語言學(xué)基礎(chǔ)introduction

1、chapter 1 introduction1.1 what is linguistics?ll1 definition: linguistics is the scientific study of language.language: language in general, not any particular language, e.g. english, chinese, arabic, and latin.1.1.2 the scope of linguisticsa ) general linguisticsthe study of language as a whole is

2、often called general linguistics.basic concepts: language; sentence; wordstheories:descriptions:models:methods applicable in any linguistic study:b) main branches of linguistics language study focuses on meaning and form.i) form:sound phonetics phonologywrittenmorphologysyntaxii) meaning:semantics p

3、ragmaticsiii) introduction to the main branches1) phoneticsthe study of sounds used in linguistic communication.2) phonologythe study of the way in which the sounds are put together and used to convey meaning in communication.3) morphologythe study of the way in which the symbols are arranged and co

4、mbined to form words 4) syntaxthe study of rules which govern the combination of words to form grammatically permissible sentences in languages.5) semantics: meaning in languagethe study of meaning is known as semantics.6) pragmatics: meaning in contextwhen the study of meaning is conducted, not in

5、isolation, but in the context of language use, it becomes another branch of linguistic study called pragmatics-c) macrolinguisticslinguistics is not the only field concerned with language. other disciplines such as psychology, sociology, anthropology, artificial intelligence, medicine and education

6、etc. are also preoccupied with language.1) sociolinguisticsthe study of the social aspects of language and its relation with society forms the core of the branch called sociolinguistics.2) psycholinguisticsit relates the study of language to psychology.e.g. to study language development in children,

7、 such as the theories of language acquisition;3) applied linguisticsa) the study of second and foreign language learning and teaching.b) the study of language and linguistics in relation to practical problems. it uses information from sociology, psychology, anthropology and information theory as wel

8、l as linguistics in order to develop its own theoretical models of language and language use, and then uses this information and theory in practical areas.1.1.3 linguistics as a sciencethree adequacieshow can we appraise the extent of success in scientific study? there are three levels to consider,

9、namely observation, description, and explanation. what a linguist seeks for can be summarized as three adequacies correspondingly.a) observational adequacya successful research is expected to be adequate in observation at first.it is characterized by correctly specifying what is observed to be phono

10、logically, morphologically, syntactically, semantically, or pragmatically well-formed or ill-formed.b) descriptive adequacyproper description is based on adequate observation, and a piece of scientific work is descriptively adequate if it provides a principled account of the native speaker's int

11、uitions about the structure of the linguistic phenomenon observed.c) explanatory adequacyexplanatory adequacy is the ultimate goal of any scientific exploration.in linguistics, a theory attains explanatory adequacy just in case it provides a descriptively adequate grammar for every natural language,

12、 and does so in terms of a maximally constrained set of universal principles which represent psychologically plausible natural principles of mental computation.l2 what is language?1.2.1 design featuresdesign features refer to the defining properties of human language that distinguish it from any ani

13、mal system of communication.the framework of the design features was proposed by the american linguist charles hockett1) arbitrarinessarbitrariness means that there is no logical connection between meanings and sounds.why?a) different languages may have different sounds to represent the same object

14、that exists in society.b) the same sound may express different meanings exception: onomatopoeia: based on the natural voices.2) dualitydefinition: 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 are

15、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.3) productivitydefinition: language is productive or creative in that it makes possible the construction and interpretation of

16、 new signals by its paring with animal communication systemse.g. an experiment on bee dance:bee communication regarding location has a fixed set signals, all of which relate to horizontal distance. the bee cannot manipulate its communicating system to create a "new message indicating v

17、ertical distance.4) displacementdefinition: 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.animals are under "immediate stimulus control”.human language is, unlike animal communication sys

18、tems, stimulus free.5) cultural transmissionlanguage cultural transmission means that language is culturally transm讓ted. it is passed on from one generation to the next through teaching and learning, rather than by instinct.1.2.2 definitions of languagelanguage is a system of arbitrary vocal symbols

19、 used for human communication language is a systemelements of language are combined according to rules.a) rules of sound systemb) rules of written system language is arbitrary and symbolic language is vocala) the primary medium for all languages is sound.b) writing systems came

20、into being much later than the spoken forms.c) some language only have sound systems and no writing systems language is human-specific communication vs information1.2.3 knowledge of language: endowed or conventional?time-honored problems what is knowledge of language? where does it com

21、e from?aristotle (384-322 b.c.):language is arrived at by convention and agreement of the speakers of a given language.behaviorismempiricismour brain was blank when we were bom. language is a social, empirical entity.b.f. skinner: the american psychologist and a famous harvard behaviouristthe famous

