1
10
503
-
https://omeka.ibu.edu.ba/files/original/3f50fb25a5d2ad53f4a3d704e44c315d.pdf
4e3dd774de2b9631b85907e3da6caf8b
PDF Text
Text
1st International Conference on Foreign Language Teaching and Applied Linguistics
May 5-7 2011 Sarajevo
―Coopertive Learning in ELT: A Literature Review‖
Deniz MADEN
Department of English Language Education
Suleyman Demirel University, Turkey
denizmaden@sdu.edu.tr
Abstract: Cooperative learning has received increased attention in recent years due to the
movement through learner centred learning. This paper provides an overview of the use of
cooperative learning (CL) and effects of it in second language instruction. After three brief
definitions of CL, key areas are discussed in the paper. The first part of the article provides
the theory of language and learning in CL while the second part introduces the objectives,
syllabus, types of learning and teaching activities and the roles of teacher, learners and
instructional materials in CL. The article concludes cooperative learning makes maximum use
of cooperative activitites involving pairs and small groups of learners in the classroom.
Moreover, it establishes a democratic form of teaching. It enhances both the individual and
the community. Each student can share his/her ideas and learn to listen and respect each other.
Furthermore, Cooperative learning influences collabarative spirit among students by
minimizing competition leading to conflicts in today‘s world.
Keywords: Cooperative learning, English language teaching, group work, learner centred
learning
1. Introduction
―Two heads learn better than one‖
Roger T. & David W. Johnson
The cooperative learning method focuses on the integrated use of cooperative learning. It can be used in any
lesson cooperatively, in any subject area, grade level or educational setting. Back to its history, it has its primary
roots in social interdependence theory. Theoretically, it originates from the work of a few. One of whom is Kurt
Koffka, one of the founders of the Gestalt School of Psychology. The other is, Kurt Lewin who is the founder of
modern day social psychology. The third is, Morton Deutsch, one of Lewin's students, who formulated social
interdependence theory in which cooperative, competitive and individualistic efforts are defined. (Johnson&
Johnson, 2002).
There are some explicit definitions of cooperative learning:
1. The instructional use of small groups so that students work together to maximize their own and each
other‘s learning (Johnson & Johnson, 1993).
2. Principles and techniques for helping students work together more effectively (Jacobs, Power& Loh,
2002).
3. Group learning activity organized so that learning is dependent on the socially structured exchange of
information between learners in groups and in which each learner is held accountable for his or her own
learning and is motivated to increase the learning of others. (Olsen& Kagan, 1992).
The point is that, cooperative learning requires more than just asking students to work together in groups.
Instead, cooperation is discussing material with other learners, helping other learners, or sharing materials with
other learners. (Putting students into groups to learn is not the same thing as structuring cooperation among
them).
―Cooperative Learning‖ has not been specially developed for foreign language teaching, but can be used
with advantage in all subjects. The reason why the method is relevant for language teachers is that, it is a good
way of conducting interactive and communicative language teaching.
In language teaching its goals are:
―To provide opportunities for naturalistic second language acquisition through the use of interactive
pair and group activities.
To provide teachers with a methodology to enable them to achieve this goal.
To enable focused attention to particular lexical items, language structures, and communicative
functions through the use of interactive tasks.
To provide opportunities for learners to develop successful learning and communication strategies
360
�1st International Conference on Foreign Language Teaching and Applied Linguistics
May 5-7 2011 Sarajevo
To enhance learner motivation and reduce learner stress and to create a positive affective classroom
climate.
CLL is thus, an approach that crosses both mainstream education and second and foreign language
teaching.‖ (Richards &Rogers, 2008).
Using the Richards and Rogers‘ model for conceptualizing approaches and methods described in
―Approaches and Methods in Language Teaching‖, 2008, Cambridge University Press, ―Cooperative Language
Learning‖ is analyzed at the level of approach and design.
2. Approach
2.1 Theory of Language
Cooperative language learning is founded on some basic premises about the cooperative nature of the language
and language learning.
Premise 1: Communication is considered to be the primary purpose of the language. (Weeks, 1979).
Premise 2: Human beings spend a large part of their lives engaging in conversation and for most of
them conversation is among their most significant and engrossing activities.(Richards and Schmidt,
1983).
Premise 3: Conversation operates according to certain agreed-upon set of cooperative rules or
―maxims‖ (Grice, 1975).
Premise 4: One learns how these cooperative maxims are realized in one‘s native language through
casual, everyday conversational interaction. (Richards &Rodgers, 2008).
Premise 5: One learns how the maxims are realized in a second language through participation in
cooperatively structured interactional activities. (Richards &Rodgers, 2008).
Practices that attempt to conduct second language learning according to these premises are called
―Cooperative Language Learning‖.
2.2. Theory of Learning
Cooperative language learning underlines three main concepts in language learning;
developing communicative competence in language by conversing in socially or pedagogically structured
situations, improving learners‘ critical thinking skills, and setting classrooms that foster cooperation rather than
competition in learning.
3. Design
3.1. Objectives: CLL is an approach designed to promote cooperation rather than competition, to develop
critical thinking skills, and to develop communicative competence through socially structured interaction
activities, these can be regarded as the overall objectives of cooperative language learning.
3.2. The Syllabus: CLL does not assume any particular form of language syllabus. What defines CLL is the
systematic and carefully planned use of group-based procedures in teaching as an alternative to teacher centred
teaching.
3.3. Types of learning and teaching activities: Johnson describes three types of cooperative learning
groups.( Johnson& Johnson 2002).
3.3.1 Formal Cooperative Learning Groups
These groups may last from one class period to several weeks. Any course requirement or assignment
may be reformulated to be cooperative by the teacher. To set up formal cooperative learning groups, a teacher
should decide on the objectives for the lesson, size of groups, the method of assigning students to groups, the
roles students will be assigned, the materials needed to conduct the lesson and the way the room will be
arranged. Also, the teacher clearly defines the assignment, teaches the required concepts and strategies, specifies
the positive interdependence and individual accountability, gives the criteria for success and explains the
targeted social skills students are to engage in and, monitor students‘learning and gives them effective feedbacks.
361
�1st International Conference on Foreign Language Teaching and Applied Linguistics
May 5-7 2011 Sarajevo
3.3.2 Informal Cooperative Learning Groups
Informal cooperative learning groups are temporary, ad hoc groups that continue for only one
discussion or one class period. They may be used at any time, but are especially useful during a lecture or direct
teaching. Breaking up lectures with short cooperative processing times will give less lecture time, but it
promotes interactive learning in classes. Students actively involve in processing what they are learning. It also
provides time for the teacher to move around and monitor the students‘ progresses.
3.3.3 Cooperative Base Groups
Cooperative base groups are long-term, heterogeneous groups with stable membership. The underlying
responsibility of members is to provide each other with the support, encouragement and assistance they need to
succeeed academically. Base groups last for at least a semester or year and preferably for several years.
The success of the CL is dependent on the five basic elements according to Olsen and Kagan(1992):
Positive Interdependence
Positive interdependence is the heart of cooperative learning. It is the perception that you are linked
with others so that you cannot suceed unless they do. (vice versa) In order to strengthen positive
interdependence, the following methods could be applied (Johnson &Johnson, 2002).
(a) give rewards (if all members of your group score 85 percent correct or better on the test, each will receive
extra bonus points)
(b) divided resources (giving each group member a part of the total information required to complete an
assignment)
(c) complementary roles such as, reader, checker, encourager, elaborator may also be used.
In addition, positive interdependence may be created through a joint identity (identity interdependence),
asking group members to imagine they are in a specific set of circumstances, such as being shipwrecked on a
desert island.
A series of research studies was carried out to clarify the impact of positive interdependence on
achievement and other outcomes, and it is inferred that positive interdepence is required to produce higher
achievement.(Johnson &Johnson, 2002).
Individual Accountability
Individual accountability is the one of the most motivating factor in cooperative learning, because
everyone likes to feel that they know something that others can use.
Practical ways to structure individual accountability are : (Johnson &Johnson, 2002)
(a) giving an individual test to each student
(b) having each student explain what they have learned to a classmate
(c) observing each group and collecting data on participation
(d) randomly selecting one student's product to represent the entire group
Social Skills
Putting socially unskilled students in a group and asking them to cooperate will not be successful.
Students should be taught the interpersonal and small group skills that is neccessary for cooperation, and also
they should be motivated to use these skills in learning environment.
Group Processing
Effective cooperation is provided if the followings are taken into consideration:
(a) determine what member actions were helpful and unhelpful to achieving goals and maintaining
effective working relationships and
(b) make decisions about what actions to continue or change. When difficulties in working with each
other arise, students engage in group processing to identify, define and solve the problems they are having
working together. ( Johnson & Johnson, 2002).
362
�1st International Conference on Foreign Language Teaching and Applied Linguistics
May 5-7 2011 Sarajevo
Structuring and Structures
It refers to ways of organizing student interactions and different ways student are to interact.
In order to use cooperative learning effectively, teachers must recognize the nature of positive
interdependence, individual accountability, promotive interaction, social skills and group processing and develop
skills in structuring them.
Numerous descriptions exist of activity types that can be used with CLL. Coelho (1992 b: 132)
describes three major types of cooperative learning tasks and their learning focus, each of which has many
variations. (Richards &Rodgers, 2008).
Cooperative Learning Tasks
―Team practice from common input-skills development and mastery of facts:
All students work on the same material.
The task is to make sure that everyone in the group knows the answer to a question and can explain
how the answer was obtained.
This technique is good for review and for practice tests; The group takes the practice test together, but
each student will eventually do an assignment or take a test individually.
This technique is effective in situations where the composition of the groups is unstable. Students can
form new groups every day.‖
Jigsaw: differentiated but predetermined imput- evaluation and synthesis of facts and opinions:
Each group member receives a different piece of the information.
Students regroup in topic groups (expert groups) composed of people with the same piece to master the
material and prepare to teach it.
Students synthesize the information through discussion.
Each student produces an assignment of part of a group project.
This method of organization may require team-building activities for both home groups and topic
groups, long term group involvement, and rehearsal of presentation methods.
This method is very useful in the multilevel class, allowing for both homogeneous and heterogeneous
grouping in terms of English proficiency.‖
Coopertive projects: topics/resources selected by students- discovery learning:
Topics may be different for each group.
Students identify subtopics for each member.
Steering commitee may coordinate the work of the class as a whole.
Students research the information using resources such as library reference, interviews, visual media,
and internet.
Students synthesize their information for a group presentation, each group member plays a role in
presentation.
Each group presents to the whole class.‖
3.5. Learner Roles
The primary role of the learner is as a member of a group who must work collaboratively on tasks with
other group members.
Learners are also directors of their own learning.
(They are taught to plan, monitor, and evaluate their own learning). (Richards & Rodgers, 2008).
3.6. Teacher Roles
The teacher not only teach the language, they teach cooperation as well. (Freeman, 2003). She/he has to
create a highly structured and well-organized learning environment in the classroom, setting goals, planning
and structuring tasks, establishing the physical arrangement of the classroom, assigning students to groups
and roles, selecting materials and time. The teacher serves as a faciliator.
3.7. The role of instructional materials
Materials play an important part in creating opportunities for students to work cooperatively. The same
materials can be used as are used in other types of lessons. Besides, materials may be specially designed for
CLL learning (information-gap activities etc.).
363
�1st International Conference on Foreign Language Teaching and Applied Linguistics
May 5-7 2011 Sarajevo
4.
Conclusion
Cooperative learning, according to the research ( Johnson & Johnson, 1999; Johnson, Johnson, &
Stanne, 2000; Slavin, 1995) promotes many benefits beyond enhanced L2 acquisition. These benefits
include increased self-esteem, greater liking for school, enhanced inter-ethnic ties, and improved critical
thinking. (Jacobs, 2004). Moreover, cooperative learning influences collabarative spirit among students by
minimizing competition leading to conflicts in today‘s world. Moreover, it establishes a democratic form of
teaching. It enhances both the individual and the community. Each student can share his/her ideas and learn
to listen and respect each other.
However, using CL may be a challenging task for teachers and learners. It requires some struggle to
succeed. Often, students may not be familiar with or skilled at working together. And for teachers,
cooperative learning activities require more preparation. But apart from all these, the rewards and benefits of
cooperative learning for teachers and students go a long way.
References
Adams, D., Hamn M. (1996). Critical Thinking and Collaboration Across the Curriculum, Charles C.
Thomas Publisher.
Dôrnyei, Z. (2008). Motivational Strategies in Language Classroom. Cambridge: Cambridge University
Press.
Ellis, R. (1994). The Study of Second Language Acqusition. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Jacobs, G. (2004). Cooperative Learning: Theory, Principles, and Techniques. www.georgejacobs.net
Jacobs, G. M. Power, M. A., Loh, W. I. (2002). The teacher's sourcebook for cooperative learning: Practical
techniques, basic principles, and frequently asked questions. Thousand Oaks, CA: Corwin Press.
http://www.corwinpress.com/index1.asp?id=detail.asp?id=27713
Johnson, D. Johnson, R. (2002). ―Learning Together and Alone: Overview and Meta-analysis‖ Asia Pasific
Journal Of Education. 22: 1, 95–105.
Larsen-Freeman, D. (2003). Techniques and Principles in Language Teaching. Oxford: Oxford University
Press.
Littlewood, W. (2008). Communicative Language Teaching, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
McCafferty, S.G., Jacobs G. , A. C., Iddings (2006). Cooperative Learning and Second Language Teaching.
Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Olsen, R. E. S., Kagan. (1992). "About Cooperative Learning". Cooperative Language Learning. A
Teacher´s Resource Book. Ed. C. Kessler. Englewood Cliffs.
http://gretajournal.com/wordpress/wp-content/uploads/file/15rev1.pdf
Richards, J. C., Rodgers, T. S. (2008). Approaches and Methods in Language Teaching. Cambridge:
Cambridge University Press.
Slavin, E. R.(1995). Cooperative Learning, A Simon & Schuster Company.
Stenlev, J. (2008).―Cooperative Learning in Foreign Language Teaching‖ Sprogforum number 25: 33–42.
TaĢdemir M. TaĢdemir A. Yıldırım K.(2009). ― Influence Of Portfolio Evaulation in Cooperative Learning
on Student Success‖ Journal of Theory and Practice in Education. 5.1 53–56.
