英语专业语言学课件

Linguistics is a systematic study of language. ?Language is a system of verbal, arbitrary symbols for human communications.

3. Design features of language

Design features: the features that define human languages.

▲arbitrariness

▲duality

▲creativity

▲displacement

4. Do animals have languages?

5. Perspectives of language studies

Language involves three activities:

a. Human brain

b. muscular activity of the body

c. social activity

?5.1 Language as innate天生的human knowledge Noam Chomsky (1928-)

?Institute Professor; Professor of Linguistics Language Acquisition Device (LAD) or Universal Grammar (UG)

language acquisition is innately(biologically ) determined, that we‘re born with a genetic capacity that predisposes us to a systematic perception of language around us, resulting in the construction of an internalized system of language. (innateness hypotheses)

?Cook(1985) defines UG as being made up of ―the language properties inherent in the human mind.‖

?There are 2 components which contribute to language acquisition:

※the innate knowledge of the learner (UG: principles)

※the environment (parameter)

?5.2 Language as a fixed code

Language is a code, namely, it is the sets of phonological, morphological, syntactic and semantic rules that, together with the lexicon, can be used to construct any or all sentences of a language; ?when these sentences are combined into larger units, we get texts.

?5.3 Language as a system

?5.4 Language as interaction

?― Language and communication are the two sides of the sa me coin‖.

Implications for classroom teaching ?（1）to provide opportunities for communication. ?

?（2）To provide opportunities for group work.

6. Functions of language

?6.1 Referential function

Informational信息的, or referential指示的, or ideational概念的function is associated with what objects and ideas are called and how events are described.

?6.2 Interpersonal function

It is concerned with interaction betw. the addresser and addressee in a discourse 交谈situation and the addresser‘s attitude toward what he speaks or writes about.

?6.3 Performative function

?6.4. Emotive function (in the hearer)

?6.5 Phatic communion

?Different cultures have different topics of phatic交流感情的communion:

6.6 Recreational function

7. Important distinctions in linguistics

Linguistic pairs

(1) Competence能力& Performance表现Competence: one‘s underlying潜在的knowledge of a system, event, or fact; non-observable ability to do sth., to perform sth.

?Performance: overtly明显的observable and concrete manifestation or realization of competence; the actual doing of sth.

Language competence and performance ?(2) Descriptive(描述式) vs. prescriptive (规定式)

? A linguistic study is descriptive if it describes and analyses facts observed; it is prescriptive if it tries to lay down rules for ―correct‖ behaviour.

?Put it differently, if a linguist talks about ―what is in language or ―what people actually say‖, he is descriptive; if he tells people ―what should be in language‖

?Or ― what people should say‖, he is prescriptive.

(3) Synchronic (共时)and Diachronic (历时)

The description of a language at some point in time is a synchronic study; the description of a language as it changes through time is a diachronic study.

(4) Langue and parole

This is a distinction made by the Swiss linguist F. de Saussure early last century. Langue refers to the abstract linguistic system shared by all the members of a speech community; Parole refers to the actualized language, or realization of langue.

?Langue: the structure of the language ?Parole: the actual utterances

?This pair is similar to the pair of competence and performance.

Session 2: major branches of linguistics ?1. Phonetics语音学and phonology音韵学

Phonetics is the science which studies the characteristics of human sound-making, especially those sounds used in speech, and provides methods for their description, classification and transcription录音.

◆articulatory phonetics(发音语音学)

auditory phonetics(听觉语音学) ?acoustic phonetics(声学语音学) ?Phonology is the study of sound systems–the inventory of distinctive sounds that occur in a language and the patterns into which they fall. Phonology identifies the set of speech sounds for each language, how they are arranged to form meaningful units, and the function of each sound..

Phonology reveals what the possible combinations of sounds in a language are and explains why certain words take the form they do.

2. Morphology

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

?3. Syntax

the study of how sentences are properly formed out of words of a language.

