, setting up a general system, categories as tools to investigate a particular language 2 Descriptive linguistics is the study of the grammar, classification an.

UNIT 2: MAJOR ISSUES OF CONTRASTIVE LINGUISTICS

1 Place of Contrastive Analysis

in linguistics

Approaches of Modern linguistics

1 Essential/ introductory linguistics studies all

languages in the world to clarify their characteristics, functions, origins of a particular language in general,

setting up a general system, categories as tools to

investigate a particular language

2 Descriptive linguistics is the study of the grammar,

classification and arrangement of a language at a given time, without reference to its history or comparison to the other languages

3 Comparative linguistics is a study in which different

languages to be compared among others

2 Subfields of comparative linguistics

1 Linguistic typology compares languages to

classify them by their features Its ultimate aim

is to understand the universals that govern

language, and the range of types found in the

world's languages in respect of any particular

feature (word order or vowel system, for

example)

Typological similarity does not imply a historical relationship However, typological arguments

can be used in comparative linguistics: one

reconstruction may be preferred to another as

typologically more plausible.

(see Linguistic typology)

2 Subfields of comparative linguistics

2 Historical linguistics is about how and why

language changes over time Comparative

linguistics, in the relevant sense, is the study of

linguistic relatedness, that is to say, of genetic or

ancestral connections and related matters of

subgrouping extending to the reconstruction of

unattested ancestral languages or proto-languages

3 Contrastive linguistics (CL) compares

languages usually with the aim of assisting language learning by identifying similarities and differences

between the learner's native (source language –

Vietnamese) and target languages (English)

Contrastive linguistics deals solely with present-day languages.

 Contrastive Linguistics (CL) = the whole field of

cross-language comparisons with a focus on theory and

methodology of comparison

 Contrastive Analysis (CA) 

= sensu largo: CS or CL 

= sensu stricto: the third step in classical contrastive

studies: description, juxtaposition, comparison

3 Contrastive

linguistics: terms

 Contrastive Studies (CS) in the past and at present

 History of CS

 since Aelfric’s Grammatica (1000AD) till now (Fries’

1945, Fisiak 1992): CS mostly for pedagogical purposes

 20 th  c.: grow of interest theory and methodology: more systematic and comprehensive empirical studies,

language corpora

 nowadays CS is conducted

 to support some theoretical claims not connected with

CL proper, emphasis on practice and application of CS

 to develop CL, emphasis on theory and methodology in CS,

 in language pedagogy, translation studies, theoretical linguistics, language technology

4 Approaches to CL

comparative historical linguistics

 looking for common genetic background of different languages

 diachronic studies

comparative typological linguistics

 group languages according to their characteristics

 synchronic studies

contrastive (non-classification) linguistics

 note and describe similarities and differences

between languages

 do not group them in any way

Self-study: Nguyễn Văn Chiến (1992) - page 29 - 39

5 Aims of CAs

 CAs is the systematic comparison of two

or more languages, with the aim of

describing their similarities and

differences

 CAs has often been done for practical/

pedagogical purposes The aim has been

to provide better descriptions and better teaching materials for language

learners

5 Aims of CAs

 The main purpose is for foreign language teaching (FLT)

 Teachers must solve three questions

1 Why CAs is instructive in foreign language teaching?

Teachers must analyze the factors in FLT, study the psychology

of learners, and know more about the learning process

2 How to apply contrastive analysis to FLT?

Teachers must study and analyze the important stages of

learning such as course design, textbook, classroom teaching and FL testing They should do the detailed comparison of

5 Aims of CAs

 Carl, J (1980) - page 11 - 60

 Nguyễn Văn Chiến (1992) - page

41 – 65

6 Criteria for CAs

DF = distinctive feature that assumes values DF1 and

DF2 for L 1  and L 2 respectively

 Then we say that

L 1  is like L 2  with respect to TC

e.g [Polish]L1 is like [English]L2 with respect to [the presence of 2sg

personal pronouns]TC

TC in L1 is marked by DF1, whereas in L2 TC is marked by DF2

e.g [The presence of 2sg personal pronouns]TC in English is marked

by [you]DF1, whereas in Polish it is marked by [ty, Pan/Pani]DF2

2, Forms are selected from the two descriptions.

