3. Topics will be discussed:
1. Prague School & Linguistics
2. Roman Jakobson
3. Nikolay Trubetzkoy
4. Ferdinand De Saussure
5. Copenhagen School & Linguistics
4. Prague School & Linguistics
Introduction :
• The capital and the largest city in the Czech Republic.
• The 13th largest city in the European Union
• The historical capital of Bohemia.
Prague Linguistic Circle:
• A language and literature society.
• Started in 1926 as a group of linguists. philologists and literary
critics in Prague.
• Developed methods of structuralist literary analysis and a theory
of the standard language
founded in the Cafe Derby in Prague where meetings took place
during its first years
5. Prague School & Linguistics
• Prague School and Linguistics
• Language study synchronic or diachronic
• Study of language through relationship with existing elements
• Language is a tool for performing various functions in a
society.
• Three Functions of a Language .
• Karl Buhler
• i. Cognitive function (transfer factual info)
• ii. Expressive function (mood. attitude)
• iii. Conative function (influences the addresser) (the mental
faculty of purpose, desire. or will to perform an action)
6. Prague School & Linguistics
• Contributions of Prague School:
• It saw language in terms of function.
• They analyzed language with a view of showing
the functions played by the different
components.
• They looked at languages and explained why
languages were the way they were.
• Use of terms theme and rheme.
• It was interested in standardizing linguistic usage
7. Prague School & Linguistics
• Influence:
• The Prague School has had a significant
continuing influence on linguistics and semiotics.
After the Czechoslovak coup d'dtat of 1948,the
circle was disbanded in 1952. but the Prague
School continued as a major force in linguistic
functionalism. The Prague structuralists also had
a significant influence on structuralist film theory.
especially through the introduction of the
ostensive sign (explain with examples and
gestures).
8. Roman Jakobson
• A pioneer of structural linguistics
Jakobson was one of the most
celebrated and influential
linguistics of twentyth century, a
principal founder of the
european movement in structural
linguistics is known as prague
school.
9. Roman Jakobson
• Jakobson's model of function of language
distinguishes six elements or factors of
communication, that are necessary for
communication to occur.
• 1.context
• 2.sender
• 3.receiver
• 4.context
• 5.common code
• 6. Message.
10.
11. Established in 1926 by Vilem Mathesius.
It is an influential group of linguist, philosophers and literary
critics.
It was influenced by Saussurian school.
Proponents: Nikolai Trubetzkoy, Roman Jakobson, Sergei
Karcevskiy
Nikolai Trubezkoi was leading representitive of prague school.
Contribution: Phonology and the distinction between
phonetics and phonology.
Focus:
1. Language in terms of function.
2. Sound system analysis i.g. Phonology.
12. Nikolai Trubetzkoy
Born: 16 April 1890, Moscow, Russia.
Graduated from Moscow University
Worked at University of Vienna as Professor of Slavic
Philology.
Books:
• Principles of Phonology,
• Writings on Literature( Theory of Literature)
Died: 25 June 1938, Vienna, Germany.
13. Nikolai Trubetzkoy
Further information about N. Trubetzkoy
• He is a Russian linguist whose teachings formed a
nucleus of the Prague School of structural linguistics.
• He was widely considered to be the founder of
morphophonology.
• His principles of phonological theory have been
also applied to the analysis of sign languages.
14. Nikolai Trubetzkoy
• N. Trubetzkoy: Principle of Phonology
• Phonetics and phonology : different for parole and langue
• Phoneme: an abstract unite of the sound system.
• Distinctive feature: phonological oppositions.
15. Nikolai Trubetzkoy
Contribution to Prague School:
1. Showed distinctive functions of speech sounds and gave an
accurate definition of the phoneme.
2. Reveled the interdependent syntagmatic and paradigmatic
relations between phonemes.
3. Making distinction between phonetics and phonology, he
defined the sphere of phonological studies.
4. He put a set of methodologies for phonological studies such
as method of extracting phonemes.
5. Analysis of utterances in terms of the information they
contain.
6. The role of each utterance part is evaluated for its semantic
contribution to the whole.
19. Ferdinand De Saussure
The Father of “Modern Linguistics”
Contributions:
1. Synchronic-Diachronic
View
2. Sign-Signifier-Signified
3. Langue & Parole
4. Syntagmatic &
Paradigmatic Relation
20. Synchronic-Diachronic View
• Synchronic View: Synchronic linguistics sees
language as a living whole, existing as a state
at particular point in time.
Synchronic View
21. Diachronic View: It Studies how language develops
by time to time or the history of language and
change
Synchronic-Diachronic View
Diachronic View
22. Signifier: A signifier is the form Which the sign takes.
Signified: The signified is the concept or idea it
represents
Sign-Signifier-
Signified:
