LANGUAGE IN INDIA

Strength for Today and Bright Hope for Tomorrow

Volume 21:3 March 2021
ISSN 1930-2940

Editors:
         Sam Mohanlal, Ph.D.
         B. Mallikarjun, Ph.D.
         A. R. Fatihi, Ph.D.
         G. Baskaran, Ph.D.
         T. Deivasigamani, Ph.D.
         Pammi Pavan Kumar, Ph.D.
         Soibam Rebika Devi, M.Sc., Ph.D.

Managing Editor & Publisher: M. S. Thirumalai, Ph.D.

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Language: A Homogenous Closed Structure or Heterogeneous Uses?

Millia Solaiman, M.A., Ph.D. Scholar

Abstract

There has always been a discrepancy between those who viewed language as a mere abstract structure or closed system and those who viewed it as a practical reality of different uses. These two different visualizations of language mark the basic turning point from the structural approach to the post-structural, pragmatic and dialogical approaches to language and meaning. Thus, in order to answer the question posed in this paper, viz.: ‘Is language a homogeneous closed structure or heterogeneous reality of different uses?’, I will present and discuss how some selected leading scholars of the structural, post-structural, pragmatic and dialogical approaches viewed language in this regard.

Keywords: Language, homogeneous, heterogeneous, closed structure or system, different uses, Structuralism, Post-structuralism, pragmatic, and dialogical approaches.

1. Introduction

The structuralists assume that every human language is a part of ‘a larger system or structure’. For them, this ‘system’ or ‘structure’ is closed, lies under the surface of meaning and determines where each language element is located. This assumption is criticized by the followers of the post-structural, pragmatic and dialogical approaches, for whom language is different uses in the different situations. Moreover, by creating their own terms and theories, they tried to open up the structuralists’ closed system or structure of language. In this paper, I will present and discuss language views and theories of the most prominent scholars and philosophers of each of the previously mentioned approaches. This will help us come at a conclusion of whether language is a homogeneous closed system of meaning or a heterogeneous reality of different uses.

2. Structuralism and the Homogeneity of Language Structure

As an intellectual movement, ‘Structuralism’ is based on the assumption that the elements of human language must be understood ‘in terms of their relationship to a larger system or structure’. The term ‘structuralism’ was first used by the Russian Linguist Roman Jakobson. However, as an intellectual approach to language, Structuralism emerged in the late 1950s with the work of the Swiss linguistic theorist Ferdinand de Saussure.

This is only the beginning part of the article. PLEASE CLICK HERE TO READ THE ENTIRE ARTICLE IN PRINTER-FRIENDLY VERSION.

Millia Solaiman, M.A.
Ph.D. Scholar
Center for Linguistics
School of Language, Literature and Cultural Studies
Jawaharlal Nehru University
New Delhi, India
mgmillia20@gmail.com
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