DOCSLIB.ORG

LINGUISTIC THEORY and SECOND LANGUAGE TEACHING David

Total Page：16

File Type：pdf, Size：1020Kb

Download full-text PDF Read full-text

Load more

LINGUISTIC THEORY AND SECOND LANGUAGE TEACHING David McComick A thesis submitted in conformity with the requirements for the degree of Master of Arts Department of Curriculum Ontario Institute for Studies in Education of the University of Toronto O David McCormick 1997 National Library ~i~iiotnequenarionaie I*I of Canada du Canada Acquisitions and Acquisitions et Bibliographie Services services bibliographiques 395 Wellington Street 395, nie Wellington Ottawa ON KIA ON4 Ottawa ON KIA ON4 Canada Canada The author has granted a non- L'auteur a accordé une licence non exclusive licence allowing the exclusive permettant à la National Library of Canada to Bibliothèque nationale du Canada de reproduce, loan, disîribute or sell reproduire, prêter, distribuer ou copies of this thesis in microform, vendre des copies de cette thèse sous paper or electronic formats. la forme de microfiche/^, de reproduction sur papier ou sur format électronique. The author retains ownership of the L'auteur conserve la propriété du copyright in this thesis. Neither the droit d'auteur qui protège cette thèse. thesis nor substantial extracts fiom it Ni la thèse ni des exîraits substantiels may be printed or otherwise de celle-ci ne doivent être imprimés reproduced without the author's ou autrement reproduits sans son permission. autorisation, LINGUISTIC THEORY AND SECOND LANGUAGE TEACHING Master of Arts, 1997 Department of Cumculum, Teaching and Learning at the Ontario lnstitute for Studies in Education of the University of Toronto David McCormick Abstract This thesis is written for the language teacher who wishes to gain theoretical insight into the teaching of grammar. In particular, the discussion seeks to investigate the teaching of 'psychologically mal' grammar in the foreign language classroom. It aims therefore at a grammatical understanding which corresponds to the distributional and metaphoncal realities of language. With this purpose in mind, three twentiethcentury grammatical models of the formal matrix are analyzed: the Structuralist school of thought associated primarily with Ferdinand de Saussure, the Transformational-Generative project identified with Noam Chomsky, and the Systemic-Functional mode1 advanced by Michael Halliday. Subsequent to the theoretical section, a heuristic discussion is undertaken for purposes of pedagogicyl reflection. Acknowledgements I wish to express my gratitude to the Supervisors of this thesis, Dr. Patrick Allen of the Department of Curriculum and Modem Languages (OISUUT) and Dr. Normand LaBrie of the Centre de Recherche en Education Franco-Ontarienne (OISUUT). Their clarifying reflections and consistent guidance were much in demand throughout the writing of this thesis. I also wish to acknowledge the support that I have received from Ms. Sheila Tait, Principal of Continuing Education, and Ms. Margaret Kinsey, Adult ESL Program Supervisor, both of the Etobicoke Board of Education. Their gracious permission to use the facilities and the resources of the Board and their ongoing support have greatly facilitated the successful completion of this thesis. iii For my rnother and father Andrea and Lee McCormick Table of Contents Abstract .................................................................................................................... ii Acknowledgements................................................................................................... iii Dedication................................................................................................................. iv Table of Contents..................................................................................................... v Abbreviations ............................................................................................................ viii Chapter One: Introduction....................................................................................... 1 Psychological Grammar and the Language Teacher .......................................... 2 The Format.................................................................................................... 3 A Practical Point of Departure.......................................................................... 6 The Importance of Theory ............................................................................... 8 Chapter Two: Linguistic Structuralism.......................................................................... 13 The Philological Perspective........................................................................... The Course in General Linguistics................................................................... Parole and Langue ............................................................................. Syntagm and Paradigm....................................................................... European Structuralism: Roman Jakobson....................................................... Emic and Etic Realities. ........................................................................ Jakobson's Ladder ............................................................................ American Structuralisrn: Leonard Bloomfield.................................................... The Relegation of Meaning................................................................ The Elevation of Form........................................................................ The Descriptivists........................................................................................... Summary....................................................................................................... C hapter Three: Generativism...................................................................................... 38 The Rationalist Perspective............................................................................ Empirical ProMems with Behaviourist Linguistics.............................................. ... The Disciplinary Link....................................................................................... The Distributionafist Legacy............................................................................ Syntactic Structures (1957) ................ ,. ........................................................ The Mechanics of the Model 1: Generation........................................... The Mechanics of the Mode1 II: Transformation............ ............ ,.... Ernpirical Problems with syntactic Structures............................. The Standard Theory (1 965) .......................................................................... Competence and Performance........................................................... The Components of the Model........................................................... Empirical Problems with the Standard Theory ...................................... Case Grammar ............................................................................................... The Extended Standard Theory (1972) .......................................................... The Revised Extended Standard Theory (1975) .............................................. Universal Grammar.......................................................................................... Summary....................................................................................................... Chapter Four: Functionalism..................................................................................... The Ethnographie Perspective...................................................................... J.R. Firth's Linguistics................................................................................... DeIl Hymes's Linguistics................................................................................ Michael Halliday's Linguistics......................................................................... Functional Grammar...................................................................................... The Uses of Language (1) ................................................................. The Situation Type (2)....................................................................... The Sociosemantic Connection (3) .................................................... Ontogeny and Phylogeny..................................................... The Macrofunctions of Language (4).................................................. Lexicogrammar (5) - (6)...................................................................... Scale and Category Grammar (1961) .............................................................. The Paradigmatic Orientation............................................................. The Syntagmatic Orientation.............................................................. System in Functional Grammar ............................................................ Surnmary....................................................................................................... Chapter Five: Penpective(s).................................................................................... 118 . Part 1: The Theoretical Milieu........................................................... 119 . The Pedagogical Milieu....................................................................... 121 Theoretical and Applied Linguistics...................................................... 123 Relating Educational and Theoretical Linguistics................................... 126 Part II: Questions.......................................................................................
Recommended publications
  • Systemic Functional Features in Stylistic Text Classification

