戴炜栋英语语言学概论Chapter 5

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戴炜栋简明语言学教程配套笔记

戴炜栋简明语言学教程配套笔记

Chapter 1 What is language?[A] The origins of languageSome speculations of the origins of language:①The divine sourceThe basic hypothesis: if infants were allowed to grow up without hearing any language, then they would spontaneously begin using the original god-given language.Actually, children living without access to human speech in their early years grow up with no language at all.②The natural-sound sourceThe bow-wow theory: the suggestion is that primitive words could have been imitations of the natural sounds which early men and women heard around them.The “Yo-heave-ho” theory: the sounds produced by humans when exerting physical effort, especially when co-operating with other humans, may be the origins of speech sounds.Onomatopoeic sounds③The oral-gesture sourceIt is claimed that originally a set of physical gestures was developed as a means of communication.The patterns of movement in articulation would be the same as gestural movement; hence waving tongue would develop from waving hand.④Glossogenetics(言语遗传学)This focuses mainly on the biological basis of the formation and development of human language.Physiological adaptation→develop naming ability→interactions and transactionsPhysical adaptation:Human teeth are upright and roughly even in height.Human lips have intricate muscle interlacing, thus making them very flexible.The human mouth is small and contains a very flexible tongue.The human larynx is lowered, creating a longer cavity called the pharynx, and making it easier for the human to choke on the pieces of food, but making the sound speech possible.The human brain is lateralized. Those analytic functions (tool-using and language) are largely confined to the left hemisphere of the brain for most humans.Two major functions of language:Interactional: a social function of language.Transactional: a function involving the communication of knowledge and information[B] The properties of languageLanguage is a system of arbitrary vocal symbols used for human communication.a) System: combined together according to rulesb) Arbitrary: no intrinsic connection between the word “pen” and the thing in the world which it refers toc) Vocal: the primary medium is sound for all languagesd) Human: language is human-specific(交际性与信息性)Communicative vs. Informative:Communicative: intentionally using language to communicate somethingInformative: through/via a number of signals that are not intentionally sentDesign features (unique properties): the defining properties of human language that distinguish it from any animal system of communication①Displacement(跨时空性,移位性)Language can be used to refer to contexts removed from the immediate situations of the speaker (refer to past and future time and to other locations)②Arbitrariness(任意性)There is no logical or natural connection between a linguistic form (either sound or word) and its meaning.While language is arbitrary by nature, it is not entirely arbitrary.a) echo of the sounds of objects or activities: onomatopoeic wordsb) some compound words③Productivity(能产性,创造性)Language is productive in that it makes possible the construction and interpretation of new signals by its users. (Creativity or open-endedness)④Cultural transition(文化传递性)While human capacity for language has a genetic basis (everyone was born with the ability to acquire a language), the details of any language system are not genetically transmitted, but instead have to be taught and learnt.⑤Discreteness(可分离性)Each sound in the language is treated as discrete.⑥Duality(双重结构性,两重性或二元性)Language is organized at two levels or layers simultaneously. The lower or basic level is a structure of sounds which are meaningless. The higher level is morpheme or word (double articulation)The above six properties may be taken as the core features of human language.Vocal-auditory channel, reciprocity, specialization, non-directionality, or rapid fade, these properties are best treated as ways of describing human language, but not as a means of distinguishing it from other systems of communication.[C] The development of written language①pictograms & ideograms(象形文字和表意文字)Pictogram: when some of the pictures came to represent particular images in a consistent way, we can begin to describe the product as a form of picture-writing, or pictograms.Ideogram: the picture developed as more abstract and used other than its entity is considered to be part of a system of idea-writing, or ideogram Hieroglyph: 古埃及象形文字②Logograms(语标书写法)When symbols come to be used to represent words in a language, they are described as examples of word-writing, or logograms.“Arbitrariness”—a writing system which was word-based had come into existence.Cuneiform--楔形文字—the Sumerians (5000 and 6000 years ago)Chinese is one example of its modern writing system.Advantages: two different dialects can be based on the same writing system.Disadvantages: vast number of different written forms.③Syllabic writing(音节书写法)When a writing system employs a set of symbols which represent the pronunciations of syllables, it is described as syllabic writing.The Phoenicians: the first human beings that applied the full use of a syllabic writing system (ca 1000 BC)④Alphabetic writing(字母书写法)Semitic languages (Arabic and Hebrew): first applied this ruleThe Greeks: taking the inherently syllabic system from the Phoenicians via the RomansLatin alphabet and Cyrillic alphabet (Slavic languages)⑤Rebus writingRobus writing evolves a process whereby the symbol used for an entity comes to be used for the sound of the spoken word used for that entity.Chapter 2 What is linguistics?[A] The definition of linguisticsLinguistics is generally defined as the scientific study of language.Process of linguistic study:①Certain linguistic facts are observed, generalization are formed;②Hypotheses are formulated;③Hypotheses are tested by further observations;④ A linguistic theory is constructed.Language is a system of arbitrary vocal symbols used for human communication.[B] The scope of linguisticsGeneral linguistics: the study of language as a wholePhonetics: the general study of the characteristics of speech sounds (or the study of the phonic medium of language) (How speech sounds are produced and classified)Phonology: is essentially the description of the systems and patterns of speech sounds in a language. (How sounds form systems and function to convey meaning)Morphology: the study of the way in which morphemes are arranged to form words (how morphemes are combined to form words)Syntax: the study of those rules that govern the combination of words to form permissible sentences (how morphemes and words are combined to form sentences)Semantics: the study of meaning in abstractionPragmatics: the study of meaning in context of useSociolinguistics: the study of language with reference to societyPsycholinguistics: the study of language with reference to the workings of the mindApplied linguistics: the application of linguistics principles and theories to language teaching and learningAnthropological linguistics, neurological linguistics; mathematical linguistics; mathematical linguistics; computational linguistics[C] Some important distinctions in linguistics①Prescriptive vs. Descriptive②Synchronic vs. DiachronicThe description of a language at some point in time;The description of a language as it changes through time.③Speech and writingSpoken language is primary, not the written④Langue and paroleProposed by Swiss linguists F. de Sausse (sociological)Langue: refers to the abstract linguistic system shared by all the members of a speech communityParole: refers to the realization of langue in actual use⑤Competence and performanceProposed by the American linguist N. Chomsky (psychological)Competence: the ideal user’s knowledge of the rules of his languageChapter 3 Phonetics and phonology[A] The definition of phoneticsPhonetics: the study of the phonic medium of language: it is concerned with all the sounds that occur in the world’s language s.Articulatory phonetics: the study of how speech sounds are made, or articulated.Acoustic phonetics: deals with the physical properties of speech as sound waves in the air.Auditory (or perceptual) phonetics: deals with the perception, via the ear, of speech sounds.Forensic phonetics: has an application in legal cases involving speaker identification and the analysis of recorded utterances.[B] Organs of speechVoiceless: when the vocal cords are spread apart, the air from the lungs passes between them unimpeded.Voiced: when the vocal cords are drawn together, the air from the lungs repeated pushes them apart as it passes through, creating a vibration effect.All the English vowels are typically voiced (voicing).The important cavities:The pharyngeal cavityThe oral cavityThe nasal cavityLips, teeth, teeth ridge (alveolus), hard palate, soft palate (velum), uvula, tip of tongue, blade of tongue, back of tongue, vocal cords [C] Orthographic representation of speech soundsBroad and narrow transcriptionsIPA (International Phonetic Alphabet/Association)Broad transcription: the transcription with letter-symbols onlyNarrow transcription: the transcription with diacriticsE.g.:[l]→[li:f]--→ a clear [l] (no diacritic)[l]→[bild]--→a dark [l] (~)[l]→[hel ]--→a dental [l] ( )[p]→[pit]--→an aspirated [p h](h)[p]→[spit]--→an unaspirated [p] (no diacritic)[n]→[ b✈tn]→a syllabic nasal [n] ( )[D] Classification of English consonantsIn terms of manner of articulation (the manner in which obstruction is created)①Stops: the obstruction is total or complete, and then going abruptly[p]/[b], [t]/[d], [k]/[g]②Fricatives: the obstruction is partial, and the air is forced through a narrow passage in the month[f]/[v], [s]/[z], [ ]/[❆], [☞]/[✞], [h] (approximant)③Affricates: the obstruction, complete at first, is released slowly as in fricatives[t☞]/[d✞]④Liquids: the airflow is obstructed but is allowed to escape through the passage between part or parts of the tongue and the roof of the mouth[l]→a lateral sound; [r]→ retroflex⑤Glides: [w], [j] (semi-vowels)Liquid + glides + [h]→ approximants⑥Nasals: the nasal passage is opened by lowering the soft palate to let air pass through it[m], [⏹], []By place of articulation (the place where obstruction is created)Phonemic contrast: when two phonemes can occur in the same environments in two words and they distinguish meaning, they’re in phonemic contrast.E.g. pin & bin → /p/ vs. /b/ rope & robe → /p/ vs. /b/Complementary distribution: two or more than two allophones of the same phonemes are said to be in complementary distribution because they can not appear at the same time, or occur in different environment, besides they do not distinguish meaning.Minimal pair: when two different forms are identical in every way except for one sound segment which occurs in the same place in the strings, the two sounds are said to form a minimal pair.When a group of words can be differentiated, each one from the others, by changing one phoneme (always in the same position), then all of these words constitute a minimal sets.[H] Some rules in phonology①sequential rulesSyllableOnset rimeNucleus coda[Consonant] vowel [consonant(s)]Phonotactics of 3Cs occurring in onset:No1:___/s/___voiceless stops: /p/, /t/, /k/___approximants: /r/, /l/, /w/, /j/No2:The affricates [t☞]/[d✞] and the sibilants [s], [z], [☞], [✞] are not to be followed by another sibilants.②assimilation rulesCo-articulation effects: the process of making one sound almost at the same time as the next is called co-articulation.Assimilation & elision effectsAssimilation: two phonemes occur in sequence and some aspect of one phoneme is taken or copied by the otherE.g. nasalize a vowel when it is followed by a nasal sound.③deletion rule-ElisionDefinition: the omission of a sound segment which would be present in deliberate pronunciation of a word in isolationE.g. delete a [g] when it occurs before a final nasal consonant[I] Suprasegmental features①StressWord stress & sentence stressThe stress of the English compounds always on the first element②ToneDefinition: Tones are pitch variations, which are caused by the differing rates of vibration of the vocal cords.Pitch variations can distinguish meaning just like morphemes.Tone language, like Chinese, has four tones.Level, rise, fall-rise, fall③IntonationWhen pitch, stress and sound length are tied to the sentence rather than the word in isolation, they are collectively known as intonation.English: the four basic types of intonation, or the four tonesThe falling tone, the rising tone, the fall-rising tone, and the rise-fall toneChapter 4 Morphology[A] The definition of morphologyMorphology is a branch of grammar which studies the internal structure of words and the rules by which words are formed.Inflectional morphologyDerivational morphology (lexical morphology)Morpheme: the smallest meaningful components of words(A minimal unit of meaning or grammatical function)[B] Free morphemes & bound morphemesFree morphemes: can stand by themselves as single words→ Lexical morphemes [ & functional morphemes [Bound morphemes: can not normally stand alone, but which are typically attached to another form→ Derivational morphemes----→affix (suffix, infix, prefix) + root→ Inflectional morphemes → 88 types of inflectional morphemes in EnglishNoun+ -’s, -s [possessive; plural]Verb+ -s, -ing, -ed, -en [3rd person present singular; present participle; past tense, past participle]Adj+ -er, -est [comparative; superlative][C] Derivational vs. inflectionalInflectional morphemes never change the grammatical category of a wordInflectional morphemes influence the whole category;Derivational morphemes are oppositeOrder: root (stem) + derivational + inflectional[D] Morphological RulesN. +ly→ a.; A. +ly→ adv.; guard overgeneralization[E] Morphs and allomorphsMorphs: the actual forms used to realize morphemesAllomorphs: a set of morphs, all of which are versions of one morpheme, we refer to them as allomorphs of that morpheme.