Lectures in Theoretical Grammar

     It is also important to remember that different parts of the utterance have to agree with one another semantically. So the articles are mostly used in their generalizing function in utterances characterized by generic reference, for example:

     The noun is a part of speech which denotes substance.

     The tragedy of life is indifference.

 

4. The Use of Articles as Concretizers

 

The generalizing function of articles is opposed to that of concretization. The latter is realized through some specific functions which are different for definite, indefinite and zero articles.

 

            FUNCTIONS OF THE INDEFINITE ARTICLE

     The indefinite article can be used in four functions:

1. The classifying function
2. The indefinitizing function
3. The introductory function
4. The quantifying function

Each of them is realized under specific contextual conditions.

1. The classifying function of the indefinite article is realized in

the so-called classifying utterances. Their invariant sentence pattern is: N + Vbe + N1. Those are:

a) structures with the verb “to be”, for example:

  This is a computer.

      b)exclamatory sentences beginning with “what” or such.

      e.g. What a long story! He is such a nuisance!

      c) sentences including an adverbial modifier of manner or comparison, for example:   

     e.g. You look like a rose! She works as a teacher.

2. The indefinitizing function is realized when the referent of the

noun is not a real thing, but it exists in the speaker’s imagination only. Those are sentences containing modal verbs or verbs with modal meaning, forms of the Subjunctive Mood, Future Tense forms, negative and interrogative sentences.

e.g. I wish I had a home like you do.

       Have you ever seen a living tiger?

3.  The introductory function

     Before sharing some information about the object, we need to introduce it to the hearer. Fairy tales can be used as ideal illustrations of the use of the indefinite article in its introductory function.

     e.g. Once upon a time there lived an old man. He had a wife and a daughter. He lived in a small house.

4. The quantifying function

     The indefinite article developed from the numeral “one”. The meaning of “oneness” is still preserved when the article is used with nouns denoting measure, like “a minute”, “a year” or “a pound”.

 

              FUNCTIONS OF THE DEFINITE ARTICLE

     The definite article may be used in the following functions:

1. The identifying function

When we speak, we may want to point out to something that both us and the hearer perceive with our organs of feeling. There are five different ways of getting the information about something existing in the objective reality. We can see it (Do you like the picture?), hear it (I believe, the music is too loud), feel it (The pillow is so soft!), smell it (What is the name of the perfume?) or taste it (The soup tastes bitter).

2. The definitizing function

     The object or thing denoted by the noun is presented as a part of some complex. In modern science the term “frame” is often used. The frame is a structurally organized system of images. For example, the frame “classroom” includes a window, a blackboard and a door. So if both the speaker and the hearer know what classroom they are speaking of, the constituents of the classroom don’t need any special concretization, and the indefinite article will be used.

     e.g. I want to talk to the rector (even if you have never met the man).

3. The individualizing function

     The object in question may be presented as a unique thing with the hearer’s attention focused on its distinguishing features, which are represented with the help of a particularizing attribute. The object is singled out from the class it belongs to. The particularizing attribute can be expressed by:

     a) adjectives in the superlative degree

        e.g. This is the easiest way out.

     b) ordinal numerals

        e.g. I have forgotten the first word.

    c) attributive relative restrictive clauses

         e.g. I need the book I bought yesterday.

 

                 FUNCTIONS OF THE ZERO ARTICLE

     In most cases the zero article performs the same functions as the indefinite one. The difference is that the combinability of the latter is restricted to the group of countable nouns used in the singular form, whereas the zero article combines with uncountable nouns and countable nouns in the plural.

     e.g. It was a large room with many windows.

            The toasts were in champagne.

     Still there are situations where the zero article is used in its specific functions which are different from those of the indefinite article. When used with the zero article, the noun loses its general grammatical meaning of thingness to a certain degree and acquires the meaning of qualitativeness. For example, the nouns “day” and “night” used with the zero article stand for “light” and “darkness” rather than time units.

Theoretical Grammar

Kolomiytseva O.A.