    Systemic Functional Features in Stylistic Text Classification

    Systemic Functional Features in Stylistic Text Classification Casey Whitelaw Shlomo Argamon School of Information Technologies Department of Computer Science University of Sydney, NSW, Australia Illinois Institute of Technology [email protected] 10 W. 31st Street, Chicago, IL 60616, USA [email protected] Abstract of meaning, we are unlikely to gain any true insight into the nature of the stylistic dimension(s) under study. We propose that textual ‘style’ should be best de- fined as ‘non-denotational meaning’, i.e., those as- How then should we approach finding more theoretically- pects of a text’s meaning that are mostly inde- motivated stylistic feature sets? First consider the well- pendent of what the text refers to in the world. accepted notion that style is indicated by features that in- To make this more concrete, we describe a lin- dicate the author’s choice of one mode of expression from guistically well-motivated framework for compu- among a set of equivalent modes. At the surface level, this tational stylistic analysis based on Systemic Func- may be expressed by specific choice of words, syntactic struc- tional Linguistics. This theory views a text as a tures, discourse strategy, or combinations. The causes of such realisation of multiple overlapping choices within surface variation are similarly heterogeneous, including the a network of related meanings, many of which re- genre, register, or purpose of the text, as well as the educa- late to non-denotational (traditionally ‘pragmatic’) tional background, social status, and personality of the au- aspects such as cohesion or interpersonal distance. thor and audience.
  • Will Distributional Semantics Ever Become Semantic?

    Will Distributional Semantics Ever Become Semantic?

    Will Distributional Semantics Ever Become Semantic? Alessandro Lenci University of Pisa 7th International Global WordNet Conference January 28, 2014 - Tartu Alessandro Lenci GWC 2014 @ Tartu - January 28, 2014 1 Distributional semantics Theoretical roots What is Distributional Semantics? Distributional semantics is predicated on the assumption that linguistic units with certain semantic similarities also share certain similarities in the relevant environments. If therefore relevant environments can be previously specified, it may be possible to group automatically all those linguistic units which occur in similarly definable environments, and it is assumed that these automatically produced groupings will be of semantic interest. Paul Garvin, (1962), “Computer participation in linguistic research”, Language, 38(4): 385-389 Alessandro Lenci GWC 2014 @ Tartu - January 28, 2014 2 Distributional semantics Theoretical roots What is Distributional Semantics? Distributional semantics is predicated on the assumption that linguistic units with certain semantic similarities also share certain similarities in the relevant environments. If therefore relevant environments can be previously specified, it may be possible to group automatically all those linguistic units which occur in similarly definable environments, and it is assumed that these automatically produced groupings will be of semantic interest. Paul Garvin, (1962), “Computer participation in linguistic research”, Language, 38(4): 385-389 Alessandro Lenci GWC 2014 @ Tartu - January 28, 2014 3 Distributional semantics Theoretical roots The Pioneers of Distributional Semantics Distributionalism in linguistics Zellig S. Harris To be relevant [linguistic] elements must be set up on a distributional basis: x and y are included in the same element A if the distribution of x relative to the other elements B, C, etc.
  • The Empirical Base of Linguistics: Grammaticality Judgments and Linguistic Methodology

