CONTRASTIVE LINGUISTICS

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 CHAPTER 1
CONTRASTIVE LINGUISTICS

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 CHAPTER 1

1. Contrastive linguistics, contrastive studies and contrastive analysis

2. Language in CL
3. Contrastive linguistics
4. Purpose, subject and object of contrastive studies
5. Theoretical background for contrastive studies

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 OBJECTIVES

By the end of this chapter, students will be able to:

1. Determining the agent of CL;
2. Recognizing the objects of CL;
3. Specifying the role of CL in learning, teaching second language &
translation;
4. Analyzing the aims of CL;
5. Explaining the equivalence between linguistic units.

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 1. Introduction

• CL has appeared for a long time, when establishing many independent

countries & when developing in science & technology.
• It broke out in the years of 20th century.
• The reasons of the formation & development of CL: The need for
exchanging culture, economy & the need for Teaching, Learning FL &
Translation.

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3 periods of development process of CL

1. Early period (Renaissance period, 17th - 18th century), CL focused

on observing the differences & similarities between FL & NL; & on
comparing languages types.

Famous linguists: Evan, Pand, Panlat with the “Directory of known

languages & remarks about their differences & similarities”.
2. Second period (19th century- the period of Historical CL)
Linguistics separated & became an independent science.
3. Third period (the middle of 20th century): CL developed strongly. The
research works contributed to the theory & application of teaching,
learning FL & Translation.
Famous linguists: Polivanov, Balli, Weinreich (Language in contact),
Harris (Transfer grammar), Lado (Linguistics across culture) & other
comparative works.
• In Vietnam, CL has been paying attention since the 80s of the 20th century.
- The 1st work of CL is “ Contrastive Studies of languages” written by Le
Quang Thiem;
- “Contrastive linguistics” written by Bui Manh Hung,
- & other research works written by Ly Toan Thang, Nguyen Van Chien….
What is language?
* A system of signals;
*; Language - a social phenomenon; not natural & not individual
phenomenon)

* Physical properties

* Language - systems of symbols in the brain

Ex. He had known the simple joys of listening to babbling of brook & the
bleating of lambs responding to his voice.

* A structure: system of symbols/units, levels, categories

Functions of language
+ Designed for the purposes of Communication;

+ Storehouse (storing culture, history, embodying human’s ideas…

+ Transferring these archives of human being from one to next

generation

Ex. Highland Cong Culture, Wet Rice Civilization, Cham Culture….

Cultural transmission
- The process whereby a language (as culture) is passed on from one
generation to the next in a community.
- Cultural traditions & artifacts of human beings accumulate
modification/change over time & can be transferred through language
Ex. Tet holiday, Vu Lan holiday; Literary works, Sculptures works…
* Lord of the Rings - J. R. R. Tolkien
* The secret garden - Frances Hodgson Burnett
* Reason and affection - Jane Austen.
* Romeo and Juliet - William Shakespeare
* Howling windy hills - Emily Brontë
MONICA LISA (Leona de Vinci)

The painting depicts a plump woman with a kind

beauty, clasped hands together, the corner of
her mouth with a smile. Thereby, viewers will
enjoy happy moments mixed between emotions
and humanity in the picture.
Golden Season (Levitan)

March, A park autumn day, Birch forest,

Eternal tranquility, Russian Lake, Spring
water
The Statue of Venus of Milo (French: Venus de
Milo) - a semi-naked statue with two arms, found in
1820 on the island of Milos (Greece) so named Milo.
The statue is believed to date from around 130 BC,
depicting the Greek goddess of love & beauty.
1.1 What is Contrastive Linguistics?
* CL - Linguistic approach studying similarities & differences between
languages; Comparison of some subsystems of two or more languages that are
“socio-culturally linked”.
 CL studies both Language & Culture
* Types of CL: Contrastive Studies, Comparative linguistics, Contrastive
Analysis, Comparative Syntax, Contrastive Lexicography, Contrastive
Pragmatics, Contrastive Discourse Analysis, Contrastive Sociolinguistics.
* CL rejoins with 2 collocations: Contrastive Studies (CS) & Contrastive
Analysis (CA).
* Languages in different type, & different in geography can be contrasted.
1.2 Purpose of contrastive linguistics
The results of CL applied in theoretical linguistics & in applied linguistics.

