Routledge Dictionary of Language and Linguistics.pdf

Dictionary of language and linguistics 208communicative competenceCoined by D.Hymes in his ethnography of communication ( ethnography ofspeaking), this term is a critical expansion of N. Chomsky’s concept of competence (competence vs performance) (which concerns only the linguistic capabilities of theideal speaker-hearer, so that the social function of language remains unaddressed).Communicative competence is the fundamental concept of a pragmalinguistic model oflinguistic communication: it refers to the repertoire of know-how that individuals mustdevelop if they are to be able to communicate with one another appropriately in thechanging situations and conditions. In this model, speaking is understood as the action oftransmitting symbols (i.e. interaction). Communicative competence is the descriptive goalof various social-psychological disciplines.ReferencesHabermas, J. 1971. Vorbereitende Bemerkungen zu einer Theorie der kommunikativen Kompetenz.In J.Habermas and N.Luhmann (eds), Theorie der Gesellschaft oder Sozialtechnologie.Frankfurt. 101–41.Hymes, D. 1968. The ethnography of speaking. In J.A.Fishman (ed.), Readings in the sociology oflanguage. The Hague. 99–138.Kochan, D.C. (ed.) 1973. Sprache und kommunikative Kompetenz. Stuttgart.Russell, J. 1981. Communicative competence in a minority group: a sociolinguistic study of theSwahili-speaking community in the Old Town, Mombasa. Amsterdam and Philadelphia.commutationsubstitutioncommutation test [Lat. commutatio‘exchange’]Experimental analytical procedure used in structuralism to discover syntacticregularities. Single syntactic elements are rearranged in a sentence, so that the newsentence is grammatical, and the syntactic effects are noted. As a result of this test,constituents are shown to be commutable sentence units. Sentences can be analyzed asdeclarative, interrogative, and imperative, depending on the position of the verb, andrules of word order can describe and resolve structural ambiguities: Caesar loved fat menand women Caesar loved women and fat men. ( also operational procedures)