In linguistics, the methods of linguistic research are a set of standard tools and techniques based on assumptions about the nature of the analyzed object. They were formed as a result of the development of science itself, as well as in the process of activities of various areas and schools.
In a broad sense, scientific-linguistic research methods are not only means and methods of studying an object, but also metascientific beliefs, values shared by people involved in linguistics.
Features
Within the framework of general linguistics, the methods of linguistic research are formed on the basis of the global goals of analysis, value obligations adopted by scientists, expressed in:
- strive to get closer to the ideal of rigor of description;
- practical value of activities;
- comparability of the obtained results of linguistic analysis with the results of other types of research.
In the development of methodology, it is of no small importancehas an idea of which approaches to research are scientific and which are not.
At the same time, the methods of linguistic research are starting points applied without evidence. They are not questioned until some crisis occurs in the development of science or its separate direction.
In a broad sense, the methodology forms the core of the discipline, constitutes its basic tools.
Basic methods of linguistic research
Methods should be considered the key means and techniques of language analysis:
- descriptive;
- comparative historical;
- comparative;
- historical;
- structural;
- opposition;
- component analysis;
- stylistic analysis;
- quantitative;
- automatic analysis;
- logic-semantic modeling.
Besides, the stratification of language is used in science. As a method of linguistic research, it has become widespread. With her, perhaps, we will begin the description of techniques.
Stratification in linguistics
The emergence of this research method is due to the diversity of the structure of society. Stratification is expressed in speech and language differences between representatives of a particular social group.
As a result of stratification (social division), sociolinguistic indicators arise. They are linguistic elements: phraseological and lexical units,syntactic constructions, phonetic features. All of them indicate the social status of the speaker.
The subject of sociolinguistics research is the problem of "man-society". The object of study is the variability of the structure of the language. Accordingly, variables (indicators) become the object of analysis.
One of the key methods of sociolinguistics is the correlation (statistical dependence) of social and linguistic phenomena.
Data for analysis (age, level of education, gender, occupation, etc.) can be obtained through a survey of respondents. This method is widespread in sociolinguistics, since it allows one to form ideas about the language, to determine the relative social level of competing linguistic forms.
Representatives of Russian schools of linguistics have always shown an increased interest in the social aspect of the language. Ideas about the close connection between linguistics and the social life of native speakers were formulated by Shcherba, Polivanov, Shakhmatov and other prominent scientists.
Descriptive device
It is used in the study of the social functioning of the language system. With it, you can analyze the elements of the parts of the "language mechanism".
The descriptive method of linguistic research requires a thorough and very precise characterization of morphemes, phonemes, words, grammatical forms, etc.
Consideration of each element is carried out formally and semantically. This approach is currentlyused in conjunction with the structural method of linguistic research.
Comparative technique
It can be attributed to the number of modern methods of linguistic research. Like the descriptive technique, the comparative method of learning a language is focused on the present, on the functioning of the linguistic structure. However, the key task is to understand the differences and similarities of two (or even more) languages.
The main subject of the comparative method of linguistic research is the structure of language systems. When using this technique, it is necessary to constantly compare both individual elements and entire areas of the structure. For example, using this method, you can analyze verbs in Russian and English.
Structural way
This technique originated in the twentieth century, so it is considered one of the modern methods of linguistic research. The formation of the structural method was associated with the work of the Polish and Russian scientist I. A. Baudouin de Courtenay, Russian linguist N. S. Trubetskoy, Swiss linguist F. de Saussure and other prominent scientists.
The key task of this method of linguistic research is to cognize the language as an integral structure, the parts and components of which are correlated and connected through a strict system of relations.
Structural technique can be seen as an extension of the descriptive method. Both of them are aimed at studying the functioning of the language system.
The difference is that the descriptive technique is used in the study of "sets" of parts and components that operate in the language. The structural method, in turn, allows you to explore the connections, relationships, dependencies between them. Within this technique, there are several varieties: transformational and distributional analysis, as well as the method of direct components. Let's take a look at them briefly.