4. Semantics

the study of meaning

?

5. Pragmatics

?In daily conversations, we see participants successfully communicating because they share certain kinds of ―background information‘ and expectations: each other‘s ?biographies‘, the way conversations are organized, how they are to interpret

each other‘s meanings and intentions,

?how they can regulate and co-ordinate turn-taking, what and how they must contribute in order for the conversation to work.

?In other words, participants reveal their linguistic and communicative competence in relating linguistic forms to the context of the communication and in using their cognitive ?powers‘ to work out logically the state of play of the interaction. the study of meaning in actual situations; sp eaker‘s meaning, utterance meaning or contextual meaning; language in use.

Pragmatics = meaning - semantics Pragmatics: the study of the use of language in communication, particularly the relationship between sentences & the contexts and situations in which they are used. It includes the study of :

Morris(1976) distinguishes syntax, semantics and pragmatics in the following way:

Syntactics (syntax): the relation among linguistic signs。

Semantics: the relation between these signs and their referents;

Pragmatics: the relation between these signs and their users.

Major theories in pragmatics

★Speech act theory

a. Representative:

John Langshaw Austin(1911-1960)

— not a linguist, but a philosopher

— His ideas on language were set out in a series of lectures in Oxford University.

b. definition of speech act

A speech act is a form of words which, if spoken or written in appropriate conditions, and under appropriate conventions, actually constitutes the performance of an action. Austin calls them ― performatives‖

c. Performatives(施为句）

Performative verbs

1. The utterance itself means the action;

2. If you don‘t speak out, you can‘t do something.

d. Locutionary act, Illocutionary act & Perlocutionary act

?Locutionary act（表述性言语行为）: It is the basic act of utterance, or producing a meaningful linguistic expression from the language.

It is the level of grammar. It refers to the act of saying sth. except that you are tongue-tied. Illocutionary act（施为性言语行为）

An act performed in saying sth. This act is actually the intention of the speaker. It is performed via the communicative force of an utterance.

Perlocutinary act(成事性言语行为）

An act performed by or as the result of saying, an act of affecting the hearer. This act means the effect created by an utterance with a function on the hearer.

★C onversational implicature ?What is conversation?

Conversation is face-to-face (not necessarily so) oral interaction between two or more participants. It is more than merely the exchange of information by using grammar and vocabulary. ?Language and communications are at the heart of human experiences.

2.Interpretable

3Conversational implicature

an additional unstated meaning that has to be assumed; speakers can implicate something beyond the words spoken.

4 Cooperative principle

It is a basic assumption in conversation that each participant will attempt to contribute appropriately, at the required time, to the current exchange of talk.

II.Put forward by the famous linguistic philosopher H P Grice (1975). He summed up the CP in this way: ―make your conversation contribution such as is required, at the stage at which it occurs, by the accepted purpose or direction of the talk exchange in which you are engaged‖

4条准则Quantity, Quality, Relation and Manner

?Quantity (two maxims格言)

i) make your contribution as informative as required

ii) do not make your contribution more informative than is required.

?Quality

i) do not say what you believe to

be false;

ii) do not say that for which you

lack adequate evidence.

Relation

Be relevant; make your contribution relevant to the aims of the ongoing conversation. ?Manner (how)

i) avoid obscurity of expression

ii) avoid ambiguity

iii) be brief

iv) be orderly

?Definition 1 of relevance : An assumption is relevant in a context if and only if it has some contextual effect in that context ?Contextual effects: Information is relevant to you if it interacts with your existing assumptions. definition 2 of relevance:

?An assumption is relevant to an individual at a given time if and only if it is relevant in one or more of the contexts available to that individual at that time. ?definition 3 of relevance : ?Relevance is not just defined as a property of assumptions in the mind, but also as a property of phenomena( stimuli, eg. Utterances) in the environment which lead to the construction of assumptions.