    The Empirical Base of Linguistics: Grammaticality Judgments and Linguistic Methodology

    UCLA UCLA Previously Published Works Title The empirical base of linguistics: Grammaticality judgments and linguistic methodology Permalink https://escholarship.org/uc/item/05b2s4wg ISBN 978-3946234043 Author Schütze, Carson T Publication Date 2016-02-01 DOI 10.17169/langsci.b89.101 Data Availability The data associated with this publication are managed by: Language Science Press, Berlin Peer reviewed eScholarship.org Powered by the California Digital Library University of California The empirical base of linguistics Grammaticality judgments and linguistic methodology Carson T. Schütze language Classics in Linguistics 2 science press Classics in Linguistics Chief Editors: Martin Haspelmath, Stefan Müller In this series: 1. Lehmann, Christian. Thoughts on grammaticalization 2. Schütze, Carson T. The empirical base of linguistics: Grammaticality judgments and linguistic methodology 3. Bickerton, Derek. Roots of language ISSN: 2366-374X The empirical base of linguistics Grammaticality judgments and linguistic methodology Carson T. Schütze language science press Carson T. Schütze. 2019. The empirical base of linguistics: Grammaticality judgments and linguistic methodology (Classics in Linguistics 2). Berlin: Language Science Press. This title can be downloaded at: http://langsci-press.org/catalog/book/89 © 2019, Carson T. Schütze Published under the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 Licence (CC BY 4.0): http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ ISBN: 978-3-946234-02-9 (Digital) 978-3-946234-03-6 (Hardcover) 978-3-946234-04-3 (Softcover) 978-1-523743-32-2
  • Linguistic Competence

    Linguistic Competence

    University of Nebraska - Lincoln DigitalCommons@University of Nebraska - Lincoln Transactions of the Nebraska Academy of Sciences and Affiliated Societies Nebraska Academy of Sciences 1983 Linguistic Competence John Tienson University of Nebraska-Lincoln Follow this and additional works at: https://digitalcommons.unl.edu/tnas Part of the Life Sciences Commons Tienson, John, "Linguistic Competence" (1983). Transactions of the Nebraska Academy of Sciences and Affiliated Societies. 259. https://digitalcommons.unl.edu/tnas/259 This Article is brought to you for free and open access by the Nebraska Academy of Sciences at DigitalCommons@University of Nebraska - Lincoln. It has been accepted for inclusion in Transactions of the Nebraska Academy of Sciences and Affiliated Societiesy b an authorized administrator of DigitalCommons@University of Nebraska - Lincoln. 1983. Transactions of the Nebraska Academy of Sciences, XI:99-104. LINGUISTIC COMPETENCE John Tienson Department of Philosophy University of Nebraska-Lincoln Lincoln, Nebraska 68588-0321 The notion of linguistic competence as a cognitive system that essential to the notion. This will make clear that Chomsky produces knowledge not antecedently present in the mind of the sub­ should not have said that a theory of competence is an ideali­ ject, e.g., knowledge of grammatical relations in response to certain zation, and that there is no reason to say that a speaker knows stimuli is an important contribution to philosophical understanding of linguistics, and of cognitive psychology in general. This notion has not the rules of the grammar. been as well received as it should have been, in part because of certain false things that have been said about it.
  • Systemic Functional Linguistic Discourse Features in the Personal Essay Anna Jones Rollins Jones453@Marshall.Edu

    Systemic Functional Linguistic Discourse Features in the Personal Essay Anna Jones Rollins [email protected]

