英语语言学术语解释
语言学名词解释
语言学名词解释语言学是研究语言的一门学科，涉及语言的结构、功能、变化和发展等方面的研究。
下面是一些常见的语言学名词及其解释。
1. 语音学（Phonetics）：研究语言中各种语音的产生、传播和感知等方面的学科。
2. 语音语言学（Phonology）：研究语音在特定语言中的音位（音素）和音位组合规则的学科。
3. 语法学（Grammar）：研究语言的句法结构、词法结构和语义结构等方面的学科。
4. 句法学（Syntax）：研究语言中句子的结构和组织方式的学科。
5. 语义学（Semantics）：研究语言中词汇和句子的意义、概念和关系的学科。
6. 词汇学（Lexicology）：研究语言中词汇的组成、形态、构词规则等方面的学科。
7. 词义学（Semantics）：研究词汇中词义的构成、关系和词义的变化等方面的学科。
8. 语用学（Pragmatics）：研究语言在具体语境中的使用方式以及语言的上下文相关性等方面的学科。
9. 文法学（Stylistics）：研究语言使用中的文体、修辞手法、语言风格等方面的学科。
10. 母语（Mother tongue）：一个人从小学会并用于日常交际的语言。
11. 第二语言（Second language）：在学习者的母语之外学习的语言。
12. 语言接触（Language contact）：不同语言之间在社会、文化接触中产生的相互影响和借用的现象。
13. 语言变异（Language variation）：指同一个语言在不同社会、地理和使用者间发生的音、词、句法等方面的变化。
14. 语言变化（Language change）：指语言在漫长的时间内逐渐变化和发展的过程。
15. 语言规范（Language standardization）：制定和规范一个语言的正确用法、标准词汇和语法规则的过程。
16. 语言习得（Language acquisition）：指儿童在自然环境中学习母语的过程。
英语的知识名词解释
英语的知识名词解释在学习英语的过程中，我们会遇到各种各样的专业术语和知识名词。
这些名词既是学习语言的基础，也是了解语言学的关键。
在本文中，我们将对一些英语知识名词进行解释，希望能够帮助读者更好地理解和掌握英语。
1. 语法（Grammar）语法是语言研究和教育的重要组成部分。
它研究句子的结构、词汇的组织和句子的语义，以及句子的正确构造和使用。
掌握语法可以帮助我们更好地理解和运用英语。
2. 词法（Lexis）词法是研究词汇的学科。
它包括研究词的形态和词义。
掌握词法知识能够帮助我们理解和使用单词的不同形式和含义，提高我们的词汇量。
3. 发音（Pronunciation）发音是指人们发出语音的方式。
正确的发音能够让我们更好地进行口语交流。
在学习英语的过程中，我们需要学习和练习正确的发音规则和技巧。
4. 阅读（Reading）阅读是指理解和解释书面材料的过程。
通过阅读，我们可以扩大词汇量，提高语言理解能力，并了解不同类型的文章和写作风格。
5. 写作（Writing）写作是指用书面语言表达思想和观点的过程。
通过写作，我们可以提高自己的表达能力，培养逻辑思维和批判性思维。
6. 听力（Listening）听力是指理解并准确地接收口语信息的能力。
提高听力能力可以帮助我们更好地理解和交流，同时也是学习口语和口语考试的重要基础。
7. 口语（Speaking）口语是指用口头语言进行交流的能力。
通过练习口语，我们可以提高对话和演讲能力，增强和他人的交流能力。
8. 词汇量（Vocabulary）词汇量指的是一个人所掌握的词汇数量。
丰富的词汇量可以使我们更好地表达自己的思想和观点，更容易理解和使用英语。
9. 社交语言（Sociolinguistics）社交语言是研究语言和社会之间关系的学科。
它研究不同社会群体之间的语言差异、语言规范和口语交际规则等。
10. 语用学（Pragmatics）语用学是研究语言使用和交际意义的学科。
语言学名词
语言学名词语言学名词是用来描述和研究语言现象和语言结构的专门术语。
下面是一些常见的语言学名词及其解释：1. 语音学（Phonetics）：研究语音产生、传播和接收的学科，包括音素的分类、语音能力和语音现象等。
2. 语音：语言中的基本声音单位，通过调节声带、口腔和喉咙等发音器官产生。
语音可以被分类为辅音和元音。
3. 辅音（Consonant）：通过喉咙、口腔和鼻腔等部位的阻碍或摩擦，产生的声音单位。
4. 元音（Vowel）：发音器官不受阻碍或摩擦，使空气顺畅通过口腔而产生的声音单位。
5. 语音形式学（Phonology）：研究语音符号在特定语言中的组合和分布规律的学科。
6. 语音规则（Phonological rules）：用来描述声音变化和音系结构的一套规则。
7. 语法学（Grammar）：研究语言结构和组织的学科，包括句法、语义和语用等方面。
8. 句法（Syntax）：研究句子结构和成分之间的关系，以及句子的形式和结构组织。
9. 语义（Semantics）：研究词、短语和句子的意义和含义的学科。
10. 语用学（Pragmatics）：研究语言在特定语用背景下的使用和理解方式。
11. 词汇学（Lexicology）：研究词汇的起源、结构、使用和意义等方面。
12. 词（Word）：语言中的基本意义单位，具有独立的意义和语法功能。
13. 词法（Morphology）：研究词的内部结构、形态变化和构词法的学科。
14. 语素（Morpheme）：语言中的最小意义单位，可以独立存在或者是其他词的构成组成部分。
15. 词义（Word meaning）：词语所表达的概念或事物的内涵。
16. 语篇（Discourse）：由句子和词组组成的扩展语言单位，表达完整的意义。
17. 修辞学（Rhetoric）：研究语言如何用于说服和交流的学科。
18. 语族（Language family）：具有共同源头和结构相似的一组语言。
英语语言学名词解释总结
Chapter 6 SemanticsSemantics: it is generally defined as the study of inherence or intrinsic meaning, the meaning in isolation from the context.The naming theory:命名论it is one of the oldest notions concerning meaning proposed by Plato, which holds the view that the relationship between linguistic forms and what they stand for is one of naming. Its defaults: firstly, the theory seems applicable to nouns only. Secondly, even within the category of nouns, there are nouns which denote things that do not exist in the real world at all or things that do not refer to physical objects, but abstract notions. Finally, some words may have different meanings in different contexts while the same reference may have different names such as “the morning star” and “the evening star”The conceptualist theory: 意念论C. K .Ogden Richard created the semantic triangle to show the indirect relationship between symbols and their supposed referents.Symbol: it refers to the linguistic elements such as word or sentence.Referent: it refers to the object in the world of experience.Context: it refers to what comes before and after a word, phrase, statement, etc. helping to fix the meaning; or refers to circumstances in which an event occurs. Contextualism :情境论、语境论John FirthSituational context: it refers to the particular spatiotemporal situation in which an utterance occurs, the main components of which include, apart from the place and time of the utterance, the speaker and the hearer, the actions they are performing at the time, the various objects and events exists in the situation.The linguistic context: sometimes known as context, it includes a word’s co-occurrence or collocation with another word, which forms part of the “meaning” of a word, and, also the part of text that precedes and follows a particular utterance. For example, the meaning of the word “paper” differs in the two collocations of “a piece of paper” and“a white paper”。
英语语言学名词解释最终版
英语语言学名词解释最终版现代语言学1 language: language is a system of arbitrary vocal symbols used for human communication.1 interlanguage:The type of language produced by nonnative speakers in the process of learning a second language or foreign language.1 Linguistics : Linguistics is generally defined as the scientific study of language2 Phonetics : The study of sounds which are used in linguistics communication is called phonetics.For example,vowels and consonants3 Phonology” : The study of how sounds are put together and used in communication is called phonology.For example,phone,phoneme,and allophone.4 Morphology 形态学:The study of the way in which morphemes are arranged to form words is called morphology.For example,boy and “ish”---boyish,teach---teacher.5 Syntax 句型: The study of how morphemes and words are combined to form sentences is called syntax.For esample,”John like linguistics.”6 Semantics语义学: The study of meaning in language is called semantics. For example,:The seal could not be found.The zoo keeper became worr ied.” The seal could not be found,The king became worried.” Here the word seal means different things.7 Pragmatics语用学: The study of meaning in context of use is called pragma tics.For example, “I do” The word do means different context.二音系学1 Phonetics: The study of sounds that are used in linguistic communication is called phonetics.2 Phonology: The study of how sounds are put together and used in communication is called phonology.3 Phone: Phone can be simply defined as the speech sounds we use when speaking a language. A phone is a phonetic unit or segement. It does not necessarily distinguish meaning; some do,some don’t.4 Phoneme音素: Phonology is concerned with the speech sounds which distinguish meaning. The basic unit in phonology is called phoneme;it is a unit that is of distinctive value.5 allophone同位音: The different phones which can representa phoneme in different phonetic environment are called the allophones of that phoneme.6 Complementary distribution: These two allophones of the same phoneme are said to be in complementary distribution.7 Minimal pair: When two different forms are identical in every way except for one sound segement which occurs in the same place in the stings, the two words are said to form a minimal pair.10 intonation朗诵: When pitch, stress and sound length are tied to the sentence rather than the word in isolation, they are collectively known as intonation. Intonation plays an important role in conveying meaning in almost every language,especially in a language like English{$isbest}三形态学1 morphology: Morphology is a branch of grammer which studies the internal structure of words and the rules by which words are formed.2 inflectional morphology: Inflectional morphology studies the inflections of word-formation.3 derivational morphology: Derivational morphology is the study of word-formation.4 morpheme词素: Morpheme is the smallest meaningful unit of language.5 free morpheme: Free morpheme are the morphemes which are independent units of meaning and can be used freely all by themselces or in combination with other morphemes.6 bound morpheme: Bound morphemes are the morphemes which cannot be used independently but have to be combined with other morphemes, either free or bound, to form a word.7 root: A root is often seen as part of a word; it can never stand by itself although it bears clear,definite meaning; it must becombined with another root or an affix to form a word.8 affix: Affixes are of two types: inflectional and derivational.9 prefix: Prefix occur at the beginning of a word.10 suffix: Suffixes are added to the end of the stems; they modify the meaning of the original word and in many cases change its part of speech.11 derivation: Derivation affixes are added to an existing form to creat a word.Derivation can be viewed as the adding of affixes to stem to form nes words.12 compounding: Like derivation, compounding is another popular and important way of forming new words in English. Compounding can be viewed as the combination of two or sometimes more than two words to creat new words.四句法学1 linguistic competence: Comsky defines competence as theideal user’s knowledge of the rules of his language,and performance the actual realization of this knowledge in linguistic communication.2 sentence : A sentence is a structurally independent unit that usually comprises a number of words to form a complete statement question or command.3 transformation rules: Syntactic movement is governed by transformational rules. The operation of the transformational rules may change the syntactic representation of a sentence.4 D-structure : A sentence may have two levels of syntactic representation. One exists before movement take place, the other occurs after movement take place. In formal linguistic exploration, these two syntactic representation are commonly termed as D-structure.