[F] Word-formation process①Coinage→the invention of totally new terms②Borrowing→the taking over of words form other languagesLoan-translation (Claque)→ a direct translation of the elements of a word into the borrowing languageStand alone to be the opposite of word-formation③Compounding→ a joining of two separate words to produce a single formFeatures of compoundsa)Orthographically, a compound can be written as one word, with or without a hyphen in between, or as two separate words.b)Syntactically, the part of speech of the compound is generally determined by the part of speech of the second element.c)Semantically, the meaning of a compound is often idiomatic, not always being the sum total of the meanings of its components.d)Phonetically, the stress of a compound always falls on the first element,While the second element receives secondary stress.④Blending→ taking over the beginning of one word and joining it to the end of other word⑤Clipping→ a word of more than one syllable reduced to a shorter form⑥Back formation→ a process by which new words are formed by taking away the suffix of an existing wordHypocorisms→clipping or +ie⑦Conversion→ category change, functional shift⑧Acronyms→ new words are formed from the initial letters of a set of other words⑨Derivation→ the new words are formed by the addition of affixes to the roots, stems, or words ⑩Abbreviation→ a shortened form of a word or phrase which represents the complete form AnalogyChapter 5 Grammar[A] Types of grammarThe study of grammar, or the study of the structure of expressions in a language, has a very long tradition.①Mental grammar: a form of internal linguistic knowledge which operates in the production and recognition of appropriately structured expressions in that language. → Psychologist②Linguistic etiquette: the identification of the proper or best structures to be used in a language. → Sociologist③The study and analysis of the structures found in a language, with the aim of establishing a description of the grammar of English, e.g. as distinct from the grammar of Russia or French. → Linguist[B] The parts of speechNouns, adjectives, verbs, adverbs, prepositions, pronouns, conjunctions→ the grammatical categories of words in sentences[C] Traditional grammar (Categories and analysis)Other categories: number, person, tense, voice and genderAgreement:English language←natural genderGrammatical gender→ French[D] Types of grammar concerning analysisThe prescriptive approach: The view of grammar as a set of rules for the proper use of a languageThe descriptive approach: analysts collect samples of the language they are interested in and attempt to describe the regular structures of the language at it is used, not according to some view of how it should be used.[E] Structural and immediate constituent analysis (IC Analysis)Structural analysis: to investigate the distinction of forms (e.g. morphemes) in a languageIC Analysis: how small constituents (Components) in sentences go together to form larger constituents[F] Labeled and bracketed sentencesHierarchical organization of the constituents in a sentenceLabel each constituent with grammatical terms such as Art. N. NPChapter 6 Syntax[A] The definition of syntaxA subfield of linguistics that studies the sentence structure of language[B] The basic components of a sentenceSentenceSubject PredicateReferring expression comprises finite verb or a verb phrase and says something about the subject[C] Types of sentencesSimple sentence: consists of a single clause which contains a subject and a predicate and stands alone as its own sentence.Coordinate (Compound) sentence: contains two clauses joined by a linking word called coordinating conjunctions, such as “and”, “by”, “or”…Complex sentence: contains two, or more, clauses, one of which is incorporated into the otherEmbedded clause←→ matrix clause①subordinator ②f unctions as a grammatical unit ③may be complete[D] The linear and hierarchical structures of sentencesWhen a sentence is uttered or written down, the words of the sentence are produced one after another in a sequence, which suggests the structure of a sentence is linear.But the superficial arrangement of words in a linear sequence does not entail that sentences are simply linearly-structured; sentences are organized with words of the same syntactic category, such as NP or VP, grouped together.Tree diagram of constituent structureBrackets and subscript labels[E] Some categoriesSyntactic categories: refer to a word or a phrase that performs a particular grammatical function, such as the subject or the predicate Lexical categories: (parts of speech)Major lexical categories (open categories):N. V. Adj. Adv.Minor lexical categories (closed categories):Det. Aux. Prep. Pron. Conj. Int.Phrasal categories: NP, VP, PP, AP[F] Grammatical RelationsThe structural and logical functional relations of constituentsIt concerns the way each noun phrase in the sentence relates to the verbSubject of and direct object ofStructural subject, structural objectLogical subject (the doer of the action), the logical object (the recipient of the action)These two groups of subjects and objects may have different positions[G] Combinational rulesAre small in number→ Yield all the possible sentencesRule out the impossible ones①phrase structure rules (rewrite rules)S→ NP VP(A sentence consists of, or is rewritten as, a noun phrase and a verb phrase)NP→ (Det.) (Adj.) N (PP) (S)An optional determiner….and obligatory noun,VP→ V (NP) (POP) (S)AP→ A (PP) (S)PP→ P NP②the recursiveness of phrase structure rulesSignificantly, the above rules can generate an infinite number of sentences, and sentences with infinite length, due to their recursive properties.③X- bar theoryHead→ an obligatory word that givers the phrase its nameXP or X-phraseXP→ (Specifier) X (complement)Formula:X”→Spec X’X-bar theory (X-bar schema)X’→ X complTree diagramX”Specifier X’X complement[H] Syntactic movement and movement rulesSyntactic movement: occurs when a constituent in a sentence moves out of its original place to a new placeTransformational rules①NP-movement and WH-movementNP-movement: active voice → passive voicePostposing, preposingWH-movement: affirmative→ interrogativeLeftward matter to the sentence initial-position②Other types of movementAux-movement: the movement of an auxiliary to the sentence-initial position③D-structure and S-structureTwo levels of syntactic representation of a sentence structure:One that exists before movement takes placeThe other that occurs after movement takes placeFormal linguistic exploration:D-structure: phrase structure rules + lexiconSentence at the level of D-structureThe application of syntactic movement rules transforms a sentence fromD-structure level to S-structure levelTransformational-generative line of analysis④Move α– a general movement ruleMove any constituent to any placeCertain constituents can move to only certain positions[I] Universal Grammar (UG)Principles-and-parameters theory:UG is a system of linguistic knowledge and a human species-specific gift which exits in the mind or brain of a normal human being and which consists of some general principles and parameters about natural languages.①general principles of UGCase condition principle: a noun phrase must have case and case is assigned by V or P to the object position or by Aux to the subject position Adjacency condition or Case assignment: a case assignor and a case recipient should stay adjacency to each other.It is strictly observed in English well-formed sentences, not other languages (no other phrasal category can intervene between a verb and its direct object)The Adjacency condition must be subject to parametric variation in order to explain the apparent adjacency violations such as in French.②The parameters of UGParameters are syntactic options of UG that allow general principles to operate in one way or another and contribute to significant linguistic variations between and among natural languages.[+strict adjacency]Adjacency parameter[-strict adjacency][Rightward directionality]The Directionality Parameter → involves word order[Leftward directionality]En: VP word order VP→ V NPJp: VP word order VP→ NP VNatural languages are viewed to vary according to parameters set on UG principles to particular values.Chapter 7 Semantics[A] The definition of semanticsDefinition: the study of meaning from the linguistic point of view[B] Some views concerning the study of meaning①the naming theory: The linguistic forms or symbols, in other words, the words used in a language are taken to be labels of the objects they stand for; words are just names or labels for things.②the conceptualist view: There’s no direct link between a linguistic form and what it refers to (i.e. between language and t he real world); rather, in the interpretation of meaning, they are linked through the mediation of concepts in the mind.Thought/reference → conceptSymbol/Form (words) Referent →(real object)Proposed by Ogden & Richards③contextualism: John FirthThe situational context: in a particular spatiotemporal situationLinguistic context (co-text): the probability of a word’s co-occurrence or collocation with another word④behaviorism→ Bloomfield based on contextualist viewBehaviorists define meaning of a language form as the situation in which the speaker utters it and the response it calls forth in the hearer S: stimulus r: responseJill JackS---------r………s---------R(the small letters r, s→speech)(the capitalized letter R, S→practical events)[C] Sense and referenceSense: is concerned with the inherent meaning of the linguistic form, abstract and de-contextualized.Reference: means 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 experienceMoving star I once was bitten by a dog.Morning star Mind you. There is a dog over there.[D] Major sense relations①synonymy→ the sameness or close similarity of meaninga. dialectal synonyms——synonyms used in different regional dialectsb. stylistic synonyms——synonyms differing in stylec. synonyms that differ in their emotive or evaluative meaningd. collocational synonymse. semantically different synonyms②polysemy——one word that has more than one related meaning③homonymyHomophones: when two words are identical in soundHomographs: when two words are identical in spellingComplete homonyms: when two words are identical both in spelling and inSoundEtymology④hyponymy—— inclusivenessThe word which is more general in meaning is called the superordinator.The word which is more specific in meaning is called hyponym.Co-hyponym⑤antonymy——oppositenessGradable antonymsComplementary antonymsRelational opposites: pairs of words that exhibit the reversal of a relationship between items⑥metonymyMeaning based on a close connection in everyday experience, of which can be based on a container-contents relation, a whole-part relation, or a representative-symbol relationship⑦collocationOrganize the knowledge of words in terms of frequently occurring together⑧prototypesThe concept of a prototype helps explain the meaning of certain words, not in terms of component features, but in terms of resemblance to the clearest exemplar.[E] Sense relations between sentences①X is synonymous with Y②X is inconsistent with Y③X entails Y (Y is an entailment of X)④X presupposes Y (Y is a prerequisite of X)⑤X is a contradiction⑥X is semantically anomalous[F] Componential analysis→a way to analyze lexical meaningSemantic features: the meaning of a word can be dissected into meaning components, or semantic featuresPhoneme→ distinctive featuresShow how those words are related in meaning[G] Predication analysis→a way to analyze sentence meaning proposed by British linguist G. Leech①the meaning of a sentence is not the sum total (of the meanings of all its components)②Grammatical meaning and semantic meaningGrammaticality selectional restrictionsSemantic analysis:Predication (basic unit)→ the abstract meaning of the sentenceArgument(s) 论元predicate(谓词)Logical participant(s) Sth said about an argument or states the logical relation linking the argument(s) in a sentenceThe predicate can be regarded as the main element.Tom smokes.→ TOM (SMOKE)→ one-place predicationKids like apples.→ KID, APPLE (LIKE)→ two-place predicationIt’s raining.→ (RAIN)→ no-place predication。

