On Tagmemics Theory
-
Upload
jezelle-lapid -
Category
Documents
-
view
112 -
download
3
Transcript of On Tagmemics Theory
LAPID, Jezelle Irish C. Linguistics 1402008-51494 Prof. Viveca Hernandez
The Tagmemics Theory
1. Introduction
This paper is an attempt to look upon some of the advantages and disadvantages of the
Tagmemics Theory, which was proposed by Kenneth L. Pike and greatly contributed by Robert
Longacre and the other linguists. What is probably interesting about this theory is that it was said
that the grammatical structure of a language may conveniently be analyzed and described by
using tagmemes (Elson and Picket, 1962), thus Kissell (2005) referred it to as “The linguistic
theory of everything”.
This paper then is composed of two parts: the (1) analysis which consists of the
background, and the framework discussed along with its advantages and disadvantages; and (2)
conclusion.
2. Analysis
2.1. Tagmemics: Background
2.1.1. Background
It was in 1948 that Kenneth Lee Pike began the search for a syntactical counterpart to the
phonological and morphological terms, phoneme and morpheme--something at the sentence
level which could function as a key identifying unit in the same way that these well-established
terms functioned (Edwards, 1997).
He wanted a theory that was easy to learn and easy to use but complex enough to explain
real language (Randall, 2002). What he was looking for was a high-level generalization that
1
could characterize all human language and which would simplify the training of missionaries and
Bible translators who would encounter previously unstudied and thus grammatically uncharted
languages. The result of Pike's search was the tagmeme and the linguistic system that has come
to be known as tagmemics. But what was most interesting about his search was the fact that what
started as merely a "language theory" soon evolved into a structural theory that attempts to
account for all of man's behavior. Indeed, Pike's seminal work of three volumes is
entitled, Language in Relation to a Unified Theory of the Structure of Human Behavior
(Edwards, 1997).
Pike (1967) introduced this theory in his said book as primarily designed to assist
linguists to efficiently extract coherent descriptions out of corpora of fieldwork data. He
developed this theory while doing field research and teaching linguistics.
The theory is founded upon certain axioms about human behavior and language use that
foreground the situatedness of all communication and the necessity of viewing every act of
discourse as a form-meaning composite inseparable from communicators, their audiences, and
the varied worlds they may construct and inhabit through the use of language (Edwards, 2008).
Robert Longacre (1958, 1960) has made several contributions to the development of the
model, particularly in the area of grammatical studies (Elson and Picket, 1962).
2.2 Tagmemics Framework and its Advantages and Disadvantages
An offshoot of structuralism, tagmemic’s primary concern is with grammatical. It must
be remembered that structuralism ignored functions of a linguistic form and concentrated only on
form. Tagmemics, on the other hand, fuses together the form as well as the
function of a linguistic entity.
2
In his book Grammar Discovery Rules, Longacre (1968) mentioned that “tagmemics
attempts to present linguistic patterns in straightforward and summary fashion. Such patterns
when carefully described for one language may be compared and contrasted with patterns
described for another language. That tagmemics labels linguistic pattern in some fashion is here
an advantage: it is difficult to compare things that do not have bear names. Patterns thus
described and labeled conform to “the first significant attribute of a pattern”.
Pike’s grammatical analyses identified linear or syntactical sequences (the "syntagmatics"
or horizontal dimension) and categories of events (the "paradigmatics" vertical dimension). The
analysis of ordered communication (which includes just about everything people do) would
involve identifying two dimensions of a grid: the syntagmatic sequence of slots or types of
events in the sequence and how they might be positioned in relation to one another; and the
paradigmatic (as in paradigms) array of classes (or objects, subjects, actions or other entities)
that could occur in any given syntagmatic slot. This is also known as "slot-class" analysis (Ross,
2010).
Another of Pike’s main claims was that language is deeply hierarchical, in several ways.
In tagmemics, all three hierarchies, namely, phonological, grammatical and referential, interlock
and operate at the same time, and of course, what could be said of the hierarchy of language
could also be said of the hierarchy of behavior. Pike even expanded it further to include other
fields such as from quantum physics, he borrowed the notion that any event can be seen from the
perspectives of particle (a static view of the unit), wave (a dynamic view), or field (a unit in
relation to other units (Kissell, 2005).
