语言学笔记 Lecture1
语言学笔记第一章
I. INTRODUCTION1.1 What is linguistics?1.1.1DefinitionLinguistics is the scientific study of language. It studies not any particular language, but it studies languages in general.1.1.2 The scope of linguisticsGeneral linguistics: This deals with the basic concepts, theories, descriptions, models and methods applicable in any linguistic study, in contrast to those branches of study which relate linguistics to the research of other areas.Branches of linguistics:phonetics phonology morphology syntax semantics pragmatics Linguisticspsycholinguistics sociolinguistics applied linguistics1.1.3 Some important distinction in linguistics1) Prescriptive and descriptiveThey are two different types of linguistic study. If a linguistic study aims to describe and analyze the language people actually use, it is said to be descriptive; if the linguistic study aims to lay down rules for “ correct and standard” behavior in using language, i. e. to tell people what they should say and what they should not say, it is said to be prescriptive.Modern linguistics is mostly descriptive.2) Synchronic and diachronicLanguage exists in time and changes through time. The description of a language at some point of time in history is a synchronic study; the description of a language as it changes through time is a diachronic study. A diachronic study of language is historical study; it studies the historical development of language over a period of time.In modern linguistics, a synchronic approach seems to enjoy priority over a diachronic one.3) Speech and writingThey are the two major media of linguistic communication. Speech is prior to writingfor the following reasons:From the point of view of linguistic evolution, writing system os any language is always "invented" by its users to record speech when the need arises.Then in everyday communication, speech plays a greater role than writing in terms of the amount of information conveyedSpeech is always the way in which every native speaker acquires his mother tongue and writing is learned and taught later when he goes to school.4) Langue and paroleThe distinction between langue and parole was made by the Swiss linguist F. de Saussure in the early 20th century.Langue refers to the abstract linguistic system shared by all the members of a speech community, and parole refers to the realization of langue in actual use.Langue is the set of conventions and rules which language users all have to abide by, and parole is the concrete use of he conventions and the application of the rules. Langue is abstract; it is not the language people actually. Parole is concrete; it refers to the naturally occurring language events. Langue is relatively stable; it does not change frequently; while parole varies from person to person, and from situation to situation.5) Competence and performanceThe distinction between competence and performance was proposed by the American linguist N. Chomsky in the late 1950’s. Chomsky 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.6) Traditional grammar and modern linguisticsThe beginning of modern linguistics was marked by the publication of F. de Saussure's book "Course in General Linguistics" in the early 20th century.a) Linguistics is descriptive, while traditional grammar is prescriptive.A linguistist is interested in what is said, not in what he thinks ought to be said. He describes language in all its aspects, but does not prescribe rules of "correctness".b) Modern linguistics regards the spoken language as primary, not the written. Traditional grammar tended to emphasize the importance of the written word.c) Modern linguistics does not force language into a Latin-based framework. However, for a long time traditional grammar assumed that Latin provides a universal framework into which all languages fit.1.2 What is language1.2.1 Definition of language?Language is a system of arbitrary vocal symbols used for human communication. First, language is a system, i.e., elements of language are combined according to rules.Second, language is arbitrary in the sense that there is no intrinsic connection between a linguistic symbol and what the symbol stands for.Third, language is vocal because the primary medium for all languages is sound.The term "human" in the definition is meant to specify that language is human-specific, i.e., it is very different from the communication systems other forms of life possess, such as bird songs and bee dances.2.2 Design featuresDesign features refer to the defining properties of human language that distinguish it from any animal system of communication. The framework was proposed by an American linguist, Charles Hockett.1) ArbitrarinessLanguage is arbitrary because there is no logical connection between meanings and sounds. However, we should be aware that while language is arbitrary by nature, it is not entire arbitrary; certain words are motivated.2) ProductivityLanguage is productive in that it makes possible the construction and interpretation of new signals by its users. This is the way they can produce and understand an indefinitely large number of sentences in our native languages, including sentences that we have never heard before.3) DualityLanguage is a system, which consists of two sets of structures, or two levels. At the lower or the basic level there is a structure of sounds, which are meaningless by themselves. But the sounds of language can be grouped and regrouped into a large number of units of meaning, which are found at the higher level of the system.Then the units at the higher level can be arranged and rearranged into an infinite number of sentences.4) DisplacementHuman language can be used to refer to things which are present or not present, real or imagined matters in the past, present, or future, or in far-away places. In other words, language can be used to refer to contexts removed from the immediate situations of the speaker.5) Cultural transmissionThe details of the linguistic system must be learned anew by each speaker. Though the capacity for language in human beings has a genetic basis, the particular language a human being learns is a cultural fact, not a genetic one.1.2.3 Functions of language1. Language is used for communication2. Three main functionsA)Descriptive function(cognitive, referential, or propositional function)--- it is assumed to be the primary function of language. It is the function to convey factual information, which can be asserted or denied, and in some cases even verified.B)Expressive function(emotive or attitudinal function) --- supplies information about the user's feelings, preferences, prejudices and values.C)Social function, also referred to as interpersonal function, serves to establish and maintain social relation between people.3.Function models by structural linguist Roman JakobsonHe identifies six elements of a speech event and relates each one of them to one specific language function.Addresser--- EmotiveThe addresser expresses his attitude to the topic or situation of communication. Addressee--- ConativeThe addresser aims to influence the addressee's course of action or ways of thinking. Context --- ReferentialThe addresser conveys a message or information.Message --- PoeticThe addresser uses language for the sole purpose of displaying the beauty of language itself.Contact --- Phatic communicationThe addresser tries to establish or maintain good interpersonal relationship with the addressee.Code --- MetalinguisticThe addresser uses language to make clear the meaning of language itself.4.Three macrofunctions by M. A. K. HallidayIn the early 1970s the British linguist Halliday found that child language performed seven basic functions and there is close correspondence language between form and function. But as a child grew into an adult the seven functions are gradually replaced by a more abstract, but also simpler system of functions. This system contains three macrofunctions.Ideational function is to organize the speaker or writer's experience of the real or imaginary world. It corresponds closely to the descriptive function discussed above, but it is broader because it also includes the expression of the speaker's attitude, evalution, his feelings and emotions.The interpersonal function is to indicate, establish, or maintain social relationships between people. It expresses the speaker's role in the speech situation, his personal commitment and assessment of the social relationship between the addressee and himself.The textual function is to organize written or spoken texts in such a manner that they are coherent within themselves and fit the particular situation in which they are used.。