    Marshall University Marshall Digital Scholar Theses, Dissertations and Capstones 1-1-2012 Systemic Functional Linguistic Discourse Features in the Personal Essay Anna Jones Rollins [email protected] Follow this and additional works at: http://mds.marshall.edu/etd Part of the Creative Writing Commons, Higher Education and Teaching Commons, and the Liberal Studies Commons Recommended Citation Rollins, Anna Jones, "Systemic Functional Linguistic Discourse Features in the Personal Essay" (2012). Theses, Dissertations and Capstones. Paper 216. This Thesis is brought to you for free and open access by Marshall Digital Scholar. It has been accepted for inclusion in Theses, Dissertations and Capstones by an authorized administrator of Marshall Digital Scholar. For more information, please contact [email protected]. SYSTEMIC FUNCTIONAL LINGUISTIC DISCOURSE FEATURES IN THE PERSONAL ESSAY A Thesis submitted to the Graduate College of Marshall University In partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Arts in English by Anna Jones Rollins Approved by Hyo-Chang Hong, Ph.D., Committee Chairperson Rachael Peckham, Ph.D. Kelli Prejean, Ph.D. Marshall University May 2012 i Acknowledgments First, I would like to thank my husband, James, for bearing with me, and bearing with me gracefully, throughout the entire process of writing this thesis. Thank you for supporting me, for making dinner on those late nights (and early nights – and, well, pretty much every night), for listening to the thoughts that ―came to me‖ always too early in the morning; thank you for your love. Likewise, I would like to thank my family – my dad, Bob, my mom, Carol, and my brother, Bobby – for supporting me throughout my entire life, and specifically, for listening to each mini triumph and tragedy that occurred during the process of writing this document.
  • The Syntax–Semantics Interface in Systemic Functional Grammar: Halliday’S Interpretation of the Hjelmslevian Model of Stratification

    The Syntax–Semantics Interface in Systemic Functional Grammar: Halliday’S Interpretation of the Hjelmslevian Model of Stratification

    PREPRINT NOTICE This is a PREPRINT of an article to be published in Journal of Pragmatics. Copyright © Elsevier 2011. For citation, please consult the published version. ↓ P U B L I S H E D Full reference: VERSION Taverniers, Miriam (2011) The syntax–semantics interface in Systemic Functional Grammar: Halliday’s interpretation of the Hjelmslevian model of stratification. Journal of Pragmatics 43(4): 1100–1126. DOI:10.1016/j.pragma.2010.09.003 F U R T H E R http://users.UGent.be/~mtaverni/ INFORMATION & C ONTACT [email protected] The syntax–semantics interface in Systemic Functional Grammar: Halliday’s interpretation of the Hjelmslevian model of stratification Miriam Taverniers (Ghent University) English Department Ghent University Rozier 44 9000 Gent Belgium [email protected] Phone: + 32 9 264 3789 Fax: + 32 9 264 4179 PREPRINT. Taverniers, Miriam (2011) The syntax–semantics interface in Systemic Functional Grammar: Halliday’s interpretation of the Hjelmslevian model of stratification. Journal of Pragmatics 43(4): 1100–1126. Abstract The aim of this article is to explore how exactly the idea of distinguishing different coding levels in language has been theorized in different stages of Hallidayan systemic functional grammar (SFG), focusing on its view of the syntax–semantics interface. This is done by juxtaposing the levels of the Hallidayan model and the various components of Hjelmslev’s model of stratification, on the basis of Halliday’s re-interpretation of Hjelmslev’s theory at various stages in the development of SFG. In this exploration, specific attention is paid to two important theoretical aspects of the design of Hjelmslev’s and Halliday’s models: (1) the different dimensions along which semiotic distinctions are made in the two models, i.e.
  • Lexical Integrity As a Constructional Strategy

    Lexical Integrity As a Constructional Strategy

    View metadata, citation and similar papers at core.ac.uk brought to you by CORE provided by Institutional Research Information System University of Turin LEXICAL INTEGRITY AS A CONSTRUCTIONAL STRATEGY LEXICAL INTEGRITY AS A CONSTRUCTIONAL STRATEGY LIVIO GAETA* 1. INTRODUCTION What is the input of word formation? As basic as this question may appear, a clear answer is still missing. Not only that: Depending on the answer, the very existence of morphology as an autonomous component of language has been challenged. In this sense, the Lexical Integrity Hypothesis (cf. Bresnan and Mchombo 1995) as well as the No Phrase Constraint (cf. Botha 1983) are complementary principles watching over the autonomy of morphology from other components, and specifi cally syntax. Both principles have been strongly criticized and even rejected as empirically inadequate.1 It is not my concern to enter into details here; for the sake of the following discussion, my only interest is to emphasize the ‘spirit’ underlying both of them, namely their watchdog function against any intrusion of syntax into (lexical) morphology. Those who want to deny any autonomy to morphology usually draw attention to two kinds of examples showing that morphology can be directly fed by syntax, and accordingly no kind of lexical integrity can be seriously defended. Therefore, morphology as a theoretical construct is supposed to lack any conceptual density and can be reduced to more general properties of the language faculty (cf. Lieber 1992:21). The fi rst set of examples comes from incorporation, where it can be shown that lexical stuff and syntactic structures are so intertwined that the basic notion of lexical word gives up much of its sense (cf.
  • Approach to Analysing Phraseology and Collocation in ESP Texts