新编简明英语语言学戴炜栋版本u1-u6期末笔记整理

新编简明英语语言学戴炜栋版本u1-u6期末笔记整理

●语言学家:1.F.de Saussure P4Swiss linguist. He distinct the langue and parole in the early 20thcentury <course in general linguistics>写了《普通语言学》强调研究语言(what linguist should do is to abstract langue from parole)2.N ChomskAmerican linguist distinct competence and performance in the late 1950s强调研究语言能力(competence)和索绪尔的相似点●Saussure和chomsky不同之处:索绪尔从社会学角度(sociological view)他的语言概念属于社会习俗范畴(social conventions);乔姆斯基是从心理学角度(Psychological view),认为语言能力是每个个体大脑的特征(property of mind of each individual)3.现代语言学基本上是描述性的(descriptive),传统语法是规定性的(prescriptive)4.现代语言学中共时性研究更重要(synchronic)Phonetics(语音学) Phonology(音位学)●发音器官1.pharyngeal cavity2.oral cavity3.nasal cavity●speech and writing are the two media or substances 言语和文字是自然语言的两种媒介和物质(言语比文字更加基础)●语音学从哪三个角度研究?(1)说话者角度articulatory phonetics 发声语音学(历史最悠久)(2)听话者角度auditory phonetics 听觉语音学(3)研究语音的传播方式acoustic phonetics 声学语音学●主要现在用IPA标音标,但是语言学家会用严式标音(narrowtranscription)书上举了两个字母的例子{l} leap,feel ,health {p} pit,spit (送气,不送气)p h来表送气●语音的分类:元音(voiced sound)和辅音●voiceless●元音的分类:(1)根据舌头哪一个部位最高,分为front、central、back(2)嘴巴的张合度,分为闭元音、半闭元音、半开元音、开元音(3)不圆唇的(所有前和中元音+{a:} )和圆唇的(rounded)后元音●Segment 和syllable 前面数有几个元音辅音;后面数有几个元音●语音学和音位学的区别(1)语音学家关注{l} 的发音,清晰舌边音和模糊舌边音(2)音位学家关注{l}分布模式,即在什么位置发这个音如{l} 在元音后或辅音前,发模糊舌边音feel、quilt{l}放在元音前发清晰的舌边音leap注意:Phonology is concerned with the sound system of a particular language.(关注某种语言的语音系统)Linguistics is the scientific study of human languages in general.一、区分音素,音位,音位变体●音素:phone(1)在单词feel[fi:ł],leaf[li:f],tar[tha:],star[sta:]中,一共有7个音素,分别是[f],[i:],[ł],[l],[th].[t],[a:].(2)英语共有48个音素,其中元音20个,辅音28个。

