Introduction

Structuralism appeared in the20th century on the two sides of the Atlantic. European
structuralism appeared thanks to the work of the Swiss scholar Ferdinand de Saussure while
American structuralism developed due to some linguists: Franz Boas, Edward Sapir and
mainly Bloomfield.
1/ The Emergence of American Structuralism
American

Structuralism

appeared

from

strong

tendency

of

American

anthropologists whose main interest was to study American Indian languages and cultures
before their disappearance (Crystal, 1997). There are three main important figures responsible
for the emergence of American structuralism: Franz boas,(1858-1942), Edward Sapir (18841939) and Leonard Bloomfield (1987-1949).
In fact, Boas and Sapir maintained that languages should be described on their own.
They study languages from anthropological and psychological orientations believing that
there is a connection between languages and the way of life and thought of its speakers.
Bloomfield, however, tried to study language scientifically. He opposed the mentalist
orientation of Sapir and Boas. He took a lot of from Sapirs ideas and developed American
structuralism.
2/ Bloomfield
Bloomfield was born on April 1st, 1887 at Chicago USA and died on April 18th, 1949
at Haven. He was educated at Harvard University and the universities of Wisconsin and
Chicago. From 1909 to 1927, Bloomfield was a teacher at various universities. Yet He
became a professor of Germanic philology at the university of Chicago and professor of
linguistics at Yale University (1940-1949).
At first, he was concerned with the details of Indo-European speech sounds and word
formation. In 1917, he started studying Austronesian languages. In the early 1920s,
Bloomfield began on classic work on North American Indian languages.

According to Bloomfield, the morpheme is the smallest unit which distinguishes

meaning and

it should be defined as the role it plays in the structure of speech form ( he

studied the morphemes in combination with other units).

3/ Immediate Constituent Analysis
3.1.What is ICA
It is an approach based on dividing a sentence up into its immediate constituents (by
using binary cutting) until obtaining its ultimate constituents (.). This technique is
used to show the relationship of the main parts of a sentence to each other (Schmidt and
Richards,1992).

Immediate constituents = it is the first divisions or cuts of a sentence or smaller construction

(they are the two major constituents which come immediately after the splitting of the
sentence.
Constituent= a linguistic unit, (usually in sentence analysis) which is part of larger
construction (Schmidt and Richards, 1992 ).
Linguistic form= speech form +meaning.
Ultimate constituents=the smallest constituents (forms and words) that cant be rather divided.
The common element= is a linguistic form which is common in two or more linguistic forms.

e.g.,

Poor John ran away

poor John

poor

John

ran away
ran

immediate constituents
away ultimate constituents

So a sentence is not seen as a sequence of elements=poor+john+ran+away but as made up of

layers of constituents
3.2.Assumptions of the approach
1. The biggest linguistic unit or construction is sentence.
2

2. A sentence is constructed by phrases, and thus, can be analyzed into phrases.

3. A phrase is constructed by words, and thus, can be analyzed into words.
Examples

Syntax excites me
Syntax

excites me
excites

me

The dog ate the bone

The dog
The

dog

ate the bone

ate the bone
the

bone

3.3.Advantages and disadvantages of ICA

3.3.1. Advantages of the ICA
ICA has some advantages:
1-We can know how the small sentences could be expanded following certain procedures
Indeed, ICA is basic to syntax and is one of the

means whereby native speakers form and

understand larger sentences.

2- ICA is not disturbed by word order. It can sort out the relationship found in sentences
composed of the same words but which are different in word order.
1.

The boy played marbles on his knees.

2.

The boy on his knees played marbles.

3.

On his knees the boy played marbles.

3.3.2.Disadvantages of ICA
3

The ICA is weak because:

1/It deals only with simple sentences. It cant analyse complex sentences.
2/It cannot show the relationship between sentences (active and passive) because it gives only
one description at a time
3/ It cant show ambiguity in sentences
e.g., I met the girl with flowers (has two meanings)
but cant analysed twice with ICA.
4/ it cant deal with binary cuttings
e.g., I like fish, chips and rice