五语义学1 semantics: Semantics can be simply defined as the study of meaning in language.2 sense : Sense is concerned with the inherent meaning of the linguistic form. It is the collection of all the features of the linguistic form; it is abstract and decontextualized.3 reference : 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 experience.4 synonymy 同义词: Synonymy refers to the sameness or close similarity of meaning. Words that are close in meaning are called synonymy.5 polysemy一词多义: Polysemy refers to the fact that the same one word may have more than one meaning.A word having more than one meaning is called a polysemic word.6 antonymy : Antonymy refers to the oppositeness of meaning. Words that are opposite in meaning are called antonyms.7 homonymy :Homonymy refers to the phenomenon that words having different meanings have the same form,i.e. different words are identical in sound or spelling, or in both.8 hyponymy : Hyponymy refers to the sense relation betweena more general, more inclusive word and a more specific word.9 componential analysis : Componential analysis is a way to analyze wprd meaning. It was proposed by structural semanticists.10 grammatical meaning : The grammatical meaning of a sentence refers to its grammaticality,i.e. its grammatical well-formedness. The grammaticality of asentence is governed by the grammatical rules of the language.11 semantic meaning : The semantic meaning of a sentence is governed by rules called selectional restrictions.12 predication : In semantic analysis of a sentence, the basic unit is called predication. The predication is the abstraction of the meaning of a sentence.{$isbest}六语用学1 pragmatics词的活用: Pragmatics can be defined as the study of how speakers of a language use sentences to effect successful communication.2 context: The notion of context is essential to the pragmatic study of language. Generally speaking, it consists of the knowledge that is shared by the speaker and the hearer.3 utterance meaning: Utterance is based on sentence meaning; it is realization of the abstract meaning of a sentencein a real situation of communication, or simply in a context.4 locutionary act:言内行为A locutionary act is the act of utterance words,phrases,clauses. It is the act of conveying literal meaning by means of syntax, lexion and phonology.5 illocutionary act言外行为: An illocutionary act is the act expressing the speaker’s intention; It is the act performed in saying something.6 perlocutionary act:言后行为A illocutionary act is the act performed by or resulting from saying something: it is the consequence of, or the change brought about by the utterance; it is the act performed by saying something.十语言习得1 language acquisition: Language acquisition is concerned with language development in humans. In general, language acquisition refers to children’s development of their first language, that is, the native language of the community in whicha child has been brought up.4 acquisition: According to Krashen,acquisition refers to the gradual and subconscious development of ability in the first language by using it naturally in daily communicative situations.。
(完整word版)语言学术语翻译及术语解释
术语翻译及术语解释汇总术语翻译1. Design features of Ianguage （语言的甄别特征）Arbitrariness （任意性），Duality （二层性 /二重性），Creativity （创造性 /原创性）， Displacement （移位性）,Cultural transmission （文化传播），Interchangeability （可 互换性）2. Functions of language referential 指称功能 poetic 诗学功能 conative 劝慰功能 phatic 寒暄功能ideational function 概念功能 textualfunction 语篇 /文本功能 Performative Function （施为功能）， Phatic communion （寒暄交谈）， 3. Phonetics 语音学）， Morphology （形态学） ，Semantics （语义学）， Articulatory phonetics 发音语音学 Auditory phonetics 听觉语音学 Sociolinguistics 社会语言学 Computationallinguistics 计算语言学 Neurolinguistics神经语言学emotive 情感功能 metalingualfunction 元语言功能 in terpers onal function 人际功能 Informative （信息 /告知功能）， Emotive Function （情感功能） ， Recreational Function （娱乐功能）， Pho no logy （音系/音位学）； Syntax （句法学）；Pragmatics （语用学）Acoustic pho netics 声学语音学 Psycholi nguistics 心理语言学 Anthropological linguistics 人类语言学 Applied linguistics 应用语言学4. Descriptive vs. prescriptive 描写式和规定式Synchronic vs. diachr onic 共时和历时 Lan gue vs. parole 语言和言语Compete nee vs. performa nce§言能力和语言行为5. Vocal tract 声道 （res on at ing cavities 共鸣腔），phary nx 咽腔,oral cavity 口腔 and n asal cavity 鼻腔.其它的一些发音器官：lungs 肺,windpipe （trachea ）气管，vocal folds 声带, larynx 喉,epiglottis 会厌，次声门,pharynx 咽,uvula 小舌,hard palate 硬腭, soft palate 软腭,alveolar ridge 齿龈 6. Consonants and vowels （辅音和元音）A. Manners of articulation 发音方式B. Places of articulation 发音位置7. Stop （or plosive ）爆破音 Fricative 摩擦音 Approximant 近似音Lateral （approximant ）边音 Affricates 塞擦音,trill 颤音 and tap 闪音 Bilabial 双唇音 Labiodental 唇齿音 Dental 齿音 Postal veolar 后齿龈音 Retroflex 卷舌音 Velar 软腭音 Uvular 小舌音, pharyngeal 咽音monophthong vowel: 单元音 diphthongs 双元音 Laxvowels 短元音 Tensed vowels 长元音8. Coarticulation and phonetic transcription 协同发音和标音anticipatory coarticulation 先期协同发音 perseverative coarticulation 后滞协同发音. broad tran scriptio n 宽式标音 narrow tran scripti on 严式标音9. minimal pairs 最小对立体 Phoneme 音位phon emic tran scripti ons 音位转写phon etic tran scripti ons 语音转写 phones 音子 alloph ones 音位变体 compleme ntary distributi on 互补分布Alveolar 齿龈音Palatal 硬腭音glottal 声门音triphthongs 三元音phonetic similarity 发音近似性 Free variation 自 由变体assimilation 同化 regressive assimilation 逆同化progressive assimilatio n 顺同化 phono logical rule 音系规则 Epen thesis 增音binary 二分的Distinctive features 区别特征Endocentric and Exocentric Constructions 向心结构和离心结构subord in ate and coord in ate 从 属和并歹 U The refere ntial theory 指 称理论 Sema ntic tria ngle 语义三角Sense and referenee 涵义和指称Synonymy 同义关系 Antonymy 反义关系 Hyponymy 上下义关系Polysemy 一词多义关系 Homonymy 同音/形异意关系Dialectal synonyms 地域同义词 Stylistic synonyms 风格同义词 Collocati onal synonyms 搭配同义词gradable antonymy 等级反义关系 cover term 覆盖项Marked vs. unm arked terms 标记项和非标记项compleme ntary antonymy 互补反义关系 con verse antonymy 逆向反义关系homoph on es:同音异义词 homographs :同形异义词 complete homonyms sema ntic comp onents 语义部分术语解释1. Design feature 的定义：the defining （最典型的，起决定作用的） properties ofhuma n Ian guage that disti nguish it from any ani mal system of com muni cati on.2. Synchronic 共时：It refers to the description of a Ianguage at some point of time in history.3. Diachronic 历时：It studies the development or history of Ianguage. In other words, it refers tothe description of a Ianguage as it changes through time .4. prescriptive 规定式：A kind of linguistic s tudy aims to lay down rules for“ correctand standard ” behavior in using Ianguage 5. descriptive 描写式:A kind of linguistic study aims to describe and analyze the Ian guagepeople actually use6. Arbitrariness （任意性）：By saying that “Ianguages arbitrary we,mean that there is no logicalconnection betwee n meaning and sound.7. Duality （二层性 /二重性）：it means that Ianguage is a system, which consists of two levels of structures, at the lower level there is the structure of sounds; at the higher level there is the structure of meaning.8. Displaceme nt （移位性）：it mean s that Ian guage can be used to com muni cate about thingsCon ceptual meaning^既念意义 Associative mea ning:联想意义 Conno tative mea ning 内涵意义 Affective meaning 情感意义 Collocative meaning 搭配意义 deno tati on:夕卜延意义Social meaning 社会意义 Reflected meaning 反射意义 Thematic meaning 主位意义 conno tati on:内涵that are not prese nt in our immediate com muni catio nal con text.9. compete nee 语言能力:it refers to an ideal speaker ' s kno wledge of the un derly ingsystem of rules in a Ian guage.10. Performance 语言行为: it refers to the actual use of the language by a speaker in a realcommunicational context.11. Langue 语言: it refers to the speaker 'usnderstanding and knowledge of the language that hespeaks.12. Parole 言语: it is the actual speaking of language by an individual speaker.13. Cultural transmission （文化传播）:It refers to the fact that the details of the linguistic systemmust be learned ane（w 重新，再）by each speaker. Language is not transmitted biologically from generation to generation.14. Phatic communion （寒暄交谈）：it refers to ritual exchanges, exchanges that have littlemeaning but help to maintain our relationships with other people.15. Pho netics（语音学）:it is the study of the characteristics of speech soundsand providesmethods for their description, classification and transcription.16. Vowels 元音：the sounds in the production of which no articulators come very close togetherand the air-stream passes through the vocal tract without obstruction.17. Consonants 辅音：The sounds in the production of which there is an obstruction of theair-stream at some point of the vocal trac.t18. Phonology: it is the study of the sound systems of languages and it is concerned with thelinguistic patterning of sounds in human languages. And it studies the way in which speakers of a language systematically use a selection of these sounds in order to express meaning.19. Phoneme音位:the smallest unit of sound in a Ianguage which can distinguish two words.20. Allophone 音位变体: it refers to the different forms of a phoneme.21. Assimilation: it is a process by which one sound takes on some or all the characteristics of aneighboring sound.22. Coarticulation: a kind of phonetic process in which simultaneous or overlapping articulationsare involved.23. complementary distribution 互补分布: when two sounds never occur in the same environment,they are in complementary distribution.24. Free variation 自由变体: if two sounds occurring in the same environment do not contrast,that is, the substitution of one for the other does not produce a different word form, but merelya different pronunciation of the same word, then the two sounds are in free variation.25. Distinctive features 区别特征：A phonetic feature which distinguishes one phonological unit,especially one phoneme, from another.26. minimal pairs 最小对立体 --- which can be defined as pairs of words whichdiffer from each other by only one sound.27. vowel glides 滑音: The vowels involving movement from one sound to another are calledvowel glides.28. Epenthesis增音：it means a process of inserting a sound after another sound.29. Substitution relation: it refers to the relation specifically between an individual unit and othersthat can replace it in a given sequence.30. Endocentric construction is one whose distribution is functionally equivalent, or approachingequivalence, to one of its constituents, which serves as the centre, or head, of the whole.31. Exocentric construction: a group of syntactically related words where none of them isfunctionally equivalent to the group as a whole, that is, there is no definable center or head inside the group32. Reference: it is the relationship between words and the objects, actions or properties that thewords stand for. It deals with the extra-linguistic relationships betwee n words and expressi ons and the world they describe 具体的物质性的东西）33. Synonymy ：It refers to the sameness sense relations between words.34. Componential analysis ：Componential analysis defines the meaning of a lexical element interms of semantic components 语义部分.35. Sense:it refers to the complex system of relationships that hold between linguistic elementsthemselves, it is concerned only with intra-linguistic relations.