语言学讲义第一章
Chapter 2Speech Sounds2.1 Phonetics and PhonologyWe can analyze speech sounds from various perspectives and the two major areas of study are phonetics and phonology•Phonetics studies how speech sounds are produced, transmitted, and perceived. •Phonology is the study of the sound patterns and sound systems of languages.Major branches of phonetics：1. Acoustic phonetics (发音语音学): the study of the physical properties of the speech sounds.2. Auditory phonetics (声学语音学): the study of the way listeners perceive these speech sounds.3. Articulatory phonetics (听觉语音学): the study of how the vocal tract produces the sounds of language.•Phonology is the study of the sound patterns and sound systems of languages.–It aims to ‗discover the principles that govern the way sounds are organized in languages, and to explain the variations that occur‘.–In phonology we normally begin by analyzing an individual language, say English, in order to determine its phonological structure, i.e. which sound units are used and how they are put together.–Then we compare the properties of sound systems in different languages in order to make hypotheses about the rules that underlie the use of sounds in them,–and ultimately we aim to discover the rules that underlie the sound patterns of all languages. Differences Between Phonology and Phonetics2.2 Speech organsPositions of vocal folder( 声带)•V oiceless: [p, s, t] 声带分开，气流无阻碍•V oiced: [b, z, d] 声带相连，气流受阻•Glottal stop(喉塞音): [?] 声带紧闭，无气流通过•Nasals: [m, n, ŋ] 双唇紧闭，鼻腔发音2.3 Segments, divergences and phonetic transcription•Segment音段：there are 4 sound segments in pronouncing “above” (a-b-o-v)•Divergence偏差：ghoti → enough [f] →women [i] →[f i∫] fishnation [∫]→•phonetic transcription音标The IPA→International Phonetic AssociationInternational Phonetic Alphabet•In 1886, the Phonetic Te achers‘ Association was inaugurated by a small group of language teachers in France who had found the practice of phonetics useful in their teaching and wished to popularize their methods. It was changed to its present title of the International Phonetic Association (IPA) in 1897. The first version of the International Phonetic Alphabet (the IPA chart) was published in August 1888.2.4 Consonants and vowels•Consonants The sounds in the production of which there is an obstruction of the air-stream at some point of the vocal tract.•Vowel The sounds in the production of which no vocal organs come very close together and the air-stream passes through the vocal tract without obstruction.In what ways consonants differ from vowels?•Air-stream in Articulation--consonants: the flow of air comes out with some obstructions.--vowels: the flow of air comes out freely2) Function:--consonants are used to separate the vowels.--vowels are used to help the speech organs to get from one consonant position to the next.Categories of consonants:(according to manner of articulation & place of articulation)According to manner of articulation•Stop/plosive 爆破音Oral stop 口腔爆破[ b, p, t, d, k, g]Nasal stop 鼻腔爆破[ m, n, ŋ]•Fricative 摩擦音[ f, v, θ, ð, s, z ʃ, ʒ, h]•(median) Approximant 无摩擦延续音[w, ɹ, j]•Lateral (Approximant)舌边音[ l ]•Affricate (stop + fricative) 塞擦音[ tʃ, dʒ]•others: trill颤音tap一次性接触音flap闪音[r]According to places of articulation•Bilabial 双唇音[b, p, m]•Labiodental 唇齿音[f, v]•Dental 齿音[θ, ð ]•Alveolar 齿龈音[ t, d, n, s, z, ɹ, l ]•Postalveolar / palatal-alveolar颚齿龈音[ ʃ, ʒ]•Retroflex 卷舌音[ r ]•Palatal舌面中音[ j ]•Velar 软颚音[ k, g, ŋ]•Uvular 小舌音（法语中）•Pharyngeal 咽头音（阿拉伯语中）•Glottal 喉音[ h ]Table of English ConsonantsDescription of English consonants•The consonants of English can be described in the following manner:[p] voiceless bilabial stop[b] voiced bilabial stop[s] voiceless alveolar fricative[z] voiced alveolar fricativeV owels•English vowels P52V owel glides•Pure/ monophthong vowels [a] [i]•V owel glidesDiphthongs [ai] [ei]Triphthong [aie] [aue]Description of English vowels•The description of English vowels needs to fulfill four basic requirements:–the height of tongue raising (high, mid, low);–the position of the highest part of the tongue (front, central, back);–the length or tenseness of the vowel (tense vs. lax or long vs. short), and–lip-rounding (rounded vs. unrounded).•We can now describe the English vowels in this way:–[♓] high front tense unrounded vowel–[✞] high back lax rounded vowel–[ ] mid central lax unrounded vowel–[✈] low back lax rounded vowelEnglish vowels2.5 Coarticulation and Phonetic Transcription•2.5.1 Coarticulation•Sounds continually show the influence of their neighbors. For example, map, lamb. When such simultaneous or overlapping articulations are involved, we call the process coarticulation.–If the sound becomes more like the following sound, as in the case of lamb, it is known as anticipatory coarticulation.–If the sound shows the influence of the preceding sound, it is perseverative coarticulation, as is the case of map.2.5.2 Narrow and Broad Phonetic Transcription•◆Broad transcription: omit some details, not necessarily phonological, used in most dictionaries and language textbooks, often in square brackets [ ]◆Narrow transcription: phonological in character, differentiate speech sounds in more detail with the help of the diacritics, enclosed in slant brackets / /•[p] is aspirated in peak and unaspirated in speak.–This aspirated voiceless bilabial stop is thus indicated by the diacritic h, as [p h], whereas the unaspirated counterpart is transcribed as [p].2.6 Phonological AnalysisDefinition of Phonology•Yule‘s book, P54―Phonology is essentially the description of the systems and patterns of speech sounds in a language.‖ It studies speech as a purposeful human activity; it views speech as a sys tematically organized activity, intended– under normal circumstances—to convey meaning.Some Key Concepts of PhonologyPhone and Phoneme•A phone is a phonetic unit or segment. It does not necessarily distinguish meaning; some do, some don’t. e.g. [tin] → [t] [i] [n]•A phoneme can be defined as a minimal unit of sound capable of distinguishing words of different meanings. E.g. [tin] [din] → /t/ /d/–In English, the distinction between aspirated [p h] and unaspirated [p] is not phonemic.–In Chinese, however, the distinction between /p/ and /p h/ is phonemic.Differences Between Phone & Phoneme2.6.1 Phonemes and Allophones•Minimal Pairs•§Minimal pairs: When two words such as ―pat‖ and ―bat‖ are identical in form except for a contrast in one phoneme, occurring in the same position, the two words are described as a minimal pair.Allophones•Allophone: the phonetic variants of a phoneme, or, a set of different forms of a phoneme. e.g. the 2 allophones of the same phoneme /p/ are [pʰ] as in pin and [p] in spin.Complementary distribution•In this case the allophones are said to be in complementary distribution because they never occur in the same context:–[p] occurs after [s] while [p h] occurs in other places./p/ [p] / [s] _____[p h] elsewhere•This phenomenon of variation in the pronunciation of phonemes in different positions is called allophony or allophonic variation.