364
�
Dublin Core
The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/.
Extent
The size or duration of the resource.
53
Title
A name given to the resource
―Coopertive Learning in ELT: A Literature Review
Author
Author
MADEN, Deniz
Abstract
A summary of the resource.
Cooperative learning has received increased attention in recent years due to the movement through learner centred learning. This paper provides an overview of the use of cooperative learning (CL) and effects of it in second language instruction. After three brief definitions of CL, key areas are discussed in the paper. The first part of the article provides the theory of language and learning in CL while the second part introduces the objectives, syllabus, types of learning and teaching activities and the roles of teacher, learners and instructional materials in CL. The article concludes cooperative learning makes maximum use of cooperative activitites involving pairs and small groups of learners in the classroom. Moreover, it establishes a democratic form of teaching. It enhances both the individual and the community. Each student can share his/her ideas and learn to listen and respect each other. Furthermore, Cooperative learning influences collabarative spirit among students by minimizing competition leading to conflicts in today‘s world.
Date
A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource
2011-05
Keywords
Keywords.
Conference or Workshop Item
PeerReviewed
P Philology. Linguistics
-
Dublin Core
The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/.
Extent
The size or duration of the resource.
879
Title
A name given to the resource
‘Let’s make that tower even higher’: A task-based approach to directive speech acts in spoken EFL interactions.
Author
Author
Floeck, Ilka
Pfingsthorn, Joanna
Abstract
A summary of the resource.
Despite Bardovi-Harlig (1999) calling for the inclusion of more diversified naturalistic data collection methods in the study of interlanguage discourse, studies on the production of L2 speech acts still rely heavily on experimental data. Methodological comparisons in speech act research have revealed differences between naturally occurring data and language elicited in experimental conditions (cf. e.g. Beebe and Cummings, 1996; Golato, 2003; Yuan, 2001). The omnipresence of the discourse completion task and other - what Jucker (2009) calls - laboratory methods in interlanguage pragmatic research allows for comparability of both speaker variables (such as L1, length of acquisition, exposure to target language and more general sociolinguistic factors) and test conditions (such as pre-test post-test design). On the other hand, it - at least - has the potential to generate language which is not necessarily representative of what learners are capable of doing in situations with actual communicative intent. The present paper therefore integrates the advantages of traditional laboratory methods in a more naturalistic approach to data collection in interlanguage speech act research. In order to elicit and analyse directive speech acts (i.e. speech acts with which the speaker wants the hearer to carry out a future action, cf. Searle 1976), a task-based experimental design was chosen. Participants were asked to negotiate meaning in their foreign language English while being engaged in a problem-solving non-verbal task. Participants‘ focus on achieving the goal and their involvement in the task seemed to have diminished the observer effect (cf. Labov, 1972; Kasper, 2000) which surfaces in different realisation patterns than those observed in DCT-based studies on interlanguage requests (cf. Faerch and Kasper 1989; Trosborg, 1995; Barron, 2005; Schauer, 2007). The present paper will discuss the differences found and moreover present preliminary findings on the conversational structures and the sequencing of directive speech acts in spoken learner discourse.
Date
A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource
2012-05-04
Keywords
Keywords.
Conference or Workshop Item
PeerReviewed
P Philology. Linguistics
-
https://omeka.ibu.edu.ba/files/original/33bb948db7488836153783b6f15ebb1d.pdf
47be84498ebc70ee2c9e6de939187b52
PDF Text
Text
1st International Conference on Foreign Language Teaching and Applied Linguistics
May 5-7 2011 Sarajevo
‖Sight‖ – ‖Vision‖ Binomial or the ―Poetic Dwelling‖ of the World:
(Pre)Modern Perspectives in Ioana Em. Petrescu‘s Study "Eminescu
and the Mutations of the Romanian Poetry"
Silviu Mihăilă
―1 Decembrie 1918‖ University of Alba Iulia, Romania
silviu_emin@yahoo.com
Abstract: The present study attempts to offer ‗a cartography‘ of the internal
‗morphology‘ of the ‖sight‖ – ‖vision‖ dialectics proposed by Ioana Em.
Petrescu in her work, Eminescu and the Mutations of the Romanian Poetry.
This internal ‗morphology‘ is analysed from double perspective: from the
perspective of the history of the literary ideas and from the point of view of
the history of the pre-modern science.
We believe that Ioana Em. Petrescu‘s work found its theoretical and
conceptual sources primarily in the (pre)modern philosophy theorized by
Aristotle, Plato and Tomas Aquinas whose studies were highly read by the
Romanian critic. In other words, it is our endeavor to demonstrate the
existence of a semantically ontological superposition between the pre-modern
text and that of the Romanian critic.
Our premise is that the "sight – vision” axis presented in Ioana Em.
Petrescu‘s volume underlies in the explanation provided by Aristotle gave to
the sense of sight (‗cognition through intellect‘, and noũs – ‗the Eye of the
Soul‘). We therefore believe that even if they belong to two different scientific
paradigms, the texts of the two authors generate a dialogue between them.
Undoubtedly, Ioana Em. Petrescu‘s ―theory of sight‖ initially communicated
in an osmotic manner with pre-modern texts; afterwards, the Romanian critic
turns her attention to modern concepts of scientificity with a view to
sustaining her convictions in the field of literary poetics.
Key Words: sight, vision, pre-modern and modern paradigms, close-reading,
objective-correlative, annotation
Motto: ―We insist in talking about vision as a cause of philosophy, as: the god
invented it and gave it to us because –noticing the aspects of cosmic intelligence- we
should apply it at the movement of our own thoughts as they are related…‖ (Plato,
Timaios)
Preliminaries. Theoretical confluences: pre-modern science vs. modern science
Our research aims at revising an internal morphology of the dialectic ―see-sight‖ proposed by
Ioana Em.Petrescu in her study, Eminescu and the Mutation of the Romanian Poetry, analyzed from a
double perspective: one of the history of the literary ideas and the other of the history of the
(pre)modern science. My arguments will be proved by a theoretical-conceptual descendence of the
Eminesciology study that finds it primary sources in pre-modern philosophy (Aristotle, Plato and Toma
D‘Aquino represent the main Ioana Em. Petrescu‘s readings.) In other words, I try to demonstrate an
overlapping - at least one of ontological semantics essence - between the pre-modern text and that of
the Romanian critic. I am sure that the ―see-sight‖ axis from the critic‘s volume originates, in its main
aspects, in the explanation given by Aristotle to sight, thing that only makes me think that although the
two texts have different time origins they are in a tight relation. There is no doubt that if at a first level
Ioana Em.Petrescu‘s sight theme communicates with pre-modern texts, the author is heading during her
research towards modern scientific concepts in order to support her own literary poetics convictions.
There are two reasons which encouraged me to start this study: on the one hand, a possible
reunification of the two paradigms - the pre-modern and the post-modern one with their common and
divergent points like they appear customized in About the Soul (and not only) and in Eminescu and the
Mutation of the Romanian Poetry -, on the other hand, relying on my personal notes taken down during
a semester in which I conducted a research project in the archive of the ―Popovici-Petrescu‖ book
collection held at the ‗Octavian Goga‘ County Library from Cluj-Napoca, I try to get close to the
1130
�1st International Conference on Foreign Language Teaching and Applied Linguistics
May 5-7 2011 Sarajevo
analyzed literary work by detecting some reading methods that dialogically found the ideas of the new
literary work. These methods can be traced down through what we could call close reading – an
attempt to decipher the work of the writer who is ‗investigated‘ from both the perspective of our
literary ideas and from that of the proposed hermeneutical patterns.
The Binomial ―see-sight‖ or about the ―Poetic Dwelling‖ of the World
Ioana Em. Petrescu‘s study, Eminescu and the Mutation of the Romanian Poetry, builds a
―see-sight‖ dialectics based on the interpretation of sight as defined by Aristotle. Therefore, I conclude
that for both writers sight represents the most evolved form of sensibility and being in the same time
the most complex of all the human senses. First of all, theoretically speaking, Ioana Em. Petrescu
brings into discussion the original relation between theory (with focus on the dissociation made by
Aristotle between ‗theoretical sciences‘, ‗practical sciences‘ and ‗poietical sciences‘) and sight,
contemplation, show taking into consideration Anton Dumitriu (1986: 382-383): ―There are two
themes that create the word θεωϱία: θέα and Fοϱ (this being the basis that means <<to take care of>>,
<<to observe>>, <<to look>>). Starting from this point we will have the following words: Fοϱ that
derivates in – to observe, to look; I watch; I see; show; sight; spectator etc. On the other hand the theme
θέα means <<sight>>, <<contemplation>>.‖
Second of all, Ioana Em. Petrescu tries to explain the privileged statute of the eye in the
hierarchy of sense organs making reference to Toma D‘Aquino‘s Summa Theologiae (Ioana Em.
Petrescu, 1986: 182, 183): ―the first meaning of the word sight (visio) is that of designating the activity
of the sense organ of vision; but because of its importance and significance, the meaning of the word
was extended through the use of the speakers referring to any other knowledge by means of other
senses and, lately, to knowledge through intellect‖ – and to Aristotle‘s idea: ―the association of the eye
with the intellect comes from Aristotle who, in his Nicomachean Ethics, presents the intellect (noũs) as
an eye of the soul, << Noũs is for the soul what the eye is for the body.>>‖ These ‗discursive
formations‘ from the pre-modern science characterizing sight - ‗knowledge through intellect‘, (noũs) as
the eye of the soul - help the Romanian critic to set her scientific discourse of poeticism in a larger area
of research. Sight is for Ioana Em. Petrescu an attribute of cosmos, it has a high value of generalization
and articulates the ontological relationship between myself and the world through an attempt of
communication/communion with the cosmic environment, with everything that has to do with
transcendence (Ioana Em. Petrescu, 1986: 184): ―the sight is the perfect expression of the relationship
between myself and the world.‖ At the level of this analogy between intellect and soul, Ioana Em.
Petrescu by ‗sight‘ understands an attempt of self-definition of the creative ego as compared to ‗the
great being of the world‘ with the essential meaning of the verb ‗to be‘: (Alexander Baumgarten, 2002:
45) ―the eye can see, if this may ever be visible, the condition of transcendental possibility of its own
generic sight is stated in the principle of each mental action, mainly in what Plato calls <<sky>>.‖
The privilege of sight symbolizes a reality that was imagistically established and intended to express
the unity of the cosmos in thinking in such a way that the essence of the world could be aware of its
consubstantiality with the universe (see ***, 1978 and Ioana Em. Petrescu, 2009), (Ioana Em. Petrescu,
2002: 24) ―only the uncertain geometry of our body, only the rather hesitating rhythms of our blood
make us capable of understanding the divine geometry of the astral movements and to create between
the two of them, the clear geometry of the art or of the Idea.‖ The idea according to which for Ioana
Em. Petrescu synchronizing with the rhythms of the Universe and being in consonance with the cosmic
forces means an attempt of reaching the meaning, the meaning of the world is clear enough. This
triggers the divine nostalgia and that of wholeness mentioned by Aristotle and Toma D‘Aquino- great
thinkers whose ideas are quoted by the Romanian author (Ioana Em. Petrescu, 1986: 26): ―this is why
the movement of the planets is at Aristotle the result of the attraction the divinity has towards the
matter, <<the fruit of love>> or that of nostalgia of the matter towards another form. The Aristotelic
explanation is also taken over by Christian thinkers: for Toma D‘Aquino the <<cosmic engines>> are
the angels- forms of intelligence governing each planet and inducing its movement, expression of an
<<intellectual desire>>, of the divine nostalgia.‖
The conceptual dialectics ‗see-sight‘ - which stays at the basis of the study Eminescu and the
Mutation of the Romanian Poetry - is a type of knowledge used for decoding the interrelation between
the individual and the universe (Saint Augustine, 2000:444): ―of all the senses, the eyes are the main
instruments of research.‖ Many of Ioana Em. Petrescu‘s readings that served as starting point in
writing the Eminesciology study are representative in this direction- that of supporting the theory
according to which sight is the objectual universal core that controls the condition of the existence in
this world. More than that, the notes made on the edges of the book she read or the reading reports are
truly revealing in this case. She sees in the radical changes in language and poetic imaginary brought
1131
�1st International Conference on Foreign Language Teaching and Applied Linguistics
May 5-7 2011 Sarajevo
by Mihai Eminescu, Tudor Arghezi, Lucian Blaga, Ion Barbu and Nichita Stanescu - who are
thoroughly analyzed - are a way of understanding man in rapport to universe and universe in rapport
man (William Kelly Wright: 1967:25): ―so everything in man, the microcosm, corresponds to
something in the macrocosm. Man is to be understood through the universe and the universe through
man. All knowledge of the outer world is self-knowledge.‖ In conclusion, if the first part of the volume
is concerned with the ‗theory of sight‘ (in close relation to eye, taste, mouth) listing scientific rules of
comparatist comprehension from the pre-modern science, the following chapters reorganize the lyrical
universe of the reminded poets by means of the axis ‗sight-vision‘ from one of the perspectives of the
modern science which facilitates expressing some statements of value regarding (Ioana Em.Petrescu,
1986: 186): ―the privileges of taste towards sight, of mouth towards eyes.‖
Regarding the modernist poetic episteme, Ioana Em. Petrescu uses the binomial ‗see-sight‘
with the meaning of ‗objective correlative‘ - this is the way in which it appears theorized by T.S. Eliot,
Anglo-American poet whom she reads avidly - whose axiological significance about poetry will be
applied in her studies, too (not only in Eminescu and the Mutation of the Romanian Poetry but also in
Configurations or in Ion Barbu and the Poetic of Postmodernism). The meaning of ‗objective
correlative‘ - briefly defined by N. Frye (1981:29) as ―terrifying clairvoyance‖ - is useful on a first
‗intra-textual‘ level for identifying the ‗structural mutations‘ regarding thematology, phenomenology,
style, poetry and so on, objectified by the lyrical universe of each analyzed writer (for example the
terrifying clairvoyance of Ion Barbu is under the sign of objective correlative intentionally
characterized as ‗big eyed‘), while the second ‗extra-textual‘ level is a lot broader and goes beyond the
‗form‘ of the text – expresses the unity of the cosmos in thinking in such a way that the poetic being
realizes its consubstantiality with the universe. In a broader meaning the objective correlative,
―terrifying clairvoyance‖, similar to the dichotomy ‗sight-vision‘ helps our critic in establishing the
defining poetic substance of the creating universe for each poet separately, using it in the sense given to
‗the metaphor of interpretation‘ by Wolfgang Iser (2001: 280) as revelation, i.e. access to the depths of
the text and exploitation of the untold or partially revealed aspects- extracting and clarifying these
aspects.
