3.4 behaviourism

Malinowski and Firth believed that the description of a language could not be complete without some reference to the context of situation.

Bloomfield defined the meaning of a linguistic form as the situation in which the speaker utters it and the response it calls forth in the hearer.

E.g. Jack and Jill (Jill is hungry , sees an apple and with the use of language gets Jack to fetch it for her ). Stimulus ( S ) and reaction (R) S  R

One important point for the theory is that the stimulus and the reaction are physical events. For Jill it is a matter of light waves striking her eyes, of her muscles contracting and of fluids being secreted in her stomach. Jacks action is no less physical.

Bloomfield's thesis is that human behavior, including speech, is controlled by the same physical, wholly deterministic, laws as other events in the universe.

Bloomfield was at great pains to contrast his ‘mechanistic ‘theory with the mentalistic theories that posit non-physical processes such as thoughts, concepts, images, feelings, etc. He did not deny that we have such images, feelings, etc

.but explained them as popular terms for bodily movements, events that the speaker alone is aware of ( as in I‘m hungry ) private experiences ( obscure internal stimuli ) , or soundless movements of the vocal organs . `

He forecast (quite incorrectly as it turned out) that all the problems of phonology would be solved in a few decades in the phonetics laboratory.

Bloomfield's theory loses its force when we realise how many of the relevant predisposing factors are unknown and unknowable .

Chomsky stimulus response picture linguistic

Without prediction there is no scientific explanation : The child learns that making certain noises will have desired results such as food or attention from his parents.

Done by: Ruqia Sadiq Amal Mahdi Sarab Mohammed