•Phonetic similarity: the allophones of a phoneme must bear some phonetic resemblance•Free Variants and Free Variation (P59)Apart from complementary distribution, a phoneme may sometimes have free variants. For example, cup→[kʰɅpʰ] or [kʰɅpɅ] (the diacritic ― Ʌ‖ indicates no audible release in IPA symbols) The difference may be caused by dialect, habit or individual preference, instead of by any diatribution rule, such phenomenon is called free variation.2.6.2 Phonological processesAssimilationDefinition ---When two phonemes occur in sequence and some aspect of one phoneme is taken or ―copied‖ by the other, the process is known as assimilation, which is also often used synonymously with coarticulation.Types ---•Regressive assimilation /anticipatory coarticulation ( a following sound influences a preceding sound, e.g lamb);•Progressive assimilation /perseverative coarticulation (a preceding sound influences a following sound ,e.g ?to meet you )•Note: assimilation is also happened between words,e.g. sun glass /ŋ/, you can keep them. /ŋ/2.6.3 phonological rules•Nasalization rule (鼻音化):[-nasal] → [+nasal] / ____ [+nasal]→stands for “becomes”/ refers to “in the environment of ”___ “ focus bar” refers to “ the location of the change”/æ/→[æ̃] /____+nasal,+ consonant.e.g. lamb → [læ̃m b] can → [cãn]•Dentalization rule（齿音化）:[-dental] → [+dental] / ____ [+dental]e.g. tent [tɛnt] tenth [tɛṋθ]/n/ is dentalized before a dental fractive /θ/•Velarization rule（颚音化）:[-velar] → [+velar] / ____ [+velar]e.g. since [siṋθ] sink [siŋk]the alveolar nasal /n/ becomes the velar nasal /ŋ/ before the velar stop /k/. (They are all instances of assimilation.)Aspiration rule•V oiceless stop →aspirated/ word initially and initially in stressed syllable•V oiceless stop →unaspireted /#s __ (#:word boundary)voiceless stops are aspirated when they are the initial of a stressed syllable; and are unaspirated after /s/.e. g. “pin” for the first case, and “spin” for the latter one.Lengthening rule•V →V___C# voiced•(V owels are lengthened preceding voiced consonant)Flapping rule•Alveolar stop →voiced flap/V__V unstressed•(/t/,/d/ become [D] between two vowels, the second of which is unstressed)G lottalization rule•Stop voiceless →[?]/__σor /__nasal (σ:syllable boundary)•(/p/, /t/, /k/, especially /t/. Are glottalized when syllable-final or before nasals).Deletion rule•§Under certain circumstances some sounds disappear. Some preceding fricatives and affricates will be influenced by the following sound, which is a devoicing process, namely, the voiced sound will become voiceless.•[+voiced] →[+voiceless]/__ [+voiceless]•(f, v, s, and others)•( love to →[ lΛvtə] [lΛftə] ;•(For more examples please refer to P 61)The English pluralsEnglish Past Tense form•The regular past tense form in English is pronounced as [t] when the word ends with a voiceless consonant, [d] when it ends with a voiced sound, and [ɪd] when it ends with [t] or [d]. e.g. •stopped, walked, coughed, kissed, leashed, reached•stabbed, wagged, achieved, buzzed, soothed, bridged•steamed, stunned, pulled•played, flowed, studied•wanted, located, decided, guided2.7 Distinctive FeaturesThe idea of Distinctive Features was first developed by Roman Jacobson (1896-1982) in the 1940s as a means of working out a set of phonological contrasts or oppositions to capture particular aspects of language sounds. Since then several versions have been suggested.Definition: A particular characteristic which distinguishes one distinctive sound of a language (phoneme) from another or one group of sounds from another group.•[+voiced]& [+nasal] are distinctive features.•Some of the major distinctions include [consonantal], [nasal] and [voiced].–The feature [consonantal] can distinguish between consonants and vowels, so all consonants are [+consonantal] and all vowels [–consonantal].–[nasal] and [voiced] of course distinguish nasal (including nasalized) sounds and voiced sounds respectively•These are known as binary features because we can group them into two categories: one with this feature and the other without.–Binary features have two values or specificati ons denoted by ‗ + ‘ and ‗–‘ so voiced obstruents are marked [+voiced] and voiceless obstruents are marked [–voiced].•The place features are not binary features – they are divided up into four values:–[PLACE: Labial]–[PLACE: Coronal]–[PLACE: Dorsal]–[PLACE: Radical]•They are often written in shorthand forms. P672.8 Syllables•Suprasegmentals•Suprasegmental features are those aspects of speech that involve more than single sound segments.•The principal suprasegmentals are:2.8.1 the Syllable Structure•Syllable•Words can be cut up into units called syllables. A unit in speech which is often longer than one sound and smaller than a whole word.•Onset: the beginning sounds of the syllable; the ones preceding the nucleus. These are always consonants in English.•Rhyme( or rime): the rest of the syllable, after the onset. The rhyme can also be divided up: rhyme=nucleus + coda•Nucleus: the core or essential part of a syllable.•Coda: the final sounds of a syllable; the ones following the nucleus. These are consonants in English2.8.2 The syllable structureσO(nset) R(hyme)N(ucleus ) Co(da)k r æ k t •Monosyllabic word: a word with one syllable, like cat and dog,•Polysyllabic word: a word with more than one syllable, like transplant or festival•Open syllable: bar, tie•Closed syllable: bard, tied•Maximal Onset Principle (MOP)–When there is a choice as to where to place a consonant, it is put into the onset rather than the coda. /k∧ntri/2.9 Stress•Stress refers to the degree of force used in producing a syllable. In transcription, a raised vertical line [│] is often used just before the syllable it relates to.–A basic distinction is made between stressed and unstressed syllables, the former being more prominent than the latter.–Types: primary ~; secondary ~Changing English Stress PatternBecoming norm •inTEGral •coMMUNal •forMIDable •conTROVersyVerb •conVICT •inSULT •proDUCE •reBEL•BLACKboard•BLACKbird。
语言学教程课堂笔记
语言学教程课堂笔记第一章导论一、性质、对象、任务语言学的性质：既古老又年轻的学科,介于自然科学与社会科学之间的学科。
语言学的研究对象：人类自然语言语言学的任务：⑴“描写—解释”层次。
从宏观、微观两个方面描写和解释语言现象、语言的结构规律和应用方式。
使人们懂得关于语言的理性知识。
宏观上：把语言作为一个整体对象来研究,研究它的起源、发展、本质、功能,它和思维、意识的关系等等。
微观上：对语言内部结构进行研究,研究语言内部的结构规律,各要素的关系及发展、演变等。
⑵“认知—思维”层次。
探索人类语言符号行为的奥秘,语言是怎样组织意义的,语言是怎样划分世界从而把现实符号化的,人是怎样在思维和交际中运用语言符号的,语言和心灵的关系是怎样的,语言和文化的关系是怎样的。
⑶“技术—实用层次。
积极地为计算机对语言文字进行信息处理等工程技术服务,为言语矫治等语言病理的治疗工作服务,或者为语言教学、外语教学等服务。
二、语言学的分类⑴根据研究性质、范畴和对象,可分为理论语言学和应用语言学A、理论语言学：是语言学的主体,是研究语言的功能和结构的一般理论。
B、应用语言学：研究语言应用的一切学科,包括语言教学、机器翻译、失语症治疗、语言规划。
⑵从研究对象的范围上分,语言学可分为具体语言学和普通语言学。
三、语言学发展简史⑴传统语言学【语文学（语言文字学）】时期1、时间与特征：一般讲19世纪历史比较语言学产生以前的时期称为“传统语言学时期”、“古典语文学时期”。
这一时期,语言研究处于附庸地位。
还没有发展为独立的学科。
主要是为经典作注解。
2、传统语言学的三大发源地：古希腊—罗马、古印度和古代中国3、传统语言学的作用⑵索绪尔语言学理论1、区分语言（language）和言语（parole）语言：从言语中概括出来为社会公认的词语和规则的总和。
言语：个人说或写的行为和结果2、区别组合关系和聚合关系3、语言和言语的关系：A、一般和个别B、抽象和具体四、语言学的功能（为什么要学语言学概论）1、便与从事与语言相关的工作2、有利于语言规划、信息处理等语言应用3、便于观察语言现象、发现并解释语言规律4、便于提高发现、分析与解决问题的能力5、在语言理论的指导下,透过语言使用我们可以洞悉人类心理的奥秘,为更好地掌握和利用心智打下基础五、怎样学习语言学概论1、勤观察,培养对语言现象的敏锐洞察力2、多思考,培养强烈的问题求解意识3、三个充分：观察充分、描写充分、解释充分第二章语言的本质与起源一、语言的本质（什么是语言？）1、①（为什么）语言是人类特有的、②（为什么是）最重要的全民交际工具。
语言学知识Lecture 1
[2] • (a) any means of expressing or communicating, as gestures, signs, or animal sounds; • (b) a special set of symbols, letters, numerals, rules etc. used for the transmission of information, as in a computer;… Though we use the word in its various senses, we focus here on its primary sense, namely, [1] (a) (b) (c) (d).
Textbook
• 戴炜栋 何兆熊，2002，新编简明英语语言 学教程，上海外语教育出版社
Reference Books
Strongly recommended: 胡壮麟主编，2006，语言学教程，北京大学出版社 Yule, George. 2000. The Study of Language. Beijing: FLTRP.
Questions
• Do animals have language? • Can they learn language? • Or do they communicate in a way similar to ours?
Animal communication
