(一)Prescriptive vs.Descriptive

Don’t say X.

People don’t say X.

The first is a prescriptive command, while the second is a descriptive statement. The distinction lies in prescribing how things ought to be and describing how thing are.

(二)Synchronic vs. Diachronic

Synchronic: A synchronic description takes a fixed instant (usually, but not necessary, the present)as its point of observation. Most grammars are of this kind.

Diachronic: Saussure’s diachronic linguistic is the study of a language through the course of its history.

(三)Langue &Parole

Saussure distinguished the linguistic competence of the speaker and the actual phenomena or data of linguistics as langue and parole. Langue refers to the abstract linguistic system shared by all the members of a speech community, and parole refers to the realization of language in actual use.

(四)Competence ＆Performance

This fundamental distinction is discussed by Chomsky. A language user’s underlying knowledge about the system of rules is called his linguistic competence. And performance refers to the actual use of language in concrete situations.

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