戴炜栋_新编简明语言学教程文档版

戴炜栋_新编简明语言学教程文档版

linguistic communication.Phone, phoneme, allophonePhone: the different versions of the abstract unit – phonemePhoneme: the mean-distinguishing sound in a language, placed in slash marksAllophone: a set of phones, all of which are versions of one phonemePhoneA phone---- a phonetic unit or segment. The speech sounds we hear and produce during linguistic communication are all phones. Phones do not necessarily distinguish meaning, some do, some don’t, e.g. [ b t ] & [ b t ], [sp t] & [sp t].PhonemeA 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, e.g. the phoneme /p/ can be represented differently in [p t],[t p] and [sp t].AllophoneAllophones ---- the phones that can represent a phoneme in different phonetic environments.Phonemic contrast, complementary distribution and minimal pair.Phonemic contrast----different or distinctive phonemes are in phonemic contrast, e.g./b/ and /p/ in [ b t ] and [p t].Complementary distribution----allophones of the same phoneme are in complementary distribution. They do not distinguish meaning. They occur in different phonetic contexts, e.g.dark [l] & clear [l], aspirated [p] & unaspirated [p].Minimal pairMinimal pair----when two different forms are identical (the same) in every way except for one sound segment which occurs in the same place in the strings, the two sound combinations are said to form a minimal pair, e.g.beat, bit, bet, bat, boot, but, bait, bite, boat.Some rules of phonologySequential rulesAssimilation ruleDeletion ruleSequential rules ---- the rules that govern the combination of sounds in a particular language, e.g. in English, “k b i I” might possibly form blik, klib, bilk, kilb.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, e.g. spring, strict, square, splendid, scream.a) the first phoneme must be /s/,b) the second phoneme must be /p/ or /t/ or /k/,c) the third phoneme must be /l/ or /r/ or /w/.* [ ] never occurs in initial position in English and standard Chinese,but it does occur in some dialects, e.g. in Cantonese: “牛肉,我,俄语……”Assimilation rule----assimilates one sound to another by “copying” a feature of a sequential phoneme, thus making the two phones similar, e.g. the prefix in is pronounced differently when in different phonetic contexts:indiscreet alveolar [ n]inconceivable velar [ ]input bilabial [ ]Assimilation in Mandarin好啊hao wa海啊hai ya看啊kan na唱啊chang跳啊tiao waDeletion rule---- it tells us when a sound is to be deleted although it is orthographically represented, e.g. design, paradigm, there is no [g] sound; but the [g] sound is pronounced in their corresponding forms signature, designation, paradigmatic.Syllable (what is syllable?)Ancient Greek: a unit of speech sound consisting of a vowel or a vowel with one or more than one consonant.Dictionary: word or part of a word which contains a vowel sound or consonant acting as a vowel.The syllable consists of three parts: the ONSET, the PEAK, the CODA, e.g. [m n].The peak is the essential part. It is usually formed by a vowel. But [l], [n] and [m] might also function as peaks as in “ apple, hidden, communism”.Suprasegmental features----the phonemic features that occur above the level of the segments ( larger than phoneme):Stress: word stress and sentence stressWord stressThe location of stress in English distinguishes meaning, e.g. a shift in stress in English may change the part of speech of a word:verb: im port;in crease;re bel;re cord …noun: import; increase; rebel; record …Similar alteration of stress also occurs between a compound noun and a phrase consisting of the same elements: compound: blackbird; greenhouse; hotdog…noun phrase: black bird;green house;hot dog…The meaning-distinctive role played by word stress is also manifested in the combinations of -ing forms and nouns: modifier: dining-room; readingroom; sleepingbag…doer: sleeping baby;swimming fish;flying plane…Sentence stress----the relative force given to the components of a sentence. Generally, nouns, main verbs, adjectives, adverbs, numerals and demonstrative pronouns are stressed. Other categories like articles, person pronouns, auxiliary verbs prepositions and conjunctions are usually not stressed.Note: for pragmatic reason, this rule is not always right, e.g. we may stress any part in the following sentences.He is driving my car.My mother bought me a new skirt yesterday.ToneTones are pitch variations,which are caused by the differing rates of vibration of the vocal cords.English is not a tone language, but Chinese is.ma 妈(level)ma 麻(the second rise)ma 马(the third rise)ma 骂(the fourth fall)IntonationWhen pitch, stress and length variations are tied to the sentence rather than to the word, they are collectively known as intonation.English has three types of intonation that are most frequently used:falling tone (matter of fact statement)rising tone (doubts or question)the fall-rise tone (implied message)For instance, “That’s not the book he wants.”Grammatical functions of intonations----Intonation plays an important role in the conveyance of meaning in almost every language, esp. in English.a) It may indicate different sentence types by pitch direction.b) It may impose different structures on the sentence by dividing it into different intonation units, e.g. “John didn’t come because of Marry”Within one intonation unit, it means: John came, but it had nothing to do with Marry.With two intonation units, it means: Marry was the reason why John didn’t come.Exercises: Think of the utterance in different intonations:“Those who bought quickly made a profit.”c) It can make a certain part of a sentence especially prominent by placing nucleus on it, e.g.Jack came yesterday by train.d) Its attitudinal functions.Falling tone ---- matter-of-fact statement,downright assertion, commands.Rising tone ----politeness, encouragement,pleading.Note: these can only be very general indications. The specific attitudinal meaning of an intonation pattern must be interpreted within a context.Summary:Features that are found over a segment or a sequence of two or more segments are called suprasegmental features.These features are distinctive features.StressStress is the perceived prominence of one or more syllabic elements over others in a word.Stress is a relative notion. Only words that are composed of two or more syllables have stress.If a word has three or more syllables, there is a primary stress and a secondary stress.In some languages word stress is fixed, i.e. on a certain syllable. In English, word stress is unpredictable.IntonationWhen we speak, we change the pitch of our voice to express ideas.Intonation is the variation of pitch to distinguish utterance meaning.The same sentence uttered with different intonation may express different attitude of the speaker.In English, there are three basic intonation patterns: fall, rise, fall-rise.ToneTone is the variation of pitch to distinguish words.The same sequence of segments can be different words if uttered with different tones.Chinese is a typical tone language.Discovering phonemesContrastive distribution – phonemesIf sounds appear in the same environment, they are said to be in contrastive distribution.Typical contrastive distribution of sounds is found in minimal pairs and minimal sets.A minimal pair consists of two words that differ by only one sound in the same position.Minimal sets are more than two words that are distinguished by one segment in the same position.The overwhelming majority of the consonants and vowels represented by the English phonetic alphabet are in contrastive distribution.Some sounds can hardly be found in contrastive distribution in English. However, these sounds are distinctive in terms of phonetic features. Therefore, they are separate phonemes.Complementary distribution – allophonesSounds that are not found in the same position are said to be in complementary distribution.If segments are in complementary distribution and share a number of features, they are allophones of the same phoneme. Free variationIf segments appear in the same position but the mutual substitution does not result in change of meaning, they are said to be in free variation.Distinctive and non-distinctive featuresFeatures that distinguish meaning are called distinctive features, and features do not, non-distinctive features.Distinctive features in one language may be non-distinctive in another.本章重点:Phonology is a major branch of linguistics. It is the study of the sound systems of languages and of the general properties of sound systems.The differences between phonetics and phonologyPhonetics is regarded as the linguistic study to identify and describe the characteristics of all the speech sounds that occur in all human languages, whereas phonology is the description of the sound systems and patterns of individual languages. Phonetics provides the means for phonological description. And in a sense, phonology is really the application of phonetics to the process of communication in a particular language or languages. Phonetics is the study of the production, perception, and physical properties of speech sounds; phonology attempts to account for how they are combined, organized, and convey meaning in particular languages.Speaker’s mind---------mouth---------- ear-------- listener’s mindPhonology phoneticsPhonetics PhonologySounds of language functioning of sounds as part of a languageParole, speech act language, language systemUniversal language-specificConcrete abstractPhone [ ] phoneme / /Although both are related to the study of sounds, phonetics studies the production, transmission, and reception of sounds while phonology focuses on the linguistic patterns of speech sounds and how they are used to convey meaning in linguistic communication.A phone is A phoneme isOne of many possible sounds in the languages of the world A distinctive unit in the sound system of a particular language The smallest identifiable unit found in a stream of speech A minimal unit that serves to distinguish between meanings of wordsPronounced in a defined way Pronounced in one or more ways, depending on the number of allophonesRepresented between brackets by convention Represented between slashed by conventionExample: , [l] Example: /b/, /l/A phoneme is a phonological unit; it is a unit that is of distinctive value. A phone is a phonetic unit or segment. The speech sounds we hear and produce during linguistic communication are all phones. The different phones representing a phoneme in different phonetic environments are called its allophones (音位变体)The definitions of phone, phoneme, allophone, minimal pair and free variation, theories on phoneme, phonemic contrast and complementary distribution, feature on phonetic similarity and distinction; assimilation rule, deletion rule, suprasegmetnal features (syllables, stress, tone, intonation, pitch, etc.)How do you find a phoneme?You know something is a phoneme if it is a distinctive sound in the languageHow do you find the sounds distinctive?If you find a minimal pair, you know the sounds are distinctiveWhat is minimal pair?If you have two words which are exactly identical with respect to sounds except for one sound, and the different sounds are at the same position, and the two words have different meanings, then you have a minimal pair. Phonetics-----the study of speech soundsPhonology-----the study of sounds systemsPhoneme vs. phone/ allophone/ phoneme/ ----------------------abstractActual sound/t/ ---------------------phonemePhoneTwo phones never occur in the same environment -------complementary distributionAlthough we generalize some rules for word stress, it should be born in mind that sometimes the exceptions may well make one give up the ideal of rules.Exercises from our school:1. Complementary distribution2. what is articulatory phonetics, explain the primacy of speech over writing,3. divide the following words into morphemes. For each morpheme, identify the type (lexical or grammatical, free or bound, prefix or suffix, inflectional or derivational), where applicable.1) restate2) strongest4. what is illustrated with the following pronunciations?1) cap [kap] can2) tent, tenthanswer: 1) restate={re}+{state}{re}=grammatical, bound, prefix,derivational{state}=lexical, free3) strongest={strong}+{SUP}{strong}=lexical, free{SUP}=grammatical, bound, suffix, inflectional1) nasalization 2) dentalizationthey are examples of regressive assimilation (逆同化) Page 60 by Hu5. the phrase French literature teacher constitutes a case of lexical ambiguity6. syntax is made up of one morpheme.7. artificial satellite is a case of loanblending. (P102 by Hu)8. a single phoneme may represent a single morpheme, so they are identical9. derivational affixes often change the lexical meaningFFFFT10. for each of the following words transcribe phonetically and account for the allomorphs of the past tense morpheme: waited, waved, waded, wiped11. illustrate assimilation with two examples.12. describe the initial sounds of the following words: toe, chin, thank, goat, moon13. what are the terms used to describe the word-formation processes of the following words? Vaseline, carelessness, football, car-phone, AIDSAnswers: 10. /id/ (/d/ would merge with another alveolar plosive if not separated by a vowel)/d/ (voiced /v/ is followed by voiced /d/)/t/ ( voiceless /p/ is followed by voiceless /t/)11. assimilation is a process by which one sound takes on some or all the characteristics of a neighbouring sounds12. voiceless alveolar stop, voiceless palato-alveolar stop, voiceless dental fricative, voiced velar stop, voiced bilabial nasal.13. invention, derivation, compounding, clipping and compounding, acronym14. the phonology or pronunciation of a specific regional dialect is called_____15. ___________is the study of the physical properties of speech sounds16. phones which never occur in the same phonetic environment are said to be in_____17. A bound grammatical morpheme is called_____18. the word formation process, _______is exemplified by the word “brunch”19. the IPA chart contains a set of _____ for the purpose of transcribing the minute difference between variations of the same soundAccent, acoustic phonetics, complementary distribution, inflectional morpheme, blending, diacritics20. compare the two terms: morpheme and allomorph, distinctive features and semantic featuresA phoneme is further analyzable because it consists of a set of simultaneous distinctive features. It is just because of its distinctive features that a phoneme is capable of distinguishing meaning. The features that a phoneme possesses, making it different from other phonemes, are its distinctive features. On the analogy of distinctive features in phonology, some linguists suggest that there are semantic features. The meaning of a word can be dissected into meaning components, called semantic features.