Ioana Em. Petrescu identifies three ‗general patterns of thinking‘ (cultural episteme
characteristic for the European thinking) that represent the theoretical coordinates regarding the
taxonomy of the Romanian poetry evolution (Sanda Cordoș, 1991: 112-113): ―1. The pattern of the
Renascentist individualism (<<Renascentist anthropocentrism>>) that is characteristic for Renaissance
and close to our century. This is the pattern in which the existence is centered on the individual,
detached subject, outside of the object-world in which the scientific reality is understood as
generalization of data supplied by a reality that is perceived empirically and for which the abstract
observation, from outside the system is symptomatic and comes from the Newtonian physics that
accepts an absolute time and space, and that builds the pattern of the universe having as basis the
Euclidian geometry; 2. The modernist pattern is built as a reply to the Renascentist pattern and its crisis
during the last century. The old subject-object relation is falling apart. The subject becomes - if I was to
use Ilya Prigogine‘s expression - participating-observer, establishing in this way a sort of participative
knowledge that makes this pattern quite similar with the old mysteries and, generally, with the preSocratic thinking: the new image of the world is not composed of discrete objects anymore, of distinct
individual entities, but of an interrelation like a woven material in which the dynamic relationship is
preferred in rapport to entity, the phenomenon being nothing else but a web of relationships; 3. The
postmodernist cultural pattern develops in parallel with the modernist one starting with the period
between the two world wars, tries to regain the place of the individual in the system, this time not as an
isolated entity (like that of the Renaissance), but more like a knot in the web of relationships. This
pattern is configured through the cosmotic subconscious from Blaga‘s philosophy, the archetypal
structures that Mircea Eliade decodes in the mythical thinking and in the mechanisms of the
contemporary novel, the dynamic Neo- Pythagoreanism of Matilda Ghyca and Constantin Noica‘s
holomers.‖ Subsequently, in her study, the author applies the three ‗general patterns of knowledge‘ of
the Romanian poetry through which she analyses the evolution and mutations of the poetic language
and that of the concept of poeticism illustrated by Mihai Eminescu, Ion Barbu and Nichita Stanescu‘s
writings. The above poets enormously innovated in the sense in which we can talk about a poetic of the
rupture in which the poetic language and imaginary are irreversibly altered.
Mihai Eminescu or about the role of the ‗intermediary‘
Ioana Em. Petrescu is interested in producing a history of the literary poetics seen in its
‗mutation‘, ‗rupture‘ aspects, while knowledge through sight helps her decode signs of the scientific
real defined by the new poetic codes that are in the process of formation, of clotting. Mainly the option,
for Mihai Eminescu, Ion Barbu and Nichita Stanescu, is due to the fact that they deeply restructured the
1132
�1st International Conference on Foreign Language Teaching and Applied Linguistics
May 5-7 2011 Sarajevo
Romanian poetry, each of them imposing a new poetic sensibility. Consequently, they are seen as
pioneers: the core of their poetics foresees, after all, larger changes in mentality that happen in the
scientific and philosophic fields.
This construction of the evolution of the Romanian poetry seen in synchrony starts from
Eminescu and reaches, at the end, at Nichita Stanescu, also inserting transition moments represented by
Tudor Arghezi and Lucian Blaga. The most interesting part in the making of the history of our literary
ideas and that of the pre-modern science ideas is the motivation of placing our ‗national poet‘ at the
very beginning of this critical presentation of the evolution of the Romanian poetry. If one of the first
explanations confirms the synchronization of the analyzed poetical-literary phenomenon organization,
the second explanation represents, with no doubt, one of the major thesis of the present study. As a
conclusion, Ioana Em. Petrescu starts with Eminescu because our ‗national poet‘ represents a literary
pattern that is often referred to by post-Eminescian Romanian literature as a type of epistemic claim.
Mainly, the contact with the Eminescian poetics for those who followed him is realized through a
statement of adopting the Eminescian language emblematic by now, even prototypic: its main function
being that of stylistic, configurative, ontological innovation. So, in Aristotle‘s words (Book II, chapter
7 of About the Soul), I strongly believe that Eminescu is seen by Ioana Em. Petrescu as playing the role
of the needed intermediary that allows the Romanian poetry to evolve (Aristotle, 2005: 123): ―sight is
realized only when something affects the sense organ. But this <<agent>> cannot be just the color one
sees: so he/she must be the intermediary in such a way that the very existence of an intermediary
becomes necessary.‖ In other words, Eminescu - the needed intermediary - sets, according to the
theoretician, an epistemic method of claim of an aesthetic ‗program‘ (canonic convention) to which
post-modernist literature will certainly appeal. One of Ioana Em. Petrescu‘s notes supports the idea
according to which the poets following Eminescu are to be ‗seen‘ through ‗him‘ (the great pattern)
(Jean-Paul Sartre, 1943: 421): ―nous nous résignons à nous voir par les yeux de l‘autre‖ (we submit to
seeing ourselves through the eyes of the other, o.t.)
Knowledge through ‗sight-vision‘. About the mutations of the Romanian poetry
A poetical innovation identified by Ioana Em. Petrescu at Eminescu - and which will
definitely mark the becoming/evolution of the Romanian poetry - is the passage from ‗sight‘ to ‗vision‘
or, in other words, the passage from a referential mimetic poetics (in which the poet renders what
he/she sees in the environment) to a visionary one (Ioana Em.Petrescu, 2002: 187): ―in the Romanian
artistic environment Eminescu‘s poetry is the place where vision takes the place of sight[…] and
defines the marks of a standard concept of <<poeticity>>.‖ In fact, Ioana Em. Petrescu wants to
emphasize the inspired way in which the poet chooses to process the outer space/environment,
Eminescu‘s imaginary requires a change of meaning, add of meaning in most of the times for common
places, reinventing new landscapes, new worlds: (Ioana Em. Petrescu, 2002: 223): ―what Eminescu
sees in a landscape is not the sign of reality recorded mimetically but their hidden, noumenal meaning
unveiled to the visionary eye.‖
Tudor Arghezi and Lucian Blaga‘s poetics do not produce any mutation at the level of
Romanian poetry; they do not radically change the meaning of the poetic language, that is why they are
rather representatives of the so-called ‗passage stage‘, being the connection between the two general
patterns of thinking. Being under the influence of the ―Baudelaire‘s satanic Romanticism through its
opaque, visionary-creative sight‖ (Arghezi), and ―under a ‗high Romanticism‘ through Rilke
respectively, by passing from the motif of the blind eye to that of silence and hush (Blaga)‖ (Corin
Braga, 2002:106) the two poetical discourses innovate inside the same episteme: the romantic one.
A second moment in the evolution of the Romanian poetry, of important structural mutations,
is considered to be Ion Barbu‘s lyric. To Ioana Em. Petrescu, Ion Barbu is a representative of such a
trans-individual and non-anthropomorphic poetics specific to the new ‗scientific reality‘: the
mathematic humanism. Unlike the traditional analyses that set Ion Barbu among the major modernist
poets whose lyric is listed - in an old-fashioned manner - as hermetic, obscure and encoded, Ioana Em.
Petrescu gives his work the attribute of a new poetic code situating him nearer to Post-modernism as
the poet surpasses the area of the Modernist cultural pattern and prevailing instead a new paradigm. As
discussed in Modernism. Postmodernism. A hypothesis (Ioana Em. Petrescu, 2003), the two cultural
patterns coexist as Postmodernism does not appear like a reaction to Modernism but rather as a sequel.
This having been said, Ion Barbu‘s work (which can be substituted to the ‗objective correlative‘
suggestively perceived as ‗big eyed‘: a distorted, reversed vision of reality) is revealed as an evolution
from the Modernism towards Postmodernism through the introduction of absolute lyricism - meaning
a non-mimetic, non-figurative art and (Ioana Em. Petrescu, 2006: 22): ―poetry that was understood as
1133
�1st International Conference on Foreign Language Teaching and Applied Linguistics
May 5-7 2011 Sarajevo
great sensuality […] always new and numerous as the different faces of creation‖ - and that of infrarealism that has as art objective ―the cosmic chaos‖ and which defines (Ioana Em. Petrescu, 2006:29)
―the initiating component through which the trans-individual does not damage the individual (thing
that happened in Modernism) but transcends him/her by integrating him/her, that is offering him/her
the function of ‗holomer‘ that is assigned by Postmodernism.‖ Once Ioana Em. Petrescu places Barbu‘s
work somewhere at the end of Modernism and the beginning of Postmodernism, in an ending-point of
crisis, the poetic reality defines itself as a synthesis of new and old, prefiguring the changes of the
poetic language and of the semantic figures that the new paradigm (that of Postmodernism) had put in
question.
The third moment in the evolution of the Romanian poetry is marked by Nichita Stănescu‘s metalinguistic poetics which defines true structural mutations. Stănescu‘s lyric universe is centered on the
dialectic ‗sight-devouring, consuming‘ understood as a series of paradigmatic poetic changes as: ‗the
slit-man‘ (broken image of the past), ‗the modern ontological crisis‘ (the rupture between conscience
and self, subject and object) and others under the syntagm of ‗correlative objective‘: ‗the toothed eye.‘
Instead of conclusions. Pre-modern science as ‗perpetual return‘
Following a development of the Pre-modern science into a modern one with the gnosiological
dichotomy ‗of a characteristic coupe semiotique (semiotic cut)‘ - ‗sight-vision‘ - Ioana Em. Petrescu‘s
study, Eminescu and the Mutations of the Romanian Poetry, is constructed as an attempt of rendering
the Universe in the Idea. This is because by studying the branches of a Pre-modern science and
philosophy - starting with Aristotle and up to Romanian neo-modernism (Nichita Stanescu) - it means
to follow the way in which the concepts of these sciences and philosophies can become any more
productive at the end of the 20th century. As a final remark, I think that Ioana Em. Petrescu‘s study
makes us aware, just one more time, of the fact that the roots of modern science are in Pre-modern
science. In other words, Pre-modern science and philosophy become a productive principle, a grid of
perceiving reality in order to form future Modern science and philosophy. This idea makes us consider
Ioana Em. Petrescu one of the most important theorizers of the last century (Ioana Em. Petrescu, 1986:
10): ―because, placed at the emerging point of conscience in the world, lyric is made through word,
meaning through a permanent break of the limits of language, preparing the language for new
concepts through which it can express itself regarding the human thinking and universe.‖
1134
�1st International Conference on Foreign Language Teaching and Applied Linguistics
May 5-7 2011 Sarajevo
References
Adamek, Diana (1991) Portret de grup cu Ioana Em. Petrescu. Cluj-Napoca: Dacia .
Aristotel (2005) Despre suflet. BucureĢti: Humanitas
Augustin, Sfântul (2000) Confesiuni. BucureĢti: Nemira.
Baumgarten, Alexander (2002) Principiul cerului (eternitatea lumii Ģi unitatea intelectului în filosofia
secolului al XIII-lea). Cluj-Napoca: Dacia.
Braga, Corin (2003) Portret de grup cu Ioana Em. Petrescu. București.
Dumitriu, Anton (1986) Eseuri. BucureĢti.
Frye, Herman Northrop (1981) T.S.Eliot: an introduction. Chicago-London: The University of Chicago
Press.
Iser, Wolfgang (2001) The range of interpretation. Columbia University Press.
Petrescu, Ioana Em (2000) Configuraţii. Cluj-Napoca: Casa Cărții de Știinţă.
Petrescu, Ioana Em (2009) Studii eminesciene. Cluj-Napoca: Casa Cărţii de ġtiinţă.
Petrescu, Ioana Em (1978) Eminescu-modele cosmologice Ģi viziune poetică. BucureĢti: Minerva.
Petrescu, Ioana Em (2006) Ion Barbu Ģi poetica postmodernismului. Cluj-Napoca: Casa Cărţii de
ġtiinţă
Platon (1993) Opere VII. BucureĢti: ġtiinţifică.
Sartre, Jean-Paul (1943) L‘étre et le néant: essai d'ontologie phénoménologique, Paris: Gallimard.
Wright, William Kelly (1967) A history of modern philosophy. New York: Macmillan.
1135
�
Dublin Core
The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/.
Extent
The size or duration of the resource.
592
Title
A name given to the resource
‖Sight‖ – ‖Vision‖ Binomial or the ―Poetic Dwelling‖ of the World: (Pre)Modern Perspectives in Ioana Em. Petrescu‘s Study "Eminescu and the Mutations of the Romanian Poetry"
Author
Author
Mihăilă, Silviu
Abstract
A summary of the resource.
The present study attempts to offer ‗a cartography‘ of the internal ‗morphology‘ of the ‖sight‖ – ‖vision‖ dialectics proposed by Ioana Em. Petrescu in her work, Eminescu and the Mutations of the Romanian Poetry. This internal ‗morphology‘ is analysed from double perspective: from the perspective of the history of the literary ideas and from the point of view of the history of the pre-modern science. We believe that Ioana Em. Petrescu‘s work found its theoretical and conceptual sources primarily in the (pre)modern philosophy theorized by Aristotle, Plato and Tomas Aquinas whose studies were highly read by the Romanian critic. In other words, it is our endeavor to demonstrate the existence of a semantically ontological superposition between the pre-modern text and that of the Romanian critic. Our premise is that the "sight – vision” axis presented in Ioana Em. Petrescu‘s volume underlies in the explanation provided by Aristotle gave to the sense of sight (‗cognition through intellect‘, and noũs – ‗the Eye of the Soul‘). We therefore believe that even if they belong to two different scientific paradigms, the texts of the two authors generate a dialogue between them. Undoubtedly, Ioana Em. Petrescu‘s ―theory of sight‖ initially communicated in an osmotic manner with pre-modern texts; afterwards, the Romanian critic turns her attention to modern concepts of scientificity with a view to sustaining her convictions in the field of literary poetics.