In this approach, there can be a simultaneous analysis on the utterances
at three interpenetrating levels, where each level represents a hierarchy of
3
units. Tagmemics also stresses the hierarchical ordering of grammatical units
into ranks of levels -- morphemes, words, phrases, clauses, sentences,
paragraphs, and discourses. Contrary to the Immediate Constituent where the
analysis of the structaralists insists just on binary cuts, tagmemics always goes
in favor of string constituent analysis, and have many cuts. Tagmemics, unlike a
structural analysis asks for the function of the categories and not merely their
naming (http://jilaniwarsi.tripod.com/tag.pdf).
2.2.1 The Tagmeme Defined
Tagmeme is a grammatical unit, which is a correlation of a grammatical function or slot
with class of mutually substitutable items occurring in that slot (Elson and Picket, 1962). A class
is the list of mutually substitutable morphemes and morpheme sequences which may fill a slot .
Tagmemes are said to be manifested by the member of the class occurring in the slot in a given
act of speech and that they may be parts of constructions at some level in a hierarchy of
constructions. The tagmeme is a functional point at which a set of items or sequences occur. The
correlativity is so intimate that the function cannot exist apart from the series nor has the set
significance apart from the function (Longacre, 1968). There is a distribution on the slot-class
correlation within the grammatical hierarchy of a language (Elson and Picket, 1962).
In the slots, many substitutions are possible which an advantage is since it would be
easier to manifest the member of the class occurring in the slot in a given act of speech, of which
a tagmeme does.
Tagmemics is hierarchical where grammar is structured in terms of level. Also, tagmemes
are conceived as units where they may be parts of constructions at some level in a hierarchy of
constructions. Although morphemes generally follow each other, in some sense, in a linear
4
sequence in speech, in tagmemics, they are sometimes simultaneous, as when two morphemes
are fused into the same phonemic stretch, or when morphemes of tones or stresses occur. A
tagmeme may also be discontinuous (Elson and Picket, 1962) as unlike with structuralism a la
Bloomfield, Harris, etc. but more directly with the basic principles of structuralism going back to
Saussure’s lectures, which the tagmeme on the other hand is the correlated class and slot, by
which is meant paradigmatic and syntagmatic relations a la Saussure, one that can be taken as a
non-generative, taxonomic exercises and a very useful exercise for learning a language and
translation (Rocine, 2001).
A disadvantage however may be seen in the naming of the grammatical finctions where
terms vary from one linguist to another and where traditional terms are used which may not be
suitable on a certain language, since each language is different in its own way. However, Elson
and Pickett (1962) said that the use of traditional terms has useful mnemonic value, and there is
an attempt to use the terms whenever possible. Another possible advantage is that any term can
be used to distinguish a filler class as long as you know at what slots they occur.
One of Pike’s major contributions to linguistic theory is his distinction between emic and
etic viewpoints. Pike coined the terms from the endings of the words, phonemic and phonetic.
The "emic" view is the perspective of the insider, the native, and is concerned with the
contrastive, patterned system within a universe of discourse; the "etic" view of a unit is the
perspective of the outsider who looks for universals and generalizations. The "emic" view is the
view we expect from a participant within a system; the "etic" view is the view we expect of the
alien observer. It is an advantage to learning a language that you not only want to study its
objective form (“etic”) but also to know the interesting thing as to how language functions for
users in real life (“emic”).
5
Tagmeme is described in terms of four features (or “cells”), those are the (a) slot, where
the unit can appear; (b) class, what type of unit it is; (c) role, how the unit functions; and (d)
cohesion, how the unit relates to other units. These very same structures both appear on lower
and higher levels—as sounds form words, words form sentences, and sentences form discourse,
tagmemics is used to describe these larger and larger units. And thus, it is very interesting to
realize that if the emic/etic distinction applies to all levels of language, then perhaps a more
general principle could explain a great many things too (Kissell, 2005).
2.2.2 Tagmemes and Constructions at Various Levels
A tagmeme may be manifested by a morpheme sequence which in turn is analyzable in
terms of tagmemes. Arising in this situation is the significant fact that not all morphemes in a
given sequence are equally related to each other, but cluster into groups which in turn cluster into
larger groups in hierarchical fashion. A morpheme sequence which fills a grammatical slot (thus
manifesting a tagmeme), and which is itself analyzable in terms of constituent tagmemes, is said
to be manifesting a construction. Simply put, a construction is a (potential) string of tagmemes
whose manifesting sequence of morphemes fills a grammatical slot (Elson and Picket, 1962).
Tagmemes and constructions of various types are distinguished as being at different
levels of the grammatical hierarchy.