（概念性的东西）36. Semantics：semantics is the study of the meaning of linguistic units, words and sentences inparticular.37. Homonymy: the phenomenon that words having different meanings have the same form, i.e.,different words are identical in sound or spelling, or in both.38. Antonymy ：It refers to the oppositeness sense relations between words.39. Hyponymy 上下义关系：Hyponymy indicates sense inclusiveness. The upper term in thissenserelation is called superordinate 上义词, and the lower terms, hyponyms 下义词, members of the same class are callecdo-hyponyms.。
(完整)语言学名词解释
Chapter 1: Introduction1. Linguistics: Linguistics is generally defined as the scientific study of language.8. langue: Lange refers to the abstract linguistic system shared by all the members of aspeech community.9. parole :Parole refers to the realization of langue in actual use.10. competence : The ideal user’s knowledge of the rules of his language.11.performance : The actual realization of this knowledge in linguistic communication.12. language : Language is a system of arbitrary vocal symbols used for human communication.13.design features : Design features refer to the defining properties of humanlanguage that distinguish it from any animal system of communication.14. arbitrariness: Arbitrariness refers to no logical connection between meaning andsound.15. productivity: Users can understand and produce sentences t hat they have neverheard before.16. duality: Language consists of two sets of structure, with lower lever of sound,which is meaningless, and the higher lever of meaning.17. displacement: Language can be used to refer to the contexts removed from theimmediate situation of the speaker no matter how far away from the topic ofconversation in time or space.18. cultural transmission: Language is culturally transmitted. It is taught and learnedfrom one generation to the next, rather than by instinct.Chapter 2: Phonology1. phonic medium : The meaningful speech sound in human communication.2. phonetics : The study of phonic medium of language and it is concerned with allsounds in t he world’s languages.3. articulatory phonetics : It studies sounds from the speaker’s point of view, i.e. ha speaker uses his speech organs to articulate the sounds.the4. auditory phonetics: The studies sounds from the hearer’s point of view, i.e. how sounds are perceived by the hearer.5. acoustic phonetics: 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 personto another.6. voicing: the way that sounds are produced with the vibration of the vocal cords.7. voiceless: the way that sounds are produced with no vibration of the vocal cords.8. broad transcription: The use of letter symbols only to show the sounds or soundssequences in written form.9. narrow transcription: The use of letter symbol, together with the diacritics to showsounds in written form.10. diacritics: The symbols used to show detailed articulatory features of sounds.11. IPA: short for International Phonetic Alphabets, a system of symbols consists ofletters and diacritics, used to represent the pronunciation of words in any language.12. aspiration: A little puff of air that sometimes follows a speech sound.13. manner of articulation : The manner in which obstruction is created.14. place of articulation : The place where obstruction is created.15. consonant: a speech s ound in which the air stream is obstructed in one way or another.16. vowel : a speech sound in which the air stream from the lung meets with no obstruction.17. monophthong : the individual vowel.18. diphthong : The vowel which consists of two individual vowels, and functions as a single one.19. phone : The speech sound we use when speaking a language.20. phoneme : The smallest unit of sound in a language which can distinguish two sounds.21. allophone : any different forms of the same phoneme in different phonetic environments.22. phonology : The description of sound systems of particular languages and how sounds function to distinguish meaning.23. phonemic contrast : two similar sounds occur in the same environment and distinguish meaning.24. complementary distribution : allophones of the same phoneme and they don’t distinguish meaning but complement each other in distribution.25. minimal pair: two different forms are identical in every way except one sound and occurs in the same position. The two sounds are said to form a minimal pair.26. sequential rules: The rules to govern the combination of sounds in a particular language.27. assimilation rule: The rule assimilates one sound to another by copying a featureof a sequential phoneme, thus making the two phones similar.28. deletion rule: The rule that a sound is to be deleted although it is orthographically represented.29. suprasegmental features: The phonemic features that occur above the level of the segments----syllable, word, sentence.30. tone: Tones are pitch variations, which are caused by the differing rates of vibration of the vocal cords.31. intonation: When pitch, stress and sound length are tied to the sentence rather than the word in isolation, they are collectively known as intonation.Chapter 3: Morphology1. morphology: A branch of linguistics that studies the internal structure of words and rules for word formation.2. open class: A group of words, which contains an unlimited number of items, and new words can be added to it.3. closed class: A relatively few words, including conjunctions, prepositions and pronouns, and new words are not usually added to them.4. morpheme: The smallest unit of meaning of a language. It can not be divided without altering or destroying its meaning.5. affix: a letter or a group of letter, which is added to a word, and which changes themeaning or function of the word, including prefix, infix and suffix.6. suffix: The affix, which is added to the end of a word, and which usually changesthe part of speech of a word.7. prefix: The affix, which is added to the beginning of a word, and which usuallychanges the meaning of a word to its opposite.8. bound morpheme: Morpheme that can not be used alone, and it must be combinedwit others. E.g. –ment.9. free morpheme: a morpheme that can stand alone as a word.10. derivational morpheme: Bound morpheme, which can be added to a stem to forma new word.11. inflectional morpheme: A kind of morpheme, which are used to make grammatical categories, such as number, tense and case.12. morphological rules: The ways words are formed. These rules determine howmorphemes combine to form words.13. compound words: A combination of two or more words, which functions as asingle words14. inflection: the morphological process which adjusts words by grammatical modification, e.g. in The rains came, rain is inflected for plurality and came for pasttense.Chapter 4: Syntax1. syntax: A branch of linguistics that studies how words are combined to formsentences and the rules that govern the formation of sentences.2. category: It refers to a group of linguistic items which fulfill the same or similarfunctions in a particular language such as a sentence, a noun phrase or a verb.6. phrase: syntactic units that are built around a certain word category are calledphrase, the category of which is determined by the word category around which thephrase is built.8. head: The word round which phrase is formed is termed head.9. specifier: The words on the left side of the heads are said to function as specifiers.10. complement: The words on the right side of the heads are complements.11. phrase structure rule: The special type of grammatical mechanism that regulatesthe arrangement of elements that make up a phrase is called a phrase structure rule.14. coordination: Some structures are formed by joining two or more elements of thesame type with the help of a conjunction such as and or or. Such phenomenon isknown as coordination.15. subcategorization: The information about a word’s complement is included in the head and termed suncategorization.16. complementizer: Words which introduce the sentence complement are termed complementizer.17. complement clause: The sentence i ntroduced by the complementizer is called acomplement clause.18. complement phrase: the elements, including a complementizer and a complementclause is called a complement phrase.19. matrix clause: the contrusction in which the complement phrase is embedded iscalled matrix clause.20. modifier: the element, which specifies optionally