Effects of Linguistics on Written Composition N

Naomi S. Baron (1981) has commented that since the birth of nineteenth century comparative philology, the position of writing in linguistic analysis has tended to be tenuous at best. Most of the classical linguists made the primacy of speech in linguistic analysis overt and the discipline has tended to restrict its inquiry to spoken language. Written materials have been introduced into analysis only where necessary for diachronic study. Over time, however, says Baron (1981), many linguists have come to the conclusion that spoken, written, and sign languages should be seen as different linguistic means or modes of representing human experiences which people find it necessary to convey to one another. Baron (1981, p. 72) quotes Sapir in defining language as "a purely human and non-instinctive method of communicating ideas, emotions, and desires by means of a system of voluntarily produced symbols." As both a formal system and an informal one, language is as productive in the written as in the vocal mode. This report will examine the literature that describes the effects of linguistics on written composition, demonstrating that written composition is as significant a manifestation of language as is speech.

Baron (1981) considers writing to be a durable linguistic visual representation of experience. It is differentiated from speech, also linguistic, but highly ephemeral and capable of auditory representation. Thus, the

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rst language interference is assumed synonymity where the learner tends to assume that a lexical term in English (or any other second language) has the same reference, connotation, and register as its translation equivalent in the first language. In colocational errors, first language interference is observed when the learner assumes that the English or second language word colocates in the same manner as its translation equivalent in the first language. These findings suggest that in second language classrooms, equal attention should be given to writing as well as mastery of spoken language conventions. Raskin and Weiser (1987) provided a serious attempt to apply the theories of linguistics to the teaching of rhetoric and composition in the classroom. They consider communication to be impacted by both "print code" and "non-print code." In other words, those linguistic competencies which are critical in writing are somewhat different than the linguistic competencies necessary for effective speech. The authors believe that linguistics can help understand problems and errors related to diction, agreement, spelling, dangling modifiers, fragments, sentence structure, syntactic variation and clarity, conciseness, grammatic
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Some common words found in the essay are:
Nevertheless Chomsky, Specifically Kirk, Learners EFL, Raskin Weiser, Naomi Baron, Connor Kaplan, Nominalization Ellis, Arabic-speaking English, English Linguistics, Language Teaching, written composition, written discourse, written language, baron 1981, spoken language, cleft constructions, speech writing, chomsky 1975, written communication, ellis 1992, written spoken discourse, linguistics written composition, international review applied, subordinate clauses english, connor kaplan 1986,
Approximate Word count = 3160
Approximate Pages = 13 (250 words per page)

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