Language Descriptions and Language Teaching

Classical grammar

1. Based on grammar of Latin/ancient Greek

2. Inflections of parts of speech signal grammatical relations, e.g:

puer amat puellam The boy loves the girl

puellam amat puer The boy loves the girl

puella amat puerum The girl loves the boy

amo puellam I love the girl

Classical grammar (contd.)

Cases

Nominative puella puer

Vocative puella puere

Accustaive puellam puerum

Genetive puellae pueri

Dative puellae puero

Ablative puella puero

Structural linguistics

1. Syntagmatic

Paradigmatic

I am

Heis

goingShe doingIt talkingWe

are

eatingYou

They

2. The whole is the sum of the parts:– Morpheme/phoneme<word<group<clause<

sentence

Transformational-Generative Grammar

• John is easy to please• John is eager to please

• Acme has taken over the National Bank• The national Bank has been taken over by Acme

1. Language must be understood in terms of mental processes.

2. Competence/performance

Deep level/surface structure

Communicative Competence A: Can I go out to play? B: It’s raining.

A: Have you cut the grass yet? B: It’s raining.

A: I think I’ll go out for a walk. B: It’s raining.

1. Language must be seen in terms of its social use for communication.

2. Communication is achieved by more than just linguistic knowledge

3. Form/meaning

Meaning

Colorless green ideas sleep furiously.

1. propositional

2. notional

3. illocutionary force (function)– sociolinguistic– discoursal

A: It’s raining. B: I think I’ll go out for a walk

Conclusion

• need to see succeeding developments as complementary, not contradictory:– e.g., function = structure + context

• LT not just “linguistics applied”

• recommended readings

SEMINAR

1. What are the main advantages and disadvantages of each of the language descriptions from a LT point of view?

2. In what ways do the interests of linguistic research and language teaching differ?