• Can animals communicate? Dogs, cats, horses… Ants, birds… • How do they communicate? All animals use some perceivable media to convey messages Media: sounds, postures, smells… Messages: membership, danger, aggression
语言学复习资料
Lecture 11. Why do linguists tend to be so critical to traditional grammar?Traditional Grammar---broadly refers to the study of language covering the period from ancient times to the end of the 18th century .Linguistics is descriptive, not prescriptive. Linguistics regarded the spoken language as primary, not the written. It lacked autonomy. It was modeled on ancient Greek, Latin grammar. It was based on logical concepts from meaning to form, not from form to meaning. Emphasis was laid on written language. The attitude was prescriptive not descriptive.2. What is the difference between the descriptive and the prescriptive approach to the investigation of language? Which is to be preferred and why?Descriptive grammar refers to the structure of a language as it is actually used by speakers and writers. Prescriptive grammar refers to the structure of a language as certain people think it should be used. Both kinds of grammar are concerned with rules--but in different ways. Specialists in descriptive grammar study the rules or patterns that underlie our use of words, phrases, clauses, and sentences. On the other hand, prescriptive grammarians lay out rules about what they believe to be the “correct” or “incorrect” use of language. Descriptive grammarians generally advise us not to be overly concerned with matters of correctness: language, they say, isn't good or bad; it simply is. As the history of the glamorous word grammar demonstrates, the English language is a living system of communication, a continually evolving affair. Within a generation or two, words and phrases come into fashion and fall out again. Over centuries, word endings and entire sentence structures can change or disappear.3. What are features of modern linguistics?Linguistics is descriptive not prescriptive. Priority of spoken language. Priority of synchronic description. The linguist is interested in all languages.Lecture 21. What branches does general linguistics include? What these branches study?Phonetics: it studies speech sounds, including the production of speech, that is how speech sounds are actually made, transmitted and received, the sound of speech, the description and classification of speech sounds, words and connected speech.Phonology: it studies the rules governing the structure, distribution, and sequencing of speech sounds and the shape of syllables.Morphology: it is concerned with the internal organization of words it studies the minimal units of meaning—morphemes and word-formation processed. Syntax: it is about principles of forming and understanding correct English sentences.Semitics: it examines how meaning is encoded in a language.Pragmatic s: it is the study of meaning in context. it deals with particular utterance in particular situation and is especially concerned with the various ways in which the many social contexts of language performance can influence interpretation.3. (1)Langue vs. parole Langue was considered to be the totality of a language. It was a “storehouse”, the sum of word-images stored in the minds of individuals. We may put it loosely in a formula like:In Saussure's theory, parole refers to the individual side of speech, i.e. speaking is psychophysical, it being the actual, concrete act of speaking on the part of an individual. Parole is thus not a collective instrument; its manifestations are individual and momentary. Langue is code, parole is messag e Langue and parole are closely connected, each dependent on the other: the langue of a community can be arrived at only by a consideration of a large number of paroles, whereas parole can only be intelligible with langue in the minds of all the community members. To a linguist, langue is of primary importance as he wants to make statements which apply, not just to the speech of individuals but to the language as a whole.(2)Synchronic vs. Diachronic linguistics.Synchronic study of language---- refers to the study of language as a whole and the description of a particular state of a language at a given point of time in the development of language without considering its evolution and change in history.Diachronic study of language ---- refers to the study of the process of evolution of language at various histories (historical). A diachronic description of a language traces the historical development of the language and records the changes that have taken place in it between successive points in time.(3)Microlinguistics vs. MacrolinguisticsMicrolinguistics ---- refers to the study of the structure and systems of language, including the various subjects of study of the internal structures of language, such fields as phonology, morphology, syntax.Macrolinguistics ---- refers to the study of language from a broad angle in variou s interdisciplinary subjects, sociolinguistics, psycholinguistics, neurolinguistics, anthropological linguistics, mathematical linguistics, and computational linguisticsLecture 31. Define language. How can you understand it?To give the definition, language is a means of verbal communication .it is instrumental in that communicating by speaking or writing is a purposeful act. It is social and conventional in that language is a social semiotic and communication can only take effectively if all the users share a broad understanding of human interaction including such associated factors as nonverbal cues, motivation, and socio-cultural roles. Language learning and use are determined by the intervention of biological, cognitive, psychosocial and environmental factors .in short ,language distinguishes us from animals because it is far more sophisticated than any animal communication system.2. Illustrate the differences between human language and animal communication system in terms of displacement and cultural transmission.Displacement means that human languages enable their users to symbolize objects, events and concepts which are not present (in time and space) at the moment of communication. With language, we can recall the past or anticipate the future. For example, we can refer to the first has been dead for over 2500 years .Most animals respond communicatively as soon as they are stimulated by some occurrence of communal interest. For instance, a warning cry of a bird instantly announces danger. Such animals are under “immediate stimulus control”. Human language is, unlike animal communication systems, stimulus free. What we talk about need not be triggered by any external stimulus in the world or any internal state.Cultural transmission ---- refers to the fact that the details of the linguistic system must be learned anew by each speaker. They are not biologically transmitted from generation to generation. Though the capacity for language in human being has a genetic basis, the particular language a human being learns is a cultural fact, not a genetic one. Simply, while you may inherit brown eyes and dark hair from your parents, you do not inherit their language. You acquire a language in a culture with other speakers and not from parental genes. e.g. An infant born to Korean parents, who is adopted and brought up from birth by English speakers in the U.S, may have physical characteristics inherited from its natural parents, but it will inevitably speak English. And if the child is isolated from the society, he can’t acquire the language successfully. So language is acquired in a socio-cultural context.3. Why is language human specific?Firstly, human language has “design features” which animal communication system do not have, at least not in the true sense of them. Secondly, linguistshave 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 but did 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 