2.2.2.1 Tagmemes and Constructions at the Clause Level
The definition of the traditional term, clause, is stated in terms of construction rather than
morpheme sequences. It is considered as a ‘predicate-like’ tagmeme, which may not seem like
predicates to the speaker or English. Also, traditional term definitions are sometimes done in
cases when they fill a certain grammatical slot (classification or distribution by, or occurrence in
a slot). The purpose of the general definition is to allow recognition of at least some clauses in
6
any language, but for each language the specific definition may have to be amplified in a way
suited specifically to that language (Elson and Pickett, 1962).
The predicate term used in identifying clause-level tagmemes doesn’t match the
traditional one in English; rather, it is referred only to that part of the clause which is manifested
by verbs or their equivalent. This setup can cause misunderstanding had no proper introduction
about the use of the term has been given. It is important indeed to notify people of the meaning
of the technical and common terms used especially if the use is different from the usual meaning
(Elson and Pickett, 1962).
A method of describing these constructions is by means of formulas. The presentation of
the analysis is done by a formula in the order slot: class, the former being written in capital letter,
the latter in small letters. One good thing about this formula setup is that it creates distinction to
the different levels being described since each formula differs from one level to another. Also,
formulas are easy way to summarize information as it can be quickly read and errors are easily
detected (Elson and Pickett, 1962).
Here, it manifests as well that tagmemics follow a heuristic approach which works
through guess-and-check model. Longacre’s work on “Discovery Procedures: Guess-and-check”
works well for the linguistically modest but spiritually noblest of goals: translating the Bible into
as many language as possible. It might be thought at first that since it is a guess-and-check
model, the conclusions remain guesses. The check method renders a guess as reliable. The
checking is bottom-up (Rocine, 2001). There is an inspection in the forms of the language and
make guesses at the function of each word or group of words which will be illustrated in the
chart the tentative names for the functions and are placed in the forms which fill each slot. Its
7
main target is an analysis of the language (particular language) not on their English translation
but as to how the native speakers perceive the language (Elson and Pickett, 1962).
2.2.2.2 Tagmemes and Constructions at Phrase Level
One problem with clause-level slots is that they are only filled by single words, which are
limited and quite atypical of normal style in most languages in general, for many clause-level
slots are often filled by word combinations. Such combinations are traditionally called as
phrases. A phrase is defined as potentially composed of two or words, always in the definition of
traditional terms. Its distributional feature is “typically, but not always, fill slots on the clause
level”. In addition to this most typical distribution, phrases may be embedded in other phrases.
These instances may cause ambiguity had someone not familiar with it. Distinctions between the
two must be clearly analyzed and remembered so as to avoid confusion (Elson and Pickett,
1962).
A different symbolization in the formula is also done in this level. This change in
symbols is very much a good thing to distinguish one level from the other.
2.2.2.3 Tagmemes and Constructions at the Word Level
The word-level distinction is appropriate only in languages where there are affixes;
unlike in languages where every word is a single morpheme there would be no need to
distinguish this level (Elson and Pickett, 1962).
Tagmemics didn’t abandon the Bloomfieldian definition of the word as a “minimum free
form”. This definition assumes that in every language there are phoneme sequences that the
native speaker will pronounce in isolation and that cannot be broken down further. However,
phonological junctures between these isolable forms are not assumed therein. This word
8
definition is so convenient and that it would be unwise to abandon it, even though there are
problems with its application in many languages (Elson and Pickett, 1962).
The above definition of the word is applicable to every language. But then, not every
language will necessarily have a separate level in the grammatical hierarchy. Word-level
constructions are only applicable to words with more than one morpheme (expandable) (Elson
and Pickett, 1962).
Unlike tagmemes at higher levels, frequently in word-level tagmemes, it is difficult to
separate function (indicated by the slot name) and the class meaning of the fillers for classes of
affixes (and other small classes composed mainly of single morpeheme members) are apt to have
uniform class meaning and function (Elson and Pickett, 1962).
Systems using the same symbol for both slot and class (e.g. t:t and t) have the
disadvantage of giving the appearance of no distinction between slot and class. But then, it is not
easy to find sufficient different symbols to clearly distinguish the two. A possible solution was
carried out in the use of numbers for the classes, modeled after the decade numbering system for
affixes originated by Voegelin which was first used in traditional morphological description. In
this system, each affix is given a decade number and each morpheme within the class is given a
specific number. However, this may also be disadvantageous considering that one must
memorize or better say be very familiar with the numbering system as contrary to making
everything straight to the point (Elson and Pickett, 1962).