expressible properties of headsis called modifier.21. transformation : a special type of rule that can move an element from one position to another22. inversion : the process of transformation that moves the auxiliary from the Infl position to a position to the left of the subject, is called inversion.23. Do insertion : In the process of forming yes-no question that does not contain an overt Infl, interrogative do is inserted into an empty Infl positon to make transformation work.24. deep structure : A level of abstract syntactic representation formed by the XP rule.25. surface structure : A level of syntactic representation after applying the necessary syntactic movement, i.e., transformation, to the deep structure. (05)26. universal grammar: the innateness principles and properties that pertain to the grammars of all human languages.Chapter 5: Semantics1. semantics: Semantics can be simply defined as the study of meaning.3. sense : Sense is concerned with the inherent meaning of the linguistic form. It is the collection of all the features of the linguistic form. It is abstract and de-contexturalized. It is the aspect of meaning dictionary compilers are interested in.4. reference : 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 experience.5. synonymy: Synonymy refers to the sameness or close similarity of meaning. Words that are close in meaning are called synonyms.6. dialectal synonyms: synonyms that are used in different regional dialects.7. stylistic synonyms: synonyms that differ in style, or degree of formality.8. collocational synonyms: Synonyms that differ in their colllocation, i.e., in the words they go together with.9. polysemy : The same word has more than one meaning.10. homonymy: Homonymy refers to the phenomenon that words having different meanings have the same form, i.e., different words are identical in sound or spelling, or in both.11. homophones: When two words are identical in sound, they are homophones.12. homographs: When two words are identical in spelling, they are homographs.13. complete homonymy: When two words are identical in both sound and spelling, they are complete homonyms.14. hyponymy: Hyponymy refers to the sense relation between a more general, more inclusive word and a more specific word.15. superordinate: The word which is more general in meaning is called the superordinate.16. co-hyponyms: Hyponyms of the same superordinate are co-hyponyms.17. antonymy: The term antonymy is used for oppositeness of meaning.20. relational opposites: Pairs if words that exhibit the reversal of a relationshipbetween the two items are called relational opposites. For example, husband---wife,father---son, buy---sell, let---rent, above---below.21. entailment: the relationship between two sentences w here the truth of one isinferred from the truth of the other. E.g. Cindy killed the dog entails the dog is dead.22. presupposition: What a speaker or writer assumes that the receiver of the massagealready knows. e.g. Some tea has already been taken is a presupposition of Take somemore tea.Chapter 6: Pragmatics1. pragmatics: The study of how speakers uses sentences to effect successful communication.2. context: The general knowledge shared by the speakers and the hearers.3. sentence meaning: The meaning of a self-contained unit with abstract andde-contextualized features.4. utterance meaning: The meaning that a speaker conveys by using a particularutterance in a particular context.5. utterance: expression produced in a particular context with a particular intention.6. Speech Act Theory: The theory proposed by John Austin and deepened by Searle,which believes that we are performing actions when we are speaking.7. constatives: Constatives are statements t hat either state or describe, and are thusverifiable.8. performatives: Pe rformatives are sentences that don’t state a fact or describe a state, and are not verifiable.9. locutionary act: The act of conveying literal meaning by virtue of syntax, lexiconand phonology.ntention and performed in10. illocutionary act: The act of expressing the speaker’s isaying something.11. perlocutionary act: The act resulting from saying something and the consequenceor the change brought about by the utterance.12. representatives: Stating or describing, saying what the speaker believes to be true.13. directives: Trying to get the hearer to do something.17. cooperative Principle: The principle that the participants must first of all bewilling to cooperate in making conversation, otherwise, it would be impossible tocarry on the talk.18. conversational implicature: The use of conversational maxims to imply meaningduring conversation.Chapter 7: Language Change8. acronyms: Acronyms are words derived from the initials of several words.9. protolanguage: The original form of a language family, which has ceased to exist.10. Language family: A group of historically related languages that have developedfrom a common ancestral language.Chapter 8: Language And Society1. sociolinguistics: The subfield of linguistics that study language variation andlanguage use in social contexts.2. speech community: A group of people who form a community and share at leastone speech variety as well as similar linguistic norms.3. speech varieties: It refers to any distinguishable form of speech used by a speakeror a group of speakers.4. regional dialect: A variety of language used by people living in the same geographical region.5. sociolect: A variety of language used by people, who belong to a particular socialclass.6. registers : The type of language which is selected as appropriate to the type of situation.dialect of an individual speaker that combines elements,7. idiolect : A person’sregarding regional, social, gender and age variations.8. linguistic reportoire : The totality of linguistic varieties possessed by an individualconstitutes his linguistic repertoire.9. register theory : A theory proposed by American linguist Halliday, who believedthat three social variables determine the register, namely, field of discourse, tenor ofdiscourse and mode of discourse.10. field of discourse : the purpose and subject matter of the communicative behavior..11. tenor of discourse: It refers to the role of relationship in the situation in question:who the participants in the communication groups are and in what relationship theystand to each other.12. mode of discourse: It refers to the means of communication and it is concernedwith how communication is carried out.13. standard dialect: A superposed variety of language of a community or nation,usually based on the speech and writing of educated native speakers of the language.14. formality: It refers to the degree of formality in different occasions and reflects the relationship and conversations. According to Martin Joos, there are five stages of formality, namely, intimate, casual, consultative, formal and frozen.15. Pidgin: A blending of several language, developing as a contact language ofpeople, who speak different languages, try to communication with one another on aregular basis.16. Creole : A pidgin language which has become the native language of a group ofspeakers used in this daily life.17. bilingualism : The use of two different languages side by side with each having adifferent role to play, and language switching occurs when the situation changes.(07C)18. diaglossia : A sociolinguistic situation in which two different varieties of languageco-exist in a speech community, each having a definite role to play.19. Lingua Franca : A variety of language that serves as a medium of communicationamong groups of people, who speak different native languages or dialects20. code-switching: the movement back and forth between two languages or dialectswithin the same sentence or discourse.Chapter 10: Language Acquisition1. language acquisition: It refers to the child’s acquisition of his mother tongue, i.e. how the child comes to understand and speak the language of his community.2. language acquisition device (LAD): A hypothetical innate mechanism every normalhuman child is believed to be born with, which allow them to acquire language.3. Universal Grammar: A theory which claims to account for the grammatical competence of every adult no matter what language he or she speaks.4. motherese: A special speech to children used by adults, which is characterized with slow rate of speed, high pitch, rich intonation, shorter and simpler sentence structures etc.