Monograph Series on Languages and Linguistics 19Th Annual
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Monograph Series on Languages and Linguistics Number 21, 1968 edited by James E. Alatis 19th Annual Round Table Contrastive Linguistics and Its Pedagogical Implications Georgetown University School of Languages and Linguistics REPORT OF THE NINETEENTH ANNUAL ROUND TABLE MEETING ON LINGUISTICS AND LANGUAGE STUDIES JAMES E. ALATIS EDITOR GEORGETOWN UNIVERSITY PRESS Washington, D.C. 20007 ©Copyright 1%8 GEORGETOWN UNIVERSITY PRESS SCHOOL OF LANGUAGES AND LINGUISTICS GEORGETOWN UNIVERSITY Library of Congress Catal6g Card Number 58-31607 Lithographed in U.S.A. by EDWARDS BROTHERS, INC. Ann Arbor, Michigan TABLE OF CONTENTS Page Foreword v WELCOMING REMARKS Reverend Frank Fadner, S. J. Regent, School of Languages and Linguistics vii Reverend Francis P. Dinneen, S. J. Acting Dean, School of Languages and Linguistics ix INTRODUCTORY REMARKS 1 FIRST SESSION John Lotz Introductory Remarks 9 Robert P. Stockwell Contrastive Analysis and Lapsed Time 11 William G. Moulton The Use of Models in Contrastive Linguistics 27 H. A. Gleason, Jr. Contrastive Analysis in Discourse Structure 39 Robert J. Di Pietro Contrastive Analysis and the Notions of Deep and Surface Grammar 65 iv / TABLE OF CONTENTS FIRST LUNCHEON ADDRESS A. Bruce Gaarder Education of American Indian Children 83 SECOND SESSION Charles A. Ferguson Contrastive Analysis and Language Development 101 John B. Carroll Contrastive Linguistics and Interference Theory 113 Robert Lado Contrastive Linguistics in a Mentalistic Theory of Language Learning 123 Eric P. Hamp What a Contrastive Grammar Is Not, If It Is 137 THIRD SESSION Wilga M. Rivers Contrastive Linguistics in Textbook and Classroom 151 J. C. Catford Contrastive Analysis and Language Teaching 159 Robert A. Hall, Jr. Contrastive Grammar and Textbook Structure 175 W.R. Lee Thoughts on Contrastive Linguistics in the Context of Language Teaching 185 W. Freeman Twaddell The Durability of 'Contrastive Studies' 195 SECOND LUNCHEON ADDRESS Kenneth W. Mildenberger Confusing Signposts—The Relevance of Applied Linguistics 205 WRITTEN COMMENTS 215 LIST OF REGISTRANTS 219 FOREWORD For the past nineteen years, Georgetown University's annual Round Table meetings have brought together scholars in linguistics and related disciplines to report on their latest research and to discuss current problems. At this year's session, held March fifteenth and sixteenth, 1968, fourteen papers were read. A fif- teenth, that by Professor J. C. Catford of the University of Michigan, was read by title only, because sudden illness had pre- vented him from attending the meeting. The present volume re- presents the proceedings of the 19th Annual Round Table. We are happy to report that Professor Catford has fully recovered and that his paper, which was received within two days of the Round Table, is included in this report. The meeting itself consisted of three panels, each with four speakers, and two luncheon addresses. Like its immediate pre- decessor, the 19th Round Table had one central theme throughout. This year the theme was: Contrastive Linguistics and Its Peda- gogical Implications. After each paper was read, a brief discus- sion period followed. Respondents were asked to speak from the podium and to limit themselves to two minutes. After the discus- sion of the second paper in each session, there was a fifteen- minute intermission. These procedures worked out very well and are recommended for future Round Tables. Unlike previous meetings, the discussions which followed the papers were not recorded and are therefore not included as a part of this volume. Instead, participants at the conference were in- vited to prepare brief, written statements with respect to any of the issues raised. Three such comments have been included at the end of this volume. vi / FOREWORD Thanks are due to several graduate and undergraduate students of the School of Languages and Linguistics for their invaluable voluntary assistance at the 19th'Round Table Meeting: Committee Chairmen: Jurgen Heye, Everette Larson, George Kelly, Martha Millen, Denise Entwistle; Committee Members: Cynthia Cherry, Barbara Hooper, Josephine Overholser, Geoff Garvey, Steve Greenberg, Mary-Louise Kean, Schatzie Sauter, Elana Daniel, Elizabeth Cohen, Vince Connery. Special thanks are due to Louis B. Hillman, whose experience with last year's Round Table made him an invaluable member of the local arrangements committee. It was he who masterfully coordinated the student effort without which the efficient operation of the conference would have been impossible. Mrs. Elizabeth Johansen and Mrs. Marian Higgins of the School of Languages and Linguistics Central Office stood by to help cope with any emergency situations which might arise, and indeed, did have to pitch in and help at several crucial points, each of them working long after regular hours and even on the week-end. But to Mrs. Margarita T. Hodge and Miss