so4. List basic functions of language and define each of them by their aimsReferential Function whenever we ask people for information or tell others about our circumstances and things alike, we are using language in an attempt to share what we know and exchange what we have in our minds. This is often called "referential", or "ideational".Interpersonal Function is concerned with interaction between the addresser and addressee in a discourse situation and the addresser's attitude toward what he speaks or writes about.Textual Function relates our abilities to construct texts out of our utterances and writings.The performative function is primarily to change the social status of persons; the performative function can extend to the control of reality as on some magical or religious occasions.Emotive function is a means of getting rid of our nervous energy when we are under stress.For example, swear words, obscenities are probably the commonest signals to be used in this way, especially when we are in an angry or frustrated state.Phatic Communion language can serve the function of creating or maintaining social relationship between speakers.Identifying function Our use of language can tell our listener or reader a great deal about ourselves, in particular, about our regional origins, social background, and level of education, occupation, age, sex, and personality.The recreational function of a language is often overlooked because it seems restrictive in purpose and supposedly limited in usefulness. However, no one will deny the use of language for the sheer joy of using it.5. Arbitrariness, Duality of structure, Displacement,Discreteness, Cultural transmission.Arbitrariness refers to the fact that the forms of linguistic signs bear no natural relationship to their meaning. Take the case of the English word “man”. In Chinese “rén”Duality refers to the property of having two levels of structures, units of the primary level being composed of elements of the secondary level and each level having its own principles of organization.For instance, tens of thousands of words out of a small set of sounds, around 48 in the case of the English language.Creativity----the speaker is able to combine the basic linguistic units to form an infinite set of sentences, most of which are never produced or heard before. Creativity is a universal property of human language. For example, we can write a sentence like the following and go on endlessly:This is the dog that chased the cat that killed the rat that ate the malt that lay in the house that Tom built.Lecture 41. How do phonetics and phonology differ from each other? And how are they related to each other?Phonetics-- general, descriptive, and classificatory. It studies speech sounds as they are.Phonology-- concerned with the sound system of language, studies the functioning of the speech sounds. Phonetics provides the means for describing speech sounds; phonology studies the ways in which speech sounds form system and patterns. Phonetics is of general nature; it is the branch of linguistics ,studying the characteristics of speech sounds and provides methods for their description ,classification , and transcription without reference to the function of speech sounds in a particular language ,while phonology is language specific . It deals with speech sounds within the context of a particular language; it is concerned with the working and functioning of speech sounds in a language. Phonologist studies what he believes are meaningful sounds related with their semantic features, morphological features, and the way they are conceived and printed in the depth of the mind. Phonological knowledge permits a speaker to produce sounds which form meaningful utterances, to recognize a foreign “accent”, to make up new words, to add the appropriate phonetic segments to form plurals and past tenses, to know what is and what is not a sound in one’s language.2 Illustrate phone, phoneme and allophone by examples. How is a phone different from a phoneme?A phone is a phonetic unit or segment. The speech sounds we hear and produce during linguistic communication are all phones. But phones do not necessarily distinguish meaning.When we hear the following words produced: pit, spit, tip, feel, leaf, the phones we have heard are [ph] (as in pit), [p] (as in spit), [p¬] (as in tip), [s], [t], [f], [i:], [i], [l].A phoneme is a phonological unit; it is a unit that is of distinctive value. So a phoneme is the smallest unit of sound in a language which can distinguish two words. It is an abstract unit. It is not any particular sound but rather it is represented or realized by a certain phone in a certain phonetic context. We use slant lines “/ /” pan and ban differ only in their initial sounds /p/ and /b/.Allophone: the different phones that represent or are derived from one phoneme are called the allophones of that phoneme. For example: /p/ is a phoneme, but it may be pronounced as phones [ph], [p], [p¬] .So [ph], [p], [p¬] are the allophones of the same phoneme /p/.3. Explain the sequential rules, assimilation rules and deletion rule by examples.Assimilation rule It assimilates one segment to another by “copying” a feature of a sequential phoneme, thus making the two phones more similar. When a phoneme is realized differently in actual connected speech from what it usually is, as a result of being near some other phonemes belonging to a neighboring word, assimilation takes place “in” may be pronounced differently as [in], or [i?] or [im], when occurring in different phonetic contexts: indiscrete alveolar [in], inconceivable velar [i?] ,input bilabial [im]The deletion rule It tells us when a sound is to be deleted although it is orthographically represented. e.g. “g” is mute in “sign”, “design”. It is pronounced in their corresponding derivat ives “signature”, “designation”. The rule is: delete a [g] when it occurs before a final nasal consonant.4 Minimal pairsWhen two different forms are identical in every way except for one sound segment which occurs in the same place in the string, the two words are said to have formed a minimal pair.Lecture 51 What does morphology study?It studies morphemes and their different forms and the way they combine in word formation (the study of the internal structure of words, and the rules by which words are formed).2 What are the main features of morpheme?(1) Morphemes cannot be broken down any further into recognizable or meaningful parts. In other words, a morpheme can’t be divided without altering or destroying its meaning.(2) A word may consist of one morpheme or more than one morpheme, while a morpheme may not necessarily represent a word.(3) Morpheme is also a two-fact language unit, which possesses both sound and meaning.(4) Morpheme is not identical with a syllable for syllable has nothing to do with meaning.3 Free morpheme, Bound morphemeFree morpheme, if a morpheme can constitute a word (free form) by itself, it is called a free morpheme.Bound morpheme, If a morpheme has meaning only when connected with at least another morpheme, it is bound. Traditionally, these prefix and suffix morphemes have been called bound morphemes.Lecture 61 Do you think that morphology and syntax should be treated as separate areas of study? Give your views and support them with reasons.Morphology & Syntax(1) A principle distinction between morphology and syntax, is that the former is concerned with the internal composition of a word, whereas the latter is concerned with combinations of words(2) From a nineteen-century linguistic perspective,morphology is the science of the forms of language and more abstractly, of the formatives(构形成分) that give form to words.Syntax, by contrast, is concerned not with formation or forms or formatives but with comparatively insubstantial notions of order or arrangement, in keeping with the etymology of the term. Syntax is thus outside the scope of linguistic morphology, because of the abstract nature of the elements whose arrangement it deals with.