Date
A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource
2011-05
Keywords
Keywords.
Conference or Workshop Item
PeerReviewed
P Philology. Linguistics
-
Dublin Core
The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/.
Extent
The size or duration of the resource.
833
Title
A name given to the resource
A “positivist” overview on Anna Seghers’ novel “Transit”
Author
Author
Yıkılkan, Bilge
Abstract
A summary of the resource.
The German literary works that deal with the separation of Germany in World War Two are not much deeply examined in Turkey for political reasons as such works concentrate on the deficiencies of nationalism. The aim of this study is to examine this work from a positivist perspective, which explores the relation between author’s life and the work considering the work is inspired by the life of author. Therefore, the present study is to investigate if there is any close relation between Anna Seghers experiences she lived during her escape from Germany to France due to Nazi concentration camps and her novel “Transit”. Anna Seghers is one of the famous German authors that suffered from what happened during World War II in Germany, notably from Nazi camps. She always tried to express her feelings and her own experiences that were lived in those days in her works. Her well-known novel “Transit” explores the plight of German refugees from Hitler attempting to leave France via the seaport of Marseilles between the French capitulation in 1940 and the Spring of 1941. As in other works, Seghers uses a language in this work that depicts the tragedy of the victims and infinite confidence in the human essence which can never be destroyed. The novel “Transit” can also be seen as the critique of the decadent Western World and the writer’s plea for political commitment.
Date
A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource
2012-05-04
Keywords
Keywords.
Conference or Workshop Item
PeerReviewed
P Philology. Linguistics
-
Dublin Core
The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/.
Extent
The size or duration of the resource.
810
Title
A name given to the resource
A case of Textual Analysis Applied to the University Offerings of the New Courses in Italy
Author
Author
Claudia , Caruso
Abstract
A summary of the resource.
The paper is based on a descriptive study of the lexical words used to redefine students’ curricula at the academic communities, in order to improve the quality and the employability of the degrees. The textual analysis was applied on about 990 forms, filled up by the universities to plan their courses and collected in the national database of the Ministry of University and Research, public and available on line (http://offf.miur.it). Thus, focusing on a representative sample of the major public universities by number of students, a multidisciplinary corpus of the offerings of the new courses of the academic year 2011/12 was assembled in accordance with the four areas of disciplines: health, humanistic, scientific and social, for about 62.970 occurrences (tokens). The study aims to achieve the following findings: check the vocabulary of the corpus and provide the measure of lexical richness, based on the ratio of type, token and the proportion of infrequent word, and identify the key-words of the corpora using the co-occurrences criteria. Results, relating to the key-words, highlight that there are evidences of widely using of terminology to describe the need to develop the soft skills and the interdisciplinary competencies, as required by the local and professional market to improve the employability of the degrees.
Date
A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource
2012-05
Keywords
Keywords.
Conference or Workshop Item
PeerReviewed
P Philology. Linguistics
-
Dublin Core
The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/.
Extent
The size or duration of the resource.
1035
Title
A name given to the resource
A Comparison of Cross-Cultural Perception between English and Turkish Idioms
Author
Author
Huyuk , Nazife
Abstract
A summary of the resource.
Idioms are groups of words in a proper order that have a specific meaning bearing difference from the meanings and connotations of each word understood on its own. They are crucial elements of a language and it is difficult to imagine a language without its idioms. As understood from the definition, their meaning cannot be understood from their elements, but should be learned as a whole. In languages, it is possible to find idioms in any topic and category. The aim of this article is to compare English and Turkish idioms with food names. Five idioms of English have been chosen, and it has been searched whether Turkish has the same idioms or not. The cultural reasons of these idioms have been searched in both languages. Their meanings and connotations are given. Moreover, similarities and differences are discussed.
Date
A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource
2012-05
Keywords
Keywords.
Conference or Workshop Item
PeerReviewed
P Philology. Linguistics
-
https://omeka.ibu.edu.ba/files/original/04b4873dcc939db047ea81b1f0a79839.pdf
b99c3088b9619e4a1b355ca80ea17e2b
PDF Text
Text
1st International Conference on Foreign Language Teaching and Applied Linguistics
May 5-7 2011 Sarajevo
A contrastive analysis approach to the teaching of auxiliary selection in L2
Italian
Dragana RadojeviĤ
Department of Italian
Faculty of Philology
University of Belgrade, Serbia
drradojevic@hotmail.com
Abstract: Auxiliary selection (AS) with those Italian intransitive verbs (IVs) that can use both
essere ‗to be‘ and avere ‗to have‘, but with a change in meaning (e.g. È/Ha corso al parco ‗He
ran to/at the park‘), represents one of the major challenges in the acquisition of Italian as L2. In
this paper we argue that this is so largely because this phenomenon has not been treated
adequately in relevant grammars, dictionaries and textbooks. In order to prove our argument we
present a case study of AS with the IV correre ‗to run‘ involving university students of L2
Italian who are native speakers of Serbian. The results indicate that a contrastive analysis
approach to the teaching of AS with IVs is more efficient than the traditional one, and it is
suggested that it should be used more frequently in order to facilitate the acquisition of AS by
learners of L2 Italian.
Key Words: auxiliary selection, L2 Italian, contrastive analysis
1. Introduction
There are two auxiliary verbs (AVs) used in analytic forms of Italian verbs: essere ‗to be‘ and avere ‗to
have‘. Italian grammars traditionally explain auxiliary selection (AS) in the Active Voice by the verbs‘
(in)transitivity. Namely, all transitive verbs take avere, whereas most intransitive verbs (IVs) take essere.
However, many IVs take avere (e.g. esitare ‗to hesitate‘, tossire ‗to cough‘, divorziare ‗to divorce‘), including
some verbs of motion (e.g. camminare ‗to walk‘, nuotare ‗to swim‘, gattonare ‗to crawl‘). Additionally, some
IVs can take both AVs, but in some cases the AS does not cause any change in meaning (e.g. piovere ‗to rain‘,
nevicare ‗to snow‘), whereas the meaning of others (e.g. correre ‗to run‘, volare ‗to fly‘, saltare ‗to jump‘) is
determined by the selection of one or another AV (e.g. È corso al parco ‗He ran to the park‘, but Ha corso al
parco ‗He ran at the park‘).
As far as the last group of IVs is concerned, in order to explain the differences in meaning caused by the
use of one or another AV, most grammars traditionally just give a small number of unclear examples for both
AVs, with the additional comment that more detailed explanations should be sought in monolingual dictionaries.
However, monolingual dictionaries provide insufficient examples that cannot account for all the different
meanings, and bilingual dictionaries completely neglect the problem of AS with these verbs. Similarly, most L2
Italian textbooks do not take this issue into consideration leading to a low level of learner awareness of the
problem. Therefore, since AS with those Italian IVs that can take both AVs has not been treated adequately in
grammars, dictionaries, and textbooks, this phenomenon represents one of the major challenges in the acquisition
of Italian as L2.
The aim of this paper is to present a case study proving that a contrastive analysis approach to the
teaching of AS with the described Italian IVs is more efficient than the traditional one, and consequently to
suggest that it should be used more frequently in order to facilitate the acquisition of this phenomenon by
learners of L2 Italian.
2. Auxiliary selection in grammars, dictionaries and textbooks
In RadojeviĤ (to appear) we analysed the most important grammars, dictionaries and textbooks of
Italian as L2, usually used by learners in Serbia, in order to investigate to what extent and in what way AS of the
IV correre ‗to run‘, as a representative of its group, is described in them. In this chapter we will give a brief
overview of our findings and conclusions.
2.1. Auxiliary selection in Italian grammars
Italian grammars differ from each other in that most of them completely neglect the problem of AS,
while among those that deal with this phenomenon some of them traditionally do it very superficially and
without success, whereas others give more precise and thorough explanations.
377
�1st International Conference on Foreign Language Teaching and Applied Linguistics
May 5-7 2011 Sarajevo
An important step for the explanation of this problem was made by Jernej (1965: 200; 1999: 94), who
explicitly put the IV correre among those verbs that can take both complements expressing motion towards or
from a place, and those expressing motion at or inside a place. However, he failed to emphasise the way in which
that distinction affects the AS, i.e. that correre takes essere to express motion towards or from a place, and avere
in order to express motion at or inside a place.
The most systematic and thorough approach was applied by Salvi & Vanelli (2004: 50, 52), who
introduced Aktionsart‘s categories into their explanation of the AS. They claim that correre takes avere when it
is intransitive, durative, continuous, and atelic, whereas it takes essere when it is unaccusative, non-durative,
resultative, and atelic.69 In RadojeviĤ (to appear: Chapter 2.2.5) we argued that their durative vs. non-durative
and telic vs. atelic distinctions could be very useful for the contrastive approach to the teaching of L2 Italian to
native speakers of Serbian because of the fact that the same distinctions exist in Serbian. Namely, on the basis of
their distinctions we claimed that the Serbian equivalent of correre with avere is only the verb trčati ‗to run‘,
whereas the corresponding equivalents of correre with essere are different prefixed derivatives of trčati (e.g.
utrčati ‗to run into‘, istrčati ‗to run out‘ etc.), but not trčati itself. Although Salvi & Vanelli made a considerable
contribution to the explanation of AS with correre, they still failed to place sufficient emphasis on the
importance of the type of motion and the complement of place that influence the phenomenon of AS, which
would have made their contribution more complete.
However, the most precise explanation of the AS with correre was provided by Maiden & Robustelli
(2004: 266-267), who were the first to explicitly introduce the concept of change of location, as that expressed
by the AV essere with correre, into the explanation of AS. In RadojeviĤ (to appear: Chapter 2.2.8) we suggested
a completion of their explanation by introducing the concept of motion at a location as that expressed by the AV
avere with correre. Although they are not expressed by AVs as they are in Italian, both concepts still exist in
Serbian, where they are marked by the distinction between the bare verb and its prefixed derivatives, as
described in the previous paragraph, as well as by different cases in prepositional phrases (PPs) even with the
same preposition. Namely, many Italian PPs expressing space can have two Serbian equivalents, e.g. al parco
can mean both u park ‗to the park‘ (accusative – change of location) and u parku ‗at the park‘ (locative – motion
at a location), depending only on the AV used with correre.70
Therefore, the conclusion is that the introduction of the concept of motion at a location, as well as the
aforementioned contrastive remarks, finally shed some light on the explanation of AS with those Italian verbs
that can take both AVs, but with a change in meaning, thus making it complete and clear.
2.2. Auxiliary selection in Italian dictionaries
An analysis of the following monolingual Italian dictionaries: Zingarelli (2010), Garzanti italiano
(2009), Devoto–Oli (2007), Sabatini–Coletti (2005), and De Mauro (2000) showed that all of them provide every
meaning of correre with the respective AV, but they do not pay enough attention to adequate complements of
place nor do they insist sufficiently on the distinction between the different types of motion (change of location
and motion at a location) affecting the AS. Therefore, their explanations and examples are neither complete nor
clear-cut for learners of Italian as L2.
Bilingual Italian-Serbian (Klajn, 1996) and Italian-Croatian or Serbian (DeanoviĤ–Jernej, 1984)
dictionaries completely neglect the problem of AS. Although we are aware of the lack of space in dictionaries, in
RadojeviĤ (to appear: Chapter 3.2) we suggested that they should take into account this problem with all Italian
verbs and especially with IVs that can take both AVs, but with a change in meaning, and that they should
illustrate them with adequate simple examples, which would facilitate the acquisition of this phenomenon by
Serbian learners of L2 Italian.
2.3. Auxiliary selection in L2 Italian textbooks
Most L2 Italian textbooks treat the problem of AS in general very superficially and completely ignore
the AS with IVs like correre. An analysis of: Balí & Rizzo (2002, 2003), Bidetti, Dominici & Piccolo (2009),
Chiappini & De Filippo (2002, 2005), Marin (2008), Marin & Magnelli (2007, 2008a, 2008b, 2009), Mazzetti,
Falcinelli & Servadio (2002, 2003), Mezzadri & Balboni (2000a, 2000b, 2001a, 2001b, 2002a, 2002b),
Chiappini & De Filippo (2002), Ziglio & Rizzo (2001), and StojkoviĤ & Zavińin (2010), which are the most
frequently used L2 Italian textbooks in Serbia from level A1 to C1, showed that the AS with the IV correre
occurred only five times.71 We consider this fact to be a crucial contributory factor in the unsatisfactory
awareness of the problem in learners of L2 Italian, because textbooks are the learners‘ primary source of
69
For more details see Salvi & Vanelli (2004: 50, 52).
For more details about other relevant grammars see RadojeviĤ (to appear: Chapter 2).
71
For a more detailed analysis of these examples see RadojeviĤ (to appear: Chapter 4).
70
378
�1st International Conference on Foreign Language Teaching and Applied Linguistics
May 5-7 2011 Sarajevo
information, whereas grammars and dictionaries are often only occasionally consulted and not always available
to the majority of learners.72
3. Case study
3.1. Participants
In order to prove our arguments we conducted an experiment involving eighty students from the Italian
Department of the University of Belgrade, Faculty of Philology, who are native speakers of Serbian. They were
divided into four groups that consisted of twenty students belonging to the same undergraduate year of study. At
the time the experiment was conducted the first year students had already reached the A1 level of the Common
European Framework of Reference for Languages (CEFR) and they were heading towards the A2 level, the
second year A2 towards B1, the third year B1 towards B2, and the fourth year B2 towards C1.
3.2. Input
All the groups had been exposed to the same traditional input regarding auxiliary selection in Italian,
described in 1, during their education, independently of our experiment. However, in addition to the traditional
input the second year group had also been given an explicit contrastive input on two separate occasions one
month before the experiment. The additional input they received focused on the following three points: 1.
correre uses essere to express change of location, whereas it uses avere to express motion at a location; 2. the
Serbian equivalent of correre with avere is trčati, whereas the corresponding equivalents of correre with essere
are different prefixed derivatives of trčati, but not trčati itself; 3. many Italian PPs expressing space can have
two Serbian equivalents, e.g. al parco can mean both u park ‗to the park‘ (accusative – change of location) and u
parku ‗at the park‘ (locative – motion at a location), depending only on the AV used with correre. These
explanations were illustrated by several clear-cut examples in both languages.
