最新英语语言学知识整理

Chapter 1 Introduction

语言学的定义：

Linguistics is generally defined as the scientific study of language.

问题：How do you interpret the following definition of linguistics: Linguistics is the scientific study of language?

→It is a scientific study because it is based on the systematic investigation of linguistic data, conducted with reference to some general theory of language structure.

What the linguist has to do “first, then, but”:

①to observe and collect language facts and generalizations are made about them.

②to formulate some hypotheses about the language structure.

③to check the hypotheses thus formed repeatedly against the observed facts to fully prove their validity.

The study of language as a whole is often called general linguistics. (普通语言学)

问题: What are the major branches of linguistics? What does each of them study?

→phonetics（语音学）→the study of sounds

→phonology（音位学）→study how sounds are put together and used to convey meaning

→morphology（形态学）→study the way in which symbols or morphemes are arranged and combined to form words.

→syntax（句法学）→the study of rules of forming sentences

→semantics（语义学）→the study of meaning

→pragmatics（语用学）→the context of language use

Sociolinguistics（社会语言学）：The studies of all these social aspects of language and its relation with society form the core of the branch.

Psycholinguistics（语言心理学）：Relate the study of language to psychology Applied linguistics（应用语言学）：In a narrow sense it refers to the application of linguistic theories and principles to language teaching, especially the teaching of foreign and second languages.

Some important distinctions in linguistics:

①prescriptive（规定性）/descriptive（描写性）

②synchronic（共时）/diachronic（历时）

③speech（口语）/writing（书面语）

④langue（语言）/parole（言语）（the Swiss linguist F. de Saussure——Course in General Linguistics）

⑤competence（语言能力）/performance（语言应用）（the American linguist N. Chomsky）

⑥traditional grammar （传统语法）/modern linguistics（现代语言学）

问题：in what basic ways does modern linguistics differ from traditional grammar?

①linguistics is descriptive while traditional grammar is prescriptive.

②modern linguistics regards the spoken language as primary, not the written.

③modern linguistics does not force languages into a Latin-based framework.

问题：Is modern linguistics mainly synchronic or diachronic? Why?

In modern linguistics, a synchronic (不考虑历史演进的, 限于一时的) approach seems to enjoy priority over a diachronic (探求现象变化的, 历时的) one.

Because it is believed that unless the various states of a language in different historical periods are successfully studied, it would be difficult to describe the changes that have taken place in its historical development.

Synchronic descriptions are often thought of as being descriptions of language in its current existence, and most linguistic studies are of this type.

问题：For what reasons does modern linguistics give priority to speech rather than to writing?

From the point of view of linguistic evolution, speech is prior to writing. The writing system of any language is always “invented” by its users to record speech when the need arises. Even in today’s world there are still many languages that can only be spoken but not written. Then in everyday communication, speech plays a greater role than writing in terms of the amount of information conveyed.

Spoken language reveals more true features of human speech while written language is only the “revised”record of speech. And linguists’data for investigation and analysis are mostly drawn from everyday speech, which they regarded as authentic.

语言的定义：

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

Design features of language（7个识别特征）

①arbitrariness 任意性（at the syntactic level）

②productivity 能产性，创造性

Secondary units（底层结构sounds）

③duality 双层性

Primary units （上层结构units of meaning）

④displacement 不受时空限制性（handle generalization and abstraction）

⑤cultural transmission 文化传递性

⑥interchangeability 互换性

⑦convention 约定性

Functions of language：

三大主要功能：

The descriptive function

The expressive function

The social function

Roman Jacobson（6种首要因素，结构主义语言学家）

①speaker addresser→emotive 感情功能

②addressee→conative 意动功能

③context→referential所指功能

④message→poetic 诗学功能

⑤contact→phatic communion交感功能

⑥code→metalinguistic 元语言功能

Other functions:

①phatic function 问候功能

②informative f. 信息功能

③interrogative f. 询问功能

④expressive f. 表达功能

⑤evocative f. 感染功能

⑥directive f. 指令功能

⑦performative f. 行使（权力）功能

M.A.K. Halliday

①ideational

②interpersonal（indicate/establish/maintain/social relationships）

③textual

问题：

How is Saussure’s distinction between langue and parole similar to Chomsky’s distinction between competence and performance?

The distinction between langue and parole was made by Saussure, langue is abstract; it is not the language people actually use. Parole is concrete; it refers to the naturally occurring language events. Langue is relatively stable; it does not change frequently, while parole varies from people to people, and from situation to situation.

