语言学教程chapter 1

Chapter 1 Invitation to linguistics

1.1 Why study language?

There are a few ignorance and wrong ideas about language, such as "language is only a means of communication", "language has a form-meaning correspondence". So if we are not fully aware of the nature and mechanism of our language, we will be ignorant of what constitutes our essential humanity. The understanding of language should not be confined to linguists, as it is a vital human resource that all of us share.

1.2 What is language?

Webster's New World Dictionary's several most frequently used sense of the

word "language"

Primary sense: a, human speech

b,the ability to communicate by this means

c,a system of vocal sounds and combinations Definition: language is a means of verbal communication. It's instrumental in that communication by speaking or writing is a purposeful act.

Language learning and use are determined by the intervention of biological,

cognitive, psychological, and environmental factor.

1.3 Design features of language

1, arbitrariness

Saussure: the forms of linguistic signs bear no natural relationship to their meaning

(1) arbitrary relationship between the sound of a morpheme and its meaning

(2) arbitrariness at the syntactic level--the most strictly arbitrary level

language exists in the distinctive units of sounds

(3) arbitrariness and convention--the link between a linguistic sign and its

meaning is a matter of convention

2,duality

Lyons: By duality is meant that the property of having two levels of

structures , such as that units of the primary level are composed of

elements of the secondary level and each of the level has its own principles

of organization.

Language is hierarchical.

Syllable

By creativity we mean language is resourceful because of its duality and its

recursiveness.

This ability is one of the things that sets human apart from the kind of

communication that goes on between animals.

Language has the potential to create infinite set of sentences.

4,displacement

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.

Displacement benefits human beings by giving them the power to handle

generalizations and abstractions. Words are often used with a reference for

referential application. Once we can talk about physical distant thing, we

acquire the ability to understand concept which denote "non-things".

1.4 origin of language

The "bow-wow" theory--imitating the sounds of animals

The "pooh-pooh" theory--instinctive sounds of pain, anger or joy

The "yo-he-yo" theory--rhythmic grunts during the work

1.5 functions of language

Jackobson: language is above all for communication.

Referential

Poetic

Emotive

Conative

Phatic

Metalingual

Halliday: a theory of metafunctions of language--language has ideational(a model of experience as well as logical relations), interpersonal(social

relationships) and textual(relevance to context) function.

1, informative: the instrument of thought and people often feel need to speak their thoughts loud

2, interpersonal: the most important sociological, interaction between the addresser and the addressee in the discourse situation and the

addresser’s attitude toward what he speaks or writes about

3, performative: Austin and Searle, primarily to change the social status of persons

4, emotive function: crucial tin changing the emotional status of an audience for or against someone or sth

5, phatic communion: Malinowski, we use these seemingly meaningless expressions to maintain a comfortable relationship between people

without involving any factual content

6, recreational function: sheer joy of using language, close to Jakobson’s poetic function

7, metalingual function: our language can be used to talk about itself, metalingual function of language and meshes with the thematic

function of language in functional grammar, self-reflexive

1.6 what is linguistics—the science of language, the scientific study of language, a

major branch of humanities and social science

1.7 main branches of linguistics

1, phonetics—studies the production of speech sounds, including the production of speech, that is how speech sounds are actually made,

transmitted and received, the description and classification of

speech sounds, words and connected speech, etc.

Four levels: (1) speech is a matter of anatomy and physiology(tongue &

larynx)

(2) articulatory phonetics

(3) acoustic phonetics

(4) auditory phonetics

2, phonology—studies the rules governing the structure, distribution, and

sequencing of speech sounds and the shape of syllables.

Phonology is the study of speech sounds that the human voice

is capable of creating whereas phonology is the study of a

subset of those sounds that constitute language and learning.

The first focuses on chaos while the second focuses on order.

3, morphology—is connected with the internal organization of words. It studies

the minimal units of meaning-morphemes and word- formation

processes.

4, syntax—is about the principles of forming and understanding correct English sentences. The form or structure of a sentence is governed by the

rules of syntax. These rules specify order, sentence organization,

and the relationships between words, word classes and other

sentence elements.

5, semantics—examines how meaning is encoded in a language.

Key concepts: semantic components, denotation of words, sense

relations between words, sense relations between

sentences.

6, pragmatics—is the study of meaning in context. It deals with particular

utterances in particular situations and is especially concerned

with the various ways in which many social contexts of

language performance can influence interpretation.

Key concepts: reference, force, effect, and cooperative

principles.

1.8 macrolinguistics

Linguistics concerns several fields such as psychology, sociology, ethnography, the science of law and artificial intelligence.

1, psycolinguistics—investigates the interrelation of language and mind, in

proceeding and producing utterances and in language

acquisition.

2, sociolinguistics—is the study of the characteristics of language varieties, the

characteristics of their speakers as these three constantly

interact and changing within a speech community.

3, anthropological linguistics—anthropological linguists are interested primarily

in the history and structure of formerly

unwritten languages.

4, computational linguistics—is an interdisciplinary field which centers around

the use of computers to process or produce

human language.

1.9 important distinctions in linguistics

1, descriptive vs. prescriptive

e.g. People don’t say X.

Don’t say X.

2, synchronic vs. diachronic

A synchronic description takes a fixed instant(usually the present) as its

point of observation. Most grammars are of this kind.

Diachronic linguistics is the study of a language through the course of its

history.

3, langue & parole

Langue: all individuals

Parole: each one

4, competence and performance

A language user’s underlying knowledge about the system of rules is

called his linguistic competence.

Performance refers to the actual use of language in concrete situations.