Distributive analysis
This method of linguistic research is based on the study of the environment of individual units in the text. When using it, information about the full grammatical or lexical meaning of the components does not apply.
The concept of "distribution" literally means "distribution" (translated from Latin).
The formation of distributive analysis is associated with the emergence in the United States of "descriptive linguistics" - one of the major schools of structuralism.
The distributive method of linguistic research relies on various phenomena:
- Accompaniment of the analyzed component by other units or precedence of other elements in the flow of speech.
- The ability of one element to lexically, phonetically, or grammatically link to other components.
For example, consider the sentence "The girl is very happy." The element "very" is adjacent to the word "girl". But these linguistic units do not have the ability to communicate. We can say that the words "girl" and "very" have speech, but not linguistic distribution. And here are the words"girl" and "pleased", on the contrary, are deprived of linguistic, but endowed with speech distribution.
Analysis by direct components
This method of linguistic research is aimed at creating word-building structures of a single word and a specific phrase (sentence) in the form of a hierarchy of elements nested in each other.
For clarity, consider the following example: "The old woman who lives there went to her daughter Anna's house".
Syntactic analysis consists in considering the relationship of each word in a sentence with another linguistic element present in it. However, this is quite a long way.
It is more expedient to identify the relationships of the most closely related words. Moreover, each of them can stand in only one pair. The phrase can be divided as follows:
"The old woman" and "who lives", "there", "came to the house" and "her daughter", "Anna".
Further, each pair should act as one. Simply put, one common word is selected:
- old woman - old woman;
- who lives - living;
- to the house - there;
- to his daughter Anna.
As a result, the supply is reduced. The formed structure can be further reduced.
Transformational Analysis
It was proposed by adherents of the structural method N. Chomsky and Z. Harris. At firsttransformational analysis was applied in syntax.
When using this method, the fact being studied is replaced by a "marked" variant, expressed in a form that has a close meaning. The alternative is meaningful, acceptable in terms of communicative requirements. At the same time, it is necessary to ensure the standardization of substitutions.
For example, the phrase "reading Dostoevsky" involves 2 transformations: "Dostoevsky is reading" and "Dostoevsky is being read". The situation is similar with the combination "meeting friends". It can be transformed into "friends meet" and "friends meet".
The transformational method is based on the rules of transformation and redistribution of language elements. It is generally accepted that the technique is associated with two principles: the formation of deep structures and their transformation into superficial ones.
Method of oppositions
In the modern interpretation, this technique was developed by adherents of the Prague School of Linguistics. It was first applied to phonology and later to morphology. The basis for the emergence of ideas about morphological oppositions was the work of N. S. Trubetskoy.
The representatives of the Prague school considered the morpheme as a unit of language at the level of morphology. It qualifies as a cluster of elementary oppositions (number, aspect, case, person, etc.). With different oppositions, the morpheme is divided into "semes" - elementary meanings. For example, the form of the verb "run" contains the seme number, which is revealedin contrast "running" - "running", this time - "running" - "running", this time - "running-running" / "will run" and so on.
Like phonological oppositions, morphological oppositions can be neutralized. For example, in Russian, inanimate nouns do not differ in the accusative and nominative cases.
Component analysis
It is a method of studying the content aspect of significant functions of the language system. A technique was developed within the framework of structural semantic analysis.
The component method of linguistic analysis is aimed at decomposing the value into minimal semantic elements. This technique is considered one of the universal in linguistics. Linguistic scientists use it quite widely in their scientific work.
One of the hypotheses of the method is the assumption that the meaning of each language unit (including words) contains a set of components. Using the technique allows you to:
- Define a limited set of components that can describe the meaning of a large number of words.
- Show lexical material in the form of systems built according to a specific semantic feature.
This method is advisable to use in the course of identifying semantic universals, which must be taken into account in automatic translation. The technique is based on the idea of the fundamental separability of the semantic content of each word. It allows you to analyze the lexicalvalue in the form of a structural set of ordered elements of different semantic types.