LECTURE 14: THE SUBJECT MATTER OF PSYCHOLINGUISTICS

      For many years language was approached as just a system, outside the processes of its acquisition and use. Nowadays it has become quite popular to study language in action, taking into account the human factor. There has been a great interest in the analysis of different parameters of the communicative speech situation, like time place and social environment. It is evident that when we speak, we are influenced by everything around us as well as by our own inner selves. It would be very easy to analyze texts, if people spoke like computers, following the principle of formal logic and that of economy. Luckily, it is not so. If we were absolutely logical, trying to relate to others, our speech would be very dull and lifeless.

             Psycholinguistics is one of several linguistic disciplines which  focus on the relationship between language structures and the one who uses them It stands on the borderline between Psychology and Linguistics. The subject matter of Psychology is the nature and function of the human soul. The term itself is derived from the two Greek words “psyche” which means “soul” and “logos” which stands for “science”. There are three aspects in the human soul: “mind”, “will” and “emotions”, and all of them are studied by Psychology. The subject matter of Psycholinguistics is, of course, narrower. It is not concerned with human soul as it is. Its scope of interest is human ability to use language.

        On the other hand, Psycholinguistics is not a completely independent discipline, it is a branch of General Linguistics.

        Psycholinguistics can be briefly defined as a branch of language science studying speech behavior of man. B.Skinner, a famous American psychologist, suggests that language is a part of a more encompassing human behavior.

       Psycholinguistics was officially recognized as a discipline, as a branch of linguistics in 1953, in the city of Bloomington, USA. It was based on the principles of the “theory of information”. The key terms that were used were “sender”, “channel” and “recipient”. The importance of using the channel effectively was underlined. The channel is described in terms of “effectiveness” and “reliability”. The effectiveness of the channel is related to the number of the bites of information that can be conveyed for a certain time unit. It means that the more information is conveyed for, let us say, an hour or a minute the more effective the channel is.

  The reliability of the channel can be defined as the answer to the question “Is there any difference between what was sent and what was received?” To increase the reliability the speaker may want to speak slower, repeating the same over and over again, which, of course, will decrease the effectiveness of the channel. It has been proved for example that the study material covered by an average half-an-hour lecture could be successfully presented for just twenty minutes, if the teacher were after the efficiency of the channel only. However, it would be extremely difficult, if not impossible, for the students to receive pure semiological (or logical) information, not dissolved by any flashbacks or jokes.   Normal speech is half-reliable and half-effective.

       In 1954 a book by Ch. Osgood and L. Sebeok was published. The title of it was “Psycholinguistics: A study of Theory and Research Problems” and it gave birth to psycholinguistics as an independent discipline. Psycholinguistics is defined as “a science which provides for the use of linguistic analysis of grammar to identify the mental and behavioral processes which underlie language acquisition and development”. Ch. Osgood suggested a three-level model of the derivation of the utterance. The speaker (sender) realizes his communicative intention step by step, level by level, choosing one of the possible phonetic, lexical and morphological variants. According to P.L. Newcomer and D.D. Hannill, psycholinguistics is the study of the mental processes which underlie the acquisition and use of language.

      A.A. Leontyev, defines the subject matter of psycholinguistics as the relationship between language system and linguistic competence. What is meant, scholars no longer focus on language as a system, but they also analyze the person’s ability to use the linguistic units and structures more effectively.

 

PSYCHOLINGUISTIC FACTORS

 

       Psycholinguistics focuses on the speaking individual. Therefore,

I. the human factor is extremely important in defining psycholinguistics as an independent discipline. It is not the product of speaking, that is of greatest importance, it is also the speaking person, with all of its strengths, weaknesses, creative abilities and disturbances. It is interesting to study the differences between women’s and men’s speech, for example. Men and women are sure to speak differently, because their personalities are not the same. Children’s speech is something to be studied too. It can hardly be denied that teenagers speak somewhat differently from senior adults. The speaker’s personality type as well as his current emotional state can’t but affect the choice of language structures.

