语言学考试要点(考试重点整理)

Chapter 1 Introduction

1.What is linguistics? Linguistics is generally defined as the scientific study of language.

2.The scope of linguistics:

(1 ). phonetics 语音学；phonology 音位学；morphology 形态学；syntax 句法学；

pragmatics 语用学

(2). sociolinguistics 社会语言学；

psycholinguistics 心理语言学；

applied linguistics应用语言学

3.Some important distinction in linguistics (1)Descriptive vs. prescriptive 描述性与规定性

①I f a linguistics study aims to describe and analyze the language people actually use, it is said to be descriptive;

②I f the linguistics study aims to lay down rules for”correct and standard”behavior in using language, i.e. to tell people what they should say and what they should not say, it is said to be

prescriptive.

(2)Synchronic vs. diachronic 共时性与历时性

①A synchronic description takes a

fixed instant (usually, but not

necessarily, the present) as its

point of observation. Most

grammars are of this kind.

②Diachronic linguistics is the study of a language through the course of its history.

(2)Langue & parole 语言与会话

①Language refers to the abstract

linguistic system shared by all the members of a speech community.

②Parole refers to the realization of

language in actual use.

(4)Competence and performance 语言能力与语言运用

①A language user's unconscious

knowledge about the system of

rules is called his linguistic

competence.

②Performance refers to the actual use of language in concrete situations.

(5)speech and writing 语言与文字

Speech and writing are the two major media of communication.

(6)traditional grammar and modern linguistic 传统语法与现代语言学

4.Definition of language:

Language is a system of arbitrary vocal symbols used for human communication.

Language is a system, i.e., elements of language are combined according to rules.

Language is arbitrary in the sense that there is no intrinsic connection between a linguistics symbol and what the symbol stands.

Language is vocal because the primary medium for all languages is sound.

The term “human” in the definition is meant to specify that language is

human-specific.

5.Design features of language

6.(1) Arbitrariness 任意性refers to the forms of linguistic signs bear no natural relationship to their meaning. (sounds and meanings)

(2) Productivity(creativity)能产性Language is productive in that it makes possible the construction and interpretation of new signals by its users.

(3) duality双重性 The property of having two levels of structures, such that units of the primary level are composed of elements of the secondary level and each of the two levels has its own principles of organization.

(4) displacement移位性 Human Languages enable their users to symbolize objects, events and concepts which are not present (in time and space) at moment of communication.

(5)cultural transmission 文化传承性

7.Functions of language

(1) referential (to convey message and information),

(2) poetic (to indulge in language for its own sake),

(3) emotive (to express attitudes, feelings and emotions),

(4) conative (to persuade and influence others through commands and requests), (5) phatic (to establish communion with others)

(6) metalingual (to clear up intentions and meanings).

①Informative(信息功能): to give information about facts. (ideational)

②Interpersonal(人际功能): to establish and maintain social status in a society.(age, sex, language, background, accent, status)

③ Performative(施为功能) : language is used to do things, to perform certain actions. (name, promise, apologize, sorry, declare)

④. Emotive/Expressive (情感功能): to express feelings and attitudes of the speaker.

⑤Phatic communion(寒暄交流) : to use small and meaningless expressions to establish a comfortable relationship or maintain social contact between people without any factual content. (health, weather)

⑥ Recreational function(娱乐): the use of language for sheer joy. (lyrics, poetry)

⑦Metalingual function(元语言功能): to talk about language itself.

Chapter 2 Phonology

1.P honetics（语音学） is the study of the phonic medium of language; it is concerned with all the sounds that occur in the world’s languages.Phonetics studies how speech sounds are produced, transmitted, and perceived.

2.O rthographic representation of speech sounds ：

broad transcription（宽式标音）and narrow transcription（严式标音）

A broad transcription（宽式标音）is the transcription with letter-symbols only.

A narrow transcription（严式标音） is a transcription with letter symbols together with diacritics.

3.P honology（音位学）is the study of the sound patterns and sound systems of languages.

4.T he differences between phonetics and phonology:（语音的正字表征）

①Both are concerned with the same aspect of language----the speech sounds. But

they differ in their approach and focus.

②Phonetics is of general nature; it is interested in all the speech sounds used in all human languages; it aims to answer questions like: how they are produced, how they differ from each other, what phonetic features they have, how they can be classified, etc.③Phonology aims to discover how speech sounds in a language form patterns and how these sounds are used to convey meaning in linguistic communication.

5.P hone（音素）, phoneme（音位）, allophone （音位变体）

A phone---- a phonetic unit or segment. The speech sounds we hear and produce during linguistic communication are all phones.

A phoneme---- is a phonological unit; it is a unit of distinctive value; an abstract unit, not a particular sound, but it is represented by a certain phone in

certain phonetic context

6.P honemic contrast, complementary distribution and minimal pair.（音位对立，互补分布，最小对立体）

7.S ome rules of phonology（音位学规则）Sequential rules 序列规则Assimilation rule 同化规则Deletion rule省略规则

8.S uprasegmental features （超音段特征）：stress重音，tone音调，intonation语调9.