2.2.2.4 Tagmemes and Constructions Below the Word Level
The necessity to posit a stem level within the grammatical hierarchy happens only when
sequences of more than one morpheme fill the nuclear slot of word constructions. Although the
term stem is both referred to as either single morphemes (roots, simple stems) or morpheme
9
sequences (derived stems), only the latter relates to situations in which stem constructions
(derived stems) are involved (Elson and Pickett, 1962).
Stem-level constructions may also be composed of a combination of root and affixes.
There are two kinds of affixes namely the derivational affixes, which fill stem-level slots and
inflectional affixes, which fill word-level slots. However, distinction between the two cannot be
simply defined, to apply to all languages, and the difference is not always clear in a given
language. Longacre’s guess-and-check is frequently applied therefore on the basis of simplicity
of description as well as the application of some clues for deciding as to whether an affix is
derivational or inflectional (Elson and Pickett, 1962).
The clues include (a) the external distribution of the resultant form, which cannot always
be sufficient evidence to concluding an affix derivational; (b) affixes occurring with only limited
number of stems may usually be derivational; and (c) affixes whose meaning is not easily
determined often proved to be derivational (Elson and Pickett, 1962).
Cases where satellite (affix) slots in word constructions are less frequently filled by more
than one morpheme than are the nuclear slots are probably best analyzed as manifesting a single
word-level tagmeme and a construction at a lower (affix-cluster) level. The affix-cluster level is
said to be parallel with stem level (Elson and Pickett, 1962).
2.2.2.5 Tagmemes and Constructions at the Sentence Level
Tagmemes and constructions at the clause level is easier to work within the initial stages
of investigation and analysis of an unknown (to the investigator) languages than are sentences.
However, sentences are very much important in the structure of all languages, and higher-leveled
structures (paragraph, discourse, and the like) are probably analyzed in terms of sentences (Elson
and Pickett, 1962).
10
Contrary to Bloomfield and linguists following him who defined a sentence as a “…an
independent linguistic form, not included by virtue of any grammatical construction in larger
linguistic form (1933)”, tagmemics didn’t take that traditional sentence interpretation because it
was not quite adequate for tagmemics since it is conceived that sentences are only one level in a
hierarchy that begins with the smallest morpheme groupings and goes above sentence to include
various kinds of larger structures (Elson and Pickett, 1962).
In tagmemics, Pike expounded Bloomfield’s definition saying that “a sentence is by
definition isolatable in its own right…” and “however, (4) isolatability must be defined
structurally. Here we treat it as the potential of an item for constituting an entire utterance…”
(1960).
One good feature of tagmemics when it comes with the sentence level is the inclusion of
the intonation in its formulas because in many languages sentences will be characterized by
certain junctural and intonational features. However, although some linguists believe, as an
article of faith, that this is true of all languages, there is still no certainty of such. Intonational
morphemes which may be found to accompany segmental morphemes to form sentences must be
looked for by the investigator (Elson and Pickett, 1962).
It was then summarized the factors to be taken into consideration in the sentence
definition: (1) it is a level in the grammatical hierarchy above the clause level and below the
paragraph level; (2) sentences are isolable; and (3) in many languages sentences will include
intonational morphemes and juncture features (Elson and Pickett, 1962).
2.2.2.6 Tagmemes and Constructions in the Paragraph Level
It was already mentioned that Robert Longacre had a big contribution to tagmemics in
general. One of it is on the paragraph level. He did not start with morpheme or phoneme and
11
work on his way up to larger combinations. Instead, he started right in with how clause types fill
functional slots within behavioral/functional genres, i.e. a restricted but high place in the
hierarchy of the language. That may be unsatisfactory to a (linguistic) purist (Rocin, 2001).
The problem with Longacre is with his paragraph types which are not identifiable
morpho-syntactically or by objective linguistic means. One has to read and understand the
paragraphs before one can label them. But then, if we have already read and understood, the
taxonomy has become superfluous. This level is often skipped (Rocine, 2001).
2.2.3 The Grammatical Hierarchy
The grammatical hierarchy has already been mentioned throughout this paper. It is
important to look at it since it is very much important in the study of tagmemics. It is said that in
every language there will be a hierarchical structure within the grammar of the language to
which the term grammatical hierarchy can be applied (Elson and Pickett, 1962). Units at one
level are always built out of the units of the level immediately below it. However, the
grammatical hierarchy, at least in many languages, is not so happily arranged. There are many
instances of skips and loopbacks where units of a higher level are embedded within units of a
lower level, or within units at the same level such as clause within a clause, or sentences filling a
slot on the clause level (Elson and Pickett, 1962).
