Linguistic And The Twentieth Century

Linguistic and the twentieth century

Linguistics began as a scientific discipline in the nineteenth century, due to the discoveries of the Sanskrit language made by neogramatic. However, it will be in the twentieth century with the performance of Ferdinand de Saussure, when linguistics are proclaimed as an object of study, thus beginning the study of language itself. It is studied per se. It is the aforementioned principle of immanence (Dans la Langue Tout is tes) that later the Prague School called it of transcendence. 

Next, the first linguistic current, structuralism, will appear, trying to organize the linguistic facts outside the individual languages seeking purely linguistic ideas, having an empiricist character .Divided into two schools, London School, studying the sound form of the language while the Prague School defended ‘Language is form and not substance’, Saussure General Linguistic Course and the Copenhagen School. Differentiating this current between language and speaking, in addition to linguistic sign, meaning and significant.

Sitting in the twentieth century, Noam Chomsky, a American linguist, founded generativism, displacing Saussurean school (language as a system), understanding the language as a product of the speaker’s mind. Understanding this rationalist current linguistics as the ability to understand universal grammar, encompassing languages around the world, defending the innate learning ability of any language, relating the ability to learn a language with human genetics.

This movement expanded in the United States, England and Germany.

We must highlight the functionalist school, postulating that language cannot be studied without taking into account its purpose, communication. Providing social views, giving value to pragmatic, change and linguistic evolution.At the end of the 20th century and the beginning of the 21st century, different study currents arise, in addition to continuing the generatory and functionalist currents. Through studies based on science, statistics and algorithms in order to find a relationship between linguistic factors or between linguistic factors and external parameters. 

The mathematical linguistics, quantitative studies and searches for language universes are investigated, contributing new points of view, because functionalism and generativism do not provide objects of study in relation to these research.

Finally, we must not forget our century due to the advances that have occurred, mentioning new ways of understanding linguistics, such as human physiology and social dynamics. For this there are new currents, psycholinguistics, neurolinguistics, sociolinguistics among others. In response to psycholinguistics, interest in the way of acquiring the language and brain processes carried out to obtain this is observed, allowing to have a vision to the most empirical and futuristic linguists.