    Approach to Analysing Phraseology and Collocation in ESP Texts

    ASp la revue du GERAS 59 | 2011 Varia The ‘lexicogrammar’ approach to analysing phraseology and collocation in ESP texts Christopher Gledhill Electronic version URL: http://journals.openedition.org/asp/2169 DOI: 10.4000/asp.2169 ISBN: 978-2-8218-0416-6 ISSN: 2108-6354 Publisher Groupe d'étude et de recherche en anglais de spécialité Printed version Date of publication: 1 March 2011 Number of pages: 5-23 ISSN: 1246-8185 Electronic reference Christopher Gledhill, « The ‘lexicogrammar’ approach to analysing phraseology and collocation in ESP texts », ASp [Online], 59 | 2011, Online since 01 March 2014, connection on 10 December 2020. URL : http://journals.openedition.org/asp/2169 ; DOI : https://doi.org/10.4000/asp.2169 This text was automatically generated on 10 December 2020. Tous droits réservés The ‘lexicogrammar’ approach to analysing phraseology and collocation in ESP ... 1 The ‘lexicogrammar’ approach to analysing phraseology and collocation in ESP texts Christopher Gledhill 1. Introduction 1 The aim of this paper1 is to examine the notions of phraseology and collocation in the field of English for Specific Purposes (ESP) and to recast these terms from the point of view of Systemic Functional Linguistics (SFL). Broadly speaking, phraseology involves the study of formulaic sequences of words, including idiomatic phrases and proverbial expressions, which stand in contrast to other more prosaic constructions in the language in that they have a highly conventionalised form and frame of reference. For example, the rhetorical impact of the phrase (to) cut (one’s) losses (cited in sample text T1 in the Appendix) cannot quite be captured by paraphrases such as: accept what one has lost and move on, stop doing something in order not to make a bad situation worse, etc.
  • Beke.Vp:Corelventura

    Beke.Vp:Corelventura

    „Bohemistyka” 2011, nr 3, ISSN 1642–9893 MártonBEKE interesting investigation to see how various theories and scholars have Budapeš influenced each other, sometimes ignoring political borders and cul- tural boundaries and sometimes very much affected by them, in- cluding geopolitical and historical factors, such as, for example, WorldWarII. MigratingScholars Although I mentioned above East and West, in this present paper andIdeasThePragueSchoolandScandinavia1 I intend to concentrate upon the Nordic countries. As we are going to see, the role of the Scandinavian countries was not irrelevant at all in thehistoryofstructuralismanditsimpactuponEuropeandthe US. The Prague Linguistic Circle was founded more than eighty years The first part of my paper is going to focus on the interwar period ago and it has created a system – structuralism – that is still amongst and the years of World War II, while the subject of the second part will the most influential theories in the fields of linguistics, literary theory besomereflectionsofCzechstructuralismin Scandinavia afterwar. and aesthetics. However, this very first sentence already raises several The Prague School has its roots in linguistics, its first representa- questions. Firstly, what is it that we call structuralism? Most of today’s tives and members were primarily linguists, like the above mentioned Western-European or American scholars or students would probably Vilém Mathesius, the first president of the Prague Linguistic Circle, or think of Claude Lévi-Strauss, Roland Barthes, Michel Foucault or Roman Jakobson, Nikolai Trubetzkoy, Josef Vachek and others. maybe Roman Jakobson. It is very likely that only a few of them However, some members of the Circle were also literary theorists and would think of the group of scholars – mostly linguists – that came to- aesthetes like Jan Mukaøovský and René Wellek.
  • The Twilight of Structuralism in Linguistics?*