[l] voiced alveolar lateral; [v] voiced labiodental fricative; [e] central front lax ungrounded vowel; [u:] high back tense rounded vowel22. Is stress a phonological property? Why?Stress is one of suprasegmental features which are the phonological properties of such units as the syllable, the word, and the sentence. The location of stress in English distinguishes meaning. Word stress plays the meaning-distinctive role.23. Affricates consist of a stop followed immediately afterwards by a fricative at the same place of articulation24. the assimilation rule doesn’t account for the varying pronunciation of the alveolar nasal [n] in some sound combinations25. prefixes not only modify the meaning of a stem but also change the part of speech of the original wordT F F26. in what way can we determine whether a phone is a phoneme or not?A basic way to determine the phonemes of a language is to see if substituting one sound for another results in a change of meaning. If it does, the two sounds then represent different phonemes27. what kind of evidence could be used to argue that action and package each contain two morphemes: {act}+ {ion} and {pack}+ {age}?(hint: a morpheme can appear independently in other words.)Answers: {act} occurs in act, actor, active, react{ion} occurs in construction, projection,, inflection, rejection{pack} occurs in pack, packs, packed, packing, packer{age} occurs in wreckage, baggage, breakage28. a(n)_____ is the base form of a word that cannot further be analyzed without total loss of identity29. in the production of _____sounds, such as [p], the upper and the lower lips are brought together to create obstruction.30. ______is a process by which one sound takes on some or all the characteristics of a neighbouring sound.31. all syllables must have a ____ but not all syllables contain an onset and a coda. ( 核心,节首辅音,结尾音节) (page 69 by Hu)Root, bilabial, assimilation, nucleus32. compare phonology and phonetics.33. account for the difference in articulation in each of the following pairs of words:coast ghost, boast mostthe words coast and ghost are distinguished by the fact that the initial segment is voiceless in the case of the former and voiced in the case of the latter. Boast and most are distinguished by the manner of articulation of the initial segment, /b/ being bilabial, /m/ being nasal.34. what are the two major media of communication? Of the two, which one is primary and whyWhat are three branches of phonetics? How do they contribute to the study of speech sounds.Explain with examples how broad transcription and narrow transcription differWhat criteria are used to classify the English vowels?Give the phonetic symbol for each of the following sound descriptionsGive the phonetic features of each of the following soundsWhat is a minimal pair and what is a minimal set? Why is it important to identify the minimal set in a language? Explain with examples the sequential rule, the assimilation rule, and the deletion rule.What are suprasegmental features? How do the major suprasegmental features of English function in conveying meaning?Supplementary ExercisesChapter 2:PhonologyI. Decide whether each of the following statements is True or False:1. Voicing is a phonological feature that distinguishes meaning in both Chinese and English.2. If two phonetically similar sounds occur in the same environments and they distinguish meaning, they are said to be in complementary distribution.3. A phone is a phonetic unit that distinguishes meaning.4. English is a tone language while Chinese is not.5. In linguistic evolution, speech is prior to writing.6. In everyday communication, speech plays a greater role than writing in terms of the amount of information conveyed.7. Articulatory phonetics tries to describe the physical properties of the stream of sounds which a speaker issues with the help of a machine called spectrograph.8. The articulatory apparatus of a human being are contained in three important areas: the throat, the mouth and the chest.9. Vibration of the vocal cords results in a quality of speech sounds called voicing.10. English consonants can be classified in terms of place of articulation and the part of the tongue that is raised the highest.11. According to the manner of articulation, some of the types into which the consonants can be classified are stops, fricatives, bilabial and alveolar.12. Vowel sounds can be differentiated by a number of factors: the position of tongue in the mouth, the openness of the mouth, the shape of the lips, and the length of the vowels.13. According to the shape of the lips, vowels can be classified into close vowels, semi-close vowels, semi-open vowels and open vowels.14. Any sound produced by a human being is a phoneme.15. Phones are the sounds that can distinguish meaning.16. Phonology is concerned with how the sounds can be classified into different categories.17. A basic way to determine the phonemes of a language is to see if substituting one sound for another results in a change of meaning.18. When two different forms are identical in every way except for one sound segment which occurs in the same place in the strings, the two words are said to form a phonemic contrast.19. The rules governing the phonological patterning are language specific.20. Distinctive features of sound segments can be found running over a sequence of two or more phonemic segments.II. Fill in each of the following blanks with one word which begins with the letter given:21. A ____ refers to a strong puff of air stream in the production of speech sounds.22. A___________ phonetics describes the way our speech organs work to produce the speech sounds and how they differ.23. The four sounds /p/,/b/,/m/ and /w/ have one feature in common, i.e, they are all b_______ sounds.24. Of all the speech organs, the t ____ is the most flexible, and is responsible for varieties of articulation than any other.25. English consonants can be classified in terms of manner of articulation or in terms of p_______ of articulation.26. When the obstruction created by the speech organs is total or complete, the speech sound produced with the obstruction audibly released and the air passing out again is called a s________.27. S_________ features are the phonemic features that occur above the level of the segments. They include stress, tone, intonation, etc.28. The rules that govern the combination of sounds in a particular lan¬guage are called s ____ rules.29. The transcription of speech sounds with letter-symbols only is called broad transcription while the transcription with letter-symbols together with the diacritics is called n_________ transcription.30. When pitch, stress and sound length are tied to the sentence rather than the word in isolation, they are collectively known as i_________.31. P___________ is a discipline which studies the system of sounds of a particular language and how sounds are combined into meaningful units to effect linguistic communication.32. The articulatory apparatus of a human being are contained in three important cavities: the pharyngeal cavity, the o_______ cavity and the nasal cavity.33. T_______ are pitch variations, which are caused by the differing rates of vibration of the vocal cords and which can distinguish meaning just like phonemes.34. Depending on the context in which stress is considered, there are two kinds of stress: word stress and s_________ stress.III. There are four choices following each of the statements below. Mark the choice that can best complete the statement:35. Of all the speech organs, the _______ is/ are the most flexible.A. mouthB. lipsC. tongueD. vocal cords36.The sounds produced without the vocal cords vibrating are ____ sounds.A. voicelessB. voiced37.__________ is a voiced alveolar stop.A. /z/B. /d/C. /k/D./b/38. The assimilation rule assimilates one sound to another by “copying”a feature of a sequential phoneme, thus making the two phones ____________.A. identicalB. sameC. exactly alikeD. similar39. Since /p/ and /b/ are phonetically similar, occur in the same environments and they can distinguish meaning, they are said to be ___________.A. in phonemic contrastB. in complementary distributionC. the allophonesD. minimal pair40. The sound /f/ is _________________.A. voiced palatal affricateB. voiced alveolar stopC. voiceless velar fricativeD. voiceless labiodental fricative41. A ____ vowel is one that is produced with the front part of the tongue maintaining the highest position.A. backB. centralC. frontD. middle42. Distinctive features can be found running over a sequence of two or more phonemic segments. The phonemic features that occur above the level of the segments are called ____________.A. phonetic componentsB. immediate constituentsC. suprasegmental featuresD. semantic features43. A(n) ___________ is a unit that is of distinctive value. It is an abstract unit, a collection of distinctive phonetic features.A. phoneB. soundC. allophoneD. phoneme44. The different phones which can represent a phoneme in different phonetic environments are called the ____ of that phoneme.A. phonesB. soundsC. phonemesD. allophonesIV. Define the terms below:45. phonology 46. phoneme 47.allophone48. international phonetic alphabet49. intonation 50. phonetics 51. auditory phonetics52. acoustic phonetics 53. phone 54. phonemic contrast 55. tone 56. minimal pairV. Answer the following questions as comprehensively as possible. Give ex¬amples for illustration if necessary:57. Of the two media of language, why do you think speech is more basic than writing?58. What are the criteria that a linguist uses in classifying vowels?59. What are the major differences between phonology and phonetics?60. Illustrate with examples how suprasegmental features can affect meaning.61. In what way can we determine whether a phone is a phoneme or not?Suggested answers to supplementary exercisesIV. Define the terms below:45. phonology: Phonology studies the system of sounds of a particular language; it aims to discover how speech sounds in a language form patterns and how these sounds are used to convey meaning in linguistic communication.46. phoneme: The basic unit in phonology is called phoneme; it is a unit of distinctive value. But it is an abstract unit. To be exact, a phoneme is not a sound; it is a collection of distinctive phonetic features.47. allophone: The different phones which can represent a phoneme in different phonetic environments are48. international phonetic alphabet: It is a standardized and internationally accepted system of phonetic transcription.49. intonation: When pitch, stress and sound length are tied to the sentence rather than the word in isolation, they are collectively known as intonation.50. phonetics: Phonetics is defined as the study of the phonic medium of language; it is concerned with all the sounds that occur in the world' s languages51. auditory phonetics: It studies the speech sounds from the hearer's point of view. It studies how the sounds are perceived by the hear¬er.52. acoustic phonetics: It studies the speech sounds by looking at the sound waves. It studies the physical means by which speech sounds are transmitted through the air from one person to another.53. phone : Phones can be simply defined as the speech sounds we use when speaking a language. A phone is a phonetic unit or segment. It does not necessarily distinguish meaning.54. phonemic contrast: Phonemic contrast refers to the relation between two phonemes. If two phonemes can occur in the same environment and distinguish meaning, they are in phonemic contrast.55. tone: Tones are pitch variations, which are caused by the differing rates of vibration of the vocal cords.56. minimal pair: When two different forms are identical in every way except for one sound segment which occurs in the same place in the strings, the two words are said to form a minimal pair.V. Answer the following questions as comprehensively as possible. Give ex¬amples for illustration if necessary: 57. Of the two media of language, why do you think speech is more basic than writing?1) In linguistic evolution, speech is prior to writing.2) In everyday communication, speech plays a greater role than writing in terms of the amount of information conveyed.3) Speech is always the way in which every native speaker acquires his mother tongue, and writing is learned and taught later at school.58. What are the criteria that a linguist uses in classifying vowels?1) Vowels may be distinguished as front, central and back in terms of the position of the tongue in the mouth.2) According to how wide our mouth is opened, we classify the vowels into four groups: close vowels, semi-close vowels, semi-open vowels, and open vowels.3) According to the shape of the lips, vowels are divided into rounded vowels and unrounded vowels.4) The English vowels can also be classified into long vowels and short vowels according to the length of the sound.59. What are the major differences between phonology and phonetics?They differ in their approach and focus. Phonetics is of a general nature; it is interested in all the speech sounds used in all human languages: how they are produced, how they differ from each other, what phonetic features they possess, how they can be classified. Phonology, on the other hand, is interested in the system of sounds of a particular language; it aims to discover how speech sounds in a language form patterns and how these sounds are used to convey meaning in linguistic communication.60. Illustrate with examples how suprasegmental features can affect meaning.1) The location of stress in English distinguishes meaning, such as `import and im`port. The similar alternation of stress also occurs between a compound noun and a phrase consisting of the same elements. A phonological feature of the English compounds, is that the stress of the word always falls on the first element and the second element receives secondary stress, for example: `blackbird is a particular kind of bird, which is not necessarily black, but a black `bird is a bird that is black.2) The more important words such as nouns, verbs adjectives , adverbs,etc are pronounced with greater force and made more prominent. But to give special emphasis to a certain notion, a word in sentence that is usually unstressed can be stressed to achieve different effect. Take the sentence “He is driving my car.”for example. To emphasize the fact that the car he is driving is not his, or yours, but mine, the speaker can stress the possessive pronoun my, which under normal circumstances is not stressed.3) English has four basic types of intonation, known as the four tones: When spoken in different tones, the same sequence of words may have different meanings. Generally speaking, the falling tone indicates that what is said is a straight-forward, matter-of-fact statement, the rising tone often makes a question of what is said, and the fall-rise tone often indicates that there is an implied message in what is said.61. In what way can we determine whether a phone is a phoneme or not?A basic way to determine the phonemes of a language is to see if substituting one sound for another results in a change of meaning. If it does, the two sounds then represent different phonemes.。