1. For theoretical linguistics (General linguistics)

* Verifying the universals/generals of languages
Ex. (homophones: so-sew, polysemes: get, rice, morphemes…)
* Determining relationship between language & thought
* Clarifying relation between language & philosophy
* CL applied for language taxonomy/classification
* Riching translation theory, machine translation, digital dictionary…
2. For applied linguistics
* CL as the way/method to find out the similarities& differences
between 2 or more languages that can be applied in our learning &
teaching FL
* Teaching & learning languages: designing syllabus, teaching materials,
writing textbook, course book.

* Specifying the relationship between NL (L1) & FL (L2), influence of

native language on FL learning- their interference (positive negative)

* Analyzing errors & mistakes to identify appropriate solutions to limit

students’ mistakes in learning.
 2. Language in CL

2.1 LANGUAGE CLASSIFICATION

2 Perspectives

1. Structural & Functional approaches

3 types of languages
TUẤN ANH, SINH VIÊN
- Monosyllable/analytic languages
+ Their word forms are unchanged
+ Syntax relationship & grammatical meaning expressed by word order,
syncategorematic words & intonation (Chinese, Vietnamese, Thai)
- Adherit (adhesive) language
Used affixation to form words; These affixations express different
meanings
Ex. Turkish: adam + lar > adamlar; kadin + lar  kadinlar (singular number
> plural number)

- Inflectional/synthetic languages
Changing vowels, consonants in morphemes to express grammatical &
semantic meaning (English, French, Russian…):
Ex. foot  feet; work  work s, present simple, singular number, 3rd person,
worked, working…
2.2 Based on generative, cognitive, pragmatic approaches
5 types of languages

- Social language (standard language): Common to the speakers in the

community. (in spoken or written form)
Ex. in Vietnam there are 54 languages of 54 minority nations, Vietnamese
is the social/standard language

- Individual language: Every person has his/ her language formed &
developed through accumulation: learning & communication.
- Contact language - pidgins: People use 2 or more different languages (mixed
languages) to communicate. They do not have common language. Contact
language is symplified language.

- Dynamic languages: Languages development through time

IR.4.0

- Interlanguage: The language that learners form & create for themselves when
learning L2. It is intermediate language between NL & target language (foreign
language that learners studying).
The interlanguage differs from native language & the target language but
includes the characteristics of these 2 languages.

The interlanguage is gradually closing to the target language but it is

never 100-percent target language. (show picture)
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 2. Language in CL

2.2 LANGUAGE PROPERTIES

* The main property of language: reflexivity.

* Reflexivity consists of: Displacement, Productivity, Duality, Cultural

transmission, Arbitrariness
Displacement
Place & time: where & when of things or events happened.
- It shows the user’s ability to make speech that suits to surrounding
environment. It determines the relationship of I-YOU-NOW-HERE.

Productivity
- User’s ability to make (create) new expressions by using their linguistic
resources to describe new ideas and contents.
WAIT FOR ME, ONLY WAIT FOR ME.
Duality
* Language has 2 sides as “2 sides of a coin”
Human language is organized at 2 levels (or layers) simultaneously.

* Meaningless elements: a limited inventory of sounds or phonemes, for

example: b, n, I, p…..
* Meaningful elements: a limitless inventory of words or morphemes: b-
i-n  bin.
 It means: With a limited set of discret (continuous) sounds, we can
produce a very large number of sound combination (e.g. words) which are
distinct in meaning.
Arbitrariness
In linguistics, arbitrariness - the absence of any natural & necessary
connection between a word meaning & its sound or form.
Ex. palanquin
Sound > No connection/ absence > meaning
 Meaning emerges not from anything logically inherent (nội tại) in words,
but from the specific conventions & expectations that can change from time
to time & place to place
Arbitrariness is on of the characteristics shared between all languages.