The distinction between competence and performance proposed by the American linguists Chomsky, competence is a deal user’s knowledge of the rules of his language, and the performance is the actual realization of this knowledge in linguistic communication. Imperfect performance is caused by social and psychological factors. Saussure makes this distinction in order to single out one aspect of language for serious study. In his opinion, parole is simple a mass of linguistic facts, too varied confusing for systematic investigation, and that linguistics should do is to abstract langue from parole, i.e., to discover the regularities governing the actual use of language and make them the subjects of study of linguistics.

Similar to Saussure, Chomsky thinks what linguists should study is the ideal speaker’s competence, not his performance, which is too haphazard to be studied.

问题：

What are the main features of human language that have been specified by C. Hockett to show that it is essentially different from animal communication system?

①arbitrariness 任意性（at the syntactic level）

②productivity 能产性，创造性

Secondary units（底层结构sounds）

③duality 双层性

Primary units （上层结构units of meaning）

④displacement 不受时空限制性（handle generalization and abstraction）

⑤cultural transmission 文化传递性

⑥interchangeability 互换性

⑦convention 约定性

Chapter 2 Phonology

Phonetics: （语音学）

①the study of the phonic medium of language

②look at speech sounds from 3 distinct but related points of view.

Ⅰstudy the sounds from the speaker’s point of view→articulatory phonetics（发音语音学）

Ⅱlook at the sounds from the hearer’s point of view→auditory phonetics（听觉语音学）

Ⅲstudy the way sounds travel by looking at the sound waves→acoustic phonetics （声学语音学）

③study how sounds are produced, transmitted and perceived.

Organs of speech:

⒈three important areas

①The pharyngeal cavity→the throat

②the oral cavity→the mouth

③the nasal cavity→the nose

⒉The pharyngeal cavity→windpipe/glottis/larynx/vocal cords

⒊the oral cavity→tongue/uvula/soft palate(velum)/hard palate/teeth ridge(alveolus)

/teeth/lips

International Phonetic Alphabet （IPA）

①diacritics 附加符号

②broad transcription（宽式标音）→the transcription with letter-symbols only

③narrow transcription（严式标音）→the transcription with letter-symbols together

with the diacritics

Classification of English speech sounds

①two broad categories of speech sounds in English: V owels/consonants

②two ways to classify the English consonants: In terms of manner of articulation

In terms of place of articulation

③In terms of manner of articulation:

Stops/fricatives/affricates/liquids/nasals/glides

④In terms of place of articulation:

Bilabial/labiodental/dental/alveolar/palatal/velar/glottal

⑤

bilabial Labio-dental dental alveolar palatal velar glottal stops VL p t k

VD b d g

fricatives VL f θs ?h VD v ez ?

affricates VL (t?) t?

VD (d?) d?

nasals VD m n ?

liquids VD l/r

glides VD w j

Classification of English vowels

⒈criteria :（monophthongs）单元音

The position of the tongue in the mouth: front/central/back

The openness of the mouth: close vowels/semi-close vowels/semi-open

vowels/open vowels

The shape of the lips: unrounded/rounded

The length of the vowels: tense/lax

front central back close i: u:

i u Semi-close e ?:

??: Semi-open

open ? ??

a a:

⒉diphthongs 双元音

/ei /

/ai /

/au /

/?u /

/?i /

/i? /

/ε?/

/ u? /

Phonology 音韵学，语音体系

Difference of phonology and phonetics:

①Phonetics is interested in all the speech sounds used in all human languages.

②Phonology aims to discover how speech sounds in a language form patterns and

how these sounds are used to convey meaning in linguistic communication. Phone（音素）: A phone is a phonetic unit or segment.

Phoneme（音位）: It is a phonological unit; it is a unit that is of distinctive value. It is an abstract unit. It is not any particular sound, but rather it is represented or realized by a certain phone in a certain phonetic context.

Allophone（音位变体）: The different phones which can represent a phoneme in different phonetic environments are called the allophones of that phoneme. Phonemic contrast（音位对立）

Complementary distribution（音位变体的互补分布）

Minimal pairs（最小对立体）：含音位的单词的全部音标

Minimal set（最小对立集）：is used to find the important sounds in language. Phonological Analysis（音位分析）

Principle: certain sounds cause changes in the meaning of a word or phase, whereas other sounds do not.