3.3. Hypothesis
Consequently, our hypothesis was that the second year group would show significantly better
knowledge of AS in L2 Italian compared to all the other groups since it was the only one that received the type
of input that had taken into account not only the traditional explanation of AS in Italian, but also all the other
relevant criteria important for such a phenomenon (described in 3.2), as well as the corresponding contrastive
explanations and examples, which make AS more transparent to learners of L2 Italian, and, therefore, hopefully
facilitate its acquisition. Among the remaining three groups we expected the fourth one to be the best, the third
one the second best and the first one to be the worst because that order would correspond to their level of L2
Italian. Additionally, we expected the second year group‘s error percentage to be significantly lower compared to
that of the other three groups.
3.4. Experiment
For the purposes of our experiment all the students were given the same test consisting of ten sentences
in Italian that they had to translate into Serbian. The tense used in all the sentences was the Passato Prossimo
(the most frequently used Past Perfect Tense and the first analytic verb form taught to learners of L2 Italian) of
the IV correre: five sentences had the AV essere and five avere. As described in 2.1 and 3.2, the Serbian
equivalent of the Italian IV correre with the AV avere is trčati, whereas the corresponding equivalents of
correre with essere are different prefixed derivatives of trčati. Every correctly translated sentence was assigned
one point so that the maximum was ten points per student.
The correct use of Serbian prepositions and cases expressing space was not assigned any points because
the choice of correct verbs in Serbian logically led to the correct choice of corresponding prepositions and cases,
whereas the use of incorrect verbs necessarily caused the choice of incorrect prepositions and cases. Or, if we
look at it from the other way around, incorrectly understood Italian PPs led to the wrong choice of both verbs
and prepositions and cases in Serbian. Therefore, these points would not have had any effect on the results.
3.5. Results
72
In RadojeviĤ (to appear: Chapter 4) we also gave some suggestions regarding possible ways of representing the problem of
AS with the IV correre in L2 Italian textbooks in order to facilitate its acquisition even at the lowest levels. Future L2 Italian
textbook authors might find them useful.
379
�1st International Conference on Foreign Language Teaching and Applied Linguistics
May 5-7 2011 Sarajevo
The results of the test are shown in the following table and chart. The numbers in the table represent
how many students had the respective number of points, whereas the chart shows the average points of each of
the four years of study.
Year
Points
10
9
8
7
6
5 or less
Average points
I
II
III
IV
6
8
2
2
2
0
8.7
12
6
2
0
0
0
9.5
8
5
4
3
0
0
8.9
10
3
4
3
0
0
9
Generally speaking, all the groups showed a satisfactory knowledge of AS in Italian, the average points
ranging from 8.70 to 9.50 out of 10 points. However, the second year group is significantly better than all the
others, as can be seen in the chart representing the average points. The difference between the second year group
and all the others is even more obvious in the following chart, showing the error percentage for each year of
study.
While the error percentage for the first, second and third year ranges from 10% to 13%, the second year
group‘s error percentage is significantly lower at 5%. This means that out of 200 sentences 20 second year group
students made mistakes only in 10 of them and the remaining 190 were correct (as shown in the chart with the
overall points), whereas the fourth year group students made twice as many mistakes despite there being a
difference of two CEFR levels between them, as mentioned in 3.1.
3.6. Some examples
The distribution of the two AVs in the test was equal, i.e. there were as many sentences with essere as
with avere, as described in 3.4. The error percentage per sentence shows that there were slightly more mistakes
concerning sentences with essere (52.56%) than with avere (47.44%). This means that the students
overgeneralized the Serbian verb trčati and used it even in those contexts where its prefixed derivatives should
have been used in order to correctly translate correre with essere. Generally speaking, in a large number of
translations from Italian into Serbian made by Serbian learners of L2 Italian we have noticed this tendency to
neglect the prefixation of verbs although it is a very productive morphological process in Serbian, but since we
have not conducted any research into that phenomenon yet, we will not make any further claims about it.
In order to illustrate the test, we will show only two sentences in which the students made the largest
number of mistakes:
Italian
Serbian
English
Sentence 1
Ho corso al parco
Trčao sam u parku
I ran at the park
avere
trčati; u + locative
motion at a location
Sentence 2
Sono corso allo stadio
Otrčao sam na stadion
I ran to the stadium
essere
otrčati; na + accusative
change of location
The students‘ mistakes stemmed from the fact that they did not recognize that sentence 1 expressed
motion at a location, so that their translation into Serbian was Otrčao sam u park as if in Italian it were Sono
380
�1st International Conference on Foreign Language Teaching and Applied Linguistics
May 5-7 2011 Sarajevo
corso al parco ‗I ran to the park‘; and similarly in sentence 2 they did not understand the change of location, so
that they translated it as Trčao sam na stadionu as if the original Italian sentence were Ho corso allo stadio ‗I ran
at the stadium‘. Our opinion is that the reasons for these mistakes are twofold. First of all, since in Serbian
different cases are used to mark different types of motion (motion at a location – locative; change of location –
accusative) although both cases can use the same preposition (e.g. u parku, u park), it is logical for our students
to look for the type of motion in the Italian PPs. However, since most Italian PPs do not mark the type of motion,
the students were not able to find it in them, and consequently they were likely to make mistakes. Secondly,
since the first, third and fourth year students had not been exposed to the input suggested in this paper, they were
not used to taking into account the distinctive contrastive features (i.e. that the Serbian equivalent of correre with
avere is trčati, whereas its equivalents with essere are its prefixed derivatives), so they did not look for the type
of motion in the AV used, which would have led them to the correct choice of the respective Serbian verb.
4. Conclusion
On the basis of the results of our experiment we can conclude that our hypothesis was correct. The
second year group had significantly better results compared to all the other groups. Among the remaining three
groups the fourth year group was the best, the third one the second best and the first one was the worst, which
also corresponds to our hypothesis and to their level of L2 Italian. Additionally, the second year group‘s error
percentage was significantly lower compared to that of the other three groups. Our conclusion is that the reasons
for such results are that the second year group was the only one that received the type of input that had taken into
account not only the traditional explanation of AS in Italian, but also all the other relevant criteria important for
such a phenomenon (described in 3.2), as well as the corresponding contrastive explanations and examples. All
these remarks made the AS much clearer to the students and, therefore, facilitated its acquisition.
By taking into account only translations from Italian into Serbian, in this paper we have only examined
the receptive abilities of Serbian learners of L2 Italian concerning the AS of the Italian IV correre. However, for
further investigations we recommend an examination of productive abilities regarding the same problem because
it might lead to some interesting and useful conclusions that could explain the phenomenon in question in greater
depth and make its acquisition by learners of L2 Italian, independently of their mother tongue, much easier and
more efficient. In addition, there are also some other Italian IVs belonging to the same group as correre, as far as
the AS is concerned, such as volare ‗to flow‘ and saltare ‗to jump, that might be interesting for further research
into this subject.
References
Jernej, J. (1965). Grammatica italiana descrittiva: su basi storiche e psicologiche. Bern / Mùnchen: Francke
Verlag.
Jernej, J. (1999). Talijanski jezik: priručnik za viši stupanj. Zagreb: Ńkolska knjiga.
Maiden, M. & Robustelli, C. (2007). A Reference Grammar of Modern Italian. London: Hodder Education.
Salvi, G. e Vanelli, L. (2004). Nuova grammatica italiana. Bologna: Il Mulino.
RadojeviĤ, D. (to appear). Essere ili avere: pitanje je sad. In: Stavovi promjena – promjena stavova. Zbornik
radova (VuĦo, J. & MilatoviĤ, B., eds.). NikńiĤ: Filozofski fakultet.
Dictionaries
Garzanti italiano. (2009). Milano: Garzanti.
DeanoviĤ, M. i Jernej, J. (1984). Talijansko-hrvatski ili srpski rečnik. Zagreb: Ńkolska knjiga.
De Mauro, T. (2000). De Mauro. Il dizionario della lingua italiana. Torino: Paravia Bruno Mondadori.
Devoto, G. e Oli. G. C. (2007). Il Devoto-Oli. Vocabolario della lingua italiana. Firenze: Le Monnier.
Klajn, I. (1996). Italijansko-srpski rečnik. Beograd: Nolit.
Sabatini, F. e Coletti, V. (2005). Il Sabatini Coletti. Dizionario della lingua italiana. Milano: Rizzoli Larousse.
Zingarelli, N. (2010). Lo Zingarelli. Vocabolario della lingua italiana. Bologna: Zanichelli.
381
�1st International Conference on Foreign Language Teaching and Applied Linguistics
May 5-7 2011 Sarajevo
Textbooks
Balí, M. e Rizzo, G. (2002). Espresso 2. Corso di italiano: libro dello studente ed esercizi. Firenze: Alma.
Balí, M. e Ziglio, L. (2003). Espresso 3. Corso di italiano: libro dello studente ed esercizi. Firenze: Alma.
Bidetti, A., Dominici, M. e Piccolo, L. (2009). Nuovo progetto italiano 3. Corso multimediale di lingua e civiltà
italiana: livello intermedio-avanzato (B2-C1). Quaderno degli esercizi. Roma: Edilingua.
Chiappini, L. e De Filippo, N. (2002). Un giorno in Italia 1. Corso di italiano per stranieri: principianti,
elementare, intermedio. Libro dello studente con esercizi. Roma: Bonacci.
Chiappini, L. e De Filippo, N. (2005). Un giorno in Italia 2. Corso di italiano per stranieri: intermedio,
avanzato. Libro dello studente con esercizi. Roma: Bonacci.
Marin. T. (2008). Nuovo progetto italiano 3. Corso multimediale di lingua e civiltà italiana: livello intermedioavanzato (B2-C1). Libro dello studente. Roma: Edilingua.
Marin, T. e Magnelli, S. (2007). Nuovo progetto italiano 2. Corso multimediale di lingua e civiltà italiana:
livello intermedio (B1-B2). Quaderno degli esercizi. Roma: Edilingua.
Marin, T. e Magnelli, S. (2008a). Nuovo progetto italiano 1. Corso multimediale di lingua e civiltà italiana:
livello elementare (A1-A2). Quaderno degli esercizi. Roma: Edilingua.
Marin, T. e Magnelli, S. (2008b). Nuovo progetto italiano 2. Corso multimediale di lingua e civiltà italiana:
livello intermedio (B1-B2). Libro dello studente. Roma: Edilingua.
Marin, T. e Magnelli, S. (2009). Nuovo progetto italiano 1. Corso multimediale di lingua e civiltà italiana:
livello elementare (A1-A2). Libro dello studente. Roma: Edilingua.
Mazzetti, A., Falcinelli, M. e Servadio, B. (2002). Qui Italia. Corso elementare di lingua italiana per stranieri.
Quaderno di esercitazioni. Firenze: Le Monnier.
Mazzetti, A., Falcinelli, M. e Servadio, B. (2003). Qui Italia. Corso elementare di lingua italiana per stranieri.
Lingua e grammatica. Firenze: Le Monnier.
Mezzadri, M. e Balboni, P. E. (2000a). Rete 1. Libro di classe. Perugia: Guerra.
Mezzadri, M. e Balboni, P. E. (2000b). Rete 1. Libro di casa. Perugia: Guerra.
Mezzadri, M. e Balboni, P. E. (2001a). Rete 2. Libro di classe. Perugia: Guerra.
Mezzadri, M. e Balboni, P. E. (2001b). Rete 2. Libro di casa. Perugia: Guerra.
Mezzadri, M. e Balboni, P. E. (2002a). Rete 3. Libro di classe. Perugia: Guerra.
Mezzadri, M. e Balboni, P. E. (2002b). Rete 3. Libro di casa. Perugia: Guerra.
StojkoviĤ, J. i Zavińin, K. (2010). Amici 4. Italijanski jezik za osmi razred osnovne škole. Beograd: Zavod za
udņbenike.
Ziglio, L. e Rizzo, G. (2001). Espresso 1. Corso di italiano: libro dello studente ed esercizi. Firenze: Alma.
382
�
Dublin Core
The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/.
Extent
The size or duration of the resource.
57
Title
A name given to the resource
A contrastive analysis approach to the teaching of auxiliary selection in L2 Italian
Author
Author
Radojević, Dragana
Abstract
A summary of the resource.
Auxiliary selection (AS) with those Italian intransitive verbs (IVs) that can use both essere ‗to be‘ and avere ‗to have‘, but with a change in meaning (e.g. È/Ha corso al parco ‗He ran to/at the park‘), represents one of the major challenges in the acquisition of Italian as L2. In this paper we argue that this is so largely because this phenomenon has not been treated adequately in relevant grammars, dictionaries and textbooks. In order to prove our argument we present a case study of AS with the IV correre ‗to run‘ involving university students of L2 Italian who are native speakers of Serbian. The results indicate that a contrastive analysis approach to the teaching of AS with IVs is more efficient than the traditional one, and it is suggested that it should be used more frequently in order to facilitate the acquisition of AS by learners of L2 Italian.
Date
A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource
2011-05
Keywords
Keywords.
Conference or Workshop Item
PeerReviewed
P Philology. Linguistics
-
Dublin Core
The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/.
Extent
The size or duration of the resource.
919
Title
A name given to the resource
A Cross-cultural Analysis of Moves in Arabic and English Police and Security Research Article Abstracts
Author
Author
Mohammed Nasser , Alhuqban
Abstract
A summary of the resource.
