语言学笔记

《简明英语语言学》笔记

Chapter 1 Introduction

What is linguistics?

●Definition: the scientific study of language.

● A discipline that data and theory stand in a dialectical complementation;

that is, a theory without the support of data can hardly claim validity, and data without being explained by some theory remain a muddled mass of things.

●The scope of linguistics:

✧General linguistics: study language as a whole

✧Specific aspects:

1)Phonetics: the study of sounds

2)Phonology: how sounds are put together and used to convey meaning

3)Morphology: how symbols are formed and combined to form word

4)Syntax: study the rules of how to form grammatically correct sentence

5)Semantics: the study of meaning

6)Pragmatics: the study of meaning in the context of language use

✧Interdisciplinary branches:

1)Sociolinguistics

2)Psycholinguistics

3)Applied linguistics

●Important distinctions

✧Prescriptive and descriptive:

1)Descriptive: Describe and analyze the language that people actually

use

2)Prescriptive: Lay down rules for correct and standard behavior in

using language

3)Modern language is mostly descriptive. Modern language, which is

scientific and objective, describes language people actually use, be it

correct or not.

✧Synchronic and diachronic

1)Synchronic: describe language at some point of time in history, al-

ways in its current existence.

2)Diachronic: the description of language as it changes through time; it

studies the historical development of language over a period of time.

3)In modern linguistics, synchronic approach enjoys priority.

✧Speech and writing

Speech is prior to writing in linguistics, for it is more natural and reveals

more true feature of language.

✧Langue and parole

1)Langue: abstract system shared by all members of language com-

munity; it is the set of conventions and rules that language users have

abide by

2)Parole: Concrete use of language.

3)Saussure: 1) parole is simply a mass of linguistic language facts; 2)

linguist should abstract langue from parole, i.e. to discover the regu-

larities governing the actual use of language

✧Competence and Performance-American linguist Chomsky

1)Competence: knowledge of rules of language

2)Performance: the realization of this knowledge in linguistic commu-

nication

3)The imperfect performance is caused by social and psychological

factors.

✧Traditional grammar and modern linguistics

1)Linguistics is descriptive while traditional grammar is prescriptive.

2)Modern linguistics regard spoken language as primary.

3)Modern linguistics does not force languages into Latin-based

framework.

What is language?

●Definition of language

✧Language is a system of arbitrary vocal symbols used for human com-

munication.

1)Language is a system, which means elements of language are com-

bined according to rules.

2)Language is arbitrary in the sense that there is no intrinsic connection

between a linguistic symbol and what the symbol stands for.

3)Language is vocal because the primary medium for all language is

sound.

4)Language is human-specific.

●Design feature

1)Arbitrariness: logical connection between meaning and sounds.

While some words are motivated: the first are onomatopoeic words,

such as rumble, crash, bang; the second are compound words, e.g.

photocopy. This kind of words only make up small percentage of

vocabulary. The arbitrary nature of language is a sign of sophistica-

tion of language and make it possible for language to have an unlim-

ited source of expressions.

2)Productivity: language is productive or creative in that it makes

possible the construction and interpretation of new signals by its us-

ers.

3)Duality: basic level: a structure of sounds

Higher level: sounds of language can be rearranged into

morphemes and words

4)Displacement: 不受时空限制的