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1. Linguistic paradigms.

The constituents (a) the problem, (b) the hypothesis, (c) the verification of this hypothesis, which involves the particular data and the methods applied in the analysis of these data; (d) the objective related to the hypothesis; (e) the obtained results.

Provided the hypothesis is not confirmed in the analysis of data, this hypothesis may be changed, which causes the change of a scholarly paradigm. change of a scholarly paradigm may be also accounted for by the change of the problemю. It is the change of the problem that resulted in the emergence of different linguistic paradigms. The basic question which linguistics attempts to answer is “What is language?” Historical Linguistics (the 19^th century), Structural Linguistics (the first half of the 20^th century), Generative Linguistics (formed in the 50s of the 20^th century), and Functional Linguistics whose branches are Cognitive Linguistics and Communicative Linguistics (formed in the last decades of the 20^th century).

2. Нistorical linguistics

Problem. “Why do different languages have structural similarities?

Hypothesis. common source, or ancestor.

Objective. The linguistic analysis had to reveal this hypothetical ancestor – a proto-language that gradually disintegrated into various kindred languages.

Data. The analyzed data were represented by languages whose similar forms and meanings suggest kinship.

Method. - historical-comparative method.

Result. The historical studies of language resulted in: (i) historical grammars of particular languages; (ii) historical-comparative grammars of two or more languages; (iii) the genealogical classification of languages; (iv) exposure of “regular changes” in the historical development of languages. The regular changes were revealed by the German linguistic school called “The Young Grammarians”.

Genetic, areal and typological factors are the three main causes behind these shared features. Genetic similarities- We need to look for systematic correspondences between the languages.

Building a family tree- we have to form a hypothesis as to exactly how the lang are linked. If we find three related or ‘cognate' languages, say German, English and French, then we have to decide whether they should form three sepa­rate branches from the parent, or whether (as is in fact the case) two of them diverged from one another at a later stage ; When we have set up a family tree, we can begin to reconstruct. As we gradually build up a picture of the proto-language, we need in addition to check whether, in the light of our knowledge of languages in general, we have reconstructed a possible proto-language. Unreliability of reconstructions 1) there are always enormous gaps in the evidence available. In the reconstruction of Proto-Indo-European, linguists rely overmuch on Greek, Latin and Sanskrit because of the extensive written records which have survived. 2) Second, it is not always possi­ble to deduce the actual pronunciation from written texts3) Every language has dialectal variations within it, so reconstructions are likely to be hotch-potch forms made up from several dialects.