Ferdinand de Saussure (French - 26 November 1857– 22 February 1913)

A Swiss linguist, semiotician & philosopher. His ideas laid a foundation for
many significant developments in both linguistics & semiotics in the 20th
century.
* Each linguistic unit contains two related sides:
CONTENT & ITS LINGUISTIC EXPRESSION

- Content: Meaning, Concept, Idea, Image, Symbol called Signified

expressed by sound & spelling (writing) (Expression)
Ex. the word: house (lexical meaning & /haus/- sound)

- Expression - Signifier: all linguistic & speech units: phoneme, morpheme,

word (lexeme), sentence & text

CONTENT= SIGNFIED & EXPRESSION = SIGNIFIER

- Relation between content & linguistic expression is dialectical/(logical,
rational)
 Linguistic
CONTENT/ sound
expression/
SIGNIFIED spelling
Signifier
FFFsssssSSSSYMBOL
Content (image) Linguistic expression

watch

часы

horloge

đồng hồ
 3. Contrastive linguistics

Trends/approaches/perspectives of CL

Traditional grammar, Structural, Generative – Transformational, Functional,

Cognitive.
* Traditional approach: based on universal grammatical categories
comparing particular items between NL (L1) & FL (L2).
Ex. Comparing Semantic characteristics of size adjective group between
Vietnamese & English.
* Structural approach: based on this approach particular linguistic units in
various languages are compared.
- In a time when people live in "a global village", they must answer the
need of multilingual, multicultural & intra-linguistic, cultural competence.
 it is necessary to extend the scope of describing the differences, as well
as the similarities between two or more languages, both interlinguistically &
intralinguistically.

* Various linguistic models:

Traditional grammars, Structural, Generative -transformational, Functional,
Cognitive.
- Traditional approaches based on universal grammatical categories,
which considered as tertium comparationis for comparison.

The comparisons themselves were also based on intuitions in so far as

grammarians depended on their knowledge of the compared languages in
deciding on what a particular item in L1 should be compared with in L2.
- Structural approaches based on the principles that particular linguistic
units in various languages were matched for comparison because they
meant more or less the same thing.
- It is impossible to describe all languages within the same universal
framework of grammatical categories. (It means: linguistic units in
various languages can be compared because they share something in
common.)
- Generative transformational approach based on generative
grammar - transformational: Construction/ Structures of 2 or more
languages can be contrasted
Ex. Comparing the Structure of Simple sentence of Vietnamese &
English

- Based on similarities of meaning/content & the ways/expression in

which the shared meaning in different languages can be contrasted
Generative transformational approaches based on generative grammar.
- Most generative transformational grammars share the basic premises that
rules are the central theoretical concept in the grammar & transformational
rules go between abstract representations & their surface structure
representations.
- All languages share basic elements such as sentence, modality, &
proposition as well as basic relationships between their components.
- Contrastive Generative Grammar has the base of semanto-syntactic
equivalence in language.
 Equivalent sentences obtain identical semantic representations. If we
characterize various constructions in any 2 languages in terms of
equivalence & formal correspondence, we shall observe that the compared
sentences may be:
(a) equivalent, formally different,
(b) equivalent, formally similar,
(c) non-equivalent, formally similar,
(d) non-equivalent, formally different. Languages share common
ground of deep structure, which contrastive studies can be based on.
- Cognitive approach based on assumption that human language reflects
the way people experience: reality, the world, human thought, perception,
cognitive processing.

- Reality/item/object contains the contents described by mental images in

the mind of language user
 these images are idealized into concepts understood as the basic
unit of language: word
Ex. a house (images: proof, pillar, bars, windows, doors…)
Images > Concepts > Word > a word is a concept
Summary
Traditional, structural, generative-transformational, & generative
contrastive studies have been so far conducted to determine
similarities & dissimilarities between languages in practice & in
science.
Patterns of CL
* Pattern - Equivalent systems of the languages: equivalent system of
units, equivalent of structures…
* Languages may be intralingual, interlingual
* CL focuses on discovering the similarities & differences of languages
based on Equivalent
* Equivalent - equal in value, function & meaning.