3, The two selected forms are compared.

4, Features of difficulty are predicted

6 Criteria for CAs

(Tertium comparationis)

Types of TC’s

formal correspondence, for CA of word order,

function words, inflections,

affixation, suprasegmentals; alliteration, rhymes

semantic equivalence, for CA of meaning of

words, phrases and sentences

pragmatic/functional equivalence, for CA of

meaning/function of texts, structure of discourse, stylistic properties, quantitative aspects of text

Self – study: J Carl (1980) - p.166 - p.178

7 Methods of analysis in CA

 Comparison of the two language subsystems

should be through the same model of description :

- To use the translation theory whereby each

language can be described by its favorite model then translated into an artificial “etalon

language” (Melchuk, 1963) that can enhance the features of L1 and L2 construction

- To apply description bias to the second language and how it is used by the second language

learner more than the focus on understanding L1

languages to focus on general rules or systems

rather than the focus on the translated meaning)

CA aims at generalizing its findings on the

grammatical systems of compared languages

2, Description of the realizations of each grammatical category in each of the two contrasted languages, such as determining the realization or the context of using the indefinite article in English and Russian

7 Methods of analysis in CA

3, The addition of new data with their translation to the corpus and then modifying the rules to include the new data

4, A formulation of the found results of the contrasted data is determined either in the form of equation or operation

The formation was either in the form of a set of

instructions that can be applied to both language

grammars (Harris, 1954 in James, 1980) transfer

rules or equations which differ from transfer rules in that they do not show which language is being

converted to the other and hence lack the

directionality of the transfer rules

7 Methods of analysis in CA

 Chien, N.V (1992) – p 67 – p 110

8 Kinds of CAs

 Theoretical CAs

 Applied CAs

psychology and sociology

 Not only its linguistic validity but also its

psychological and/or its

sociological validity

structure that has improved

pedagogy as its aim is therefore truly a field of applied language research” (Wilkins

1972, 224)

8 Kinds of CAs

 Develop models of

language analysis,

describe languages and

explore similarities and

differences between

languages

 Focus more on abstract

concepts such as,

 Focus on psycholinguistic elements that are more perceptual even if the contrasted variables are syntactically incomparable

at all CAs must propose hypotheses and solution for problems (Fisiak, 1990)

8 Kinds of CAs

 “Do not investigate

how a given category

of how a universal category X, realised in language A as y,

is rendered in language B

This means that applied CAs unidiretional (cf

p 171) whereas theoretical CAs are static,

since they do not need to reflect any

directionality of learning

Vietnamese…, but no information on the

obverse directionality.

liable to lose sight of

the contact between

experience of learners’ difficulties than derived from linguistic analysis – interpretations of

theoretical CAs rather than independent

execution

8 Kinds of CAs

 aims at explore the

contrastive analysis

patterns and theoretical

frame, and to analyze

and describe the

similarities and

differences between

two or more languages

In this way, the concept

to teaching, translation or dictionary-design The main purpose

is for foreign language teaching

8 Kinds of CAs

 The study of it can

be divided into the

study of phonetics,

lexicon, syntax, and

semantics.

 aims at studying specific language phenomenon,

such as the different usages

of English and Vietnamese

articles

8 Kinds of CAs

 The general procedures in carrying a more

4 steps:

1, the identification of the problem area,

2, description by using the framework,

juxtaposition by putting the separate

descriptions of the two languages side by side

3, deciding what is to be compared with what

based on intuitive judgments of competent

bilingual speakers,

4, comparison which comes last

8 Kinds of CAs

 The general procedures in carrying out a more

steps

1 The author must determine the scope of his study

as specific as possible In other words, that is to say,

he must narrow it down

2 He should review the previous literature by stating the separate study already alone in the area and

separate studies of the two languages in the area

This is similar to what is called the literature review

3 He should choose a theoretic model or framework, which depends on the purpose and level of the

study Otherwise, it will not be feasible enough to make it as valid as required

8 Kinds of CAs

4 He must collect sufficient data for analysis That is to say, sufficient data must be based

on the large number of subjects and samples

5 He should do the contrastive analysis of the data both qualitatively and quantitatively

Only in this way, can the true value be shown and tested

6 He must sum up the results Complete

content and organizational editing before

formatting