----又叫child directed speech，caretaker talk.5. Critical Period Hypothesis: The hypothesis that the time span between early childhood and puberty is the critical period for language acquisition, during which children can acquire language without formal instruction successfully and effortlessly.6. under-extension: Use a word with less than its usual range of denotation.7. over-extension: Extension of the meaning of a word beyond its usual domain of application by young children.8. telegraphic speech: Childre n’s early multiword speech that contains content words and lacks function words and inflectional morphemes.9. content word: Words referring to things, quality, state or action, which have lexical meaning used alone.10. function word: Words with little meaning on their own but show grammatical relationships in and between sentences.11. taboo: Words known to speakers but avoided in some contexts of speech for reasons of religion, politeness etc.12. atypical development: Some acquisition of language may be delayed but followthe same rules of language development due to trauma or injury.Chapter 11 : Second Language Acquisition1. second language acquisition: It refers to the systematic study of how one person acquires a second language subsequent to his native language.2. target language: The language to be acquired by the second language learner.3. second language: A second language is a language which is not a native language ina country but which is widely used as a medium of communication and which is usually used alongside another language or languages.4. foreign language: A foreign language is a language which is taught as a school subject but which is not used as a medium of instruction in schools nor as a language of communication within a country.5. interlanguage: A type of language produced by second and foreign language learners, who are in the process of learning a language, and this type of language usually contains wrong expressions.6. fossilization: In second or foreign language learning, there is a process which sometimes occurs in which incorrect linguistic features become a permanent part ofthe way a person speaks or writes a language.14. overgeneralization: The use of previously available strategies in new situations, in which they are unacceptable.15. cross-association: s ome words are similar in meaning as well as spelling and pronunciation. This internal interference is called cross-association.16. error: the production of incorrect forms in speech or writing by a non-native speaker of a second language, due to his incomplete knowledge of the rules of thattarget language.17. mistake: mistakes, defined as either intentionally or unintentionally deviant formsand self-corrigible, suggest failure in performance.18. input: language which a learner hears or receives and from which he or she canlearn.19. intake: the input which is actually helpful for the learner.20. Input Hypothesis: A hypothesis proposed by Krashen , which states that in secondor the learner to understand input language whichlanguage learning, it’s necessary fpresent linguisticcontains linguistic items that are slightly beyond the learner’scompetence. E ventually the ability to produce language is said to emerge naturallywithout being taught directly.21. acquisition: Acquisition is a process similar to the way children acquire their firstlanguage. It is a subconscious process without minute learning of grammatical rules.Learners are hardly aware of their learning but they are using language to communicate. It is also called implicit learning, informal learning or natural learning.23. comprehensible input: Input language which contains linguistic items that aresent linguistic competence.slightly beyond the learner’s pre24. language aptitude: the natural ability to learn a language, not includingintelligence, motivation, interest, etc.25. motivation: motivation is defined as the learner’s attitudes and affective state or learning drive.26. instrumental motivation: the motivation that people learn a foreign language forinstrumental goals such as passing exams, or furthering a career etc.27. integrative motivation: the drive that people learn a foreign language because ofthe wish to identify with the target culture.28. resultative motivation: the drive that learners learn a second language for externalpurposes.29. intrinsic motivation: the drive that learners learn the second language forenjoyment or pleasure from learning.Chapter 12 : Language And Brain1. neurolinguistics: It is the study of relationship between brain and language. Itincludes research into how the structure of the brain influences language learning,how and in which parts of the brain language is stored, and how damage to the brainaffects the ability to use language.2. psycholinguistics: the study of language processing. It is concerned with theprocesses of language acqisition, comprehension and production.7. aphasia: It refers to a number of acquired language disorders due to the cerebrallesions caused by a tumor, an accident and so on.13. spoonerism: a slip of tongue in which the position of sounds, syllables, or words isreversed, for example, Let’s have chish and fips instend of Let’s have fish and ch 14. priming: the process that before the participants make a decision whether thestring of letters is a word or not, they are presented with an activated word.15. frequency effect: Subjects take less time to make judgement on frequently usedwords than to judge less commonly used words . This phenomenon is calledfrequency effect.16. lexical decision: an experiment that let participants judge whether a string of letter is a word or not at a certain time.18. priming effect: Since the mental representation is activated through the prime, when the target is presented, r esponse time is shorter that it otherwise would have been. This is called the priming effect.。
英语语言学常见名词解释
英语语言学常见名词解释1. What is language?“Language is system of arbitrary vocal symbols used for human communication. It is a system, since linguistic elements are arranged systematically, rather than randomly. Arbitrary, in the sense that there is usually no intrinsic connection between a work (like ―book‖) and the object it refers to. This explains and is explained by the fact that different languages have different ―books‖: ―book‖ in English, ―livre‖ in French, ―shu‖ in Chinese. It is symbolic, because word s are associated with objects, actions, ideas etc. by nothing but convention. Namely, people use the sounds or vocal forms to symbolize what they wish to refer to. It is vocal, because sound or speech is the primary medium for all human languages. Writing systems came much later than the spoken forms. The fact that small children learn and can only learn to speak (and listen) before they write (and read) also indicates that language is primarily vocal, rather than written. The term ―human‖ in the definition is meant to specify that language is human specific.2. What are design features of language?“Design features‖ here refer to the defining properties of human language that tell the difference between human language and any system of animal communication. They are arbitrariness, duality, productivity, displacement, cultural transmission and interchangeability3. What is arbitrariness?By ―arbitrariness‖, we mean there is no logical connection between meanings and sounds. A dog might be a pig if only the first person or group of persons had used it for a pig. Language is therefore largely arbitrary. But language is not absolutely seem to be some sound-meaning association, if we think of echo words, like ―bang‖, ―crash‖, ―roar‖, which are motivated in a certain sense. Secondly, some compounds (words compounded to be one word) are not entirely arbitrary either. ―Type‖ and ―write‖ are opaque or unmotivated words, while ―type-writer‖ is less so, or more transparent or motivated than the words that make it. So w e can say ―arbitrariness‖ is a matter of degree.4. What is duality?Linguists refer ―duality‖ (of structure) to the fact that in all languages so far investigated, one finds two levels of structure or patterning. At the first, higher level, language is analyzed in terms of combinations of meaningful units (such as morphemes, words etc.); at the second, lower level, it is seen as a sequence of segments which lack any meaning in themselves, but which combine to form units of meaning. According to Hu Zhanglin et al., language is a system of two sets of structures, one of sounds and the other of meaning. This is important for the workings of language.A small number of semantic units (words), and these units of meaning can be arranged and rearranged into an infinite number of sentences (note that we have dictionaries of words, but no dictionary of sentences!). Duality makes it possible for a person to talk about anything within his knowledge. No animal communication system enjoys this duality.5. What is productivity?Productivity refers to the ability to the ability to construct and understand an indefinitely large number of sentences in one‘s native language, including those that has never heard before, but that are appropriate to the speaking situation. No one has ever said or heard ―A red-eyed elephant is dancing on the small hotel bed with an African gibbon‖, but he can say it when necessary, and he can understand it in right register. Different from artistic creativity, though, productivity never goes out side the language, thus also called ―rule-bound creativity‖ (by N.Chomsky).6.What is displacement?