* What is equivalent in CL?

Krzeszowski’s concept of equivalent: 2 texts of 2 contrasted languages
in spoken or in written. They are the original/source & the
target/translation language texts.
> The 2 texts make equivalent pair as materials for CL.

Ex. - John has worked here for 3 years - John làm việc ở đây đã 3 năm.
(2 texts)
- two new books – hai cuốn sách mới (2 texts)

* The equivalent - significant role in comparison: clarifying the

relationship between the original & target texts & determining the proximity
of these 2 texts.
Types of equivalent: 3 types

* Formal (correspondent) equivalent:

+ Translator makes equivalent in translation by exploiting the ability of the
language or by creating new forms.

+ Formal equivalent focuses on the aesthetic characteristics of vocabulary,

grammar, structure & style.
 It means: CL based on the equivalent of word order, word function, word
inflection, affixation, segmentals (Phonemes: vowels, consonants,
diphthongs), suprasegmentals (stress, pitch, intonation, tones).
Translate into Vietnamese: Wait for me, only wait for me.
* Semantic equivalent
The equivalent of 2 different vocabulary data elements that have the
same meaning.

* Pragmatic equivalent
The equivalent to the words of both languages that affect/influence the
readers.
* Equivalent is closely related to translation. Translation is truly translating
all that is represented in the source text into the translation text.
* In order to have a perfect translation, the translator must understand the
differences between source/original language & the target/translation language;
must have a wide background of history, society, nature & culture.

Ex. The following translation from French into Vietnamese: “De ce train-là, les
homes en viendront à brouter l’hebre des prés comme les brebis”.
 “Cứ cái đà này, những con người rồi sẽ đến nước phải gặm cỏ nội như
những con cừu cái.”.
 4.Purpose, Subject and Object of CL

- Common object: The ways of expressing the same meaning in

different languages

- Particular object: linguistic components, linguistic units

- For contrasting units of languages it must have something in common

considered as subjunctive (giả định). It is TERTIUM COMPARATIONIS.

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What is Tertium Comparationis (TC)?
- The 3rd component of CL - When comparing & contrasting 2 things, it must
be based on a certain subjunctive - the common thing between 2
things/objects that have some similarities in some aspects/shares the
concept of something in common /common measure and a background
of sameness.> The base, foundation, platform for comparison
Ex. When comparing US & Russian subway trains, it must be based on
common factors: technology, speed, service, number of passengers, fare,
profit, safety…
> CL must be based on common language factors: categories, levels,
units…
Subject
Who is agent of CL?
They are polyglots & naïve & professional.
Second languages learners,
Tourists,
Language teachers,
Translators, Interpreters
Linguists.
* Lexeme (word) - a fundamental unit of the lexicon (word stock) of a
language.

* A lexeme is often, but not always an individual word.

It is sometimes called simple lexeme or dictionary word which may
have number of inflectional forms or grammatical variants: talk-talks-
talking, talked....
 The translator translated word to word. The translation does not convey
the original ideas of the source text.
The reason is that the author has not fully understood the differences
between Vietnamese & French, the differences between Vietnamese culture
& French culture.

Ex. les homes does not correspond to những con người, it coresponds to
con người or người ta. And the Vietnamese do not have to explicitly mention
the gender or number in saying as the French, so they do not say “grazing
like male/female sheep, they can say “graze like sheep” (gặm cỏ nội như
những con cừu).
 CL & Translation practically are 2 different areas of purpose, but
they have an obvious relationship: both are interested in
considering the relation between the content (signified) & the
expression (signifier) of the 2 texts.
 5. Theoretical background for CL

5.1Common linguistics and levels

* Units: phoneme, morpheme, word, phrase, clause, sentence, text/discourse

* Levels: Phonology, Lexicology, Syntax, Pragmatics

* Categories: number, gender, case, person, tense, aspect, mood, form

 5. Theoretical background for CL

5.2 Communicative Linguistic Competence

CLC - A language user’s grammatical knowledge of phonology,

morphology, syntax & social knowledge about how & when to use speech
appropriately.
4 components of CC
- Linguistic competence
Knowing how to use grammar, syntax, vocabulary > Linguistic knowkedge
- Sociolinguistic competence
Knowing how to use & respond to language appropriately
- Discourse competence
Knowing how words, phrases, sentences are put together to create
convention speech

