最新英语语言学名词
现代语言学
一绪论
1 Linguisitics: 语言学Linguistics is generally defined as the scientific study of language
2 Phonetics: 语音学The study of sounds which are used in linguistics communication is called phonetics. For example, vowels and consonants 元音、辅音、声调、重音以及节奏、音变
3 Phonology: 音韵学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: 句法学The study of how morphemes and words are combined to form sentences is called syntax. For example, ”John like linguisti cs.”
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 worried. The seal could not be found, The king became worried.” Here the word seal means different things. 同义词、反义词，同音词
7 Pragmatics: 语用学The study of meaning in context of use is called pragmatics. For example, “I do” The word do means different context.在特定情景中的特定话语，研究如何通过语境来理解和使用语言。
8 Sociolinguistics: 社会语言The study of language with reference to society is called sociolinguistics. For example:regional dialects, social variation in language.
方言，
9 Psycholinguistics: 语言心理The study of language with reference to workings of mind is called psycholinguistics.
二音系学
1 Phonetics: 语音学The study of sounds that are used in linguistic communication is called phonetics.
2 Phonology: 音韵The study of how sounds are put together and used in communication is called phonology.
3 Phone: 语音Phone 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; some do, some don’t.
4 Phoneme: 音素；音位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: 音位变体The different phones which can represent a phoneme in different phonetic environment are called the allophones of that phoneme.
6 Complementary distribution: 互补分布，语言学专业名词。当两个语言成分（辅音、元音、词素等）不能在同一个环境中出现，即可形成语言互补分布。These two allophones of the same phoneme are said to be in complementary distribution.
7 Minimal pair: 最小对，在一种语言中，在某一方面差异最小的一组成分When two different forms are identical in every way except for one sound segment which occurs in the same place in the stings, the two words are said to form a minimal pair.
8 Stress: 重读When a certain syllable of a word is stressed, it means that the syllable is pronounced with great force than the other or others.
9 tones: 声调Tones are pitch variation, which are caused by the different rates of vibration of the vocal cords. Pitch variations can distinguish meaning just like phoneme; therefore, the tone is a suprasegemental feature.
10 Intonation: 语调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
三形态学
1 morphology: 形态学Morphology is a branch of grammer which studies the internal structure of words and the rules by which words are formed.
2 inflectional morphology:曲折形态学Inflectional morphology studies the inflections of word-formation.
3 derivational morphology:派生形态学Derivational morphology is the study of word-formation.
4 morpheme: Morpheme is the smallest meaningful unit of language.
5 free morpheme: 自由语素Free morpheme are the morphemes which are independent units of meaning and can be used freely all by themselves or in combination with other morphemes.
6 bound morpheme: 黏着词素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 be combined with another root or an affix to form a word.
8 affix: 词缀Affixes are of two types: inflectional and derivational.
9 prefix: 前缀Prefix occur at the beginning of a word.
10 suffix: 后缀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: 派生Derivation affixes are added to an existing form to create a word. Derivation can be viewed as the adding of affixes to stem to form nes words.
12 compounding: 复合词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 create new words.
四句法学
1 linguistic competence: Comsky defines competence as the ideal 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.
5 Move а : Just as there is a general rule for all phrase structure rules,i,e. the X-bar schema, there is a general movement rule accounting for the syntactic behavior of any constituent movement. This movement rule is called Move а
五语义学
1 semantics: 语义学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: 反义词Antonymy refers to the oppositeness of meaning. Words that are opposite in meaning are called antonyms.
7 homonymy:同音异意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:下义关系Hyponymy refers to the sense relation between a more general, more inclusive word and a more specific word.
9 componential analysis: 成分分析Componential analysis is a way to analyze wprd meaning. It was proposed by structural semanticists.
10 grammatical meaning: 语法意义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: 预言In semantic analysis of a sentence, the basic unit is called predication. The predication is the abstraction of the meaning of a sentence.
