Synchronic linguistics


In the 20th century several linguistic movements operated. They were historicism, structuralism,
functionalism, generativism and others. Lets mention at least the most important ones. The
following extracts have been taken from BUSSMANN, H.: Routledge Dictionary of Language and
Linguistics. Routledge 2004


Structuralism:

It builds its theories on the idea that „the language is a set of signs“. The signs are then
organized in structures.



Functionalism:

It is based on the idea that the form in any language follows the function not vice
versa.



 Generativism:

It studies the human ability to create (generate) sentences and understand
them.