I. INTRODUCTION 1.1 Linguistics and Language Definition of linguistics: the science or study or knowledge dealing with language, or the science that describes and classifies languages (Lado, 1980:74), or the scientific study of language (Silzer, 1991). Definition of language: a part of the culture of the people by which the member of a society communicate (Lado, 1980:74). Or language is arbitrary vocal symbols by means of which the people of a community communicate (Bloomfield, 1930). Characteristics of language: 1. Language is systems of elements and rules. 2. Language is systems of vocal symbols 3. Language is arbitrary, meaning that there is no relation ship between the sound and the concept. (Samsuri, 1991). According to Longacre (1964:8) language is structured in three semiautonomous but interlocking modes, phonology, grammar, and lexicon. Phonology is the sound system of a language. Grammar is the way words go together to make phrases, clauses, sentences etc. in a language. Lexicon is the list of words with their meanings, dictionary. Therefore he says that an exhaustive language description needs three volumes: phonological description, grammatical description, and a highly sophisticated dictionary. Lexicography is the study of preparing dictionaries. The dictionary entry may contain: 1) spelling, 2) pronunciation, 3) part of speech, 4) inflections, 5) etymology, 6) present meaning, 7)older meaning, 8) usage labels (dialectology), 9) derivative words, and 10) synonyms (Francis, 1958:40). A good dictionary may contain idioms and the examples of usage of the entry as well. A dictionary may be bilingual or monolingual. A thesaurus is a book containing a store of words arranging in categories with their synonyms and antonyms. Matthew (1984) has an opinion similar to Longacre's but he divides the description of a language into four facets: phonology, morphology, syntax, and semantics. Longacre's grammatical description can be divided into two, namely, morphology (how words are formed) and syntax (how words go together in phrases, etc.) According to Hockett language is a complex system of habits. The systems can be broken into five subsystems, of which three are central and two are peripheral (Hockett, 1958:137). a: central subsystems: 1. the grammatical system: a stock of morphemes, and the arrangements in which they occur; 2. the phonological system: a stock of phonemes, and the arrangements in which they occur; 3. the morphophonemic system: the code which ties together the grammatical and the phonological systems. b: peripheral subsystems: 4. the semantic system, which associates various morphemes, combinations of morphemes, and arrangements in which morphemes can be put, with things and situations, or kinds of thing and situations; 5. the phonemic system: the ways in which sequences of phonemes are converted into sound waves by the articulation of a speaker, and are decoded from the speech signal by a hearer. 1.2 Other Division of Linguistics 1.2.1 Synchronic and Diachronic The fundamental distinction linguistic aspects is synchronic and diachronic linguistics. According to Francis, synchronic deals with state of affairs at a given point of time, it is descriptive linguistics; diachronic deals with changes that occur in time, it is historical linguistics. 1.2.2 Descriptive, Historical, Comparative Descriptive linguistics is the study of particular language at a particular time. Descriptive linguist attempts to describe a language as it is actually spoken by a particular a group of people. Descriptive linguistics: linguistics that uses the phoneme and the morpheme as their basic units to build a comprehensive theory of the side of language, and to make detailed and comprehensive statements about the expression systems of specific languages (Gleason, 1961: 11). Study of language in its synchronic aspect is often called descriptive linguistics (Francis, 1958:24). Historical linguistics: a study that looks at a given language across time (Silzer). Study of a language in its diachronic aspect is often called historical linguistics (Sae,24). Another definition by Gleason (1961:11): historical linguistics is knowledge or study deals with the changes of languages in time. Comparative linguistics: a study that looks how a language or languages differ from place to place, from speaker to speaker, or from one time period to another. Or comparative linguistics: a study deals with the relationships between languages of common origin (Gleason, 1961:11). Principles of descriptive analysis According to Nida (1962:2) the principles of descriptive analysis are: 1. Descriptive analysis must be based upon what people say. 2. The forms are primary, and the usage secondary. 3. No part of a language can be adequately described without reference to all other parts. 4. Languages are constantly in the process of change. 1.2.3 Structural, Traditional, and Transformational 1.2.3.1 Structural The structural grammarian regularly begins with an objective description of the forms of language and moves from form toward meaning. Here his approach is directly opposite to that of the traditional pre-scientific grammarian, who often used meaning as a basis for his classifications and formulas. The structural grammarian is concerned with meaning, of course. But his concern is with how the forms of language are used to express meaning. Meaning is, as it were, the end?product, therefore, it cannot also be part of the process (Francis, 1958:226). The other information about this from Mark Lester (1971) is as follows: Linguistics cannot use meaning as a tool in the analysis of language, a position completely opposed to the basic ideas of traditional grammar. The structuralists argued that the goal of linguistic analysis is to see how meaning is conveyed. Since meaning is the goal, it cannot at the same time be a means used to reach the goal, or else the discovery process is completely circular: meaning is discovered by the use of meaning. |