10.

Chapter 3 Morphology

1.C lassification of words

（1）Variable vs. invariable words:可变词类和不可变词类

Variable words: One could find ordered and regular series of grammatically different word forms; on the other hand, part of the word remains constant follow, follows, following, followed; mat, mats

Invariable words: those words such as

since, when, seldom, through, hello. They

do not have inflective endings.

（2） Grammatical words vs. lexical words:

语法词类和词汇词类

Grammatical words: express grammatical meanings, such as conjunctions, prepositions, articles, pronouns

Lexical words: have lexical meanings, those which refer to substance, action and quality, such as nouns, verbs, adjectives,

and adverbs.

（3）Closed-class words vs. open-class words:封闭词类和开放词类

Closed-class: a word whose membership

is fixed or limited. New members are not regularly added. Pronouns, prepositions, conjunctions, articles, etc.

Open-class: A word whose membership is

in principle infinite or unlimited. Nouns, verbs, adjectives, adverbs

Grammatical---lexical words

closed-class---open-class words

2.M orphere(词素)： the minimal meaningful unit of language.

3.L inguistics use the term morphology to refer the part of the grammar that is concerned with word formation and word structure.

4.F ree morpheme & bound morpheme(自由语素和黏着语素)

A morpheme which can be a word by itself is called a free morpheme; a morpheme that must be attached to another one is a bound morpheme.

5.T he variant forms of a morpheme are called its allomorphs.(词素变体)

6.I nflectional affix & derivational affix(屈折词缀和派生词缀)

7.C ompound: those words that consist of more than one free morphemes, the way to join two separate words to produce a single form.In compounds, the lexical morphemes can be of different word classes.

8.C ompounds can be further divided into two kinds:

the endocentric compound (向心复合词) the exocentric compound(离心复合词)

9.E ndocentric: one element serves as the head, the relationship of “a kind of”;

eg self-control: a kind of control armchair: a kind of chair

10.Exocentric: there is no head, so not a

rela tionship of “a kind of something”,

eg scarecrow: not a kind of crow breakneck: not a kind of neck

11.

Chapter 4 Syntax

1.W hat is Syntax （句法）?

Syntax is the study of the rules governing

the ways different constituents are combined to form sentences. 句法就是研究

语言的不同成分组成句子的规则

2.S yntactic relations can be analyzed into three kinds:

relations of position 位置关系

relations of substitutability 替代关系relations of co-occurrence 同现关系

Chapter 5 Semantics

1. What is Semantics?

Semantics is the study of the meaning of words, phrases and sentences.语义学是研究单词、短语和句子的意义的学科

2.The conceptualist view

①T he conceptualist view holds that there is no direct link between a linguistic form and what it refers to (i.e. between language and the real world); rather, in the interpretation of meaning they are linked through the mediation of concepts in the mind.

②T his is illustrated by the classic semantic triangle or triangle of significance suggested by Ogden and Richard.

Thought/reference/concept

Symbol/form referencent

word/phrase/sentence

③The symbol or form refers to the linguistic elements (words and phrases);The referent refers to the object in the world of experience;

Thought or reference refers to

concept.

The symbol or a word signifies things

by virtue of the concept associated

with the form of the word in the minds

of the speaker; and the concept

looked at from this point of view is the

meaning of the word.

3.The contextualism

Meaning should be studied in terms of

situation, use, context—elements closely linked with language behavior.

Two types of contexts are recognized: Situational context: spatiotemporal situation

Linguistic context: the probability of

a word’s co-occurrence or collocation.

4.Behaviorism

Behaviorists attempted to define meaning as “the situation in which the speaker utters it and the response it calls forth in the hearer”.

5.Lexical meaning

Sense and reference are both concerned with the study of word meaning. They are two related but different aspects of meaning.

Sense---- is concerned with the inherent meaning of the linguistic form. It is the collection of all the features of the linguistic form; it is abstract and de-contextualized. It is the aspect of

meaning dictionary compilers are interested in.

Reference----what a linguistic form refers to in the real, physical world; it deals with the relationship between the linguistic element and the non-linguistic world of experience. 6.Major sense relations

（1）Synonymy 同义词

①D ialect synonymy 方言同义词

②S tylistic synonymy 文体同义词

③S ynonyms that differ in their emotive or evaluative meaning

④C ollocational synonyms

⑤S emantically different synonyms

（2）Antonym 反义词

①G radable antonyms 等级反义词

②C omplementary antonyms 互补反义词

③R elational opposites 关系反义词

（3）Polysemy 一词多义

（4）Homonymy 同形异义词

（5）Hyponymy 上下义关系

①S uperordinate 上义词

②H yponyms下义词

https://www.360docs.net/doc/109326367.html,ponential analysis 成分分析法——a way of analyze lexical meaning

It is a way proposed by the structural semanticists to analyze word meaning.The approach is based on the belief that the meaning of a word can be dissected into meaning components, called semantic features.