“Displacement‖, as one of the design features of the human language, refers to the fact that one can talk about things that are not present, as easily as he does things present. In other words, one can refer to real and unreal things, things of the past, of the present, of the future. Language itself can be talked about too. When a man, for example, is crying to a woman, about something, it might be something that had occurred, or something that is occurring, or something that is to occur. When a dog is barking, however, you can decide it is barking for something or at someone that exists now and there. It couldn‘t be bow-wowing sorrowfully for a bone to be l ost. The bee‘s system, nonetheless, has a small share of ―displacement‖, but it is an unspeakable tiny share.7.What is cultural transmission?This means that language is not biologically transmitted from generation to generation, but that the details of the linguistic system must be learned anew by each speaker. It is true that the capacity for language in human beings (N. Chomsky called it ―language acquisition device‖, or LAD) has a genetic basis, but the particular language a person learns to speak is a cultural one other than a genetic one like the dog‘s barking system. If a human being is brought up in isolation he cannot acquire language. The Wolf Child reared by the pack of wolves turned out to speak the wolf‘s roaring ―tongue‖ when he was saved. He learned thereafter, with no small difficulty, the ABC of a certain human language.8. What is interchangeability?Interchangeability means that any human being can be both a producer and a receiver of messages. Though some people suggest that there is sex differentiation in the actual language use, in other words, men and women may say different things, yet in principle there is no sound, or word or sentence that a man can utter and a woman cannot, or vice versa. On the other hand, a person can be the speaker while the other person is the listener and as the turn moves on to the listener, he can be the speaker and the first speaker is to listen. It is turn-taking that makes social communication possible and acceptable. Some male birds, however, utter some calls which females do not (or cannot). When a dog barks, all the neighboring dogs bark. Then people around can hardly tell which dog (dogs) is (are) ―speaking‖ and which listening.9.Why do linguists say language is human specific?First of all, human la nguage has six ―design features‖ which animal communication systems do not have, at least not in the true sense of them. Secondly, linguists have done a lot trying to teach animals such as chimpanzees to speak a human language but have achieved nothing inspiring. Washoe, a female chimpanzee, was brought up like a human child by Beatnice and Alan Gardner. She was taught ―American sign Language‖, and learned a little that made the teachers happy butdid mot make the linguistics circle happy, for few believed in teaching chimpanzees. Thirdly, a human child reared among animals cannot speak a human language, not even when he is taken back and taught to do so.10. What functions does language have?Language has at least seven functions: phatic, directive, Informative, interrogative, expressive, evocative and performative. According to Wang Gang (1988,p.11), language has three main functions: a tool of communication, a tool whereby people learn about the world, and a tool by which people learn about the world, and a tool by which people create art . M .A. K. Halliday, representative of the London school, recognizes three ―Macro-Functions‖: ideational, interpersonal and textual.11. What is the phatic function?The ―phatic function‖ refers to language being used fo r setting up a certain atmosphere or maintaining social contacts(rather than for exchanging information or ideas). Greetings, farewells, and comments on the weather in English and on clothing in Chinese all serve this function. Much of the phatic language (e.g. ―How are you?‖ ―Fine, thanks.‖) is insincere if taken literally, but it is important. If you don't say ―Hello‖ to a friend you meet, or if you don‘t answer his ―Hi‖, you ruin your friendship.12. What is the directive function?The ―directive function‖ means that language may be used to get the hearer to do something. Most imperative sentences perform this function, e. g., ―Tell me the result when you finish.‖ Other syntactic structures or sentences of other sorts can, according to J. Austin and J. S earle‘s ―Indirect speech act theory‖ at least, serve the purpose of direction too, e.g., ―If I were you, I would have blushed to the bottom of my ears!‖13. What is the informative function?Language serves an ―informational function‖ when used to tell so mething, characterized by the use of declarative sentences. Informative statements are often labelled as true (truth) or false (falsehood). According to P. Grice‘s ―Cooperative Principle‖, one ought not to violate the ―Maxim of Quality‖, when he is informi ng at all.14. What is the interrogative function?When language is used to obtain information, it serves an ―interrogative function‖. This includes all questions that expect replies, statements, imperatives etc., according to the ―indirect speech act the ory‖, may have this function as well, e.g., ―I‘d like to know you better.‖ This may bring forth a lot of personal information. Note that rhetorical questions make an exception, since they demand no answer, at least not the reader‘s/listener‘s answer.15. What is the expressive function?The ―expressive function‖ is the use of language to reveal something about the feelings or attitudes of the speaker. Subconscious emotional ejaculations are good examples, like ―Good heavens!‖ ―My God!‖ Sentences like ―I‘m sorry about the delay‖ can serve as good examples too,though in a subtle way. While language is used for the informative function to pass judgment on the truth or falsehood of statements, language used for the expressive function evaluates, appraises or a sserts the speaker‘s own attitudes.16. What is the evocative function?The ―evocative function‖ is the use of language to create certain feelings in the hearer. Its aim is , for example, to amuse, startle, antagonize, soothe, worry or please. Jokes(not practical jokes, though) are supposed to amuse or entertain the listener; advertising to urge customers to purchase certain commodities; propaganda to influence public opinion. Obviously, the expressive and the evocative functions often go together, i.e., you may express, for example, your personal feelings about a political issue but end up by evoking the same feeling in, or imposing it on, your listener. That‘s also the case with the other way round.17. What is the performative function?This means peopl e speak to ―do things‖ or perform actions. On certain occasions the utterance itself as an action is more important than what words or sounds constitute the uttered sentence. The judge‘s imprisonment sentence, the president‘s war or independence declaratio n, etc., are performatives.18. What is linguistics?“Linguistics‖ is the scientific study of language. It studies not just one language of any one society, but the language of all human beings. A linguist, though, does not have to know and use a large number of languages, but to investigate how each language is constructed. He is also concerned with how a language varies from dialect to dialect, from class to class, how it changes from century to century, how children acquire their mother tongue, and perhaps how a person learns or should learn a foreign language. In short, linguistics studies the general principles whereupon all human languages are constructed and operate as systems of communication in their societies or communities.19. What makes linguistics a science?Since linguistics is the scientific study of language, it ought to base itself upon the systematic, investigation of language data which aims at discovering the true nature of language and its underlying system. To make sense of the data, a linguist usually has conceived some hypotheses about the language structure, to be checked against the observed or observable facts. In order to make his analysis scientific, a linguist is usually guided by four principles: exhaustiveness, consistency, and objectivity. Exhaustiveness means he should gather all the materials relevant to the study and give them an adequate explanation, in spite of the complicatedness. He is to leave no linguistic ―stone‖ unturned. Consistency means there should be no contra diction between different parts of the total statement. Economy means a linguist should pursue brevity in the analysis when it is possible. Objectivity implies that since some people may be subjective in the study, a linguist should be (or sound at least) objective, matter-of-face, faithful to reality, so that his work constitutes part of the linguistics research.20. What are the major branches of linguistics?The study of language as a whole is often called general linguistics. But a linguist sometimes is able to deal with only one aspect of language at a time, thus the arise of various branches: phonetics, phonology, morphology, syntax, semantics, pragmatics, sociolinguistics, applied linguistics, psycholinguistics etc.21. What are synchronic and diachronic studies?The description of a language at some point of time (as if it stopped developing) is a synchrony study (synchrony). The description of a language as it changes through time is a diachronic study (diachronic). An essay entitled ―On the Use of THE‖, for example, may be synchronic, if the author does not recall the past of THE, and it may also be diachronic if he claims to cover a large range or period of time wherein THE has undergone tremendous alteration.22. What is speech and what is writing?No one needs the repetition of the general principle of linguistic analysis, namely, the primacy of speech over writing. Speech is primary, because it existed long long before writing systems came into being. Genetically children learn to speak before learning to write. Secondly, written forms just represent in this way or that the speech sounds: individual sounds, as in English and French as in Japanese. In contrast to speech, spoken form of language, writing as written codes, gives language new scope and use that speech does not have. Firstly, messages can be carried through space so that people can write to each other. Secondly, messages can be carried through time thereby, so that people of our time can be carried through time thereby, so that people of our time can read Beowulf, Samuel Johnson, and Edgar A. Poe. Thirdly, oral messages are readily subject to distortion, either intentional or unintentional, while written messages