QUESTIONNAIRE FOR FIRST INTERVIEW Instructions: Go over a small set of questions everyday. Try to answer each question briefly and if possible write down your answer.
BEGINNINGS OF MODERN LINGUISTICS PAGE 120
1. When did linguistics emerge as an independent field of study (with different specializations, professional organization, journals and areas of application?)
2. How far back can we date the study of language in the West, not to speak of the East?
3. How was the nature of language studied in the past ages?
4. When did language in general and languages other than Greek, Latin and Hebrew become the object of enquiry.
5. What did Historical Linguistics attempt to do?
6. What kind of training did language teachers have at the end of the nineteenth century?
7. What did they sometimes include in their teaching?
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8. How much bearing did philological scholarship have on language teaching?
9. What did teachers rely on principally at that time?
10. What important development took part at the end of the nineteenth century in linguistics?
11. Describe what happened in 1906, which is very important for linguistics.
12. What did Charles Ballyand Albert Sechehaye do?
13. What does the publication represent for linguistics?
CHARACTERIZATION OF LINGUISTICS TODAY PAGE 121
14. How is linguistics usually defined?
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15. How does the modern approach differ from the approach to language cultivated in schools?
16. What is the central purpose of linguistics according to some scholars?
17. Name some differences between a linguist and a language teacher.
18. Is linguistics only theoretical?
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19. What are the tasks of theoretical linguistics and of descriptive linguistics?
20. Is the study of language a prescriptive study?
21. What do the words synchronic and diachronic mean?
THE VIEW OF LANGUAGE IN MODERN LINGUISTICS Page 123-124
22. What has modern linguistics stressed? Where is the emphasis?
23. How does linguistics view varieties in language?
24. What is a special interest of linguists today? (Children and linguistically handicapped people).
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25. Describe the interest of linguistics in interlanguage, baby talk and foreigner talk?
What do you mean by pidgin and creole languages
26. What points of interest does sociolinguistics have when studying language?
27. What do you mean by the interest of linguistics in the different domains of discourse?
28. What do you mean by code switching?
29. Make an enumeration of things that linguistics deals with.
30. Should the English language teacher teach American English or another variety?
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31. Discuss the recognition of relatively distinct varieties in language pedagogy.
32. Discuss the concept of language as system or structure.
33. Why is linguistics important for the language teacher?
34. How do you explain that language operates mainly with relational concepts?
35. Explain the various relational concepts explained in the text.
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36. What has been the emphasis when teaching? (Paradigmatic or syntagmatic?)
37. Discuss the concepts of langue and parole.
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38. What does the model of the communicative act proposed by Seebok and Osgood contain?
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39. Discuss Skinner´s view on language and behavior.
40. Discuss the concepts of competence and performance.
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41. Discuss the difference between phonetics and phonology.
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42. Discuss the shift between 1925 and 1965 toward grammar.
43. What has happened since then and how does it affect language teaching?
44. How much attention has lexicology received?
45. Why are word frequency studies important for language teaching?
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46. How old is the study of semantics and what does it study.
47. What was the attitude of linguists toward semantics between 1930 and 1955?
48. Why is the notional functional syllabus important for language teaching?
49. Discuss the appearance of the concept of discourse analysis in linguistics since the 1950´s
50. What important change did it bring about in the teaching of English?
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51. What can you say about the new directions in linguistics? Discuss the confrontation between the particular divisions of linguistics and a general unified theory of language that explains how the subparts of language interact and behave.
52. Enumerate several attempts made to develop a unified theory of language. (Page 134)
53. Draw a picture of the categories of linguistic analysis and explain each one briefly.(Figure 7.2)
54. Enumerate at least 4 important questions the writer asks himself as a consequence of the Figure in 7.2.
55. Explain the approach to linguistics of Bloomfield and American structuralism.
a)Define it.
b)Since when has it had influence in the teaching profession?
c)Describe how it is derived from a specific author and book.
d)What credit can we give Bloomfield for the theory of linguistics?
e)What was his tenet with reference to meaning?
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56. What is the object of linguistic studies according to Bloomfield and his followers(Harris?
for example)?
What was Pike’s position in relation to Bloomfield´s reductionist view or stand on
language?
57. Describe briefly Bloomfield´s definition of the object of linguistic studies.(Check up his
definition)
58. What does his book Language omit in particular and what does it include?
59. Name the linguists that were important after Bloomfield and that built upon and developed his view of language.
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60. What did over 450 studies point out about linguistics?
61. What was going on in Britain in linguistics in contrast with developments in the U.S.A.?
62. What was Malinowiski´s conclusion after studying the South Sea Islanders?
63. Who did Firth follow?
64. What linguistic levels did Michael Halliday propose?
65. Describe two fundamental concepts proposed by Michael Halliday( “category” and “rank scale”
66. What is Halliday´s major emphasis?
TRANSFORMATIONAL GENERATIVE GRAMMAR (Page 140)
67. Describe the impact of Chomky on the linguistics field.
68. What was the relationship between Chomky and Skinner?
69. Describe the three phases of Chomskyan theory.
70. In what way did Chomsky change the focus of linguistic enquiry in relation to previous studies, especially the structuralist paradigm before him?
71. What important question did he ask himself? What perspective did the generative approach open?
72. Discuss what is meant by “creativity of the language” and what is the relationship of this view with that of Humboldt´s.
73. What are generative and transformational rules according to Chomsky? (Transformation and generative grammar)
74. What do you understand by deep and surface structures?
75. How had Chomsky´s grammar evolved by 1965?
76. What happened to Chomsky´s theory between 1965 and the early seventies?
77. Discuss some of the differences between Transformational Generative Grammar (TGG)and structuralism, especially concerning language learning and teaching.
78. Discuss the characteristics of the linguistic tendency for a more semantic and social view of language that emerged in contraposition to structuralism and TGG.
79. Enumerate and dsicuss briefly the conclusions after reading this chapter.