(3) Morphology is considered to be part of syntax, both may be grouped together as grammar.(4) Since sentence is usually regarded as the largest grammatical unit of a language, syntax has long been the center of grammatical study.(5) Different linguistics theories differ in their treatment of sentence structure. Conclusion: There are arguments in favor of morpheme-based grammar and there are arguments against it. The same is true of the more traditionalword-based grammar.2. Explain and exemplify IC analysis.IC analysis is one of the structuralist grammars. It is a major feature of Bloomfieldian descriptivism.This approach works through the different levels of structure within a sentence in a series of steps.At each level, a construction is divided into its major constituents, which are termed immediate constituents, and the process continues until no further divisions can be made. The constituents in the last step are called ultimate constituents. In general, the division is binary. IC analysis can be represented in different ways.3. Syntagmatic and paradigmatic relationsSyntagmatic: a linear relationship between the signs present in the sentence. (the relation between one item and others in a sequence) .Paradigmatic is a particular one in that it denotes a relationship between a sign in a sentence and a sign not in a sentence. (A word may be said to have paradigmatic relations with words that could be substituted for it in the sentence.)4. Rheme vs. ThemeRheme refers to information that is new. The nucleus, or the core of the utterance ---- what the speaker states about, or in regard to the starting point of the utteranceTheme the known (or given) information --- information that is not new to the reader or listener.5. TG-grammar in1957 in Syntactic Structures, which has transformed linguistics from a relatively obscure discipline of interest mainly to language teachers and future missionaries into a major social science of direct relevance to psychologists, sociologists, philosophers and others.Lecture 71. What are the major views concerning the study of meaning? (1). Referential theory of meaning (the naming theory) .The meaning of an expression is what it refers to, or stands for. Expressions or words are "names" or "labels" for things. E.g. man, furniture, fish, China --- whose main function is precisely that of naming or labeling. They are meaningful in that they each refer to an individual or a collection of living beings or objects existing in the reality. There is a one-to-one correspondence between name and object.(2). Mentalist theory of meaning, There has been a tendency to adopt a mentalist approach in their treatment of meaning by a group of modern linguists headed by Chomsky since 1960's. They view the primary function of language as the communication of ideas and have adopted the assumption, as a working basis for linguistic inquiry, that the data needed about language can be supplied by direct resort to intuition. It states that the meaning of an expression is the idea, or concept associated with it in the mind of anyone who knows it. It attempts to explain the meaning of words in terms of the image in the speaker's / hearer's mind. Two of the best-known theories of it are the “sign " theory of Saussure and the semiotic triangle of Ogden and Richards. According to Saussure's sign theory, a linguistic sign consists of a signifier and a signified. They can be more strictly regarded as a sound image (signifier) and a concept (signified) , which are linked by a psychological associative bond, that is, both the noise we make and the objects of world we talk about are mirrored in some way by conceptual entities. Two of the best-known theories of it are the “sign " theory of de Saussure and the semiotic triangle of Ogden and Richards.When we hear a sound, e. g. dog, the image or concept of the dog will be mirrored in our mind, and the image will be the meaning of the expression(3)Behaviorist theory of meaning. This theory was very popular during the 1920's to 1960's. It has great influence in the fields of psychology, philosophy and linguistics. Its representat ive is L. Bloomfield of America. This theory states that the meaning of an expression is either the stimulus that evokes it or the response that it evokes, or a combination of both, on particular occasions of utterance. He illustrated his views with a famous account of Jack and Jill, trying to define meaning in terms of the behaviorist point of view ---stimulus-and-response point of view. E.g. Jill is hungry. She sees an apple and gets Jack to fetch it for her by speaking to him. He interpreted this in terms of stimulus and response with the diagram.Jill JackS------------r~~~~~s----------RHere S means practical events (physical) which precede the act of speech, i.e. Jill's hunger. It is termed as a stimulus. And r refers to a linguistic response of Jill to this stimulus. Jill expresses this response by speaking to Jack. The sound waves reaching Jack result in creating a linguistic stimulus in him, which is indicated by a small letter s. R refers to the eventual physical response Jack makes in getting the apple for Jill. Thus, Bloomfield argued that meaning consists in the relation between speech (which is shown by r----- s) and the practical events S and R that precede and follow it. In this way, he wanted to contrast his theory with the mentalistic theories which involve thoughts, concepts, images, etc.But to interpret meaning in terms of the relation between speech and physical entities and events needs to know other 'predisposing factors' concerning thespeaker and hearer. This is a task Bloomfield found too difficult to accomplish and thus he did not pursue.(4)Contextual theory of meaning. The Operational theory or Meaning-is-use Theory of meaning. Representatives--- L. Wittgenstein, S. Chase and J. R. Firth. Explains that the meaning of an expression is determined by, if not identical with, its use in language. The famous English linguists Chase and Firth advocated that the true meaning of a word is to be found by observing what a man does with it, not what he says about it. The German philosopher Wittgenstein goes a step further. He boldly asserted that the meaning of a word is its use.2. How do you understand ambiguity?Ambiguity refers to the linguistic phenomenon in which one linguistic expression allows more than one understandings or interpretations. E.g. the office of the president is vacant.Basically, ambiguity can be classified into two types: A. Lexical ambiguity:1) words with more than one sense. She can’t bear children. 2) Some words are ambiguous. He put it in the boot.3) A single word, with several different meanings which are not closed related. Mug-- He had a mug./ He had an ugly mug. 4) A word with several very closely related senses is ambiguous.B. Syntactic ambiguity. Structural ambiguity is concerned with the syntactic representation of sentences. It occurs when more than one syntactic structure can be associated with a sequence of words. E.g. 1) American history teacher 3. How would you describe the oddness of the following sentences, using semantic feature?A. The television drank my water.B. His dog writes poetry.4. synonymy, antonymy, polysemy, homonymy, hyponymy Polysemy: The same word may have two or more different meanings. This is known as polysemy; such a word is polysemic.Homonymy: Lexical items which have the phonological or spelling norm, but differ in meaning are called homonyms. Such a linguistic phenomenon, i.e. identity of form and diversity of meaning is referred to as homonymy.Hyponymy: It refers to the sense relation between a more general, more inclusive word and a specific word. The word is more general in meaning is called the superordinate and the more specific words are called its hyponyms. Hyponyms of the same superordinate are co-hyponyms to each other. E.g flower-----rose, tulip, carnation, lily. Animal----dog, cat, tiger, lionAntonymy: The term antonymy is used for oppositeness of meaning. Words that are opposite in meaning are antonyms. Oppositeness can be found on different dimensions. Root contrast derivative contrast semantic contrast (1) gradable (2) complementary (3) converses~Synonymy---sameness of meaningStyle: the same cognitive meaning but different stylistic meaning.