六语用学
1 pragmatics: Pragmatics can be defined as the study of how speakers of a language use sentences to effect successful communication.
2 context:语境，上下文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:话语意义Utterance is based on sentence meaning; it is realization of the abstract meaning of a sentence in 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.
七历史语言学
1 historical linguistics: Historical linguistics is the subfield of linguistics that studies language change.
2 apocope: 字尾音消失（省略）Another well-documented sound loss is the deletion of a word-final vowel segement, a phenomenon called apocope.
3 epenthesis: 插入音A change that involves the insertion of a consonant or vowel sound to the middle of a word is known as epenthesis.
4 metathesis: 音位转换，语音异位Sound change as a result of sound movement is known as metathesis.
5 compounding: Compounding is a process of combining two or more words into one lexical unit.
6 derivation: Derivation refers to the process by which new words are formed by the addition of affixes to the roots.
英语语言学名词解释(2)
现代语言学 一绪论 1. Linguistics: Linguistics is generally defined as the scientific study of language 2 Phonetics: The study of sounds which are used in linguistics communication is called phonetics. For example, vowels and consonants. 3 Phonology: The study of how sounds are put together and used in communication is called phonology.For example,phone,phoneme,and allophone. 4 Morphology :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 : The study of how morphemes and words are combined to form sentences is called syntax.For esample,”John like linguistics.” 6 Semantics: The study of meaning in language is called semantics. For example,:The seal could not be found.The zoo keeper became worried.” The seal could not be found,The king became worried.” Here the word seal means different things. 7 Pragmatics: The study of meaning in context of use is called pragmatics.For example, “I do” The word do means different context. 8 Sociolinguistics: The study of language with reference to society is called sociolinguistics.For example,regional dialects,social variation in language. 9Psycholinguistics: The study of language with reference to workings of mind is called psycholinguistics. 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: 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: The different phones which can represent a 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. 8 Stress: When a certain syllable of a word is stressed, it means that the syllable is prounced with great force than the other or others. 9 tones: Tones are pitch variation, which are caused by the different rates of vibration of the vocal cords. Pitch variations can distinguish meaning just like phoneme; therefore, the tone is a suprasegemental feature. 10 intonation: 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.
英语语言学讲解
《英语语言学概论》课程教学大纲 一、课程说明: 《语言学概论》课程是英语专业本科阶段的一门必修课。 《语言学概论》研究始于20 世纪初，其目的是揭示人类深层结构，对语言和语言交际作出客观、科学描述。现已形成了语音学、音系学、形态学、句法学、语义学、语用学等一系分支学科。语言学研究社会学等人文学科的结合逐步形成了社会语言学这样的交叉学科。 对于主修语言学的学生来说，了解语言学的知识和语言理论是完全必要和有益的。 本课程的对象是英语专业高年级学生，在本科阶段第6学期和第7 学期开设。其中第一、二、三、四、五、七、八、十一章为必修，其余章节为选修。 二、教学目的及要求: 本课程的具体要求是：比较全面，系统地了解《语言学概论》这一领域的研究成果，以及一些最主要、最有影响的语言理论和原则，从而加深对人类语言这一人类社会普遍现象的理性认识，并具备一定的运用语言学理论解释语言现象、解决具体语言问题的能力。 本课程是一门知识性比较强的课程。在教学过程中，应重点讲授主要理论、原则、和研究方法，使学生着重掌握基本概念和基本理论，在理解消化的基础上记忆。 本课程的对象是英语专业学生，在讲解过程中原则上采用英语范例，但不排除一些有助于学习者理解的、针对性强的汉语例子。应鼓 励学生结合自己的语言实践提供更多的例子来解释相关理论，以达到理论和实践相结合的目的。
三、教学重点与难点: 本课程的教学重点是语言学的基本知识和基本理论，语音学、词汇学、句法学、语义学和语用学这些语言学的核心内容。 本课程的教学难点是音韵学理论、句法结构和各个语言学流派的理论观点及其局限性。 四、与其它课程的关系: 本课程是一门主干性课程。与其相关的课程，如语法学、词汇学和语体学等都是语言学的分支，属于选修课程。 五、学时与学分: 学时：72学时 学分：4学分 六、教学内容： 第一章绪论 本章主要教学内容: 1．语言学习的意义 2．语言的定义。 3．语言的定义特征 4．语言的起源。 5．语言的功能。 6．语言学的定义。 7．语言学的核心内容。 8．宏观语言学的定义及分支。
英语语言学总结