戴炜栋英语语言学概论Chapter 5

戴炜栋英语语言学概论Chapter 5

Major sense relations (主要的意义关系)


Synonymy: the sameness or close similarity of meaning. (同义现象) Polysemy: the same one word may have more than one meaning. (多义现象) Homonymy: different words are identical in sound or spelling, or in both. (同音异义) Hyponymy: the sense relation between a more general, more inclusive word and a more specific word. (下义关系) Antonymy: oppositeness of meaning (反义现象)
The naming theory

Proposed by the ancient Greek scholar Plato. According to this theory, words are just names or labels for things. Limitations: 1) It‘s applicable to nouns only; 2) Even within the category of nouns, there are still some nouns can not be named by physical objects.

Semantics can be simply defined as the study of meaning.
Some views concerning the study of meaning

戴炜栋《新编简明英语语言学教程》课件讲义

戴炜栋《新编简明英语语言学教程》课件讲义

Chapter 1. Introduction
1. What is language?
Language can mean
o what a person says (e.g. bad language, expressions)
o the way of speaking or writing (e.g. Shakespeare’s language, Luxun’s language)
linguistics; o To understand the applications of the
linguistic theories, especially in the fields of language teaching & learning (SLA or TEFL), cross-cultural communication……; o To prepare for the future research work.
Hall’s definition (1968)
o Language is “the institution whereby humans communicate and interact with each other by means of habitually used oral-auditory arbitrary symbols.”
Language can be generally defined as
a system of arbitrary vocal symbols used for human communication.
Language is a system
o Systematic---- rule-governed, elements in it are arranged according to certain rules; can’t be combined at will. e.g. *bkli, *I apple eat.

戴炜栋《新编简明英语语言学教程》笔记和课后习题(含考研真题)详解-第3~5章【圣才出品】

戴炜栋《新编简明英语语言学教程》笔记和课后习题(含考研真题)详解-第3~5章【圣才出品】
III. Morphemes(词素) 【考点:名词解释】 1. Definition(定义) Some words are formed by combining a number of distinct units of meaning. The most basic element of meaning is traditionally called morpheme. In English a single word may consist of one or more morphemes.
派生和曲折诧素 5. Morphological rules of word formation
词诧构成的形态觃则 6. Derivation
派生 7. Compounds
合成词
本章考点: 词法的定义;封闭词不开放词;曲折词不派生词;构词法(合成不派生);词素的定义;
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圣才电子书 十万种考研考证电子书、题库规频学习平台
IV. Analyzing Word Structure(分析词汇结构) 1. Roots: constitute the core of the word and carries the major component of its
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圣才电子书 十万种考研考证电子书、题库规频学习平台

形态学研究词的内部结构以及构词觃则,包括屈折变化和构词法两个领域。
II. Open class and closed class(开放类和封闭类) 1. Open class words: in English, nouns, verbs, adjectives and adverbs make up the largest part of the vocabulary. They are the content words of a language. 开放性词类:在英诧中,名词、动词、形容词和副词占词汇的绝大部分。它们是一门诧 言中的实义词,经常有新词产生。 2. Closed class words: The other syntactic categories include “grammatical” or “functional” words. Conjunctions, prepositions, articles and pronouns consist of relatively few words and new words are not usually added to them. 封闭性词类:其他的句法范畴包括“诧法性的”戒者“功能性的”词。连词、介词、冠 词和代词相对较少,通常丌会增加新词。

