FUNCTIONAL LINGUISTICS

FUNCTIONAL LINGUISTICS

1. a functionalist approach

   • the investigation of structure with the investigation of function

2. applied linguistics

   • The term applied linguistics is most often encountered in connection with foreign language teaching.
   • is an interdisciplinary field of study that identifies, investigates, and offers solutions to language-related real-life problems.
   • Major branches of applied linguistics include bilingualism and multilingualism, computer-mediated communication (CMC), conversation analysis, contrastive linguistics, language assessment, literacies, discourse analysis, language pedagogy, second language acquisition, lexicography, language planning and policies, pragmatics, forensic linguistics, and translation.
   • applied linguistics mediates between theory and practice
   • applied linguistics draws upon descriptions of language from traditions such as cognitive linguistics, corpus linguistics, generative linguistics and systemic functional linguistics, among others.

3. corpora linguistics.

   • A corpus (pl. corpora) is a large collection of written or spoken language (a store of used language) that is used for studying the language.
   • major directions of corpora studies
     • * the effect of corpus studies upon theories of language and how languages should be described.
     • * the critical approach to the methods used in investigating corpora, and a comparison between them.
   • The ways of processing data from a corpus
     • Frequency
     • Phraseology
     • Collocation
   • The applications of corpora
     • for language teaching;
     • individual exploring allowing to observe nuances of usage and to make comparisons between languages;
     • translators use comparable corpora to compare the use of apparent translation equivalents in two languages;
     • general corpora can be used to establish norms of frequency and usage against which individual texts can be measured (stylistics, clinical and forensic linguistics);
     • for investigation cultural attitudes expressed through language.
   • Types of corpora
     • Specialised corpus
     • General corpus
     • Comparable corpora
     • Parallel corpora
     • Learner corpus
     • Pedagogic corpus
     • Historical or diachronic corpus
     • Monitor corpus
   • Translation and Corpora
     • Research into corpora and translation tends to focus on two areas: practical and theoretical.
       • In practical terms
         • What software can be developed that will enable a translator to exploit corpora as an aid in the day-to-day business of translation?
       • In theoretical terms
         • What does a corpus consisting of translated texts indicate about the process of translation itself?

4. Term banks

   • Terminological data bank, or term bank broadly applies to any system, which stores specialised vocabulary in electronic form.