    II. Another thing is the situation factor. If we look at any text more or less carefully, we will see that all the parameters of the communicative speech situations are somehow reflected in it. We can basically determine where and when this or that conversation takes place.

     III. Experimental factor is important too. The experiment is generally recognized as the leading method of psychology. The experiment helps to create an artificial situation, allowing the speaker to resort to special linguistic devices, those that are of special interest to the scholar. On the other hand, the experimental situation may cause the speaker to exercise certain linguistic abilities, so that the scholar may determine whether the latter are well developed, underdeveloped or impaired. Tests are extremely popular in psycholinguistic studies. 

IV. The abnormal factor

     Linguistics has always been a normocentric discipline. It means that linguists have analyzed “correct” texts only. It has never been clear what is to be done with “wrong” texts. Stories derived by illiterate people, foreigners or mentally sick individuals were merely defined as “incorrect’ and, therefore, not considered worth studying at all. However, those texts do exist, so something must be done with them. The term “wrong” is not a very lucky one, because it adds nothing to the understanding of what those texts are actually like and what are the mechanisms that bring them into being. It was the Russian academician L.V. Scherba that suggested the term “negative speech material”, including everything that does not meet the existing norms and standards. Here are some genres or types of the text that L.V. Scherba considers negative:

Children’s speech; Mistakes in adults’ speech; Foreigners’ speech; Speech in stress situations;           5. Speech disturbances

     Without any doubt all those phenomena are worth studying too.

 

BASIC CHARACTERISTICS OF THE SUBCONSCIOUS LANGUAGE

 

    Psycholinguistics is an interdisciplinary study of language development, language in relation to human mind, language in thought, etc. Therefore the analysis of different language units and structures can hardly be separated from the study of human mind and the way it functions. Let us proceed from the assumption that there are two spheres in human soul: the conscious sphere and the subconscious one. We will talk about those spheres in the next chapter.

   When studying different aspects of the subconscious sphere, modern psychologists use the term “MIND SET”.

      It was D.N.Uznadze, a Georgian psychologist, who defined mind set as a state that precedes every human activity, including speaking. It is a special form of soul modification that underlies every involvement into the world. The mind set is the person’s readiness to perform an action, it is the modality of human behavior. D.N.Uznadze shows that it is in the mind set that the person’s need and the concrete situation are reflected in the form of a drive. So the mind set is the beginning of every human activity, and it underlies both conscious and subconscious behavior.

     Speaking about the language, we can think of two possible mind sets that underlie the process of speaking:

1. the communicative mind set and
2. the expressive mind set,

which correspond to the two main

functions of language: the communicative function and the expressive function. Of course, when we speak, both functions are realized. However, the person’s desire to say something may proceed from the necessity to get something from the hearer, which can be either of material or ideal nature: an object, an action, a piece of advice, even understanding and compassion. Of course, the speaker will do his best to be understood by the hearer. He will control what he is saying, he will keep in mind the hearer’s social status, his specific character traits as well as different parameters of the communicative speech situation, like the time and the place. So when the speaker wants to share some information with somebody, he will proceed from the communicative mind set. Most speech acts are realizations of the communicative mind set.

Therefore, any speech activity, proceeding from the communicative mind-set is well controlled, and attention is highly involved, even though certain operations are realized automatically without the speaker actually controlling them.

     When the expressive mind set is realized, the person is driven by the desire to pour out his soul, to get rid of something that is tormenting him. He doesn’t care whether he will be understood or not. He perceives linguistic signs as a part of himself. The speaker creates, he is just like an artist or a composer. And it doesn’t matter what will eventually appear: a poem, a hypnotic text, a joke or a schizophrenic text. What is really important is that the expressive mind set has been realized. The speaker forgets about the hearer or the reader to some extent. Of course, there can be different stages or levels of the speaker’s drift from reality. Still it is the logic of wish-fulfillment that underlies everything that goes on. That is why the texts that are the product of speech based on the expressive mind set are, in most cases, samples of the negative speech material.