戴炜栋-语言学讲课笔记

戴炜栋-语言学讲课笔记

Chapter 1:Introduction1.1 What is linguistics?1.1.1 DefinitionLinguistics is generally defined as the scientific study of language. It tries to answer the basic questions◆What is language?◆How does language work?◆What do all languages have in common? (languageuniversal语言共同性)◆What range of variation(变体) is found amonglanguages? (dialect. Mandarin普通话,accent)◆What makes language change?◆To what extent are social class differencesreflected in language? (sociolinguistics社会语言学)◆How does a child acquire his mother tongue?(language acquisition 语言习得)1.1.2 The scope of linguistics(语言学研究的范围)branches●general linguistics(普通语言学)●phonetics(语音学)●phonology(音系学)●morphology(形态学)●syntax(句法学)●semantics(语义学)Example:boy: human male young animategirl: human female young animate componential analysis 语义成分分析●pragmatics(语用学)It is cold here.Please close the door.I want to put on more clothes.I don’t want to stay here.●sociolinguistics(社会语言学)●psycholinguistics (心理语言学)●applied linguistics(应用语言学)broad sense:广义,narrow sense:狭义=language teaching1.1.3 Some important distinctions in linguistics (语言学中一些重要的概念区分)1.1.3.1 Prescriptive vs. descriptive(规定与描写)If a linguistic study aims to describe and analyze the language people actually use, it is said to be descriptive;If the linguistic study aims to lay down(规定) rules for "correct and standard" behaviour in using language, i.e. to tell people what they should say and what they should not say, it is said to be prescriptive.1.1.3.2 Synchronic(共时语言学) vs. diachronic(历时语言学)●The description of a language at some point of timein history is a synchronic study.●The description of a language as it changes throughtime is a diachronic study. A diachronic study oflanguage is a historical study; it studies thehistorical development of language over a period oftime.1.1.3.3 Speech and writing(言语与文字)Speech and writing are the two major media of linguistic communication. Modern linguistics regards the spoken language as the natural or the primary medium of human language for some obvious reasons. 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.1.1.3.4 Langue and parole(语言与言语)Langue refers to the abstract linguistic system shared by all the members of a speech community.(语言社区)Parole refers to the realization of langue in actual use. (actual use of language,concrete)Differences:1. Langue is abstract; it is not the language people actually use. Parole is concrete; it refers to the naturally occurring language events.(语言事件)2. Langue is relatively stable, it does not change frequently; while parole varies from person to person, and from situation to situation.(Saussure索绪尔)1.1.3.5 Competence and performance(语言能力和语言运用)competence and performance,Chomsky(乔姆斯基)(a prof. at MIT) defines competence(langue) as the ideal user's knowledge of the rules of his language,and performance (parole) the actual realization of this knowledge in linguistic communication. While Saussure's distinction and Chomsky's are very similar, they differ at least in that Saussure took a sociological view of language and his notion of langue is a matter of social conventions, and Chomsky looks at language from a psychological point of view and to him competence isa property of the mind of each individual.1.1.3.6 Traditional grammar and modern linguistics(传统语法与现代语言学)《普通语言学教程》Saussure索绪尔The differences:Firstly, linguistics is descriptive while traditional grammar is prescriptive.Second, modern linguistics regards the spoken language as primary, not the written.Then, modern linguistics differs from traditional grammar also in that it does not force languages into a Latin-based framework of the languages used by mankind.1.2 What is language?1.2.1 Definitions of language◆"Language is a purely human and non-instinctivemethod of communicating ideas, emotions and desiresby means of voluntarily produced symbols." (Sapir,1921)◆Language is "the institution whereby humanscommunicate and interact with each other by means ofhabitually used oral-auditory arbitrary symbols."(Hall, 1968)◆"From now on I will consider language to be a set(finite or infinite) of sentences, each finite inlength and constructed out of a finite set ofelements." (Chomsky, 1957)◆Language is a system of arbitrary (任意的)vocalsymbols used for human communication.First of all, language is a system, i.e., elements of language are combined according to rules.Second, language is arbitrary(任意的) in the sense that there is no intrinsic (天生的,内在的)connection between a linguistic symbol and what the symbol stands for, for instance, between the word "pen" and the thing we write with.(This conventional nature of language is well illustrated by a famous quotation from Shakespeare's play "Romeo and Juliet": "A rose by any other name would smell as sweet.")Third, 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, i.e., it is very different from the communication systems other forms of life possess, such as bird songs and bee dances.1.2.2 Design features(识别特征)1)Arbitrariness(任意性)2) Productivity(多产性)3) Duality(二重性)4) Displacement(移位)5) Cultural transmission(文化传递)Chapter 2: Phonology2.1 The phonic medium of language(语言的语音媒介)Speech and writing are the two media or substances used by natural languages as vehicles for communication. Manylanguages in the world today are both written and spoken. But statistics resulting from careful investigations show that there have been over 5,000 languages in the world, about two thirds of which have not had written form.Of the two media of language, speech is more basic than writing for reasons that were discussed in the last chapter. The writing system of any language is always "invented" by its users to record speech when the need arises.Language is first perceived through its sounds. Thus the study of sounds is of great importance in linguistics. Naturally, linguists are not interested in all sounds; they are concerned only with those sounds that are produced by humans through their speech organs and have a role to play in linguistic communication. These sounds are limited in number. This limited range of sounds which are meaningful in human communication constitute the phonic medium of language(语言的语音媒介); and the individual sounds within this range are the speech sounds (言语语音).2.2 Phonetics(语音学)2.2.1 What is phonetics?Phonetics is defined as the study of the phonic medium of language;it is concerned with all the sounds that occur in the world's languages.Phonetics looks at speech sounds from three distinct but related points of view.First, it studies the sounds from the speaker's point of view, i.e., how a speaker uses his speech organs to articulate the sounds. Then, it looks at the sounds from the hearer's point of view, i.e., how the sounds are perceived by the hearer. Lastly, it studies the way sounds travel by looking at the sound waves, the physical means by which sounds are transmitted through the air from one person to another. These three branches of phonetics are labelled articulatory phonetics(发音语音学), auditory phonetics(听觉语音学), and acoustic phonetics(声学语音学)respectively.Of the three branches of phonetics, articulatory phonetics has the longest history. However, some important facts have also been either discovered or confirmed by acoustic and auditory phonetics, especially by the former. Acoustic phoneticians try to describe the physical properties of the stream of sounds which a speaker issues. To describe these properties, they record the sound waves on machines called spectrographs(频谱仪). By studying the sound waves thus recorded, they have discovered that what might be heard as the same one utterance is only coincidentally, if ever, physically identical. The "same" sounds weclaim to have heard are in most cases only phonetically similar, but rarely phonetically identical. Phonetic similarity, not phonetic identity is the criterion with which we operate in the phonological analysis of languages.2.2.2 Organs of speech(发音器官)The articulatory apparatus of a human being are contained in three important areas: the pharyngeal cavity(咽腔)-- the throat, the oral cavity(口腔)- the mouth, and the nasal cavity(鼻腔)-- the nose. The air stream coming from the lungs may be modified in these cavities in various ways. It may also be modified in the larynx before it reaches any of the cavities. Such modification results from some kind of interference with the movement of the air stream. The principal source of such modifications is the tongue, and the word "language" itself derives from the Latin word "lingua", meaning the "tongue". The pharyngeal cavity Air coming from the lungs and through the windpipe passes through the glottis, a part of the larynx, which is a bony structure at the end of the windpipe. This is the first point where sound modification might occur. Lying across the glottis are the vocal cords. These two thin tissues can be held tightly together to cut off the stream of air, as when one is ' holding his breath'. They can be relaxed and folded back at each side to let airflow through freely and silently as in normal breathing. Then they may also be held together tautly so that the air stream vibrates them at different speeds when forcing its passage through them. 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. Such consonants are voiced. When the vocal cords are drawn wide apart, letting air go through without causing vibration, the sounds produced in such a condition are voiceless. The oral cavity The greatest source of modification of the air stream is found in the oral cavity. The speech organs located in this cavity are the tongue, the uvula, the soft palate (the velum), the hard palate, the teeth ridge (the alveolus), the teeth and the lips.Of all these, the tongue is the most flexible, and is responsible for more varieties of articulation than any other. Obstruction between the back of the tongue and the velar area results in the pronunciation of [k] and [g ]. The narrowing of space between the hard palate and the front of the tongue leads to the sound [j]. The obstruction created between the tip of the tongue and the alveolar ridge results in the sounds [t] and [d]. Partial obstruction between the upper front teeth and the tip of the tongue produces the sounds [θ] and [ð].1. lips唇2. teeth牙齿3. tooth ridge (alveolus)齿龈4. hard palate硬腭5. soft palate (velum) 软腭6. uvula7. tip of tongue8. blade of tongue9. back of tongue10. vocalcords11. pharyngeal cavity12. nasal cavityThe nasal cavityThe nasal cavity is connected with the oral cavity. The soft part of the roof of the mouth, the velum, can be drawn back to close the passage so that all air exiting from the lungs can only go through the mouth. The sounds produced in this condition are not nasalized , such as the vowels and most consonants in English. Then , the passage can also be left opento allow air (or part of it)to exit through the nose. In this case, the sounds pronounced are nasalized, such as the three nasal consonants in English [m], [n], and [η]. Generally, the passage is definitely open or closed. But in some styles of speaking or in some dialects, partial opening may be observed, and the result is speech with a nasal colouring or "twang".2.2.3 Orthographic representation of speech sounds --broad and narrow transcriptionsTowards the end of the nineteenth century, when articulatory phonetics had developed to such an extent in the West that scholars began to feel the need for a standardized and internationally accepted system of phonetic transcription. Thus the International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA) came into being. With minor modifications it is still widely used now. The basic principle of the IPA is using one letter selected from major European languages to represent one speech sound.As some speech sounds produced differ only in some detailed aspects, the IPA provides its users with another set of symbols called diacritics, which are added to the letter-symbols to bring out the finer distinctions than the letters alone may possibly do.Thus two ways to transcribe speech sounds are now available. One is the transcription with letter-symbols only and the other is thetranscription with letter-symbols together with the diacritics. The former is called broad transcription. This is the transcription normally used in dictionaries and teaching textbooks for general purposes. The latter, i. e. the transcription with diacritics, is called narrow transcription. This is the transcription needed and used by the phoneticians in their study of speech sounds. With the help of the diacritics they can faithfully represent as much of the fine details as it is necessary for their purpose.In broad transcription, the symbol [I] is used for the sound [1] in the four words leaf [l i:f], feel [fi:l], build [bild], and health [helθ]. As a matter of fact, the sound [1] in all these four sound combinations differ slightly. The [1] in [li:f ], occurring before a vowel, is called a clear [l], and no diacritic is needed to indicate it; the [1] in [fi:I] and [bild], occurring at the end of a word or before another consonant, is pronounced differently from the clear [1] as in "leaf". It is called dark and in narrow transcription the diacritic [~] is used to indicate it. Then in the sound combination [helθ], the sound [1] is followed by the English dental sound [θ], its pronunciation is somewhat affected by the dental sound that follows it. It is thus called a dental [1], and in narrow transcription the diacritic is used to indicate it. It is transcribed as [helθ].Another example is the consonant [p]. We all know that [p] is pronounced differently in the two words pit and spit. In the word pit, thesound [p] is pronounced with a strong puff of air, but in spit the puff of air is withheld to some extent. In the case of pit, the [p] sound is said to be aspirated and in the case of spit, the [p] sound is unaspirated. This difference is not shown in broad transcription, but in narrow transcription, a small raised "h" is used to show aspiration, thus pit is transcribed as [p h It] and spit is transcribed as [splt].2.2.4 Classification of English speech soundsAn initial classification will divide the speech sounds in English into two broad categories: vowels and consonants. Two definitions of vowels as a general phonetic category are quoted below:"V owels are modifications of the voice-sound that involve no closure, friction, or contact of the tongue or lips." (Bloomfield) "A vowel is defined as a voiced sound in forming which the air issues in a continuous stream through the pharynx and mouth, there being no audible friction." (Jones)The two definitions point to one important feature of vowels, i.e. in producing a vowel the air stream coming from the lungs meets with no obstruction whatsoever. This marks the essential difference between vowels and consonants. In the production of the latter category it is obstructed in one way or another.2.2.4.1 Classification of English consonantsEnglish consonants can be classified in two ways: one is in terms of manner of articulation and the other is in terms of place of articulation.In terms of manner of articulation the English consonants can be classified into the following types:stops: When the obstruction created by the speech organs is total or complete, the speech sound produced with the obstruction audibly released and the air passing out again is called a stop or a plosive. The English stops fall into three pairs: [p][b],[t][d],and [k][g].fricatives: When the obstruction is partial and the air is forced through a narrow passage in the mouth so as to cause definite local friction at the point, the speech sound thus produced is a fricative.affricates: When the obstruction, complete at first, is released slowly with the friction resulting from partial obstruction (as in fricatives), the sounds thus produced are affricates.liquids: When the airflow is obstructed but is allowed to escape through the passage between part or parts of the tongue (the tip or the sides ) and the roof of the mouth, the sounds thus produced are called liquids. The English liquids are [ I ] and [ r ]. [ 1 ] is called a lateral soundbecause in the production of it the surface of the tongue, instead of being more or less flat, is made slightly convex and causes stoppage in the centre of the roof of the mouth while allowing air to pass at the sides. In the production of the other liquid [r], the tip of the tongue is curled back and the air passes over it. It is also called "retroflex".nasals: When the nasal passage is opened by lowering the soft palate at the back of the mouth and air is allowed to pass through it, the sounds thus produced are called nasals. There are three nasals in English [m] [n] and [η].glides: Glides, sometimes called "semivowels", are a rather marginal category. The English glides are [w] and [j], both voiced. They are formed in the same manner as the vowels [u] and [I ], with a narrower passage between the lips or between the tongue and the hard palate to cause some slight noise from the local obstruction.In terms of place of articulation, the English consonants can be classified into the following types:bilabial: In the production of these sounds, the upper and the lower lips are brought together to create obstruction. The English bilabials are [p] [b] [m] [w].labiodental: In the production of these sounds, the lower lip isbrought into contact with the upper teeth, thus creating the obstruction. The labiodental sounds in English are [f] and [v].dental: The obstruction is created between the tip of the tongue and the upper teeth. There are two dental sounds in English; they are [θ] and [ð].alveolar: The tip of the tongue is brought into contact with the upper teeth-ridge to create the obstruction. The alveolar sounds are [t][d][s][z] [n][l][r].palatal: The obstruction is between the back of the tongue and the hard palate.velar: The back of the tongue is brought into contact with the velum, or the soft palate. The sounds thus produced in English are [k][g] and [η].glottal: The vocal cords are Drought momentarily together to create the obstruction. There is only one glottal sound in English, i.e.[h].The two classifications are combined in the table below, with the help of which we can adequately describe a consonant, or identify a consonant when given its phonetic features:2.2.4.2 Classification of English vowelsAs in the production of vowels the air stream meets with no obstruction, they cannot be classified in terms of manner of articulatioa:0r place of articulation as consonants. Other criteria have to be found for their classification. V owel sounds are differentiated by a number of factors: the position of the tongue in the mouth, the openness of the mouth, the shape of the lips, and the length of the vowels.V owels may be distinguished as front, central, and back according to which part of the tongue is held highest. A front vowel is one in the production of which the front part of the tongue main-tains the highest position; If it is the central part of the tongue that is held highest, the vowels thus produced are called central vowels. Then if we raise the 'back of the tongue higher than the rest of it.To further distinguish members of each group, we need to apply another criterion, i.e. the openness of the mouth. Accordingly, we classify the vowels into four groups: close vowels, semi-close vowels, semi-open vowels, and open vowels. The following diagram summarises our classification by applying the two criteria.A third criterion that is often used in the classification of vowels is the shape of the lips. In English, all the front vowels and the central vowels are unrounded vowels, i.e., without rounding the lips, and all the back vowels, with the exception of [a:], are rounded. It should be notedthat some front vowels can be pronounced with rounded lips.After applying the three criteria, we can now aptly describe some of the English vowels. For example, the vowel [e] can be described as front, semi-close, and unrounded. But the feature "unrounded" is usually omitted since all front vowels in English are unrounded.Then the English vowels can also be classified according to the length of the sound. Corresponding to the distinction of long and short vowels is the distinction of tense and lax vowels. The long vowels are all tense vowels and the short vowels are lax vowels. When we pronounce a long vowel, the larynx is in a state of tension, and in the pronunciation of a short vowel, no such tension occurs, the larynx is quite relaxed.So far we have been classifying the individual vowels, also known as monophthongs. In English there are also a number of diphthongs, which are produced by moving from one vowel position to another through intervening positions.2.3 Phonology2.3.1 Phonology and phoneticsBoth phonology and phonetics are concerned with the same aspect of language -- the speech sounds. But while both are related to thestudy of sounds, they differ in their approach and focus. As we have seen in the last section, phonetics is of a general nature; it is interested in all the speech sounds used in all human languages: how they are produced, how they differ from each other, what phonetic features they possess, how they can be classified, etc. Phonology, on the other hand, aims to discover how speech sounds in a language form patterns and how these sounds are used to convey meaning in linguistic communication.Now'let's take the [1] sound in English as an example and see how the same sound can be investigated from both the phonetic and the phonological point of view. As we know, the [1] sound in the two English words leap and peel is pronounced differently. The first one is what we call a clear [l] and the second one a dark .The difference between these two sounds is what the phoneticians are interested in. But phonologically these sounds are regarded to be two versions of the same one basic entity. From the phonological point of view, these two sounds are fundamentally the same, since they have one and the same function in communication, in distinguishing between words and meanings despite their difference in pronunciation. If someone should pronounce the dark in the word :"peel" incorrectly as a clear [l], an English speaker would not for this reason fail to Understand him, he would still understand what action he is talking about but would only find his pronunciationa little bit strange. The phonologists have found that the various versions of the [I] sound do notoccur at random in English; their distribution follows a nicely complementary pattern: we use clear [1] before a vowel, such as loaf, and dark at the end of a word after a vowel or before a consonant, such as tell, quilt. This is an important phonological conclusion. But phonology is concerned with the sound system of a particular language, so the conclusions we reach about the phonology of one language is very often language specific and should not be applied to another language without discretion. What is true in one language may not be true in another language.2.3.2 Phone, phoneme, and allophoneA phone is a phonetic unit or segment. The speech sounds we hear and produce during linguistic communication are all phones. When we hear the following words pronounced: pit, spit, tip, feel, leaf, the phones we have heard are [p h] (as in pit), [p] (as in spit), [p h](as in tip).But a phone does not necessarily distinguish meaning; some do, some don't. For example, [s] and [t] do , as [si:m] and [ti:m] are two words with totally different meanings, and [t h ] and [t ] don't, as [stDp] and [st h op] mean the same to a speaker of English. Again, we should remind ourselves that what does not distinguish meaning in one language may probably do in another language.A phoneme 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. For example, when we pronounce the two words peak and speak, we are aware that the sound [p] is pronounced differently. In the word peak, the [p] sound is pronounced with a strong puff of air stream; but the same stop sound is pronounced slightly differently in the word speak, the puff of air is withheld a little. The [p] sound in peak is called an aspirated [p], and the [p] sound in speak is an nnaspirated [p]. The relation between aspirated [p ] and unaspirated [p] corresponds to that between clear [1 ] and dark: there is a slight difference in the way they are pronounced, but such a difference does not give rise to difference in meaning. So /p/is a phoneme in the English sound system, and it can be realized differently as aspirated or unaspirated in different contexts. Conventionally phones are placed within square brackets, and phonemes in slashes. The different phones which can represent a phoneme in different phonetic environments are called the allophones of that phoneme. For example, the phoneme/1/in English can be realized as dark, clear [1] , etc. which are allophones of the phoneme /1/.Then, how a phoneme is represented by a phone, or which allophone is to be used, is determined by the phonetic context in which it occurs. But the choice of an allophone is not random or haphazard; it isrule-governed. One of the tasks of the phonologists is to find out these rules. The rule that governs the distribution of clear [1] and dark is an example.Although phonemes are the minimal segments of language systems, they are not their minimal elements. A phoneme is further analyzable because it consists of a set of simultaneous distinctive features. It is just because of its distinctive features that a phoneme is capable of distinguishing meaning. A native speaker of English can tell by intuition that the following sound combinations all carry different meanings: [ mæn ], [ pæn ], [ bæn ], [ tæm ], [ ræm ], [ kæn ], [ðæm]. This is because they all contain a different phoneme. The features that a phoneme possesses, making it different from other phonemes, are its distinctive features.2,3.3 Phonemic contrast, complementary distribution, and minimal pairIt can be easily observed that phonetically similar sounds might berelated in two ways. If they are two distinctive phonemes, they are said to form a phonemic contrast, e.g. /p/ and /b/ in [pit]and [bit ], [roup]and [roub]. If they are allophones of the same phoneme, then they do not distinguish meaning, but complement each other in distribution, i.e. they occur in different phonetic environments. For instance, the clear [1]。