第一章 All languages have three major components: a sound system, a system of lexicogrammar and a systm of semantics. 语音系统，词汇语法系统和语义系统。 Language is a means of verbal communication. Design Features of language: the features that define our human languages. 决定了语言性质特征叫定义特征 Design Features: Arbitratiness(任意性)：the froms of liguistic signs bear no natural relationsip to their meaning.语言符号的形式与所表示的意义没有天然的联 系。 1\ Arbitrary relationship between the sound of a morpheme and ists meaning语素音义关系的任意性 2\ Arbitrariness at the syntactic level 句法层面上的任意性。 Syntactic: the sentences are constructed according to the grammar of arrangement. 句法学，是依据语法规定构建句子结 构的方法。 3\ Arbitrariness and convention 任意性和规约性 Duality（二层性）: is meant the propertry of having two levels of structures, such that units of the primary level are composed of elements of the secondary level and each of the two levels has its own principles of organization. 二层性是指拥有两层结构的这种特 性，上层结构的单位底层结构的元素构成，每层都有自身的组合 规则。 Sound-the only function is to combine with one another to form units that have meaning相互组合构成有意义的单位。 Creativity（创造性）：is resourceful because of its duality and its recursiveness. 源于二层性和递归性 Displacement(移位性)：human languages enable their users to symbolize objects, events and concepts which are not present at the moment of communication.人类语言可以让使用者在交往 时用语言符号代表时间上和空间上并不可及的物体时间或 观点。比如现在说孔子。 语言功能： 1. informative, also called ideational function. 信息功能也叫概念功能 2) Performative施为功能，is to change the social status of persons. 改变人 的社会地位，比如仪式。 3) Emotive Function感情功能 4) Phatic communion寒暄功能 5) Recreational Function娱乐功能
英语语言学名词解释
Chapter 12 : Lan guage And Brain 1. n euroli nguistics: It is the study of relati on ship betwee n brain and Ian guage. It in eludes research into how the structure of the brain in flue nces Ian guage lear ning, how and in which parts of the brain Ian guage is stored, and how damage to the brain affects the ability to use Ian guage. 2. psycholinguistics: ____ t he study of Ian guage process in g. It is concerned with the processes of Ian guage acqisiti on, comprehe nsion and product ion. 3. brain lateralizati on: The localizatio n of cog nitive and perceptive fun cti ons in a particular hemisphere of the brain. 4. dichotic listening: A technique in which stimuli either linguistic or non-linguistic are presented through headphones to the left and right ear to determine the lateralization of cog nitive fun cti on. 5. right ear advantage: ___ The phe nomenon that the right ear shows an adva ntage for the perception of linguistic signals id known as the right ear advantage. 6. split brain studies: The experiments that investigate the effects of surgically severing the corpus callosum on cog niti on are called as split brain studies. 7. aphasia: It refers to a number of acquired Ianguage disorders due to the cerebral lesions caused by a tumor, an accide nt and so on. 8. non- flue nt aphasia: Damageto parts of the brain in front of the cen tral sulcus is called non-flue nt aphasia. 9. flue nt aphasia: Damage to parts of the left cortex beh ind the cen tral sulcus results in a type of aphasia called flue nt aphasia. 10. Acquired dyslexia: Damage in and around the an gular gyrus of the parietal lobe ofte n causes the impairment of reading and writing ability, which is referred to as acquired dyslexia. 11. phono logical dyslexia: ___ it is a type of acquired dyslexia in which the patie nt seems to have lost the ability to use spelli ng-to-so und rules. 12. surface dyslexia: it is a type of acquired dyslexia in which the patie nt seems un able to recog nize words as whole but must process all words through a set of spell in g-to-so und rules. 13. spo on erism: a slip of ton gue in which the positi on of soun ds, syllables, or words is reversed, for example, Let' s have chish and fips instend of Let' s have fish and chips. 14. prim ing: the process that before the participa nts make a decisi on whether the stri ng of letters is a word or not, they are prese nted with an activated word. 15. freque ncy effect: Subjects take less time to make judgeme nt on freque ntly used words tha n to judge less com monly used words . This phe nomenon is called freque ncy effect.