    The Twilight of Structuralism in Linguistics?*

    Ewa Jędrzejko Univesity of Silesia in Katowice nr 3, 2016 The Twilight of Structuralism in Linguistics?* Key words: structuralism, linguistics, methodological principles, evolution of studies on language I would like to start with some general remarks in order to avoid misunderstandings due to the title of this paper. “The question that our title / has cast in deathless bronze”1 is just a mere trigger, and a signal of reference to animated discussions held in many disci- plines of modern liberal arts: philosophy, literary studies, social sciences, aesthetics, cultural studies (just to mention areas closest to linguistics), concerning their current methodologi- cal state and future perspectives regarding theoretical research. What I mean by that is, among others, the dispute around deconstructionism being in opposition to neo-positivistic stance, as well as some views on the current situation in art expressed in the volume called Zmierzch estetyki – rzekomy czy autentyczny? [The twilight of aesthetics – alleged or true?] (Morawski, 1987),2 or problems signalled by the literary scholars in the tellingly entitled Po strukturalizmie [After structuralism] (Nycz, 1992).3 The statements included in this article are for me one out of many voices in the discus- sion on the changes observed in linguistics in the context of questions about the future of structuralism. Since in a way the situation in contemporary linguistics (including Polish linguistics) is similar. The shift in the scope of interest of linguistics and the way it is presented may
  • Paul Rastall, a Linguistic Philosophy of Language, Lewiston, Queenston

    Paul Rastall, a Linguistic Philosophy of Language, Lewiston, Queenston

    Linguistica ONLINE. Published: July 10, 2009 http://www.phil.muni.cz/linguistica/art/mulder/mul-001.pdf ISSN 1801-5336 PAUL RASTALL: A LINGUISTIC PHILOSOPHY OF LANGUAGE, LAMPETER – LEWISTON, 2000[*] review article by Jan W. F. Mulder (University of St. Andrews, UK) Introductory note by Aleš Bičan In 2006 I happened to have a short e-mail conversation with Jan Mulder. I asked him for off-prints of his articles, as some of them were rather hard to find. He was so generous to send me, by regular post, a huge packet of them. It took me some time to realize that some of the included writings had never been published. One of them was a manuscript (type- script) of a discussion of a book by Paul Rastall, a former student of his, which was pub- lished in 2000 by The Edwin Press. I naturally contacted Paul Rastall and asked him about the article. He was not aware of it but supported my idea of having it published in Linguis- tica ONLINE. He consequently spoke to Mulder who welcomed the idea and granted the permission. The article below is thus published for the first time. It should be noted, how- ever, that Jan Mulder has not seen its final form. The text is reproduced here as it appears in the manuscript. I have only corrected a few typographical errors here and there. The only significant change is the inclusion of a list of references. Mulder refers to a number of works, but bibliographical information is not pro- vided. I have tried to list all that are mentioned in the article.
  • Grammar: a Historical Survey

    Grammar: a Historical Survey

    IOSR Journal Of Humanities And Social Science (IOSR-JHSS) Volume 10, Issue 6 (May. - Jun. 2013), PP 60-62 e-ISSN: 2279-0837, p-ISSN: 2279-0845. www.Iosrjournals.Org Grammar: A Historical Survey Dr Pandey Om Prakash Associate Professor, Dept of English, Gaya College, Gaya (Under Magadha University, Bodh Gaya India) The term grammar has been derived from the Greek word ‘grammatica or grammatika techne’ which means ‘the art of writing’. The Greeks considered grammar to be a branch of philosophy concerned with the art of writing. In the middle ages grammar came to be regarded as a set of rules, usually in the form of text book, dictating correct usage. So in the widest and the traditional sense, grammar came to mean a set of normative and prescriptive rules in order to set up a standard of ‘correct usage’. The earliest reference of any grammar is to be found in 600 B.C.. Panini, in 600 B.C., was a Sanskrit grammarian from Pushkalvati, Gandhara, in modern day Charsadda District of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Pakistan. Panini is known for his formulation of 3959 rules of Sanskrit morphology, syntax, semantics in the grammar known as Ashtadhyayi meaning eight chapters. After Panin observations on Language are found in the records we have of pre-Socratic philosophers, the fifth century rhetoricians, Plato and Aristotle. The sources of knowledge of the pre-Socratic and the early theoraticians are fragmentary. It would be wise therefore to begin with Plato. The earliest extinct document in Greek on the subject of language is Cratylus, one of Plato’s dialogues.