As an academic genre, an abstract is an obligatory step that researchers across disciplines and languages should write to join their discourse community. Therefore, genre analysts have broadly employed move analysis in identifying the rhetorical structures and variations in research article abstracts (RAAs) from a specific discipline and across disciplinary areas. Analysis of RAAs has seldom been involved in cross‐cultural studies, and never been conducted on police and security RAAs. Hence, this study examined the rhetorical structures of RAAs in police and security sciences, and across two languages, Arabic and English. The corpus consisted of 30 Arabic RAAs and 30 English RAAs. The data was analyzed using three move models: Swales' (1990, 2004) modified CARS, Bhatia's (1993) four-move structure and Hyland's (2000) five-move structure. The results showed that many of the RAAs in Arabic and English police and security journals embrace Bhatia's (1993) first three moves: purpose, method, and result, and Hyland's (2000) first four moves: introduction, purpose, method, and results. However, most of these RAAs omitted the conclusion move. For almost half of Arabic RAAs, the method section was optional. In contrast, most the English RAAs had the method section as an obligatory step. With regard to Swales' model, the RAAs in both languages did not use all moves. Many of the Arabic RAAs used Move 1 (step 1): Claiming centrality, Move 3 (Step 1A): Outlining purpose, and Move 3 (Step 2): Announcing principle findings. The English RAAs varied in their use of moves and did not favor one pattern of moves. Move 3 (Steps 1A and 2) was found to be obligatory in the English RAAs. Due to the variation in the use of moves across the two languages; it is not possible to conclude that cross-cultural factors affected the way RAAs were written.
Date
A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource
2012-05
Keywords
Keywords.
Conference or Workshop Item
PeerReviewed
P Philology. Linguistics
-
Dublin Core
The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/.
Extent
The size or duration of the resource.
781
Title
A name given to the resource
A Crosslinguistic Perspective on Amount Relative Clauses (English vs. Romanian)
Author
Author
Resceanu, Alina
Abstract
A summary of the resource.
The aim of this paper is to present some aspects pertaining to the interpretation of a special kind of relative clause construction, which is distinguished from restrictive and non-restrictive (appositives) relative clauses, namely amount relatives. It all started with a work by Carlson (1977) called “Amount Relatives,” in which he proposed that there was a third type of relative clause besides the traditionally recognised appositive and restrictive relatives – amount (Carlson 1977) or degree (Heim 1987) or maximalizing (Grosu & Landman 1998) relatives. The questions linguists have been trying to answer for the last 30 years is why they are called “amount” relatives and how they are different from ordinary (restrictive/non-restrictive) relatives. In the first part, we examine the approaches proposed in Carlson (1977), Heim (1987), Grosu and Landman (1998), Von Fintel (1999), McNally (2005), Herdan (2005) and Grosu (2000, 2002 and 2009). In the second part, we will briefly introduce the basic syntactic properties of the amount relatives, focusing on similarities and differences between English and Romanian. Amount relatives show restriction in the relativizers they allow, in the determiners that can combine with them (the determiners acceptable on the relative head to the ones that can be followed by an amount expression (Carlson, 1977) or to the definite and universals (Grosu and Landman, 1998)) and in their stacking possibilities. Data from Romanian seem to support these properties. Alongside with these common features, there exist in Romanian a construction which has been recently discovered (Grosu, 2009) and which will be discussed in the third part. We will present the contrasting elements that allow us to call this construction ‘a strange relative of the Romanian kind’ or a ‘Romanian unexpected relative’ (RUR) if we follow Grosu (2009). The open questions and further research topics conclude our discussion about the amount relative constructions.
Date
A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource
2012-05
Keywords
Keywords.
Conference or Workshop Item
PeerReviewed
P Philology. Linguistics
-
https://omeka.ibu.edu.ba/files/original/ad389db04b9970ae92461b668ea3b42b.pdf
0f5bf1e45f9a7023893a309da672ecf4
PDF Text
Text
1st International Conference on Foreign Language Teaching and Applied Linguistics
May 5-7 2011 Sarajevo
A Dialectial Analysis of Grammatical Terms Defining The English
Articles
Yunsang Jang
Kore a University of Technology and Education
Abstract: This study looks into the English article system from the perspective of
dialectics. The goal of the study is to enlarge the scope of understanding the English
article system by demonstrating that at the very elementary comminicative level is is
more appropriately characterized as a relational dialectial system rather than a simple
binary one as described in most traditional pedagogical frammar boks. This study tries
to reach this goal by interpreting such key metalingustic notions as anaphoric generic
uniquenness etc as well as the three main descriptors of the English articles which
involve article definite and indefinite For Plato dialogues or our Daily
communicational acts are fundamentally dialectial. Thus the base reasoning fort his
stady is that if we understand the Notion related to dialectic or dialectial acts better
this will in tum help us understand our own dialogical acts in general and the English
articles as a key dialogical marker in particular.
Key words: English articles, dialectic, definiteness, indefiniteness
1. OVERVIEW
The English articles the and a/an are most freauently used grammatical elements but are also wellknown as one of the most problematic areas in mastering this language as a foreing language (Butler. 1999). A
number of research attemps have been made hoping to explain what aspects of the English article system make
the learner of English as a Foreing Language (EFL) have difficulty acquiring the system (Master. 1990: Song &
Park. 2001). The purpose of this study has been generated out of this line of pedagagical thought. The study
aims to extend the scope of understanding the English article system bey demonstrating that at the very
elementary communicative level it is more appropriately characterized as a relational dialectial system rather
than a simple binary one as described in most traditional pedagogical grammar books . Specifically. This study
attempts to reach this goal by re-interpreting key metalinguistic notions of the English articles which have been
commonly used in the literatùre involving English grammar and linguistics.
This will be done from the perspective of the semantics of dialectics. By nature. This study is more
likely to pursue what Ellis (1997) calls practical knowledge as opposed to technical knowledge As part of the
discussion about the Professional relationship betwwen Second Language Acquisition (SLA) research and
language pedagogy. He characterizes the former as explicit while the latter as implicit. What he argues with the
technical knowledge which is obtained primarily by analytical and empirical work. On the other hand. Practising
professionals like doctors and teachers tend to rely more on the pratical knowledge which is intuitive and
experiential.
In what follows. I will first briefly discuss in what respects this instrumental Notion of dialectic or
dialectical help extend the scope of our understanding the English articles. A few key descriptions such as
article, definite, indefinite and the like will then be analysed.
ll. ON DIALECTIC
How has the nation dialectic or dialectical been defined in the literature ? As Watson (1985 p 85)
points out . Its origin seems to date back to Plato‘s period. Dialectic is Plato‘s Word coming from dialegesthai to
talk with and his Works tahe the form of dialogues. As such the terms dialectic and dialogue are closely
interrelated concepts. Here the implication is taht our daily comminicational act is fundamentally dialectical.
So if we undertand this notion better. This will in turn help us understand our own dialogical acts in general and
the English articles as a key dialogical marker in particular.
What follows are brief schematic descriptions of these terms. Which have been drawn selectively
from the Webster‘s Third New International Dictionary (1967). The nominal forms dialectic and dialectics are
defined in two respects. In one sense, they are often identified as the theory and practice of weighing and
reconciling juxtaposed or contradictory arguments for the purpose of arriving at truth –especially through
discussion and debate. In another sense and particularly on literature. They are often referred to as a type of
systematic reasoning that seeks to resolve a conflict. While both senses indicate a reality of tension or opposition
1289
�1st International Conference on Foreign Language Teaching and Applied Linguistics
May 5-7 2011 Sarajevo
between two interacting forces or elements their ultimate purpose is directed toward obtaining truth and solving
problems through transforming or transcending.
Dialectics for plato was used as a means of logical analysis or division of things and was expressed in
the from of representing both genera (or Form in his view of universe) and species (or particular) (Stevenson.
1987). In Aristotle dialectics was viewedas a method of arguing the different sides of any given problem. It was
olso used as an art intermediate between rhetoric (thus, more symbolic. Ġndefinite inclusive generic metaphoric
and less referential) and strict demonstration (thus more concrete or referential, specific, definite, and exclusive).
In the Kantian tradition, dialectics is used to account for paradoxical realities (i.e. both appearances
and illusions). And it thus deals with paralogisms (i.e. reasoning contrary to the rules of logic). Antinomies and
transcendental ideas. Dialectics in this tradition becomes meaningful where these antithetical problems arise
through logical fallacies, perceptural errors or the endeavor to use the principles ofthe understanding applicable
only within experience for determination of such transcendental objects as the soul the World and God.
In a slightly more developed form the Hegelian interpretiaon is spelled out as:
a logical development progressing from less to more compernsive levels that on its subjective
side is the passage of thought from a thesis through an antithesis to a synthesis that in turn becomes a thesis for
further progressions ultimately culminating on the absolute idea and on its objective side is an analogus
development in the process of history and the cosmos.
(Webster‘s Dictionary . 1967 . p 623)
It is noteworthy that historically up to Hegel‘s use of dialectics. Its majôr function was the acquistion
of truth and resolution of conflicts in problems. For Marx in contrast, the dialectic is viewed more as a
conceptual tool responsible for bringing about some change or transformation. He expressed this Notion as:
the process of self-development or unfolding (as of an action, event, ideology, movement or
institution) through the stages of thesis, antithesis and synthesis in accordance with the laws of dialectical
materialism and the method that regards change in nature and history as taking place in this way.
(Webster‘s Dictionary. 1967 .p. 623)
For him reality is a changing process to be decoded by the human mind.
The adjectival forms dialectic and dialectical are typically represented with the following
characteristic semantic features. They are (a) marked by a dynamic inner tension, conflicct and
interconnectedness of parts of elements: (b) they are used to denote the idea of mutuality and reciprocity: (c) thy
are used to refer to the acts of praticing being devoted to or employing a dialectic and (d) as regarding something
from the point of view of a dialectic.
In summary the dialectic has been used as a conceptual catch-all to account for various paradoxical
and co-existing aspects inheent in humah reasoing and pratices. Dialectics has been as both theory and practice
as indicating a solution. Recognition or acknowledgement of conflict contradiction. Oxy-moron and the like.
This use of dialectics is responsible for denoting involves the recegnition of change fifference distinction and the
like over time.
In fact because of ists potential utility in constructing social theory the concept of dialectics has been
given increased attention by psychologists (Gusfield. 1989: Georgoudi 1984: Perin-banayagam. 1991). In
reviewing many of the social psychological studies on this subject . Georgoudi (1984) concludes that dialectics
has been employed not just at the level of theory construction but also at a metatheoretical level and at the level
of methological application. He has also noted that dialectics. In its most general sense is viewed as a process of
relating nearly all aspects of human activity. Thus it is a form of medition with a wide range of applications and
nearly unlimited theoretical and practical potential. In other words. Its unstated implications are widely and
systematically distrubed to almost all sectors of the human and social sciences.
As briefly illustrated above the implications of the term dialectic are profound in terms of their
philosophical, psychological and methodological applications. Let me point out in what sense the Notion of
dialectic can be helpful for one to understand the English article system. Particularly from a pedagogical
standpoint. First as seen in Plato‘s view of dialectic the English articles signify both generic or specific meaning
and the articles are obviously key dialogical devices. Thus the system reflects the contradictory nature of relation
between a whole and its part as well as the processual nature of our human praxis or action. Second similarly to
the dialectic as a theoretical concept the semantic root of the English article connotes ―relation‖ which will be
discussed further later in this paper. Third just as the notion of dialectic entails system has an antithetical
structure ( i. e. definite and indefinite) The system is used for meaning differentiation and construction in
dialogical context In sum it seems obvious that there exists a certain conceptual parallel between what we have
seen
about
dialectic
and
the
English
articles.
3) KEY DESCRĠPTORS OF THE ARTICLES
1290
�1st International Conference on Foreign Language Teaching and Applied Linguistics
May 5-7 2011 Sarajevo
Let me start with the three basic descriptors of the English articles which involve ―definite‖ ―indefinite‖
and article. These terms have been commonly attributed and related to the usage of the articles the and a/ an
Although commonly used these three descriptors have not sustained a rigorous theoretical analysis by EFL/ESL
researchers. Typically these researchers have simply followed the lead of many earlier theorists. Both
philosophers and linguists who from a very different set of assumptions in the philosophy of science have
usually resorted to using them as simple referring devices for ―the‖ and a/an.
For instance Russell a leading philosopher of the logical positivist school is a typical case in point .
As cited by Rosenberg an Travis ( 1971 p 167) Russell (1973) used these terms to distinguish different modes of
philosophical description:
A ―description‖ may be of two sorts definite and indefinite (or ambiguous) An indefinite description is a
phrase of the form a so and so and a definite description is a phrase of the form ―the‖ so-and-so (in the singular)
(original emphasis). A similar but more specific usage of these terms has been proposed by Bickerton(1985):
In English ―definite‖ really means presumed known to the listener whether by prior knowledge (the man you
met yesterday) uniqueness in the universe (the sun is setting) uniqueness in a given setting ( The battery is deadcars do not usually have more than one battery) or general knowledge that a named class exists ( The dog is the
friend of man) : and ― indefinite‖ really means presumed unknown to the listener whether by absence of prior
knowledge ( A man you should meet is Mr. Blank) nonexistence of a nameable referent (Bill is looking for a
wife) or nonexistence of any referent (George couldn‘t see an aardvark) (p.147).
Accordingly authors of English grammar books usually use these notions as received categories They
assume the word ―the‖ is responsible for definiteness and the words a/an are responsible based on simple clear
and straightforward categorical meanings. It has had a broad pedagogical appeal. However because of its
theoretical simplicity this classification has also been problematic and misleading to many students. The fact is
that the a/an or no use of these words is found in the same or a similar communicative context without a
substantial difference in meaning (e.g. the tiger a tiger and tigers) This could thus lead one to confusion about
what it means to be definite and indefinite A separate descriptive analysis of these terms will I believe show that
a more relational meaning of these articles is warranted.
1. ARTICLE
The term ―article‖ is probably the most common descriptor used in reference to the words the and a/an
and is used either when referring separately to one or the other of these articles or to both as a common category
of grammatical elements A clue to the meaning of this term may be found by looking into its historical origins
its ancestral forms found both in Greek and Latin are arthron and articulus respectively They are said to be no
more than the ordinary words for link or joint (Lyons 1977) and appear to be analogous to relation or connection.
Note also that in the early Greek language no sharp distinction was drawn in terms of the forms or
syntactic and semantic functions between demonstrative pronouns the definite and indefinite articles and the
relative pronouns. As Herndon (1976 p10) states the term syndesmoi was at first applied to them all. And it was
chosen presumably. Because they were all regarded as connectives of various kinds. The primary function of
these various words is based on notions of linking, connecting, and other relating schema.
