Prague school theories of standard language

[Svetlana Malykhina]

Since 1920s, the specificity of language functions compared to general cognitive functions had been researched by Otto Jespersen and Karl Buhler. Their research laid the ground for the idea of a language ("langue")  has an autonomous existence as a self-consistent structure, which belongs to Ferdinand de Saussure. In his Course in General Linguistics (1916) he distinguished "langue," the system and rules of langauge, from 'parole" or speech. Thsi idea was later developed by structuralism. so, within structuralism language is understood as an autonomous system too. 
 
On Tue, 17/2/09, Keith Langston <langston at UGA.EDU> wrote:

From: Keith Langston <langston at UGA.EDU>
Subject: [SEELANGS] Prague school theories of standard language
To: SEELANGS at bama.ua.edu
Date: Tuesday, 17 February, 2009, 5:47 PM

Dear SEELANGers,

A number of linguists who have written about Prague School approaches to
language standardization/language culture refer to the concept of the
"autonomy" of the standard language. I have been searching through
writings by Havránek, Mathesius, and others, and while they obviously treat the
standard language as a distinct variety, I haven't been able to find any
explicit statement about "autonomy" as a general characteristic of
standard languages. It appears that some of these linguists writing about the
Prague School are using "autonomy" to mean slightly different things,
so I was hoping to find the original source of this concept. Can anyone direct
me to a reference?

Thanks,

Keith Langston

***************************************************
Keith Langston
Associate Professor of Slavic Studies and Linguistics
Undergraduate Advisor
Dept. of Germanic and Slavic Studies
University of Georgia
201 Joseph E. Brown Hall
Athens, GA 30602
706.542.2448, fax 706.583.0349




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