自考《现代语言学》复习讲义

自考《现代语言学》复习讲义

一、常考题型

1.填空

2.单项选择

3.判断正误

4.解释词语并举例说明

对名词解释并举一两个例子进行说明

5.回答问题

做题要求：用英文进行答题。

二、各章节学习要点

Chapter 1 Introduction （绪论）

is linguistics

Definition （语言学的定义）

Linguistics is generally defined as the scientific study of language.

Linguistics studies not any particular language, ., English, Chinese, Arabic, and Latin, but in language in general.

The Scope of linguistics （语言学的研究范畴）—4

The study of language as a whole is often called general linguistics(普通语言学).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.

Main branches of linguistics 语言学的主要分支：

1）phonetics（语音学） 2)phonology （音系学） 3)morphology （形态学） 4)syntax （句法学） 5)semantics （语义学） 6)pragmatics （语用学）

The study of all these aspects of language forms the core of linguistics.

Findings in linguistic studies can often be applie3d to the solution of such practical problems as the recovery of speech ability. The study of such applications is generally known as applied linguistics.

Macrolinguistics 宏观语言学：1) Psycholingusitcs (心理语言学)；2) Sociolinguistics (社会语言学)；3) Anthropological linguistics (人类语言学)；4) Computational linguistics (计算语言学)

Some important distinctions in linguistics —7

1.3.1 Prescriptive vs. descriptive （规定性和描述性）

Modern linguistics, ., linguistic study carried out in this century is mostly descriptive.

1.3.2 Synchronic vs. diachronic （共时性和历时性）

In modern linguistics, synchronic study seems to enjoy priority over diachronic study.

1.3.3 Speech and writing （口头语和书面语）

Speech and writing are the two major media of communication. Modern linguistics regards the spoken language as primary, not the written.

1.3.4 Langue and parole （语言和言语）

The distinction between langue and parole was made by the Swiss linguist F. de Saussure in the early 20th century.

1.3.5 Competence and performance （语言能力和语言运用）

Similar to Saussure’s distinction between langue and parole is the distinction between competence and performance, which was proposed by the American linguist N. Chomsky in the late 1950’s.

While Saussure’s distinction and Chomsky’s are very similar, they differ at least in that Saussure took a sociological view of language and his notion of langue is a matter of social conventions, and Chomsky looks at language from a psychological point of view and to him competence is a property of the mind of each individual.

2. What is language

Definitions of language

Language is a system of arbitrary vocal symbols used for human communication.(语言是人类在交际中使用的一套任意的声音符号系统。)

Language distinguishes us from animals because it is far more sophisticated than any animal communication system.

Design features —14

Design features refer to the defining properties of human language that distinguish it from any animal system of communication

A framework was proposed by the American linguist Charles Hockett. He specified twelve design features, five of which will be discussed here.

1) Arbitrariness （任意性）

Language is arbitrary. This means that there is no logical relationship between

meanings and sounds. While language is arbitrary by nature, it is not entirely arbitrary. The arbitrary nature of language is a sign of sophistication and it makes it possible for language to have an unlimited source of expressions.

2) Productivity (创造性)

Productivity is unique to human language.

3) Duality (双重性)

Language 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 is meaningless.

4) Displacement （移位性）

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 contrast, no animal communication possess this feature.

5) Cultural transmission (文化传递性)

While human capacity of language has a genetic basis, ., we were all born with the ability to acquire language, the details of any language system are not genetically transmitted, but instead have to be taught and learned.

Chapter 2 Phonology (音系学)

1. The phonic medium of language （语言的声音媒介）—16

Speech and writing are the two media or substances used by natural languages as vehicles for communication. Of the two media of language, speech is more basic than writing. For linguists, the study of sounds is of greater importance than that of writing; their dada for investigation and analysis are mostly drawn from authentic, everyday speech.

(语音学)

What is phonetics —17

Phonetics is defined as the study of the phonic medium of language; it is concerned with all the sounds that occur in the world’s languages.

articulatory phonetics (发音语音学)；auditory phonetics (听觉语音学)；acoustic phonetics (声学语音学)

Of the three branches of phonetics, the longest established, and until recently the most highly developed, is articulatory phonetics.

Organs of speech (发音器官) —22

The articulatory apparatus of a human being are contained in three important areas or cavities: the pharyngeal cavity (咽腔)—the throat, the oral cavity(口腔)—the mouth, and the nasal cavity(鼻腔)—the nose. (人类的发声器官都被包括在三个重要的地方或腔道里；咽腔—即咽喉；口腔—即嘴；和鼻腔—即鼻子。)

Orthographic representation of speech sounds—broad and narrow transcriptions (语音的正字标音法—宽式标音法和严式标音法)

Two ways to transcribe speech sounds are now available. One is the transcription with letter-symbols only and the other is the transcription with letter-symbols together with the diacritics(附加符号). The former is called broad transcription. This is the transcription normally used in dictionaries and teaching textbooks. The latter is called narrow transcription. This is really the transcription required and used by the phoneticians in their study of speech sounds. With the help of the diacritics they can faithfully represent as much of the fine details as it is necessary for their purpose.