- Strategic competence
Knowing how to recognize & repair communication breakdowns (failures):
misunderstanding, gaps > Knowing what do then, how to express ideas.
Difference between linguistic competence & communicative
competence:
+ Linguistic competence - Having language knowledge: Dealing with
producing & understanding grammatically correct sentence; Focusing on
usage of form of sentences which are contextually appropriate.

+ Communicative competence: The ability to relay the message using a

language with clear manner; It deals with producing & understanding
sentences that are appropriate & acceptable to a particular situation.
5.3 Role of native language in second language acquisition
* In a second language learning situation, learners rely extensively on their
native language

* Individual tend to transfer the forms & meaning & the distributions of forms &
meanings of their native language & culture to the foreign language & culture.
Language transfer

* The replication of rules from our first language (L1) to the second language
(L2).

* Our knowledge & understanding of L1 impact our understanding of L2.

* What can be transferred? grammar, vocabulary, syntax, semantics,

spelling, morphology, pronunciation, structure & culture to the L2 language.
- Transfer (interference) consists of 2 different underlying learning process:
positive transfer & negative transfer.

- Transfer based on output.

Language Transfer Types: Positive & Negative

* Positive transfer facilitates learning. Language Similarities between L1

&L2 can be transferred, easy for learners to understand & apply

Ex. STRUCTURE: S-P-O-C-A

Positive transfer occurs when a person is learning L2 which is very
similar to his or her own. In this case, the closeness of a language
can assist learning & usage of the areas of pronunciation,
intonation & sentence structure or lexicon.

Ex. an Italian learning a very close language such as Spanish will likely
experience lots of positive transfer, simply because the way one forms
sentences in the 2 languages is very similar in terms of structure & the
forms of words. Because of the similarity, & Italian speaker can often
guess the meaning of Spanish words he has never explicitly learned (or
vice versa).
Negative transfer impedes learning
* The differences between two languages makes negative effects.
* Negative transfer occurs when L1 knowledge influences L2
understanding & results in errors.
Ex. word choice, word order, pronunciation, & any other aspect of L2.
* Different types of negative transfer:
+ Substitution: Absence of some sounds in L1;
+ Underdifferentiation: Inability to make a distinction made in another
language;
+ Simplification is another type of negative interference
Negative transfer - a process occuring during L2 acquisition: a learner
of L2 applies rules that do not belong to the language he is speaking or
writing.
> DEVIATION OF L2 GRAMMATICAL RULES

Ex. Spanish grammar & English (while speaking). In Spanish the

subject does not have to be always expressed in an utterance, so one
might improperly say “is raining” while the English correct form would
be “It is raining” with a pronoun indicating the subject that in Spanish
can be omitted.
5.4 Second language acquisition

Input – intake - output

Communicative Linguistic Activities
Reception- Production- Interaction
decoding coding Communicative
Receiving, Designing, activities
analyzing producing
meaning of linguistic
language structures
structures
OUTPUT
INTAKE
INPUT Speaking,
Critical
Listening, thinking Writing
Reading
- Input comprises spoken, written discourse & suggestions/questions from
the discourse serving as criteria for comparison of social & individual
languages.
Input - social language & the source, standard in language comparison (L2).
Intake - the part of input which learners attend notice while processing the
input. Input refers to the results of not only leaner’s knowledge, but also
listening, reading, speaking, writing & critical thinking.

- Output (production) what learners respond involves spoken, written

discourse. It realizes what learners intake & stands for learner’s interlanguage
(IL).
> The crucial language activities that works for common
platform in almost every contrastive models are critical thinking,
listening, speaking, writing & reading.
Something (forms, structures) of NL is similar to the L2 is to be
easily understood for learners
In short, So something of native language is different from 2nd language
makes difficulties for learners.
> Making errors/mistakes.
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