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Taal as sisteem

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posted on 2024-11-18, 15:09 authored by Inaugural addresses
Inaugural lecture--Department of Afrikaans, Rand Afrikaans University, 7 October 1969@@Twentieth century linguistics begins with De Saussure's Cours de /inguistique genera/e. One of De Saussure's main contributions is his thesis that language is a system of signs. This lecture deals with the influence of the conception of "system" on the main streams of twentieth century linguistics. After examining De Saussure's own view, extensive attention is paid to the work of the Prague phonologists, and of Sapir. The approach of the American structuralists is subsequently reviewed critically, and the standpoint taken that some of the excesses and failures of this school were due to an inadequate insight into, or an irresponsible application of, the notion of system. Finally, some of the main ideas of transformational generative grammar are set out, and the idea expressed that the notion of language as a well-defined system seems to be basic to this approach. It has, however, not yet been proven that language is a well-defined system. A linguistic theory that hopes to attain predictability will have to give this serious attention.

History

Date of creation

2009-03-05

Date submitted to repository

1969-10-07

Copyright information

University of Johannesburg

Original repository

Vital

Language Translation

Language as system

Repository

Special Collections

Collection/Group

Inaugural addresses

Sub collection

1005|RAU Inaugural Addresses

Type of material

Inaugural

Research purpose

Teaching lecture

Legacy Handle

10210/2270

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