(1) cast (literary, biblical) .throw (general). Chuck (slang)Dialect---geographical variationRegister—varieties of a language according to their topic and context of use.E.g. you can’t cancel your room reservation. No cancellations can be accepted.Lecture 81. What does pragmatics study?P20How does pragmatics differ from semantics, and utterance meaning from sentence meaning? How are semantics and pragmatics different from each other? Traditional semantics studied meaning, but the meaning of language was considered as something intrinsic, and inherent, i.e. a property attached to language itself. Therefore, meanings of words, meanings of sentences were all studied in an isolated manner, detached from the context in which they were used. Pragmatics studies meaning not in isolation, but in context. The essential distinction between semantics and pragmatics is whether the context of use is considered in the study of meaning . If it is not considered, the study is restricted to the area of traditional semantics; if it is considered, the study is being carried out in the area of pragmatics.How does a sentence meaning differ from an utterance meaning? A sentence meaning is often considered as the intrinsic property of the sentence itself in terms of a predication. It is abstract and independent of context. The meaning of an utterance is concrete, and context-dependent. The utterance meaning 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. For example, “There is a dog at the door”. The speaker could utter it as a matter- of- fact statement, telling the hearer that the dog is at the door. The speaker could use it as a warning, asking the hearer not to approach the door. There are other possibilities, too. So, t he understanding of the utterance meaning of “There is adog at the door” de pends on the context in which it is uttered and the purpose for which the speaker utters it.2. What are the five illocutionary speech acts Searle specifies? (1) Representatives(阐述类)---- stating or describing ,saying what the speaker believes to be true.The earth is flat.（2）directives (指令类)----trying to get the hearer to do somethingDon’t touch that.(3) commissives (承诺类) -----committing the speaker himself to some future course of actionE.g: I promise to come.(4) expressives ( 表达类) ----expressing feelings or attitude towards an existing state.e.g : I’m sorry for the mess I have made.(5) declaration ( 宣布类)---- bringing about immediate changes by saying somethingPriest: I now pronounce you husband and wife.Referee: you are out!Lecture 91. what contributions has sociolinguistics provided to the field of language teaching?。
语言学笔记1
Chapter one Introduction一、定义1.语言学LinguisticsLinguistics is generally defined as the scientific study of language.2.普通语言学General LinguisticsThe study of language as a whole is often called General linguistics.3.语言languageLanguage is a system of arbitrary vocal symbols used for human communication.语言是人类用来交际的任意性的有声符号体系。
4.识别特征Design FeaturesIt refers to the defining poperties of human language that distinguish it from any animal system of communication.语言识别特征是指人类语言区别与其他任何动物的交际体系的限定性特征。
Arbitrariness任意性Productivity多产性Duality双重性Displacement移位性Cultural transmission文化传递⑴arbitrarinessThere is no logical connection between meanings and sounds.P.S the arbitrary nature of language is a sign of sophistication and it makes it possible for language to have an unlimited source of expressions⑵ProductivityAnimals are quite limited in the messages they are able to send.⑶DualityLanguage is a system, which consists of two sets of structures ,or two levels.⑷DisplacementLanguage can be used to refer to contexts removed from the immediate situations of the speaker.⑸Cultural transmissionHuman capacity for language has a genetic basis, but we have to be taught and learned the details of any language system. this showed that language is culturally transmitted. not by instinct. animals are born with the capacity to produce the set of calls peculiar to their species.5.语言能力CompetenceCompetence is the ideal user‟s knowledge of the rules of his language.6.语言运用performancePerformance is the actual realization of this knowledge in linguistic communication.语言运用是所掌握的规则在语言交际中的体现。
英语语言学笔记清华大学
英语语言学笔记清华大学英语语言学笔记(1)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 languageSynchronic vs. diachronic 共时性与历史性The description of a language at some point in time is a synchronic studyThe description of a language as it changes through time isa diachronic studyIn 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 languageLanguage and parole 语言与言语Language refers to the abstract linguistic system shared by all the members of a speech communityParole refers to the realization of language in actual useCompetence and performance 能力与运用Chomsky defines competence as the ideal users' knowledge of the rules of his languagePerformance: the actual realization of this knowledge in linguistic communicationWhat is language? 什么是语言？Language is a system of arbitrary vocal symbols used for human communicationCharacteristics of language: 语言的特性Language is a rule-governed systemLanguage is basically vocalLanguage is arbitrary （the fact different languages have different words for the same object is a good illustration of the arbitrary nature of language. This conventional nature of language is well illustrated by a famous quotation fromShakespeare's play "Romeo and Juliet": "A rose by any other name would smell as sweet."）Language is used for human communicationDesign features of language 语言的甄别特征American linguist Charles Hockett specified 12 design features:1） arbitrariness 武断性2） productivity 创造性3） duality 二重性4） displacement移位性5） cultural transmission 文化传递性英语语言学笔记(2)二、音系学语言的声音媒介什么是语音学发音器官音标……宽式和严式标音法英语语音的分类音系学和语音学语音、音位、音位变体音位对立、互补分部、最小对立几条音系规则超切分特征Two major media of communication: speech and writingThe limited range of sounds which are meaningful in human communication and are of interest to linguistic studies are the phonic medium of language. 用于人类语言交际的声音称为语音，这些数目有限的一组语音构成了语言的声音媒介。
语言学笔记
