His best-known idea is the cooperative principle, which breaks down how people behave in conversations in order to enable effective communication. Paul Grice is one of the most important contributors to pragmatics, which is the study of how context contributes to meaning. Image of Paul Grice via Pierangela Albertini / Esse Paul Grice (1913 - 1988): Cooperative principle This hypothesis has been largely dismissed by modern linguists, but caused significant discussion and consideration about the link between language and culture.Ĥ. This hypothesis, in its strongest form, claims that the language one speaks drastically influences the way in which one perceives the world. Sapir is most famous, however, for a concept known as linguistic relativity, which he developed with his student, Benjamin Whorf.
Edward Sapir (1884 - 1939): Linguistic relativityĮdward Sapir was a linguistic anthropologist whose thorough classification of indigenous American languages is still widely used today. Though the idea of distinctive features has been questioned in recent years, it allowed linguistics to classify the sounds of languages in an organized, hierarchical structure, which had previously been impossible.ģ. Similarly, “b” and “m” are the same, except in “m”, air comes out of the nose (it’s nasal), whereas in “b”, it does not (try it!). The difference between “p” and “b”, for instance, is that “b” uses our vocal chords (it’s voiced), whereas “p” does not (it’s unvoiced). Specifically, he proposed the idea of distinctive features, which suggests that all sounds of speech are marked by binary contrasts which can be described and quantified. Russian-born linguist and literary theorist Roman Jakobson had many influential ideas about language most remarkably, he changed the way scholars studied phonology, the sound structure of language. Image of Roman Jakobson via Émile Beguin / Wikipedia The arbitrariness of meaning and form is a fundamental tenet of modern linguistics. Crucially, Saussure articulated the arbitrariness of the linguistic sign: the phonetic form and the underlying concept of the word “dog” have no natural link, and instead are the product of social interaction. Most notably, Saussure introduced the idea that every word is a linguistic sign, which consists of two components: the signifier, or the phonetic form of a word (e.g., the word “dog” consists of two consonants split up by a vowel) and the signified, or the conceptual meaning underlying the sign (e.g., a dog is a furry animal that is commonly used as a household pet). Swiss linguist Ferdinand de Saussure is widely considered to be one of the forefathers of both linguistics and semiology, which is the philosophical study of the interpretation of signs and symbols. Image of de Saussure sporting an impressive mustache via Wikipedia Ferdinand de Saussure (1857 - 1913): Linguistic signs This list will give you a crash-course in big-name linguists, and the ideas they had which changed the field of linguistics forever.ġ. But how many people can claim that they know the names of some of the most influential linguists? Indeed, important names in linguistics have not quite infiltrated the mainstream in the way that they have in hard sciences and music. We’ve all heard of famous physicists like Isaac Newton and Albert Einstein everyone knows the names of famous composers like Beethoven, Bach, and Brahms.
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