英语课程与教学论4-1.ppt

Chapter One Theories of linguistics Theories of linguistics 1. Traditional linguistics 2. American structuralism 3. Transformational generative linguistics 4. Functional linguistics ?5. About Hymes’s idea 1. Traditional linguistics By traditional linguistics we mean the linguistic theory that comes directly from the traditional study of language in ancient Greece. It has a tradition of more than 2000 years. People made a study of language in order to understand the classic works of ancient times and in order to be able to teach Ss, enabling them to understand and appreciate these classic works. Traditional linguistics believes that the written form of language was superior to the spoken form. They gave priority to the written form and took words as their starting point. When discussing the rules of language, they usually took a prescriptive approach, because they wanted to set up principles and standards for people to use language correctly. prescriptive grammar Prescriptive grammar states rules for what is considered the best or most correct usage; not based on description of actual usage, but on the grammarians’ views of what is best. e.g. I saw him.? Prescriptivists hold that language is governed by fixed rules of grammar. These grammars were a formative influence on language attitude in Europe and America during the 18th and 19th centuries. Their influence lives on in the handbooks of usage widely found today. Here is a joke, which has something to do with prescriptive grammar. TEXAN: Where are you from? HARVARD GRAD: I come from a place where we do not end our sentences with prepositions. TEXAN: OK — where are you from, jackass? descriptive grammar Descriptive grammar is a grammar which describes how a language is actually spoken and/or written, and does not state or prescribe how it ought to be spoken or written. If a descriptive grammar of a non-prescribe variety of English were written, it might show, for example, speakers of this variety somet