英语语言学框架知识中文版
一、绪论 语言学的定义 语言学的研究范畴 几对基本概念 语言的定义 语言的甄别特征 What is linguistics 什么是语言学 Linguistics is generally defined as the scientific study of language. It studies not any particular language, but languages in general. 语言学是对语言科学地进行研究的学科。语言学所要研究的不是某一种特定的语言，而是人类所有语言的特性。 The scope of linguistics 语言学研究的范畴 Phonetics语音学\Phonology音系学\Morphology形态学\Syntax句法学\Semantics语义学 \Pragmatics语用学\Sociolinguistics社会语言学\Psycholinguistics心理语言学\Applied linguistics应用语言学 Prescriptive vs. descriptive 规定性与描述性 Descriptive：a linguistic study describes and analyzes the language people actually use. Prescriptive: it aims lay down rules for "correct" behavior. Modern linguistics is descriptive; its investigations are based on authentic, and mainly spoken data. Traditional grammar is prescriptive; it is based on "high" written language Synchronic vs. diachronic 共时性与历史性 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 In modern linguistics, synchronic study seems to enjoy priority over diachronic study. Speech and writing 口头语与书面语 Speech enjoys priority over writing in modern linguistics study for the following reasons: （1） speech precedes writing in terms of evolution （2） a large amount of communication is carried out in speech tan in writing （3） speech is the form in which infants acquire their native language Language and parole 语言与言语 Language refers to the abstract linguistic system shared by all the members of a speech community Parole refers to the realization of language in actual use Competence and performance 能力与运用 Chomsky defines competence as the ideal users' knowledge of the rules of his language Performance: the actual realization of this knowledge in linguistic communication What is language 什么是语言 Language is a system of arbitrary vocal symbols used for human communication Characteristics of language: 语言的特性 Language is a rule-governed system Language is basically vocal Language is arbitrary （the fact different languages have different words for the same
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 language 2 Phonetics : The study of sounds which are used in linguistics communication is called phonetics.For example,vowels and consonants 3 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 pragmatics.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 represent a 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 be
英语语言学考研真题与典型题详解
I. Fill in the blanks. 1. The features that define our human languages can be call ed ______ features. (北二外2006研) 2. Linguistics is usually defined as the ______study of language. (北二外2003研) 3. Language, broadly speaking, is a means of______ communication. 4. In any language words can be used in new ways to mean new things and can be combined into innumerable sentences based on limited rules. This feature is usually ter med______ 5. Linguistics is the scientific study of______. 6. Modern linguistic is______ in the sense that the linguist tries to discover what language is rather than lay down some rules for people to observe. 7. One general principle of linguistic analysis is the primacy of ______ over writing. 8. The branch of linguistics which studies the sound patterns of a language is called ______. (北二外2003研) 9. The branch of grammar which studies the internal structure of words is called______ . (北二外2004研) 10. ______mainly studies the characteristics of speech sounds and provides methods for their description, classification and transcription. (北二外2005研) 11. Semantics and ______investigate different aspects of linguistic meaning. (北二外2007研) 12. In linguistics, ______ refers to the study of the rules governing the way words are combined to form sentences in a language, or simply, the study of the formation as sentence. (中山大学2008研) 13. ______can be defined as the study of language in use. Sociolinguistics, on the other hand, attempts to show the relationship between language and society. 14. The branch of grammar which studies the internal structure of sentence is called _______. (北二外2008研) 15. Saussure distinguished the linguistic competence of the speaker and the actual ph enomena or data of linguistics (utterances) as and . The former refers to the abstract linguistic linguistic system shared by all the members of a speech community, and the latter is the concrete manifestation of language either through speech or through writing. (人大2006研) 16. The description of a language as it changes through time is a ______ study. 