Routledge Dictionary of Language and Linguistics.pdf

A-Z 1133signs in the same system. The fundamental structuralist concept of the ‘distinctiveprinciple’ is characterized by this principle of ‘contrast’ (d) These element relationshipscan be analyzed on two levels: the syntagmatic level, i.e. the level of linear co-existence;and the paradigmatic level, i.e. the level of interchangeability of elements in a particularposition; ( paradigmatic vs syntagmatic relationship). (e) Since language (langue)is understood to be a system of signs, its analysis must be pursued along strictlysynchronic lines, i.e. as the description of a state of affairs that exists at a given time (synchrony vs diachrony). (f) Linguistic analysis is based on a representative corpus,whose regularities are defined by way of two steps, segmentation and classification,segmentation taking place on the syntagmatic level, classification on the paradigmatic( also distribution).The central level of investigation in structuralism, especially in the Prague School, isphonology. Methods of analysis were tested on its inventory of elements and possiblecombinations. These methods, when applied to the analysis of syntax, led to phrasestructure grammar; the limits of these procedures are shown most clearly in the area ofsemantics ( componential analysis, lexical field theory).While ‘structuralism’ in its narrower sense refers to de Saussure’s linguistic theories,in its broader sense it is an umbrella term for approaches in anthropology, ethnology,sociology, psychology, and literary criticism, which - in analogy to linguisticstructuralism-concentrate on synchronic analysis rather than on genetic/historicalpreconditions, in order to expose the universal structures at work under the surface ofsocial relations (see especially R.Barthes, C.Lévi-Strauss).ReferencesAlbrecht, J. 1988. Europäischer Strukturalismus. Darmstadt.Bloomfield, L. 1933. Language. New York.Harris, Z.S. 1951. Methods in structural linguistics. Chicago, IL.——1965. Transformational theory. Lg 41.363–401. (Repr. in Papers in structural andtransformational linguistics. Dordrecht, 1970. 531–77.)Harris, R. 1987. Reading Saussure. London.Hjelmslev, L. 1943. Omkring sprogteoriens grundlaeggelse. Copenhagen. (Prolegomena to atheory of language, trans. F.J.Whitfield. Baltimore, MD, 1953.)Holdcroft, D. 1991. Saussure: signs, systems and arbitrariness. Cambridge.Joos, M. (ed.) 1966. Readings in linguistics, vol. 1: the development of descriptive linguistics inAmerica, 1925–1956. Chicago, IL.Joseph, J.E. 1990. Bloomfield’s (1887–1949) Saussureanism. Cahiers Ferdinand de Saussure,43.43–53.Koerner, E.F.K. 1990. L.Bloomfield (1887–1949) and the Cours de linguistique générale. CahiersFerdinand de Saussure, 43.55–63.Mohrmann, C. et al. (eds) 1961. Trends in European and American linguistics, 1930–1960.Utrecht.Newmeyer, F.J. Linguistic theory in America. Orlando, FL.Sapir, E. 1921. Language. New York.Saussure, F.de. 1916. Cours de linguistique générale. Paris. (Course in general linguistics, trans.R.Harris. London, 1983.)Trubetzkoy, N. 1939. Grundzüge der Phonologie. Göttingen.