戴炜栋主编英语语言学教程第5章课件 _Syntax

戴炜栋主编英语语言学教程第5章课件 _Syntax

4.2 Categories范畴
4.2.1 Word-level categories Category refers to a group of linguistic items which fulfill the same or similar functions in a particular language e.g. a sentence a noun phrase a verb
4.2.2 Phrase categories and their structure短语范畴及结构

Definition: Phrases refer to the syntactic units which are built around a certain word category. 围绕某一词范畴构成的句法单位
The most central categories to the syntactic study are the word-level categories (traditionally, called parts of speech) .
Here, word-level categories are divided into two kinds: major lexical categories and minor lexical categories.
Noam Chomsky [ˈnoʊm ˈtʃɒmski] (1928--)
---- He is an American linguist, philosopher, cognitive scientist, logician,political commentator and activist, the most influential linguist of the 20th century,and was voted the "world's top public intellectual"(世界顶级公共知识分子) in a 2005 poll. Chomsky has spent most of his career at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), where he is currently Professor Emeritus.
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The naming theory

Proposed by the ancient Greek scholar Plato. According to this theory, words are just names or labels for things. Limitations: 1) It‘s applicable to nouns only; 2) Even within the category of nouns, there are still some nouns can not be named by physical objects.
Semantic triangle or triangle of significance (语义三角或意义三角)
THOUGHT/ REFERENCE (ept)
SYMBOL/ FORM…….. REFERENT (所指)
Linguistic element (words, phrases)


grammatical meaning (语法意义): grammaticality (语法性), which is governed by the grammatical rules of the language. semantic meaning (语义意义): is governed by rules called selectional restrictions (选择 限制), i. e. , constraints on what lexical items can go with what others (即对词汇项搭

X entails Y. (Y is an entailment of X.) X 蕴含 Y (Y是 X的一个含义) e.g. X: He has been to France. Y: He has been to Europe. ―He has been to France‖ entails ―He has been to Europe‖ 或者 “He has been to Europe‖ is entailed by ―He has been to France‖. If X is true, Y is necessarily true. If X is false, Y may be true or false. 如果X为真,那么Y必定为假,如果X为假, 那么Y可 能为真也可能为假.
Lexical meaning 词汇意义




Sense and reference (意义和指称) They are related but different aspects of meaning. Sense is concerned with the inherent meaning of the linguistics form. (词典义, 抽象, 与语境无关) Reference means what a linguistic form refers to in the real, physical world. (场景义)


X is a contradiction. (X是一个矛盾) When X is a contradiction, it is invariably false. 当X是一个矛盾时, 它 总是不真实的. e.g. My unmarried sister is married to a bachelor.
(object experienced)
Contextualism


Meaning should be studied in terms of situation, use, context --- elements closely linked with language behavior. J. R. Firth, a leading British linguist is a representative of this approach. Two kinds of context: the situational context and the linguistic context. Eg. The seal could not be found. black hair, black coffee
配的制约).
Predication analysis (述谓结构分析)


proposed by the British linguist G. Leech. In his framework of analysis, the basic unit is called predication, which is the abstraction of the meaning of a sentence. A predication consists of argument(s) (论 元) and predicate (谓词).
Sense relations between sentences


X is synonymous with Y. (X与Y同义) e.g. X: He was a bachelor all his life. Y: He never married all his life. In terms of truth condition, if X is true, Y is true, and if X is false, Y is false. 从真值条件的角度看, 如果X为真,那么Y 也为真,如果X为假, 那么Y也为假.
The conceptualist view


There is no direct link between a linguistic form and what it refers to; rather in the interpretation of meaning they are linked through the mediation of concepts in the mind. Semantic triangle or triangle of significance suggested by Ogden and Richards.


X presupposes Y. (Y is a prerequisite of X.) X 预设Y (Y 是 X的前提) e.g. X: John’s bike needs repairing. Y: John has a bike. ―John‘s bike needs repairing‖ presupposes ―John has a bike‖. If X is true, Y must be true. If X is false, Y is still true. 如果X为真,那么Y必定为真,如果X为假, 那么Y 仍然为真.


X is inconsistent with Y. (X与Y不一致) e.g. X: John is married. Y: John is a bachelor. In terms of truth condition, if X is true, Y is false, and if X is false, Y is true. 从真值条件的角度看, 如果X为真,那么Y 也为假,如果X为假, 那么Y为真.
Behaviorism

Bloomfield defines the meaning of a language form as the “situation in which the speaker utters it and the response it calls forth in the hearer”. ―言者发出该形式的场景和它在听者身上所 起的反应”

Semantics can be simply defined as the study of meaning.
Some views concerning the study of meaning


The naming theory (命名论) The conceptualist view (概念论) Contextualism (语境论) Behaviorism (行为主义论)
We use semantic features to contrast the meanings of different words.
Predication analysis (述谓结构分析) — a way to analyze sentence meaning
Two aspects to sentence meaning:




Bloomfield illustrates his story about Jack and Jill, represented by the figure below. Jill Jack S-----------------r…………s--------------R S: a physical Stimulus r: a verbal response (e.g. say to Jack ‗I am thirsty‖ ) s: a verbal stimulus to Jack R: a non-verbal Response from Jack (e.g. picking the apple for her.
Major sense relations (主要的意义关系)


Synonymy: the sameness or close similarity of meaning. (同义现象) Polysemy: the same one word may have more than one meaning. (多义现象) Homonymy: different words are identical in sound or spelling, or in both. (同音异义) Hyponymy: the sense relation between a more general, more inclusive word and a more specific word. (下义关系) Antonymy: oppositeness of meaning (反义现象)
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