英语考研语言学重难点提示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 usua lly 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, becaus e words 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 we 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 hecan understand it in right register. Different from artistic creativity, though, productivity never goes outside 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 bo w-wowing sorrowfully for a bone to be lost. 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 language 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 but did 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 for 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 syntact ic structures or sentences of other sorts can, according to J. Austin and J. Searle‘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 something, 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 informing at all.14. What is the interrogative function?When language is used to obtain information, it serves an ―interrogative function‖. This includes all questions th at expect replies, statements, imperatives etc., according to the ―indirect speech act theory‖, 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. Subconscio us 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 asserts 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. T hat‘s also the case with the other way round.17. What is the performative function?This means people 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 declaration, etc., are performatives.18. What is linguistics?“Linguistics‖ is the scientific study of language. It studies not just one language of a ny 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 contradiction 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 timecan 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 facts 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 based 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 linguistic system shared by all the members of a speech community and refers ―parole‖ to the actual or actualize d 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 k nowledge 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 ambiguiti es. 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 occa sion 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 dothey 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; lingu istic 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 invisible but reliable abstract system. Competence means ―knowing‖, and linguistic poten tial 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 studies 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 from the hearer‘s point of view, looking into the impression which a speech sound makes on the hearer as mediated by the ear, 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) labiodental: [f, v]; (3) dental:[ (4) alveolar:[t, d, l, n, s, z]; (5) 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 distinction b etween ―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 are conceived 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 mak e 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 segme nt. 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 mak ing possible 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 these 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 beexploded 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 occur 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 the dark [l] occurs only after a vowel or as a syllabic 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 branch 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 examples:。
- 1、下载文档前请自行甄别文档内容的完整性，平台不提供额外的编辑、内容补充、找答案等附加服务。
- 2、"仅部分预览"的文档,不可在线预览部分如存在完整性等问题,可反馈申请退款(可完整预览的文档不适用该条件!)。
- 3、如文档侵犯您的权益，请联系客服反馈,我们会尽快为您处理(人工客服工作时间：9:00-18:30)。
语言学笔记陈银2014/2/28Teaching Goal of This Course⏹To get a scientific view on language;⏹To understand some basic theories on linguistics;⏹To understand the applications of the linguistic theories, especially in the fields oflanguage teaching & learning (SLA or TEFL), cross-cultural communication……;⏹To prepare for the future research work.Teaching Plan Introduction:⏹18-week academic term (including a 2-week holiday, one week revision )⏹Each week: 2-hour teaching⏹Main teaching material《语言学教程》第四版胡壮麟北京大学出版社⏹Auxiliary teaching materials《语言学概论》蓝纯外语教学与研究出版社PPT & handoutsDistribution of Grades⏹10 % Attendance⏹10 % Classroom Behavior⏹10 % Assignment and oral presentation⏹70 % Examination⏹The final examination paper will cover all the materials used and all works done duringclass time and after class time.Requirements:⏹Attendance is a “must”for every student.⏹Complete all the tasks required.⏹Self-discipline is necessary.⏹Be attentive and interactive in classroom discussion and presentation.⏹Self-study is desirable.⏹Preview and review the lessons or do some further reading.Group WorkGroup work requirements:1.Oral English (30%)2.PPT design (30%)3.Key points coverage (40%)Lecture 1Objectives:Students are to know the following:1.Why study language2.What is language3.Design features of language1. 1 Why study languageSome myths about language⏹Language is only a means of communication.⏹Language has a form-meaning correspondence.⏹The function of language is to exchange information.⏹English is more difficult to learn than Chinese.⏹Black English is not standard and should be reformed.⏹Children learn their native language swiftly, efficiently and without instruction.⏹Language operates by rules.⏹All languages have three major components: a sound system, a system oflexicogrammar and a system of semantics.⏹Everyone speaks a dialect.⏹Language slowly changes⏹Speakers of all languages employ a range of styles and a set of jargons.⏹Languages are intimately related to the societies and individuals who use them.⏹Writing is derivative of speech.1. Why study language⏹People know very little about language❑Stereotypical opinions about language⏹“English is for commerce, German for warfare, French for women,Italian for friends, Spanish for worship of God.”(Charles V, theSpanish Emperor)⏹Language A is superior to language B.❑Superstitions about language: curses and swears❑People know perfectly where and when and how to say what⏹Language is an integral part of our life and humanity.Yet we know little or even have wrong ideas about it.Where does language come from? How? When?Why is language human-specific?Why can a child learn his/her mother tongue so easily?How can we say one thing but mean another?Language has a form-meaning correspondence.The function of language is to exchange information.Future Career Goals may include:In the field of Academia:⏹Research and Teaching specializing in one or more of the many inter-disciplinary fields ofLinguisticsIn the field of education:❑Curriculum design and planning❑Language and literacy policies❑Museum exhibitions & educational programs❑Teaching:⏹languages⏹TESOL(teaching English to speakers of other languages)⏹literacyIn business:⏹Technical Writing⏹Toy Industry⏹Literacy in the Workplace⏹Advertising⏹Telephone CompaniesIn the field of health:⏹Socio/Psycho-linguistic Research⏹Speech pathology⏹Speech Analysis/Forensic LinguisticsIn government:❑Foreign affairs❑Justice (e.g. courtroom interpreting)❑Immigration❑First Nation affairs❑Forensic linguisticsIn the field of Artificial Intelligence:⏹Computational Linguists/Linguists working in areas such as:⏹Speech recognition programming⏹Language recognition programming⏹Lexicography/semantic variation⏹Multilingual programming⏹Natural Language ResearchThe importance of language study1，Language plays a central role in our lives as individuals and social beings.2，If we are not fully aware of the nature and mechanism of our language, we will be ignorant of what constitutes our essential humanity.Language can mean⏹what a person says (e.g. bad language, expressions)⏹the way of speaking or writing (e.g. Shakespeare’s language, Luxun’s language)⏹ a particular variety or level of speech or writing (e.g. language for special purpose,colloquial language)⏹the abstract system underlying the totality of the speech/writing behavior of a community(e.g. Chinese language, first language)⏹the common features of all human languages (e.g. He studies language)⏹ a tool for human communication. (social function)⏹ a set of rules. (rule-governed)1.2 What is language?Different sensesPoor languageShakespeare’s language Business languageThe English language A student of language CompetenceIdiolectVarietyAbstract system Universal system2. What is Language?Language “is not to be confused with human speech, of which it is only a definite part, though certainly an essential one. It is both a social product of the faculty of speech and a collection of necessary conventions that have been adopted by a social body to permit individuals to exercise that faculty”.--Ferdinand de Saussure (1857-1913): Course in General Linguistics (1916)译：“语言”是言语功能的社会产物，也是社团成员所能够接受的允许个人使用言语功能的必要规则的集合。