Phonetically similar sounds:描述音位关系

Free variants: 音位的自由变体

The difference of pronouncing a sound caused by dialect, habit, individual difference or regional differences instead of by any distribution rule.

Some rules in phonology

①sequential rules: 序列规则

If a word begins with a / l / or a / r /, then the next sound must be a vowel.

If three consonants should cluster together at the beginning of a word, the combination should obey the following three rules:

The first phoneme must be / s /

The second phoneme must be / p / / t / / k /

The third phoneme must be / l // r // w /

②assimilation rule:同化规则

③deletion rule：省略规则

Suprasegmental features 超音段特征≠超音段（比音位更大的语言单位）

①stress（单词，句子层面）：the location of stress in English distinguishes meaning. Syllable音节：A syllable nucleus (often a vowel) with optional initial and final margins (often consonants)

单音节词

多音节词

英语单词都有重读

音位学中，单词由音节构成，音节由音位构成。

句子里读重音的词：

Nouns/main verbs/adjectives/adverbs/numerals/demonstrative pronouns

②tone（词汇层面）

English is not a tone language

Chinese is a typical tone language:

Level/the second rise/the third fall-rise/the fourth fall

③intonation（句子层面）

English has four basic types of intonation:

The falling tone/the rising tone/the fall-rise tone/the rise-fall tone

问题：

What are the two major media of communication? Of the two, which one is primary and why?

Speech and writing

Speech

Because from the point of view of linguistic evolution, speech is prior to writing. The writing system of any language is always “invented”by its users to record speech when the need arises. Even in today’s world there are still many languages that can only be spoken but not written. Then in everyday communication, speech plays a greater role than writing in terms of the amount of information conveyed.

Spoken language reveals more true features of human speech while written language is only the “revised”record of speech. And linguists’data for investigation and analysis are mostly drawn from everyday speech, which they regarded as authentic.

问题：

What is voicing and how is it caused?

Vibration of the vocal cords results in a quality of speech sounds called “voicing”, which is a feature of all vowels and some consonants in English.

Chapter 3 Morphology 词法形态学

1 定义和知识点：

①the part of the grammar that is concerned with word formation and word structure

②the branch of linguistics that studies the internal structure of words, and the rules by which words are formed.

③it is essentially synchronic, primarily concerned with the forms of words through the use of morpheme construct.

④it overlaps with the other sub-branches as a word is a sound unit that has meaning and syntactic function.

⑤four facets:

Sounds (phonology)

Constructions (syntax)

Meanings (semantics)

Forms of words

2 词性分类

①open class words:名、动、形、副are the content words of a language

②closed class words: 连、介、冠、代are small and stable since few new words are

added

3 词素有关

? Morpheme: 词素

构成单词的最小意义单位，包括声音和意义，abstract units(任意性)

? Morph: 形素

the sound of a morpheme 声音

? Allomorphs: 语素变体

The variant forms of a morpheme

4 分类morphemes

①Free morpheme(自由词素): A morpheme which can be a word by itself

②bound morpheme(粘着词素)：A morpheme that must be attached to another one

③lexical morphemes/ derivational morphemes(派生词素,包括前后缀): They are used to derive new words, also known as derivational morphemes

④inflectional morphemes(屈折词素)：词类不发生变化

5 单词定义：Word

A word is a unit of expression which is intuitively recognized by native speakers in both spoken and written language.

A word is a basic and minimal units of a language to make sentences, which are combinations of words according to syntactic rules.

A word is a lexeme(词位). A lexeme is a word in an abstract sense.

A word can be defined as a grammatical unit.

6 单词结构：Structure

Root: the root constitutes the core of the word and carries the major component of its meaning. Roots belong to lexical category.

Stem: it is the form of the word to which both inflectional and derivational morphemes can be added.

Base: 词基

Affixes: they are forms that are attached to words or word elements to modify meaning or function. All of them are bound morphemes and don’t belong to a lexical category.

7 单词合成：Word formation

①morphological rules→productive morphological rules

②derivation

③compounds 几点注意：

When the two words are in the same grammatical category, the compound will be like this: n. + n. / adj. + adj.

When the two words fall into different categories: n. + adj. / v. + n. （不总是这样）The meaning of a compound is not always the sum of the meanings of its parts.

