The brief analysis and application of syntagmatic and paradigmatic relations in second language acquisition

【Abstract】Syntagmatic and paradigmatic relations are two types of sense relations， that is， semantic relation between units of meaning. According to Saussure， they refer to two different forms of mental activity， which potentially help second language learners pick up their language in many ways.

【Key words】Syntagmatic relations； paradigmatic relations； second language learners

【作者簡介】關(guān)薇（1991.8-），女，陜西西安人，碩士，助教，陜西中醫(yī)藥大學(xué)外語學(xué)院大學(xué)英語教研室，研究方向：英語教學(xué)及英語語言學(xué)。

Cruse （2000） demonstrated that syntagmatic relations， left-to-right textual relations， held between linguistic items that ‘occur in the same sentence’. The relations refer to possibilities of word combination. They correspond to different words forming an intelligible sequence； in other words， the symbols are used according to sequentiality. Syntagmatic relations also can be seen as a liner or chain relations showing that a linguistic unit must follow the other particular units subsequently. To be specific， when making a sentence， we arrange individual linguistic units based on a certain order. And a well-formed sentence can be regarded as a ‘string of elements’. The different sequence will lead to totally different meaning or unacceptable combinations.

As for paradigmatic relations， McCarthy （1990） defined the relations between varied vocabularies that might possible are chosen on a ‘vertical’ axis. Specifically， the relations reflect the how to choose each word from a great number of feasible words. The paradigmatic relations， also called associative relations， are the substitutable relations holding among symbols at a particular position in a structure. Cruse （2000） explained that paradigmatic relations show the semantic choices being available at a special structure. In a sentence， the same parts can be potentially replaced with other elements in the same position. They are a paradigm or the organized sets in the world which are related or similar. The words or language items used in paradigmatic relations are usually belong to the same syntactic category.

Syntagmatic relations could be seen as horizontal relationship. However， paradigmatic relations can be visualized vertically. For example， in the context， ____ is crying. The subject could be different person such as she， the baby， the little boy， the spokesman， or the president. Similarly， I want to explain this ____. The object may book， instrument， concept， rule， map and so on. Those words in two examples can be alternative in the same position with the identical grammatical function. In above sentences， paradigmatic relations involve functional contrasts but they will not influence the syntax of the sentence.In contrast， the words in syntagmatic relations are constrained by other words because the different linguistic forms will cause semantic incoherence. For instance， the two sentences A. ‘Mother looked after her daughter.’ B. ‘Daughter looked after her mother.’ use the same words with different order. What they want to express is totally different. So the syntagmatic relations have strict restrictions， and learners should pay attention to grammar rules， spelling， order.

Syntagmatic relations concern positioning and paradigmatic relations deal with substation. They both are indispensable in the practice of teaching and learning vocabulary. It is known that a new language point associates with the other acquired language points leading to acquisition. The syntagmatic and paradigmatic relations will serve to the stable and strong associations.

Paradigmatic relations are open system so it is easy and natural for teacher to enrich learners’ vocabulary. The relations contain different sets of lexical items in terms of relevant semantic category. When students learn vocabulary， paradigmatic relations help learners expose to a lot of substitutable vocabularies that belong to the same part of speech. It is possible that teacher encourages students to categorize not only acquired but also new vocabularies consciously. For instance， the place I used to live is a ____ place. Teachers are able to provide them with a large number of adjectives to complete the sentence such as beautiful， famous， superb， fabulous， fascinating and so on. An efficient exercise is that teacher elicits and lists new language items from reading materials， dictionary or learners’ speech based on paradigmatic patterns. The adjectives that can describe a place will add into the their mental lexicon constantly. As a result， in learning progress， they are likely to construct well-organized associative networks according to diverse word classes. The students could process ambiguity of words successfully through that networks.

What’s more， pragmatic relations are hierarchical such as flower including lily， rose， carnation， peony， tulip and furniture including sofa， wardrobe， desk， bed， and dresser. Curse （2000） articulated a superordinate word has numerous hyponyms. To be specific， in the conceptual area of flower there are more specific words. The hyponymy relations of above examples are likely to help students store the new items in a paradigmatic relationship so as to enlarging their vocabulary. This kind of relation promotes effective and logical word expansion and retrieval of lexis.

On the other hand， when learning vocabularies， students need to focus on the words that usually stick together forming a complete meaning. Syntagmatic relations inspire teacher to teach the high frequency words to be found to occur together. Obviously， learning collocations and multi-words units are useful ways to increase syntagmatic association. These words in the context can not be separated functionally. The multi-words units such as ‘see you tomorrow’， provide students with specific context， which would contribute to students’ understanding and memory. Teaching fixed collocations or typical patterns， to large extent， make students improve their abnormal expressions because they are possible to remember the natural productions. While teacher illustrates new words that used together frequently， he can clarify the synonyms or antonyms of collocation or lexical chains so that the students could understand deeply and memorize the syntagmatic relations integrally. In order to make full use of syntagmatic relations， helpful teaching method may giving a part of collocations or lexical chains then stimulating second language learners to recall the rest part or associate possible collocations.

Gairns and Redman （1986） pointed out using authentic reading texts as materials has the great advantage of contextualizing the linguistic units. The reason is that some vocabularies typically co-occur in specific context. Teacher could easily elicit new multi-words units from text. Therefore， learners can use syntagmatic patterns connecting to productive vocabulary use. Also， an interesting text makes lexis more memorable. Students who focus on second language learning words combinations with positive and active emotions would accelerate the new items sticking to mental lexicon.

References：

[1]Cruse，A.Meaning in Language[M].Oxford：Oxford University Press，2000.

[2]Gairns，R and Redman，S.Working with words.A Guide to teaching and learning vocabulary[M].Cambridge：Cambridge University Press， 1986.

[3]McCarthy， M.Vocabulary[M].Oxford：Oxford University Press， 1990.

[4]Saussure，F(xiàn).D.Course in General Linguistics[J].London：Duckworth， 1983.