Chapter 3 Morphology (形态学)

(形态学的定义)

Morphology is a branch of grammar which studies the internal structure of words and the rules by which words are formed.

Morphology is divided into two sub-branches: inflectional morphology (屈折形态学)and lexical or derivational morphology（词汇或派生词汇学）. The former studies the inflections and the latter the study of word-formation.

(词素)

Morpheme: the smallest meaningful unit of language （词素：语言最小的意义单位）Just as a phoneme is the basic unit in the study of phonology, so is a morpheme the basic unit in the study of morphology.

The meaning morphemes convey may be of two kinds: lexical meaning and grammatical meaning(词汇意义和语法意义). The morphemes such as “man”, “-ly”, “teach”, “-er”, “dark”, “-en” in “manly”, “teacher”, “darken” convey a lexical meaning, while the morphemes such as “-es”, “-ed”, “-ing” in “teaches”, “played”, “raining”convey a grammatical meaning.

链接：

Types of morphemes

Morphemes are classified into free morphemes and bound morphemes.

free morpheme (自由词素)

root

(词根)

morpheme

bound morpheme（粘着词素） inflectional affix(屈折词缀)

prefix（前缀） affix

(词缀)

suffix（后缀)）Free morphemes are morphemes which are independent units of meaning and can be used freely all by themselves or in combination with other morphemes.

Take help, quick, able, warm for example, they can be used freely all by themselves, at the same time, they can also be used in combination with other morphemes as in helper, quicken, disable, warm-hearted.

Bound morphemes are morphemes are the morphemes which cannot be used independently but have to be combined with other morphemes, either free or bound, to form a word. Bound morphemes include two types: roots and affixes.

A root is often seen as part of a word; it can never stand by itself although it bears clear, definite meaning; it must be combined with another root or an affix to form a word. For example, the root “geo-”bears the meaning of “the earth”; when it combines with another root “-ology”, meaning “a branch of learning”, we get the word “geology”, which means “the study of the earth’s structure.”

Affixes are of two types: inflectional and derivational.

Inflectional affixes or inflectional morphemes manifest various grammatical relations or grammatical categories such as number, tense, degree, and case. The inflectional affixes in English include:

-(e)s, indicating plurality of nouns

-(e)s, indicating third person singular, present tense

-(e)d, indicating past tense for all three persons

-ing, indicating progressive aspect

-er, indicating comparative degree of adjectives and adverbs

-est, indicating superlative degree of adjectives and adverbs

-‘s, indicating the possessive case of nouns

Derivational affixes are added to an existing form to create a word. This is a very common way to create new words in English. Such a way of word-formation is called derivation (派生法) and the new word formed by derivation is called a derivative(派生词) . The existing form to which a derivational affix can be added is called a stem(词干). A stem can be a bound root, a free morpheme, or a derived form itself. .

tolerate root “toler-”+affix “-ate”

quick free morpheme “quick” + affix “-ly”

carelessness free morpheme “care”+ affix “-less”+ derivative “careless” + affix “-ness”

According to the its position in the new word, affixes are divided into two kinds: prefixes(前缀) and suffixes (后缀).

Prefixes modify the meaning of the stem, but usually do not change the part of speech of the original word. Exceptions are the prefixes “be-”and “en(m)-”Added to adjectives or nouns they turn the words into verbs, . little- belittle, large-enlarge, rich-enrich, body-embody.

Suffixes are added to the end of stems; they modify the meaning of the original word

and in many cases change its part of speech.

2.2.3 Morphological rules

In using the morphological rules, we must guard against overgeneralization. Different words may require different affixes to create the same change.

A knowledge of the derivational affixes and the morphological rules is very helpful in our study of English especially for enlarging our vocabulary, but such a knowledge is not to be overused.

(复合法)

Like derivation, compounding is another popular and important way of forming new words in English. In terms of morphemic analysis, derivation can be viewed as the addition of affixes to stems to form new words, and compounding the combination of two or sometimes more than two words to create new words.

Types of compound words

There are various ways to classify the compound words. One of them is to look at the parts of speech of the component words. Words of various parts of speech can be combined to form compounds.

Features of compounds

Despite the various formations, all compounds share the following feature.

1.Orthographically (从正字法的角度看)

A compound can be written as one word with or without a hyphen in between, or as two separate words.

2.Syntactically (从句法的角度看)

The part of speech of the compound is generally determined by the part of speech of the second element.

3.Semantically (从语义的角度看）

The meaning of a compound is often idiomatic, not always being the sum of the meanings of its components.

4.Phonetically (从发音的角度看）

The stress of a compound always falls on the first element, while the second element receives secondary stress.