allow and encourage repeated unalterable reading. Most modern linguistic analysis is focused on speech, different from grammarians of the last century and theretofore.23. What are the differences between the descriptive and the prescriptive approaches?A linguistic study is ―descriptive‖ if it only describes and analyses the f acts of language, and ―prescriptive‖ if it tries to lay down rules for ―correct‖ language behavior. Linguistic studies before this century were largely prescriptive because many early grammars were largely prescriptive because many early grammars were base d on ―high‖ (literary or religious) written records. Modern linguistics is mostly descriptive, however. It (the latter) believes that whatever occurs in natural speech (hesitation, incomplete utterance, misunderstanding, etc.) should be described in the analysis, and not be marked as incorrect, abnormal, corrupt, or lousy. These, with changes in vocabulary and structures, need to be explained also.24. What is the difference between langue and parole?F. de Saussure refers ―langue‖ to the abstract linguist ic system shared by all the members of a speech community and refers ―parole‖ to the actual or actualized language, or the realization of langue. Langue is abstract, parole specific to the speaking situation; langue not actually spoken by an individual, parole always a naturally occurring event; langue relatively stable and systematic, parole is a mass of confused facts, thus not suitable for systematic investigation. What a linguist ought to do, according to Saussure, is to abstract langue from instances of parole, i.e. to discover the regularities governing all instances of parole and make than the subject of linguistics. The langue-parole distinction is of great importance, which casts great influence on later linguists.25. What is the difference between competence and performance?According to N. Chomsky, ―competence‖ is the ideal language user‘s knowledge of the rules of his language, and ―performance‖ is the actual realization of this knowledge in utterances. The former enables a speaker to produce and understand an indefinite number of sentences and to recognize grammatical mistakes and ambiguities. A speaker‘s competence is stable while his performance is often influenced by psychological and social factors. So a speaker‘s performance does not always match or equal his supposed competence. Chomsky believes that linguists ought to study competence, rather than performance. In other words, they should discover what an ideal speaker knows of his native language. Chomsky‘s competence-performance distinction is not exactly the same as, though similar to, F. de Saussure‘s langue-parole distinction. Langue is a social product, and a set of conventions for a community, while competence is deemed as a property of the mind of each individual. Sussure looks at language more from a sociological or sociolinguistic point of view than N. Chomsky since the latter deals with his issues psychologically or psycholinguistically.26. What is linguistic potential? What is actual linguistic behaviour?These two terms, or the potential-behavior distinction, were made by M. A. K. Halliday in the 1960s, from a functional point of view. There is a wide range of things a speaker can do in his culture, and similarly there are many things he can say, for example, to many people, on many topics. What he actually says (i.e. his ―actual linguistic behavior‖) on a certain occasion to a certain person is what he has chosen from many possible injustice items, each of which he could have said (linguistic potential).27. In what way do language, competence and linguistic potential agree? In what way do they differ? And their counterparts?Langue, competence and linguistic potential have some similar features, but they are innately different. Langue is a social product, and a set of speaking conventions; competence is a property or attribute of each ideal speaker‘s mind; linguistic potential is all the linguistic corpus or repertoire available from which the speaker chooses items for the actual utterance situation. In other words, langue is in visible but reliable abstract system. Competence means ―knowing‖, and linguistic potential a set of possibilities for ―doing‖ or ―performing actions‖. They are similar in that they all refer to the constant underlying the utterances that constitute what Saussure, Chomsky and Halliday respectively called parole, performance and actual linguistic behavior. Parole, performance and actual linguistic behavior enjoy more similarities than differences.28. What is phonetics?“Phonetics‖ is the science which studi es the characteristics of human sound-making, especially those sounds used in speech, and provides methods for their description, classification and transcription, speech sounds may be studied in different ways, thus by three different branches of phonetics. (1) Articulatory phonetics; the branch of phonetics that examines the way in which a speech sound is produced to discover which vocal organs are involved and how they coordinate in the process. (2) Auditory phonetics, the branch of phonetic research fro m the hearer‘s point of view, looking into the impression which a speech sound makes on the hearer as mediated by theear, the auditory nerve and the brain. (3) Acoustic phonetics: the study of the physical properties of speech sounds, as transmitted between mouth and ear. Most phoneticians, however, are interested in articulatory phonetics.29. How are the vocal organs formed?The vocal organs or speech organs, are organs of the human body whose secondary use is in the production of speech sounds. The vocal organs can be considered as consisting of three parts; the initiator of the air-stream, the producer of voice and the resonating cavities.30. What is place of articulation?It refers to the place in the mouth where, for example, the obstruction occurs, resulting in the utterance of a consonant. Whatever sound is pronounced, at least some vocal organs will get involved, e.g. lips, hard palate etc., so a consonant may be one of the following (1) bilabial: [p, b, m]; (2) ]; (4) alveolar:[t, d, l, n, s, z]; (5)T, Plabiodental: [f, v]; (3) dental:[ retroflex; (6) palato-alveolar:[ ]; (7) palatal:[j]; (8) velar[ k, g]; (9) uvular; (10) glottal:[h]. Some sounds involve the simultaneous use of two places of articulation. For example, the English [w] has both an approximation of the two lips and that two lips and that of the tongue and the soft palate, and may be termed ―labial-velar‖.31. What is the manner of articulation?The ―manner of articulation‖ literally means the way a sound is articulated. At a given place of articulation, the airstream may be obstructed in various ways, resulting in various manners of articulation, are the following: (1) plosive:[p, b, t, d, k, g]; (2) nasal:[m, n,]; (3) trill; (4) tap or flap;(5) lateral:[l]; (6) fricative:[f, v, s, z]; (7) approximant:[w, j]; (8) affricate:[ ].32. What is IPA? When did it come into being ?The IPA, abbreviation of ―International Phonetic Alphabet‖, is a compromise system making use of symbols of all sources, including diacritics indicating length, stress and intonation, indicating phonetic variation. Ever since it was developed in 1888, IPA has undergone a number of revisions.33. What is narrow transcription and what is broad transcription?In handbook of phonetics, Henry Sweet made a distinct ion between ―narrow‖ and ―broad‖ transcriptions, which he called ―Narrow Romic‖. The former was meant to symbolize all the possible speech sounds, including even the most minute shades of pronunciation while Broad Romic or transcription was intended to indicate only those sounds capable of distinguishing one word from another in a given language.34. What is phonology? What is difference between phonetics and phonology?“Phonology‖ is the study of sound systems- the invention of distinctive speech sounds that occur in a language and the patterns wherein they fall. Minimal pair, phonemes, allophones, free variation, complementary distribution, etc., are all to be investigated by a phonologist. Phonetics is the branch of linguistics studying the characteristics of speech sounds and provides methods for their description, classification and transcription. A phonetist is mainly interested in the physical properties of the speech sounds, whereas a phonologist studies what he believes are meaningful sounds related with their semantic features, morphological features, and the way they areconceived and printed in the depth of the mind phonological knowledge permits a speaker to produce sounds which from meaningful utterances, to recognize a foreign ―accent‖, to make up new words, to add the appropriate phonetic segments to from plurals and past tenses, to know what is and what is not a sound in one‘s language.35. What is a phone? What is a phoneme? What is an allophone?A ―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], [tip], [spit], etc., the similar phones we have heard are [p] for one thing, and three different [p]s, readily making pos sible the ―narrow transcription or diacritics‖. Phones may and may not distinguish meaning. A ―phoneme‖ is a phonological unit; it is a unit that is of distinctive value. As an abstract unit, a phoneme is not any particular sound, but rather it is represented or realized by a certain phone in a certain phonetic context. For example, the phoneme[p] is represented differently in [pit], [tip] and [spit]. The phones representing a phoneme are called its ―allophones‖, i.e., the different (i.e., phones) but do not make one word so phonetically different as to create a new word or a new meaning thereof. So the different [p] s in the above words are the allophones of the same phoneme [p]. 