17. Linguistic potential is similar to Saussure’s langue and Chomsky’s______. 18. One of the important distinctions in linguistics is ______ and parole. The former is the French word for “language”,which is the abstract knowledge necessary for s peaking，listening， writing and reading. The latter is concerned about the actual use of language by peop le in speech or writing. Parole is more variable and may change according to contextu al factors. 19. One of the important distinctions in linguistics is and performance. (人大2006研) 20. Chomsky initiated the distinction between ______ and performances. (北二外2007研) II. Multiple Choice 1.Which of the following is NOT a frequently discussed design feature? (大连外国语学院 2008研) A. Arbitrariness B. Convention C. Duality of the following words is entirely arbitrary? (西安交大2008研) A. tree B. crash C. typewriter D. bang
大学英语语言学期末考试名词解释和论述答案
名词解释 https://www.360docs.net/doc/5815691113.html,petence and Performance: The distinction is discussed by the American linguist N. Chomsky in the late 1950’s. Competence----the ideal user’s knowledge of the rules of his language. Performance----the actual realization of this knowledge in linguistic communication. (American linguist N. Chomsky in the late 1950’s proposed the distinction between competence and performance. Chomsky defines competence as the ideal user’s knowledge of the rules of his language. This internalized set of rules enables the language user to produce and understand an infinitely large number of sentences and recognize sentences that are ungrammatical and ambiguous. According to Chomsky, performance is the actual realization of this knowledge in linguistic communication. Although the speaker’s knowledge of his mother tongue is perfect, his performances may have mistakes because of social and psychological factors such as stress, embarrassment, etc.. Chomsky believes that what linguists should study is the competence, which is systematic, not the performance, which is too haphazard. ) 2.Sociolinguistics: is the sub-field of linguistics that studies the relation between language and society, between the uses of language and the social structures in which the users of language live.( It is a field of study that assumes that human society is made up of many related patterns and behaviors, some of which are linguistic.) https://www.360docs.net/doc/5815691113.html,nguage Acquisition: refers to t he child’s acquisition of his mother tongue, i.e. how the child comes to understand and speak the language of his community. (Language acquisition is concerned with language development in humans. In general, language acquisition refers to children’s devel opment of their first language, that is, the native language of the community in which a child has been brought up.) 4.the Sapir-Whorf hypothesis: The Sapir-Whorf hypothesis is a theory put forward by the American anthropological linguists Sapir and Whorf (and also a belief held by some scholars). It states that the way people view the world is determined wholly or partly by the structure of their native language. (2) The Sapir-Whorf hypothesis consists of two parts, i.e. linguistic determinism and relativism. Whorf proposed first that all higher levels of thinking are dependent on language. Or put it more bluntly, language determines thought, i.e. the notion of linguistic determinism. Because languages differ in many ways, Whorf also believed that speakers of different languages perceive and experience the world differently, i.e. relative to their linguistic background, hence the notion of linguistic relativism. 5.Phrase structure rule: The grammatical mechanism that regulates the arrangement of elements that make up a phrase is called a phrase structure rule, such as: NP →(Det) + N +(PP)……e.g. those people, the fish on the plate, pretty girls. VP →(Qual) + V + (NP)……e.g. always play games, finish assignments. AP →(Deg) + A + (PP)……very handsome, very pessimistic, familiar with, very close to PP →(Deg) + P + (NP)……on the shelf, in the boat, quite near the station.