Definitions of constructions are made to be as general as possible in order to be applied to
most languages. What is a good thing about tagmemics is that it does not limit itself with the
levels mentioned in the preceding sections. It may sometimes be convenient to set up still other
levels to account for all the facts of the grammar of the language.
3. Conclusion
12
Unlike the work of Noam Chomsky and other transformalists, Pike’s work in tagmemic
theory has not, in general, been widely accepted by scholars. Many linguistic theories are
satisfied with structure alone but there are concepts which cannot be fully understand by that
alone. Nevertheless, individual concepts within tagmemics have been adopted and adapted by a
variety of disciplines.
Tagmemics has been referred to by Kissell (2005) as “the linguistics theory of
everything” mainly because it has a remarkably wide range of applications, expecially in but not
limited to, linguistics.
Austin Hale confesses that "it is at present quite possible to be a tagmemicist in good
standing without subscribing to any particular doctrine regarding the form of grammar. To one
who received a good portion of his linguistic upbringing within the tradition of transformational
generative grammar, this realization comes as a shock and a revelation." Though popularly
categorized as a ''slot- grammar," Pike's peculiar insights into the nature of language and
behavior are compatible with and not in opposition to the insights of other schemes and systems.
In his book Language in Relaton to a Unified Theory of the Structure of Human
Behaviour, Pike claimed that the same kinds of structures, rules and procedures found in
phonology apply not only to grammar and discourse, but in fact to all of human behavior
(Kissell, 2005).
Most linguists seemed to feel that as a descriptive model, tagmemics was not as rigorous
or objective as other models, so it didn’t lend itself well to serious scientific inquiry. But as
according to Pike, looking at a language as an objective formal system was missing the point;
behavior that is fundamentally subjective can only be understood and described meaningfully if
the observer allows context to play a role at every level.
13
In general, tagmemics is very useful and applicable in a number of different areas, not
just linguistics. It can be applied to rhetoric, poetry, science fiction, and philosophy, among other
fields. Others have taken it further, using tagmemics as a model for learning the programming
language Perl. Although it never did (and never will) meet the day-to-day needs of most
linguists, the theory has managed to maintain a small but loyal following among researchers of
various fields. Tagmemics is in fact a good way of thinking about what it means to be human as
its key insights—that context is essential, behavior involves overlapping hierarchies, and
viewpoint affects one’s data analysis—turn out to be surprisingly effective for understanding
many kinds of phenoma despite some problems that occur with it (Kissell, 2005).
14
References
Longacre, Robert. (1968). Grammar discovery procedures: A field manual. The Hague, The
Netherlands: Mouton & Co., Publishers.
Platt, John. (1971). In S.C Dik and J.G. Kooij, eds., Grammatical Form and Grammatical
Meaning: A Tagmemic view of Fillmore’s Deep Structure Case concepts. Amsterdam:
North-Holland Publishing Company.
Elson, B. & Pickett, V. (1962). An introduction to morphology and syntax. California: Summer
Institute of Linguistics.
Edwards, B. (2000). The Development of Kenneth L. Pike’s Tagmemic Theory. The Tagmemics
contribution to composition teaching. Retrieved on February 8, 2010
http://personal.bgsu.edu/~edwards/tag3.html
______________. (N/A). Paper 6 (Descriptive linguistics) tagmemics. Retrieved on March 30,
2010 from http://jilaniwarsi.tripod.com/tag.pdf
Edwards, B. (2000). The Place and Promise of Tagmemic Theory in Composition. The
Tagmemics contribution to composition teaching. Retrieved on February 8, 2010
http://personal.bgsu.edu/~edwards/tag3.html
Edwards, B. (2000). Tagmemics discourse theory. Retrieved on February 8, 2010 from Bowling
Green State University Website: http://personal.bgsu.edu/~edwards/tags.html
Kissell, J. (2005). Tagmemics: The linguistic theory of everything. Retrieved on February 8, 2010
from http://www.ziki.com/en/joekissell+20896/post/tagmemics-the-linguistic-theory-of-
everything+9697624
Ross, M. (2010). Tagmeme. Retrived on March 30, 2010 from https://tagmeme.com/?page_id=2
Rocine, B. (2001). Tagmemics, definition for criticism. Retrieved on March 15, 2010 from
http://lists.ibiblio.org/pipermail/b-hebrew/2001-January/009415.html
15