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. In most cases it is rule-governed; these rules are to be found out by a phonologist.36. What are minimal pairs?When two different phonetic forms are identical in every way except for one sound segment which occurs in the same place in the string, the two forms (i. e., word) are supposed to form a ―minimal pair‖, e.g., ―pill‖ and ―bill‖, ―pill‖ and ―till‖, ―till‖ and ―dill‖, ―till‖ and ―kill‖, etc. All the se words together constitute a minimal set. They are identical in form except for the initial consonants. There are many minimal pairs in English, which makes it relatively easy to know what are English phonemes. It is of great importance to find the minimal pairs when a phonologist is dealing with the sound system of an unknown language.37. What is free variation?If two sounds occurring in the same environment do not contrast; namely, if the substitution of one for the other does not generate a new word form but merely a different pronunciation of the same word, the two sounds then are said to be in ―free variation”. The plosives, for example, may not be exploded when they occur before another plosive or a nasal (e. g., act, apt, good morning). The minute distinctions may, if necessary, be transcribed in diacritics. These unexploded and exploded plosives are in free variation. Sounds in free variation should be assigned to the same phoneme.38. What is complementary distribution?When two sounds never oc cur in the same environment, they are in ―complementary distribution‖. For example, the aspirated English plosives never occur after [s], and the unsaturated ones never occur initially. Sounds in complementary distribution may be assigned to the same phoneme. The allophones of [l], for example, are also in complementary distribution. The clear [l] occurs only before a vowel, the voiceless equivalent of [l] occurs only after a voiceless consonant, such as in the words ―please‖, ―butler‖, ―clear‖, etc., and t he dark [l] occurs only after a vowel or as asyllabic sound after a consonant, such as in the words ―feel‖, ―help‖, ―middle‖, etc.39. What is the assimilation rule? What is the deletion rule?The ―assimilation rule‖ assimilates one segment to another by―copying‖ a feature of a sequential phoneme, thus making the two phones more similar. This rule accounts for the raring pronunciation of the nasal [n] that occurs within a word. The rule is that within a word the nasal consonant[n] assumes the same place of articulation as the following consonant. The negative prefix ―in-― serves as a good example. It may be pronounced as [in], [i] or [im] when occurring in different phonetic contexts: e. g., indiscrete-[ ] (alveolar) inconceivable-[ ](velar) input-[‗imput] (bilabial)The ―deletion rule‖ tells us when a sound is to be deleted although is orthographically represented. While the letter ―g‖ is mute in ―sign‖, ―design‖ and ―paradigm‖, it is pronounced in their corresponding derivatives: ―signature‖, ―designation‖ and ―paradigmatic‖. The rule then can be stated as: delete a [g] when it occurs before a final nasal consonant. This accounts for some of the seeming irregularities of the English spelling.40. What is suprasegmental phonology? What are suprasegmental features?“Suprasegmental phonology‖ refers to the study of phonological properties of linguistic units larger than the segment called phoneme, such as syllable, length and pitch, stress, intonation.41. What is morphology?“Morphology‖ is the br anch of grammar that studies the internal structure of words, and the rules by which words are formed. It is generally divided into two fields: inflectional morphology and lexical/derivational morphology.42. What is inflection/inflexion?“Inflection‖ is the manifestation of grammatical relationships through the addition of inflectional affixes, such as number, person, finiteness, aspect, and case, which does not change the grammatical class of the items to which they are attached.43. What is a morpheme? What is an allomorph?The ―morpheme‖ is the smallest unit in terms of relationship between expression and content, a unit which cannot be divided without destroying or drastically altering the meaning, whether it is lexical or grammatical. The word ―boxes‖, for example, has two morphemes: ―box‖ and ―-es‖, neither of which permits further division or analysis if we don‘t wish to sacrifice meaning. Therefore a morpheme is considered the minimal unit of meaning. Allomorphs, like allophones vs. phones, are the alternate shapes (and thus phonetic forms) of the same morphemes. Some morphemes, though, have no more than one invariable form in all contexts, such as ―dog‖, ―cat‖, etc. The variants of the plurality ―-s‖ make the allomorphs thereof in the following exa mples: map-maps, mouse-mice, sheep-sheep etc.44. What is a free morpheme? What is a bound morpheme?A ―free morpheme‖ is a morpheme that constitutes a word by itself, such as ‗bed‖, ―tree‖, etc. A ―bound morpheme‖ is one that appears with at least another morpheme, such as ―-s‖ in ―beds‖,。
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GLOSSARY
Topic 1
arbitrary Describes the property of language, including sign language, whereby there is no natural or intrinsic relationship between the way a word is pronounced (or signed) and its
meaning.
descriptive grammar A linguist’s description or model of the mental grammar, including the units, structures, and rules. An explicit statement of what speakers know about their language. Cf. prescriptive grammar, teaching grammar.
grammar The mental representation of a speaker’s linguistic competenc e; what a speaker knows about a language, including its phonology, morphology, syntax, semantics, and lexicon.
A linguistic description of a speaker’s mental grammar.
lexicon The component of the grammar containing speakers’ knowledge about morphemes and words; a speaker’s mental dictionary.
morphology The study of the structure of words; the component of the grammar that includes the rules of word formation.
phonology The sound system of a language; the component of a grammar that includes the inventory of sounds (phonetic and phonemic units) and rules for their combination and
pronunciation; the study of the sound systems of all languages.
semantics The study of the linguistic meaning of morphemes, words, phrases, and sentences.
sign languages The languages used by deaf people in which linguistic units such as morphemes and words as well as grammatical relations are formed by manual and other body movements.
syntax The rules of sentence formation; the component of the mental grammar that represents sp eakers’ knowledge of the structure of phrases and sentences.
Universal Grammar (UG) The innate principles and properties that pertain to the grammars of all human languages.
Chapter 2
anomia A form of aphasia in which patients have word-finding difficulties.
aphasia Language loss or disorders following brain damage.
cortex The approximately ten billion neurons that form the outside surface of the brain;
also referred to as gray matter.
critical age hypothesis The theory that states that there is a window of time between early childhood and puberty for learning a first language, and beyond which first language acquisition is almost always incomplete.
lateralization, lateralized Term used to refer to cognitive functions localized to one or the other side of the brain.
magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) A technique to investigate the molecular structures in human organs including the brain, which may be used to identify sites of brain lesions.
neurolinguistics The branch of linguistics concerned with the brain mechanisms that underlie the acquisition and use of human language; the study of the neurobiology of language.
positron-emission tomography (PET) Method to detect changes in brain activities and relate these changes to localized brain damage and cognitive tasks.
savant Individual who shows special abilities in one cognitive area while being deficient in others. Linguistic savants have extraordinary language abilities but are deficient in
general intelligence.
specific language impairment (SLI) Difficulty in acquiring language faced by certain children with no other cognitive deficits.
Chapter 3
acronym Word composed of the initials of several words, e.g., PET scan from positron-emission tomography scan.
compound A word composed of two or more words, e.g., washcloth, childproof cap.
form Phonological or gestural representation of a morpheme or word.
lexicon The component of the grammar containing speakers’ knowledge about morphemes and words; a speaker’s mental dictionary.
meaning The conceptual or semantic aspect of a sign or utterance that permits us to comprehend the message being conveyed. Expressions in language generally have both form —
pronunciation or gesture — and meaning. Cf. extension, intension, sense, reference.
morpheme Smallest unit of linguistic meaning or function, e.g., sheepdogs contains three
morphemes
morphological
rules
Rules for combining morphemes to form stems and words.
morphology The study of the structure of words; the component of the grammar that includes the rules of word formation.
open class The class of lexical content words; a category of words that commonly adds new words,
e.g., nouns, verbs.
orthography The written form of a language; spelling.。