Page 54 - Linguistically Diverse Educational Contexts

LINGUISTICALLY DIVERSE EDUCATIONAL CONTEXTS
school of linguistics45. Structuralism is also visible in the publication edited by T. Milewski, Zarys językoznawstwa ogólnego. Part I: Teoria językoznawstwa (1945, p. 197). In the chapter entitled "The present state of general linguistics", we read that linguistics is the science of signs of speech and is divided into two main parts: external linguistics, which examines the individual elements of these signs separately, and internal linguistics, which analyses the relationship of these elements with each other, the relationship of the form and content of signs of speech. External linguistics is a set of branches of physics, physiology, psychology, and sociology, which have as their object the element of speech. In contrast, internal linguistics is divided into a number of disciplines according to different criteria (e.g., grammar or stylistics). Jespersen's 1941 work is the linguistic counterpart to the treatment of development in nature, culture, and social life derived from the evolutionary theories of C. Darwin and H. Spencer (see Malmberg, 1969, p. 33). The author emphasises that language develops, achieving richer expressive possibilities and greater attractiveness, and so the development of language goes hand in hand with the development of human intellectual capacity.
This understanding of linguistics was influenced by the rapid development of natural sciences in the 20th century, in which linguistics participated. This resulted in several theories that were important for the development of the field. The evolutionary biologist S.J. Gould, for example, assumed that language was a side effect of the potential resulting from the large human brain, which was not very different from the view of Chomsky's view of innate, encoded linguistic capabilities in the human genome. Chomsky believed that every human has an internal language acquisition mechanism (LAD) and a universal grammar that underlies all the languages of the world (Chomsky, 1986/2005). D. Bickerton shared Chomsky's view of the sudden, one-time emergence of language and called this event the "linguistic big bang theory" (1995, p. 51). The use of natural methods also laid the foundation for experimental phonetics, linking phonetics with medicine (Doroszewski, 1962, p. 53). The views presented draw our attention both to the genetic endowment of humans and to the evolutionary nature of changes related to language (Szymańska, 2016, p. 23).
In the 1870s, the French linguist de Saussure began to treat language as a social phenomenon to be studied from the point of view of its function in society (le langage est un fait social46). According to him, linguistics was part of a broader science, which he called semiology (the science of meaning)47. De Saussure's work was influenced by the social sciences, which were beginning to play an increasingly important role in France at this time48. The connection between language and thinking also began to be recognised. J.D. Bruner (1966/1974) called language an instrument of thinking that serves many purposes. E. Sapir (1921; see also 1970) regarded language as a guide to social reality and, together with his student B.L. Whorf, he developed the idea that every language determines in a specific way the perception of reality by its users. It is worth mentioning that Whorf (2002) also tried to publish for a wider audience, and it is safe to say that he was the first populariser of modern linguistics (1986).
45 The Kazan school of linguistics was active at the Russian Imperial Kazan University in the second half of the 19th century. It was founded by Baudouin de Courtenay together with his student Nikolai Krushevsky (Mikołaj Kruszewski).
46 De Saussure distinguished knowledge of language into the realms of langue and parole, that is, the system and its use. See Rypel, 2019.
47 De Saussure was the founder of structuralism in linguistics. The aforementioned Jan Baudouin de Courtenay can also be counted among the precursors of this field.
48 Rypel, 2019, pp. 82–83. The works of the eminent Polish linguist Jan Baudouin de Courtenay also had a significant influence on de Saussure's work.
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