8 单词合成过程：

①compounding

②affixation or derivation

Blends 混合词

Abbreviation 缩略语

③shortening acronyms 按音节拼读首字母的单词

Initials 按字母拼读的单词

Clippings 缩写词

④backformation 逆构词法

9 要点

Grammatical morphemes are grammatical in nature, functioning as grammatical markers or show syntactic relations.

They consist of both inflectional morphemes and some free ones like in, and, do, they, while, where, but and that, which are traditionally known as functional words.

Chapter 4 Syntax 句法

1 定义

It is a branch of linguistics that studies the rules that govern the formation of sentences.

2 四大派别

①traditional syntax 传统学派

②structural syntax 结构主义学派（索绪尔）

③transformational syntax 生成学派（乔姆斯基）（本书重点学习）

④functional syntax 功能学派（哈里德）

3 范畴Categories

Noun (N)

Verb (V)

Major lexical categories

Adjective (A)

Preposition (P)

Word-level categories

Determiner (Det) 限定词/成分

Degree words (Deg) 程度词

Minor lexical categories Qualifier (Qual) 修饰语

Auxiliary (Aux) 助词

Conjunction (Con) 连词

Syntactic categories句法范畴的定义：

①The fact that words in all human languages can be grouped together into a relatively small number of classes.

②注：The word-level categories are the most central categories to the syntactic study.

Major lexical categories(主要词汇范畴) play a very important role in sentence formation and they are often assumed to be the heads around which phrases are built.

Minor lexical categories (次要词汇范畴)

Meaning 意义

Three criteria to determine a word’s category inflection 屈折变化

Distribution 分布

? It is misleading to assume that a word’s category can be told straightforward from its meaning:

①nouns do not concretely reveal their entities.

②some words tend to be verbs but they can also be used as nouns.

③words with the same or similar meanings sometimes belong to different word categories.

Phrases are syntactic units that are built around a certain word category.

↓

The phrase is built around the word category.

↓

The word category determines the category of phrase.

4 要点

生成学派认为句子由短语构成。

短语→单词→词素→音节→

短语层面

任何短语都有2个层面

单词层面

5 the most commonly recognized and discussed phrasal categories:

NP: noun phrase

VP: verb phrase

AP: adjective phrase

PP: prepositional phrase

6 the elements of phrases that are formed of more than one word:

①head/termed head 中心语/中心成分: The word around which a phrase is formed

②specifiers 标志语/标志成分：The words on the left side of the heads

③complements 补语/补足语/补足成分：The words on the right side of the heads

7 phrase structure rule 短语结构规则

定义：A special type of grammatical mechanism that regulates the arrangement of elements that makes up a phrase.

The phrase structure rule for NP, VP, AP, PP

NP→(Det) N (PP) …

VP→(Qual) V (NP) …

AP→(Deg) A (PP) …

PP→(Deg) P (NP) …

XP rule

公式一：XP →(specifier) X (complement)

X’ Theory （X 标杆理论）

①X’ : The intermediate level formed by the head and the complement between word level and phrase level.

②X’ Theory: (specifier) X’ (word)

X’=X (complement)

Coordination rule (并列规则)

Coordinate structures (并列结构)

Coordination (并列，并列关系)

Four important properties of coordination：

①there is no limit on the number of coordinated categories that can appear prior to the conjunction.

②a category at any level (a head or an entire XP) can be coordinated.

③coordinated categories must be of the same type.

④the category type of the coordinate phrase is identical to the category type of the elements being conjoined.

公式二：X→X * Con X （其中“*”代表无限的意思）

8 Phrase elements

Specifiers have both special semantic and syntactic roles.

①semantically, they help make more precise the meaning of the head.

②syntactically, they typically mark a phrase boundary.

In English specifiers occur at the left boundary of their respective phrases. Complements are themselves phrase and provide information about entities and locations whose existence is implied by the meaning of the head.

Complements are attached to the right of the head in English.

Subcategorization (次范畴化)：中心成分决定补充成分这种现象。

中心成分决定补充成分时，决定着是否需要补充成分，需要什么样的补充成分，以及补充成分的位置问题。

The XP Rule (revised)

公式三：XP→(specifier) X (complement*)

Complementizers (Cs): 补语化成分

Words which introduce the sentence complement

Complement clause: 补语从句

The sentence introduced by the complementizer

Complement phrase(CP):补语短语

Matrix clause 主句

Modifiers 修饰成分，修饰语

The Expanded XP rule:

公式四：XP→(Spec) (Mod) X (Complement*) (Mod)