These relational concepts are virtually all time-bound in that relating one thing with another requires
time: namely a diachronic relation. Note also that the verb form ― articulate‖ is related to the notion ―article‖ in a
morphological sense. From this we can further speculate that the use of the articles as an act of articulation or
saying is itself an act of relating in a dialogical sense.
2. The Definite
When turning our attention to the notion of definite we are initially led to question why this adjective is
prefixed to the noun article (i.e. as the name of the which is an arbitrary array of written signs or that of aural
markings) and is used together as in the definite article. A basic level of understanding this relation may,
however, already be found in some of our usual dictionary meanings of this term. Some of these meanings
include : (a)exact limits: (b) precision and clarity in meaning: (c) explicitness and certainty: (d) limitation and
specificity From these lexical entries one can sense that the meaning of ―definite‖ is assumed to be something
obvious and self-evident which implies a type of confinement or a line-drawing and conversely excludes
something vague and unintelligible.
1291
�1st International Conference on Foreign Language Teaching and Applied Linguistics
May 5-7 2011 Sarajevo
This dictionary definition informs us that things or phenomena can be ontologically absolute while at
the same time remaining somewhat less defined. In fact, for us to be definite about something(or to define
something clearly) has been a central part of our knowledge what is definable through reasoning becomes the
source of knowledge as the definite or absolute Truth He symbolized the truth with the concept Forms in the
sense that they are more real than material thing for they do not change or decay(Stevenson 1987 p29) More
specifically in relation to the referential function of a word (i.e. a word used to refer to truly many different
individual referents) Plato thought that corresponding to each usage of the word there is one Form which makes
the particular individual referents meaningful entries in terms of its idealistic formal or symbolic resemblance to
the referents.
This formal and universal resemblance connotes the characterization of a class of certain entities by a
process of objective definition. Moreover for Plato only this intellectual acquaintance with the Forms can really
count as knowledge since only what fully exits can be fully known (Stevenson 1987 p29) In relation to a
common interpretation of Plato Hergenhahn notes that :
Before being placed in the body at birth the soul dwells in pure and complete knowledge. Thus all
human souls know everything before entering the body. Upon entering the body the knowledge of soul begins to
be contaminated by sensory information (1983 p34).
This implies that if humans naively accept what they experience through the senses they are doomed to
live a life of opinion and ignorance. For this reason Plato‘s concern was with reaching an idealistic state of
Forms responsible for uncontaminated human mind and society through education. In this regard the most
convincing illustration of his theory of Forms comes from the Euclidean geometry which Stevenson has
described
as
follows:
Consider how it deals with lines circles and squares but may always have some irregularity. Theorems
concerning these ideal objects-straight lines without thickness perfect circle et-are proved with absolute certainty
by logical arguments. Here we have indubitable knowledge of timeless objects which are the patterns that
material objects imperfectly resemble(1978 p.29).
In light of this one can think about the geometrical concept of point which in a perceptual sense is
thought of as standing in its own right but which is in fact a meaningful construct only if related to other
geometrical notions like line. Its understanding requires formal conceptualization Plato‘s conception of idealistic
knowledge has to do with this kind of geometrical definition of knowledge that he indefinable(thus indefinite
and perceptually contaminated) point in its own ontogenesis becomes definable( thus definite ) only in relation to
its totality the line. It is in the process of becoming definable that things become definite for us. In fact Plato‘s
conception of knowledge is typically dialectic.
Thus following Plato‘s we become both knowledgeable and ignorant by having a means to define ıt is
very improbable to speak of a ―definite point‖ as found in a geometrical sense. When we see a given point on a
geometrical plain. It may be viewed as having its own definite and obvious confinement but it is clear that this is
not the case because a point in its own right is theoretically impossible. In the mathematical word (e.g. the
Mobius strip numerical entities divided by zero etc) the matter of definition is similarly not posited as an
absolute
and
separate
notion.
This does not mean however that our acts of defining are always meaningless but that the definite
becomes meaningful only in relation. What appears as definite does not necessarily make it so and the term
definite with its dictionary significance is plausible only when the usage presupposes an indefinitely –given or
taken-for-granted condition. In effect this term must be seen in essence to presume an indefinitely-given as well
as a totality against which our acts of defining limiting confining specifying identifying and idealizing occur.
Thus even at a very general definitional level our uses of definite and indefinite are essentially relational and
dialectic.
When judged from only dictionary meanings the concept of exclusiveness may be seen as semantically
analogous to definiteness. However. Hawkins (1978) in an apparent reversal. Has characterized the grammatical
role of the definite article as inclusiveness and that of the indefinite article as exclusiveness on the basis of his
semantic and pragmatic analysis. His argument for the grammaticality of the definite and indefinite article.
Based on pragmatic premises is probably quite appropriate in the context of his analytical and
philosophical approach. But based on the two apparently opposing definitions we might infer that things or
phenomena can be thought of as both ontologically absolute and not so at the same time in that the definite or the
1292
�1st International Conference on Foreign Language Teaching and Applied Linguistics
May 5-7 2011 Sarajevo
absolute connotes both exclusion(by the criteria of its lexical meanings) and inclusion (by the criteria of
Hawkins‘ linguistic analysis) Here again one cannot ignore the dialectic.
3)The Indefinite
With the notion ―indefinite‖ one may also question why the adjective attaches itself so naturally to the
noun article (i.e. as the name of a/an) when they are used together like indefinite article. The lexical entries for
this term involve (a) Having no exact limits or having no limits at all (B) not precise sharp and clear in meaning
and outline vague: (c) not sure or positive inexplicit and uncertain and (d) not limiting and specifying not
referring to the specific. Given that all these descriptions imply no exclusion a prototype meaning of
indefiniteness may be said to be that of ― inclusiveness‖ As stated earlier this is contradistinctive to Hawkin‘s
(1978) generalization about the grammatical function of the indefinite articles in terms of ― exclusiveness‖ This
apparent contradictory nature of the English articles as related to their mate languages may be a partial
explanation for many non-native speakers‘ difficulty and confusion in mastering them.
The fundamental meanings of these attributive adjectives presupposes the postponement or reservation
of the act of defining. They are also suggestive of a certain contingency which requires further action. Having
no limits implies that whatever it means the meaning is to be open. This openness to contingency gives rise to
the question of motive. Potential and intention to be defined or on its way to becoming definite . All in all the
―indefinite‖ as a concept can be viewed as reflecting a mental state or process which has not been fully acted out
but is ready to be acted out. Because it is paradigmatically open it in some sense signifies a syntagmatic (or
simply temporal) induction and foretells a sense of meaning-making or of becoming definite.
4) OTHER METALANGUAGES OF THE ARTICLES
What follows is an attempt to reinterpret some descriptive terms that have commonly been used in
analyzing English articles usages. There are quite a number of classificatory notions which are reflected in our
common usages of the articles and which form another major class of metalanguages about the English articles
Some of these most commonly used notions which are used to describe our various communicative functions of
the English articles include the following: (a) deictic or demonstrative use: (b) back-pointing or anaphoric use:
(c) forward-pointing or cataphoric: (d) uniquiness: (e) communal sharing: (f) generic and specific: and (g)
endophora or in-text reference and exphora or out-text reference.
It should be noted at the outset tahat a general and common feature of all these categories can be
described as ‗the communicative act of pointing.‘ The key feature of the articles have generally been interpreted
as being dualistic and mutually exclusive. This has been the case. I contend because our treatment of the
grammatical aspects of the articles has usually been restricted to a within-sentence analysis. In order to have
been better understanding about the articles. I feel that we need to extend to scope of analysis to the much
broader context of communicative act. What follows is thus discussed from a communicative perspective which
involve all forms of human actions reflecting one‘s psycho-social-cultural history.
1.
Deictic
The notion of ‗‘deicic‘‘ along with its etymological link with ‗‘deixis‘‘ is analogous to the philosophical
notion of indexical expression (Crystal. 1986). And its literal meaning is pointing or indication. It should be renoted that a major function of the definite article has been understood as revealing an indicative or determining
role. Not unlike that of deixis. Lyons (1977) states that deixis refers to the variety of grammatical and lexical
features ‗‘which relate utterance‘‘ (p. 636). Here note that the essential features of deixis are also defined as
relational: in other words at the level of identifying which is linked to which the relational act must have a
context in order to make sense. This act necessarily involves both ‗‘agency‘‘ (i.e. who relates) and ‗‘object‘‘
(e.g. enactive, iconic, or symbolic) we are relate and thereby implies that a relational act arises from within an
instrumental context.
From this interpretation of the term ‗‘deixis‘‘ one is able to derive at least two meanings namely what is
pointing as inner motive—the pointer or intention and what is being pointed to—outer evidence or
actualization of pointing. The nature of indication itself is not a simple mechanical pointing behavior but is a
relational, intentional and psychological gesture mediating between pointer and pointee. It is this dual reality of
a pointing act that I content can be characterized as being dialectical and dialogical. More specifically we may
say that deixis entails a double dialectic: a relation between intention and a deictic sign: and a relation between
the sign and its referent in actual communication. In many cases of human communication the second relation
turns out to be reflexive in that the referent itself is language. In this sense language is our existential reference.
1293
�1st International Conference on Foreign Language Teaching and Applied Linguistics
May 5-7 2011 Sarajevo
‗‘Deixis‘‘ involves not only the characteristic feature of the demonstrative pronouns but also tense and
person and a number of other syntactically relevant features in the context-of-an utterance (Thavenius 1983;
Wilkins 1985). According to Lyons (1977) it also refers to the philosophical notion of ostension or ostensive
definition. It is worth nothing that ostensive, deictic, and demonstrative are all based upon the idea of
identification or drawing attention to something in a communicative space by pointing. So too is Hardwick‘s
(1977) term ‗‘indexical‘‘ which has been employed in the recent philosophical literature roughly in the sense that
we are assigning deictic to discursive acts (Lyons, 1977, p.637).
As such, the notion of deixis is understood as an indicative function which is conceptually similar to the
acts of pointing, locating and identifying. Lyons accounts for the act of pointing as follows:
The canonical situation-of-utterance is egocentric in the sense that the speaker by virtue of being the
speaker casts himself in the role of ego and relates everything to his viewpoint. He is at the zero-point of the
spatiotemporal co-ordinates of what is referred to as the deictic context (1977 p. 638)
What is insightful here is the use of the notion ‗‘zero-point‘‘ because it is conceptually similar to the
notion of indefinite. Specifically it does not seem to be a mere co-incidence that this egocentric sense of zeroness
in one‘s utterance is initiated with an indefinite expression such as once upon ‗‘a‘‘ time there lived ‗‘a‘‘ farmer
in ‗‘a‘‘ village. It appears to indicate a speaker‘s self-a wareness of where he or she is located in a given
discourse space. In other words the speaker knows that the story should start from scratch or nothingness. Or the
speaker is likely to assume that the hearer knows ‗‘nothing‘‘ about what he or she is going to talk about.
Although it may sound speculative the phrase ‗‘zero-point‘‘ above seems to connote the meaning of nothing.
In addition as it is found in the earliest stage of a child‘s cognitive development deixis, in terms of its
attention drawing property is the most rudimentary identifying act in a child‘s communicative conduct. In
summary English article usage when related to the metalinguistic notion of deixis as with many others reflects a
dynamic and dialectical reality that is often missed when we treat the articles as simply either definite or
indefinite.
2.
Anaphoric
The notion of ‗‘anaphoric use‘‘ or ‗‘back-pointing‘‘ refers to the case where an entity in a narrative text
which often occurs first with the indefinite article ‗‘a/an‘‘ is identified again in that text by replacing ‗‘a/an‘‘
with ‗‘the‘‘ to indicate its reappearance in the discourse. For instance in the sentence ‗‘Bill bought a TV and a
radio, but he returned the radio‘‘ ‗‘the ‗‘ in ‗the radio‘ is explained as revealing the anaphoric function.
What counts here is that the signification of ‗‘the‘‘ is predicated on the precondition of ‗‘a‘‘. ın this
context the use of ‗‘a‘‘ as an indefinite expression is viewed as a necessary condition for the latter use of ‗‘the‘‘.
In other words ‗‘the‘‘ becomes meaningful by virtue of ‗‘a‘‘. Moreover their linguistic value becomes
meaningful only when they are understood in temporal context because the notion of presupposition is a timebound one. This anaphoric usage reflects the temporal coordination or history-sharing function which is so
important between interlocutors in their broader mutual meaning-making and understanding processes.
Accordingly here again it is apparent that ‗‘a‘‘ and ‗‘the‘‘ are not really separate linguistic mechanisms or
entities but are rather constitutive semantic poles forming an interactive whole between interlocutors. Moreover
since this function can be expected to be acquired much later in conceptual and/or linguistic development than
the simple deictic or indicative act.
3.
Cataphoric
The ‗‘cataphoric‘‘ use or ‗‘forward-pointing use‘‘ of the articles is seen in the case where linguistic
identity is established by the post-modification that follows the noun. For example it involves the use of ‗‘the‘‘
in the sentence ‗Bill returned the radio he bought yesterday‘ as well as in the sentence ‗‘The‘‘ wines of France
(or which France produces) are the best in the world. Insofar as the fundamental meaning of the sentence retains
its central intent or sense the first sentence can be interpreted as ‗Bill bought a radio, and he returned it or the
radio.‘ As seen in each interpretation we can infer or presume that at least part of the meaning of ‗‘the‘‘ in the
examples connotes the indefinite meaning which the indefinite article ‗‘a‘‘ yields.
The same reasoning which was developed in the discussion of the anaphoric function above seems to be
at work here with the cataphoric function of the articles. What matters here is the matter of explicit observability
or of implicit sharedness between interlocutors. While not directly observable what appears to be functioning is a
certain dialectical interaction between the definite and the indefinite. The ‗‘the‘‘ in ‗Bill returned the radio he
bought yesterday‘ may be thought of as only a grammatical choice but its significance derives from the
recognition of the existential presupposition of ‗‘a‘‘ as connected in ‗Bill bought a radio yesterday.‘ Moreover,
1294
�1st International Conference on Foreign Language Teaching and Applied Linguistics
May 5-7 2011 Sarajevo
in a similar context, if Bill bought more than one radio, it would also be possible to say that ‗Bill returned ‗a‘
radio he bought yesterday.‘
Thus here again the definite and the indefinite meanings can not simply be prefixed grammatical
notions but are determined in actual communicative contexts, and choice for their usage seems to be determined
mostly on dialogical grounds. In effect this dialectical schema of the articles is structured through various and
processual dialogical experiences rather than the result of a simple instructional knowing of the meaning of the
words and grammar rules.