Carolyn Burgess belongs the bulk of the credit for the success of the meeting. For their faithful cooperation, careful planning, and painstaking atten- tion to the many details which go into a meeting such as this, I owe a heavy debt of gratitude. Finally, for their invaluable attention to detail in the preparation of this manuscript, I should like to express my warmest thanks to my colleagues, Professors Neil J. Twombly, S. J., and Richard J. O'Brien, S. J. James E. Alatis Editor WELCOMING REMARKS FRANK FADNER, S. J. Regent, School of Languages and Linguistics Georgetown University Ladies and gentlemen, colleagues, participants, and guests at Georgetown University's yearly Round Table meeting on Linguis- tics and Language studies: Some months back, earlier in this school year, your chairman, Dr. Alatis, wrote inviting me 'to continue the tradition', as he put it, 'of opening the meeting with welcoming remarks.' I propose that it is not quite flattering to be taken as the subject of a tradition. For one thing it makes one feel himself a part of antiquity. In the second place the word tradition, historically, has a double meaning; it is connected with an old Latin substantive sig- nifying both traitor and teacher. There is no doubt about it, the annual Round Table Meeting has become a positive teaching tradition at our School—anything but an ignoble betrayal of our exalted profession. For it comes as a source of great gratification, for those of us who still would 'gladly teach', that this nineteenth venture of ours ends up again in the classroom with its attempt to establish a tie- up between contrastive linguistics and pedagogical practice—con- trastive analysis and language teaching. And apparently, we're never too old to learn. In the early years of the last century a certain literary figure named Gnedich, who had spent half his life learning Greek and translating Homer into Russian, made a wager that no one the age of the great Ivan viii / WELCOMING REMARKS Andreevich Kryl6v, Russia's La Fontaine, could learn a new language. His friend took him up on the bet and in 1820, at the age of 50 Krylov brilliantly passed an examination in Greek syntax and literature. Today's language teacher may not have before his nose the stimulating carrot of a cash reward, but he does have the goad to put forth ever greater efforts, afforded by the exponents of ad- vanced applied Linguistics. And so a hearty word of welcome to you is in order. In the name of the President and the Board of Directors of Georgetown University by way of invocation, if you want, I'd ask the Almighty Father of us all—and the source of all our wisdom, to inspire us in these days of thoughtful deliberation. This is the enthusiastic wish of your hosts in these halls. Thank you. WELCOMING REMARKS FRANCIS P. DINNEEN, S. J. Acting Dean, School of Languages and Linguistics Georgetown University I think we will all agree on an occasion like this that words of welcome should be warm and sincere, but brief. Allow me to extend to you a warm and sincere welcome. INTRODUCTORY REMARKS JAMES E. ALATIS Georgetown University I should like to add my word of welcome to those already ex- pressed by Father Fadner and Father Dinneen and to thank all of you for coming. I am extremely grateful for the enthusiastic response to the call for papers and for the kindness with which each of our speakers accepted the rather harsh invitation, replete with deadlines, to come to Georgetown and share with us his thinking on the theme: Contrastive Linguistics and Its Pedagogical Implications. The inspiration for this theme came from John Lotz, at whose prompting I volunteered to chair this conference. This was not the only theme he suggested of course, for, as usual, Dr. Lotz had dozens of ideas; but the theme of contrastive analysis was particularly appealing because of my own previous involvement in this field, largely through my work at the Office of Education. A natural starting point was the Contrastive Structure Series which was begun by the Center for Applied Linguistics under a contract with the Office of Education. Under that contract the Center had undertaken the development of contrastive structure studies of the English language with French, German, Italian, Russian, and Spanish. It was expected that such contrastive studies would provide the basis for more effective classroom practices by systematically revealing those aspects of the target language which needed particular emphasis through carefully con- structed drill. It was expected that they would constitute a major step in bringing the results of modern linguistic science to bear 2 / JAMES E. ALATIS on the teaching of foreign languages. The studies were to include treatment of the phonemic structure of English and the foreign language, basic grammatical categories of English and the foreign language, sentence types and transforma- tions, minor mechanisms, lexical items, and a bibliography. Among those to be engaged in the work were William G.