London School
The London school is leaded by J.R. Firth who turned linguistics proper into a recognized distinct academic subject in Britain. The London School stressed the importance of context of situation and the system aspect of language. Because of these characteristics, London School is also known as systemic linguistics and functional linguistics. They thought different types of linguistics should be used to describe different purposes, which was one of the precious thoughts.
B. Malinowski, J.R. Firth and M.A.K. Halliday were the three first professor of General Linguistics in Great Britain in 1944. However, Firth was influenced by the anthropologist B. Malinowski. In turn, he influenced his student, the well-known linguist M.A.K. Halliday. Now, the following will introduce the theories of the three linguists of London School.
First, I领袖性格 want to introduce the Malinowski. He was professor of Anthropology from 1927 onwards. The most important part of his theory is concerning the functioning of language. He thought that language as a “means of transfusing ideas from the head of the speaker to that of the listener” was a myth. According to him, the meaning of an utterance does not come from its relation to situational context in which the utterance occurs.
Malinowski电视剧海之门’s theory is based on two observations. F渝钛白irst, there is no writing in primitive communities there is no writing, and language has only one type of use. Second, in all societies, children learn their languages in this way. He also believed that utterance and situation are bound up inextricably with each other and the context of situation is indispensible for the understanding of the words. M distinguished three types of context of situation: First, situations in which speech interrelates with bodily activity, which means that the meaning of a word is not given by the physical properties of its referent, but by its functions. Second, narrative situations---the situation of the moment of narration is “made up of the respective social, intellectual and emotional attitudes of these present”. Third, situations in which speech is used to fill a speech vacuum---PHATIC COMMUNION, refers to the cases of “language used in free, aimless, social intercourse”. Malinowski believed that although there is no relationship between the meaning of narration and the situation in which language is used, narration can change the hearer’s social attitudes an
d emotions.
As we know Firth was the M’s students, so Firth’s theory was deeply influencedfm2007妖人 by M. and also inherited some tradition from Saussure’s. Firth regarded language as a social process, as a means of social life, rather than simply as a set of agreed-upon semiotics and signs. He thought that human beings have to learn in order to live and learning language is a means of participation in social activities. Language is means of doing things and of making others do things. It is a means of acting and living.
Firth’s own study focused on the context of situation as M did. He defined the context of situation as including the entire cultural setting of speech and the personal history of the participants rather than as simply the context of human activity going on at the moment. He made more specific and more detailed contextual analysis. H傅广生e put forward the idea that in analyzing a typical context of situation, one has to take into consideration both the SITUATIONAL CONTEXT and the LINGUISTIC CONTEXT of a text: the international relations of the text itself and the context of situation. Firth’s second important contributio
n to linguistics is his method of PROSDIC ANALYSIS, called PROSDIC PHONOLOGY, put forward in a paper presented at London Philological Society in 1948. Firth did not define prosodic units. However, his discussion indicates that prosodic units include such features as stress, length, nasalization, palatalisation, and aspiration. In any case, these features cannot to found in one phoematic unit alone.
An emphasis on POLYSYSTEMIC analysis does not mean a neglect of structural analysis. Firth actually attached great importance to syntagmatic relations.
At the end, 闫世可I want to introduce Halliday and Systemic-Functional Grammar. M.A.K. Halliday developed his theory from Firth’s theory in London School. His Systemic-Functional Grammar is sociologically oriented functional linguistic approach and one of the most influential linguistic theories in the twentieth century, having great effect on various disciplines related to language.
However, Halliday got his BA in Chinese language and literature at London University in 1947. He also studied in the Peking University from 1947 to 1949 under the supervision o
f Luo Changpei. From 1949 to 1959 he studied at Lingnan University in Guangzhou. Then he worked for his Ph. D. degree under the supervision of Firth. In 1975 ,he moved to Australia and founded the Department of Linguistics at the University of Sydney, working there till his retirement in 1988.
Halliday’s S F Grammar has two components: SYSTEMIC GRAMMAR and FUCTIONAL GRAMMAR. They are two inseparable parts for an integral framework of linguistic theory. Systemic grammar aims to explain the internal relations in language as a system network, or meaning potential. And this network consists of subsystems from which language users make choices. Functional grammar aims to reveal that language is a means of social interaction, based on the position language system and the forms that make it up are inescapably determined by the users or functions which they serve.
On the other hand, The London school pays attention to the pronunciation, semantics, the social dialects, local dialect and language teaching. They explore the language of psychology, establishing grammatical system and literary criticism. For the practical target language learners, they are enthusiastic leaders.
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