4.
Uniqueness
The notion of ‗‘uniqueness‘‘ refers to the definite usage where an object or a group of objects is
interpreted as revealing, characteristically, oneness and wholeness at the same time: for instance, the stars, the
earth, the world, the sea, the North Pole, the equator, the Reformation, the human race, etc. In other words, its
significance arises where referents are understood to be unique in a given context: the sun, the moon, the kitchen,
the car, etc. This notion indicates the existence of only one thing either as an individual entity or as a kind. The
definite expression seen in this category may be indicated as presuming a native speaker‘s ontological mental
index regarding a specific referent. For instance, in the case of the earth, we may say that the passage indicates
the native English speaker‘s recognition that something as a referent exists which is named ‗‘earth‘‘ (i.e. the
awareness of existential reality) and that the speaker learned to call it ‗‘the‘‘ earth as a conventional label to
indicate a common awareness of the referent. In this schema, the use of ‗‘the‘‘ requires both a self and others:
namely, without you as an other, the use of ‗‘the‘‘ turns out to be meaningless. We learn in this way that the
meaning of uniqueness and the related use of an article is conditioned (or becomes significant) by a speaker in
the face of a hearer.
A native speaker‘s competence in this aspect of language, as with other aspects appears as an
internalization and increasing awareness in the context of communicative socialization processes. Here again,
considering traditional language learning settings, where one-way instruction has been preferred over actual
communication it is understandable why it is so difficult for learners to develop this kind of social sense, and
have so much difficulty with the articles. This social sense can be properly acquired only through actual
dialogical (i.e. social) experiences, rather than in simple monological, instructional acts.
5.
Situational/Communal Sharing
Compared to the uniqueness expression the notion of ‗‘situational or communal sharing‘‘ refers to
article usage which is more adaptable to situational variations. The use of an article in this sense does not
necessarily signify the uniqueness of the referent. The usual examples in this category are: the radio, the
television and the telephone in a given social setting. In a similar way to what was discussed previously, I
content that the expression, ‗‘the radio‘‘ becomes intelligible only when interlocutors either explicitly admit that
there actually is a radio both as a thing and as a word (i.e. a classical reference problem). Hence, when ones says
‗the radio‘ he or she presupposes the ontology of its referent as well as the existence of a meaningful symbol.
It should be noted, however that while this type of referential function is necessary in most
communicative discourse acts. It is not sufficient. The referent which the noun phrase indicates is usually in a
social context, and as such it is obvious that its referential reality varies from context to context. For instance, in
the case of the phrase ‗ten minutes before ‗‘the‘‘ hour.‘ we all know that the noted temporal referent is relative to
the assumed time referent of the hour.
Whether we are talking about a physical referent or an imaginary referent it is clear that the definite
expression is contingent upon the existential cognitive index, which is characteristically adaptable to input, but
which retains certain indefinite properties.
6.
Generic and Specific
The ‗‘generic‘‘ and ‗‘specific‘‘ usages of the English articles refer to Noun Phrases (NPs) preceded by
‗‘the ‗‘, ‗‘a/an‘‘ or ‗‘the zero‘‘ article so that each reveals either the genericity or the specificity of the nominal
entity in a context. A generic expression refers to what is general or typical for a whole class of objects. In the
sentence, ‗The tiger is a beautiful animal‘ it means that ‗‘the‘‘ indicates the class of tigers, and not simply one
individual member of the class. This sentence is thus understood as expression essentially the same meaning as
the following sentences: ‗Tigers are beautiful animals‘ on the one hand and ‗A tiger is a beautiful animal‘ on the
other. Traditional English pedagogical grammar books usually describe such sentence as having a common
property of genericity simply taking their formal or morphological differences for granted without any plausible
explanation. Accordingly, they are understood the mean virtually the same thing. Moreover almost all informants
1295
�1st International Conference on Foreign Language Teaching and Applied Linguistics
May 5-7 2011 Sarajevo
of native English speakers cannot find any meaning difference among the three sentence above nor can they
explain ‗why so?‘
To recapitulate the generic expression represents the concept or idea which is generally attributable to
certain entities pervading all members of a given class. As shown in the previous examples while the dialectical
phenomenon is self-evident in this function of the English articles, questions have rarely been raised about what
this kind of semantic contradiction means in language pedagogy. Thus, what seems to be necessary to be
equipped with some meaningful ideas concerning how to explain it to the student.
In effect what I content here particularly in terms of seeing the article system as a dialectical relational
system is that genericity as semantic representation of ‗‘the‘‘ NP, ‗‘a/an‘‘ NP and NPs is embodied along the line
of semantic continuum between the definite and the indefinite. This in turn implies that ‗‘the‘‘ tends to appear
along the definite end of this continuum and that ‗‘a/an‘‘ along that of the indefinite. Moreover NPs can then be
viewed as a certain entity appearing somewhere in the middle. One may argue that seeing articles in this way is
only speculative at most. But I would rather argue that this interpretive schema is meaningful in that it possibly
offers a coherent way of explaining the varying nature of the English article usage both for the student and the
teacher. The bottom line here is that until we have a better one, we should dig something out hoping that it‘s
better than nothing.
A specific expression in contrast represents the entities rather directly as seen in such sentences as
‗Look at the tiger‘ or ‗ask a boy in this group‘ and does so especially in the context where both interlocutors
have specific knowledge about the referent. Hence, generally speaking, when representing a referent with its
related NP, the generic expression reveals an indirect ‗symbolic reference‘ (i.e. the referent does not have to be
real, and moreover the referents that the interlocutors may have in mind are not necessarily identical): a specific
expression reveals a direct symbolic reference in that both the speaker and the hearer are required to experience a
common shared meaning in conjunction with a given referent. Here again, under this re-interpreted theoretical
schema. I content that the locus of linguistic control that determines either the genericity or specificity of
meaning is not in the language terms (i.e. ‗‘the‘‘, ‗‘a/an‘‘, or ‗‘zero article‘‘) but in the degree of referent sharing
between interlocutors.
7.
Endophora and Exophora
Two more theoretical terms which appear to capture the relational properties of the English articles but
which are also often seen in the study of pronouns are known as ‗‘endophor‘‘ and ‗‘exophora‘‘. According to
Thavenus (1938)
A speaker will use pronouns to refer in two ways: he can refer to something that is mentioned in the
conversation and the reference is then textual or ‗endophoric‘; or he can refer to something that has not been
mentioned, but that can be retrieved from what can be perceived in the situational setting or from the speaker‘s
and listener‘s shared knowledge and experience. (p. 140)
He calls the latter case an example of situational or exophoric reference. Halliday and Hasan similarly
introduce the term endophoric ‗‘as a general name for reference within the text‘‘ (1976, p 33) but for them
endophoric covers both anaphoric and cataphoric reference (or forward-pointing) article uses, these two
functional categories of English pronouns also manifest the relational nature of language use and modes of
human thinking.
V. CONCLUSION
In order to isolate the dialectical aspects of the English article system study has attempted to reinterpret
key metalinguistic terms concerning the system. I have tried to show that even at the grammatical level when
viewed within the context of various metalanguages the articles are best seen as a relational and dialectical
system. This dialectical system I content, can be seen as ‗‘a higher system‘‘ (just as in the structuralists‘ world
view) which controls the interactive processes (i.e both syntagmatic and paradigmatic forces or both mutually
inclusive and exclusive). This higher system which may be represented as a symbolic sign of
‗(IN)DEFINITENESS‘ suggest that it be viewed in the holistic, communicative, relational context rather than
solely within a somewhat limited grammatical intra-sentential and word-centered one.
The rationale for my suggestion is not unlike our understanding that phonemic reality becomes more
meaningful at the level of morphology and morphological reality at the level of syntax and so on. These ideas are
illustrative of an understanding of our human language and communicative system as a multi-levelled and
somewhat hierarchical meaning system in which the higher and more inclusive levels of meaning supersede,
elaborate and constrain the lower and preceding ones. This mutually exclusive but at the same time codeterministic characteristic is a very essential feature of human language system. This idea was recognized some
years ago by the structural linguist Roman Jacobson (1968) who identified the human sound system in this
matter.ᶾ) Roman Jakobson`s (1968) theory of phonology development is based on his distinctive feature analysis
1296
�1st International Conference on Foreign Language Teaching and Applied Linguistics
May 5-7 2011 Sarajevo
(or phonemic distinction in general) of the sound systems of many different languages. A central theme of the
theory is that the pattern of phonological development is systematic in a relational sense.
Moreover this higher system is also indicative of our broader and more pervasive mental processes. One
can find it not only in our language use but also in all of our psycho-social acts of meaning making. Although
this argument requires much lengthy discussion. I wish to note briefly how our use of ‗‘the‘‘ which usually
presupposes the existence of ‗‘a/an‘‘ can be seen as revealing a form of higher order metacognitive functioning.
Specifically the use of one in relation to the other reflects our mode of metacognition (i.e. thinking about
thinking) which presupposes a continuation of discourse and continuous meaning specification. This kind of
metacognition is what makes text cohesion and coherence (i.e. meaning making and communication) possible in
a given dialogical contest.
Bruner‘s (1986) understanding of the semantics of human expressions while not explicitly stated in
relation to the use of the English articles is conceptually congruent with the current argument:
The relation of words or expressions to other words or expressions constitutes along with reference the
sphere of meaning. Because reference rarely achieves the abstract punctil-iousness, a ‗‘singular‘‘, ‗‘definite
referring expression‘‘ is always subject to ‗‘polysemy‘‘ and because there is no limit on the ways in which
expressions can relate to one another, meaning is always undetermined ambiguous. To make sense in language
as David Olson argued persuasively some years ago, always requires an ‗‘act of disambiguation.‘‘ (p. 64)
In effect, this act of disambiguation is a most fundamental metacognitive function that is inherent in our
cognitive activities and involves the various processes of differentiation, identification, definition, determination,
etc. The articles often called determiners or grammatical markers, by grammarians and linguists can thus also
and more importantly be viewed as a dialectical and semantically coherent system of symbols which not only
reflects our cognitive and communicative contexts but may serve the more active function of constructing
meaning in these contexts.
1297
�1st International Conference on Foreign Language Teaching and Applied Linguistics
May 5-7 2011 Sarajevo
References
Bickerton, D. (1985). Roots of language, Ann Arbor. MI: Karoma Publishers, Inc.
Bruner, J. (1986). Actual minds possible worlds. Harvard University Press.
Gusfield, J. (Ed.). (1989). On symbols and society. The University of Chicago Press.
Butler, Y. G. (1999). The role of metacognition in the development of the article system among nonnative
speakers. Unpublished Doctoral Dissertation, Stanford University.
Crystal. D. (1986). A dictionary of linguistics and phonetics. New York, NY: Basil Blackwell Inc.
Ellis. R. (1997). SLA research and language teaching. Oxford University Press.
Georgoudi. M. (1984). Modern dialectics in social psychology. In Gergen. K. &Gergen. M. (Eds.) Historical
social psychology. CEA.
Halliday. M. A. K. &Hasan, R. (1976). Cohegion in English, London: Longman.
Hawkins, J. A. (1978). Definiteness and indefinitieness: A study in reference and grammatically prediction.
Atlantic Highlands, HNJ: Humanities Press.
Hergenhahn. B. R. (1988). An introduction to theories of learning. Englewood Clifts. NJ: Prentice Hall
Herndon, J. (1976). A survey of modern grammers. Orlando, FA: Holt, Rinehart and Winston. Inc.
Jakobson, R., & Halle. M. (1968). Child language, aphasiz and phonological universals. The Hague: Mouton.
Lyons, J. (1977). Semantics. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Master. P. (1990). Teaching the English articles as a binary system. TESOL, Quarterly, 24(3), 461-478.
Hardwick. C. S. (Ed.). (1977). Semitics and significs: The corre-spondence of Charles S. Peince and Victorial
Lady Welby. Bloomington: Indiana University.
Perinbanayagam, R. S. (1991). Discursive act. New York. NY: Walter de Gruyter, Inc.
Rosenberg, J., & Travis, C. (1971). Reading in the philosophy of language. Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice-Hall.
Inc.
Son,. M. & Park, S. (2001). The usage of the definite article by Korean EFL collage learners. Foreign Language
Education. 8(2), 23-44
Stevenson, L. (1987). Seven theories of human nature: Christianity, Freud, Lorenz, Marx, Sartre, Skinner, Flato.
Oxford University Press.
Thavenius, C. (1983). Referential pronouns in English conversation. Lund: Lund University Press.
Watson, W. (1985). The ambitectoics of meaning : Foundation of the new pluralism. State University of New
York Press.
Webster‘s third new international dictionary. (1967). Springfield, MA: G. &C. Merriam Company Publishers.
Wilkins, D. (1985). Grammatical, situational and notional syllabuses. In C. J. Brumfit & K. Johnson. (Eds.). The
communicative approach to language teaching. Oxford University Press.
1298
�
Dublin Core
The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/.
Extent
The size or duration of the resource.
678
Title
A name given to the resource
A Dialectial Analysis of Grammatical Terms Defining The English Articles
Author
Author
Jang, Yunsang
Abstract
A summary of the resource.
This study looks into the English article system from the perspective of dialectics. The goal of the study is to enlarge the scope of understanding the English article system by demonstrating that at the very elementary comminicative level is is more appropriately characterized as a relational dialectial system rather than a simple binary one as described in most traditional pedagogical frammar boks. This study tries to reach this goal by interpreting such key metalingustic notions as anaphoric generic uniquenness etc as well as the three main descriptors of the English articles which involve article definite and indefinite For Plato dialogues or our Daily communicational acts are fundamentally dialectial. Thus the base reasoning fort his stady is that if we understand the Notion related to dialectic or dialectial acts better this will in tum help us understand our own dialogical acts in general and the English articles as a key dialogical marker in particular.
Date
A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource
2011-05
Keywords
Keywords.
Conference or Workshop Item
PeerReviewed
P Philology. Linguistics