StructuralismBy: Renee Joubarne, Riyadh Nazerally,

Laura Crone, Scott Wood

Born in Geneva, Switzerland on November 26th, 1857

Died February 22nd, 1913

Considered one of the fathers of linguistics

At 21 attended University of Berlin, where he wrote his only full-length work entitled “Mémoire sur le système primitif des voyelles dans les langues indo-européenes (Dissertation on the Primitive Vowel System in Indo-European Languages)”

Only began teaching linguistics in 1906

Saussure’s most influential work was published by 2 of his students in 1913 composed of only the notes taken in Saussure’s linguistics course

Father of Structuralism

Structuralism in linguistics examines how the elements of language relate to each other in the present.

Originates from the Swiss linguist Ferdinand de Saussure. Was published posthumously in 1915 in Course in General Linguistics, a book based on his notes.

Focuses not on language, but on the underlying system of language.

What is Structuralism?

Structuralism is used to break down stories and texts, making the plot simple, using specific terms.

Ex: Boy+Love Girl, Boy’s group – Love Girl’s group.

Can you think of any movies/books that resemble this plot structure?

In the simplest of terms, it is the study of signs.

Discuss: what is a sign?

Semiotics

A sign is an entity that represents an object or an idea .

According to Saussure a sign is made up of three parts: signifier, signified and referent.

SIGNIFIER

SIGNIFIED

REFERENT

Semiotic Triangle

Value of a sign depends on its relations to other signs within the system (language), ie: chess. Each piece has a value on certain places on the board.

Ex. The word mouton in French means sheep in English. However, mouton covers both the animal and the cooked meat. In English, the meat of the animal has a different word: mutton.

Arbitrariness: There is no particular connection between the signifier and the signified.

Arbitrary: Determined by chance, whim, or impulse, and not by necessity, reason, or principle

Example: There is nothing treeish about a tree. The letters T-R-E-E have nothing to do with the actual living organism.

For example, in Jabberwocky, Lewis Carroll exploits the arbitrary nature of the sign in its use of nonsense words. The poem also demonstrates that you cannot have either a signified or a signifier alone. We naturally assume that there is a signified to accompany the signifier in the unknown words.

Exceptions: Onomatopoeia and interjections.

'Twas brillig, and the slithy tovesDid gyre and gimble in the wabe;All mimsy were the borogoves,And the mome raths outgrabe.

"Beware the Jabberwock, my son!The jaws that bite, the claws that catch!Beware the Jubjub bird, and shunThe frumious Bandersnatch!"

He took his vorpal sword in hand:Long time the manxome foe he sought—So rested he by the Tumtum tree,And stood awhile in thought.

And as in uffish thought he stood,The Jabberwock, with eyes of flame,Came whiffling through the tulgey wood,And burbled as it came!One, two! One, two! and through and through

The vorpal blade went snicker-snack!He left it dead, and with its headHe went galumphing back.

"And hast thou slain the Jabberwock?Come to my arms, my beamish boy!O frabjous day! Callooh! Callay!"He chortled in his joy.

'Twas brillig, and the slithy tovesDid gyre and gimble in the wabe;All mimsy were the borogoves,And the mome raths outgrabe.’

Semantics: is the study of meaning, generally in language. More specifically, it is the study of the interpretation of signs.

Syntactic: The study of the rules and principles for making sentences, in a specific language.

Ex: The syntax of the English language would refer to the rules that tell us how to make coherent sentences.

Pragmatics: studies the fact that to transmit your meaning, words and grammar are not the only important things, but also the context, the intent of the speaker, the knowledge the listener poses etc. Pragmatics is a huge subfield of structuralism.

3 Branches

Morpheme- Smallest meaningful unit in the grammar of language.

For example: unladylike has 3 morphemes;

un- not lady- female human like- having characteristics of.

Terms to Know

Morphemes can also be suffixes or prefixes.

Uncontrollably (4 morphemes).

Corner

Phoneme- : A group of slightly different sounds, that are perceived to have the same function by speakers of the language or dialect.

There are 44 phonemes in the English language.

Example: Giant ---- Game Judge

Of the 44 phonemes, many are made up of two or three letters. These are referred to as digraphs or trigraphs.

Example: oi is a phoneme, used in words like boy and coin. This is an example of a digraph.

Ear is a phoneme used in words like beer and fear. This is a trigraph.

Lexeme- Abstract unit, corresponds to several forms of the same word, without changing the meaning, only the inflection.

Example: Jump, Jumps, Jumped, Jumping

The original word is called a lemma. Therefore in this example Jump is the lemma, with all the words being forms of the same lexeme.

STAB

RUNNING

Grapheme-is a fundamental unit in a language. Ex. Chinese characters, alphabetic letters, and punctuation. Multiple graphemes correspond to one phoneme in the English language.

Ex. The sound ‘f’ can be represented by ‘ph’, ‘gh’ and ‘f’.

DiachronicExamines the development of language over a period of time.

Example: The word bug, which has kept it’s meaning (a small insect), but has gained many other meanings (an illness, flaw in computers, electronic listening device).

Comparing the meaning in the past, and in the present.

SynchronicWhere one views a linguistic term at a particular point in time.

Example: The word wicked now means cool or great, as well as evil.

Looking at the word in the present.

Saussure separated language into two categories: Langue and parole.

Langue: underlying system of language (signs)

Parole: individual personal phenomenon of language, as a series of speech acts by a person

Speech act: One person says a command, and another does a corresponding action.

Syntagm: is a combination of signifiers that make sense and form a meaningful whole. A sentence is a syntagm.

Syntagmatic analysis: the analysis of syntax or surface structure, of a text. Looks for relationships between the parts of a text.

Paradigm: A set of signifiers that are all associated but very different. Verbs and nouns are examples of paradigms. In a sentence, one member of a paradigm can be replaced with another.

Ex: Laura jumps over a tree. Laura hits a tree. The word jump has been replaced by a member of the same

paradigm. Laura hits a dog. The noun has been changed.

Paradigmatic analysis: Analysis of paradigms that are within the text, as opposed to the surface structure, or syntax.

Daisies By: Susie Williams

The world is sunshine. The world is a fun time. I love to run and play Every single day.   Swings go up and down Never ever make me frown I can ride them forever Except when it’s raining outside.   Sometimes I like to play on the jungle gym. My dad says its unsafe, I like him. But I think its fun. Its bad when im done. When I go home I miss the jungle gym.   The night time is nice For dinner I like rice Always like nice things Like mommy and daddy’s nice rings   The sky is blue Like a blue bird An owl says “hoo”

That is his only word   Sometimes I draw pictures Sometimes of a princess and her cat The cat is a fat cat Because the princess spoils her She is a nice cat, though.   Daises are the best flowers They glow in the day My mom planted flowers She did it anyway   Today is a good day I got some candy It was watermelon Maybe it was cherry they are kind of the

same   Im getting tired now Its almost lunchtime The doctor looks sad I don’t usually sleep now Goodnight sun   Susie was declared dead at 11:51 AM on

November 15th, 1934.

Does structuralism share ideas or concepts with other forms of linguistic analysis/criticism? Ex. Reader response, impressionistic, etc.

DISCUSS

Comparing Structalism to Other Linguistic Analysis Types