22、 quotation "language is behaviour "verbal behaviour is the same as any other fundamental respect of non-verbal behavi our.the occurrence of behaviours is dependent upon three crucial elements:a stimulus, which serves to elicit behaviour;a response triggered by a stimulus;reinforcement, whi

23、ch serves to mark the response as being appropriate (or inappropriate) and encourages the repetition (or suppression) of the response in the future.verbal behaviour:the stimulus as what is taught (language input),the response as the learnerreaction to the stimulus,the reinforcement as the approval o

24、r praise (or discouragement) of the teacher or fellow students.argument for poverty of the stimulus w a) the child's linguistic experience (stimulus) is not sufficient to justify the adult grammar. b) as far as a child is concerned, an utterance containing a mistake is just another piece of ling

25、uistic experience to be treated on a par with eitor-free utterance. but they still know the correct grammar. c) a child and a chimpanzee both live in the same language environment, only the child can learn the language.plato (427?-347 b.c.)there is a universally correct and acceptable logic of langu

26、age for man to follow in expressing his ideas>nativismmentalismthere is a biological, physiological entity inside our brain which decides that we speak.language faculty/(lad=language acquisition device): human beings do have an inborn knowledge of language which must be universally correct and ac

27、ceptable, the location of such innate knowledge just in our genes.experience of llf一grammar of lchomsky t epistemology of the knowledge of language the initial state of human language faculty is called ug(universal grammar). ug(universal grammar): every speaker knows a set of principles which apply

28、to all languages and also a set of (binary) parameters that can vary from one language to anothe匸principles:all human languages have the subject, verb, and object.reflexible pronoun principle: the reflexible pronoun should take the noun in the same clause as antecedent.parameters:binary parameter:th

29、e position of the whelement in the sentence due to the effect of later experience, our brain/mind develops from the initial state into the steady state, which corresponds to the competence of speaking a human language.experienceugpg(particular grammar)pg二aug1.3 some important distinctions in linguis

30、tics1.3.1 prescriptive vs. descriptiveprescriptive and descriptive represent two different types of linguistic study.descriptive study: if a linguistic study aims to describes and analyze the language people actually use, it is said to be descriptive.prescriptive study: if a linguistic study aims to

31、 lay down rules for "correct and standard behavior in using language, it is said to be prescriptive.13.2 synchronic vs diachronic一by ferdinand de saussure.synchronic study: the description of a language at some point of time in history, diachronic study: the description of a language as it chan

32、ges through time. a diachronic study of language is a historical study; it studies the historical development of language over a period of time.1.3.3 speech and writingspeech and writing are the two major media of linguistic communication.the spoken language as the natural or the primary medium of h

33、uman language.1) speech is prior to writing: (from the point of view of linguistic evolution)2) speech 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.3) spoken language reveals many true features of human spe

34、ech while writtenlanguage is only the "revised" record of speech.4) in everyday communication, speech plays a greater role than writing in terms of the amount of information conveyed.1.3a langue and parolethe distinction between langue and parole was made by the swiss linguist ferdinand de

35、 saussure.1) definitiona) langue:a) the abstract linguistic system shared by all the members of a speech community(a social code);b) the set of conventions and rules which language users all have to abide by;c) abstract, it is not the language people actually use.d) relatively stable, it does not ch

36、ange frequently.b) parole:a) the realization of langue in actual use.b) the concrete use of the conventions and the application of the rules.c) concrete, it refers to the naturally occurring language events.d) varies from person to person, and from situation to situation.2) the significances of the

37、distinction:a) it is convenient in that it delimits an area of enquiry which is manageable: thatarea is langueb) the concept of langue can be said to capture the central and determining aspect of language itself.3) the relation between the langue and parolea) langue comes from parole.b) parole is gu

38、ided by langue.1.3.5 competence and performanceproposed by the american linguist noam chomsky.1) definitioncompetence: the ideal users knowledge of the rules of his language.performance: the actual realization of this knowledge in linguistic communication.2) the relation between the competence and p

39、erformancea) competence is essential and primary; performance is the residual category of secondary phenomena, incidental, and peripheral.b) competence and performance are quite different phenomena and you cannot directly infer one from the othe匚3) the difference between the two pairs of concepts: l

40、angue vs parole and competence vs performancei) similarities:a) it represents a similar dichotomy of knowledge and behaviour.b) it represents a similar demarcation of the scope of linguistic enquiry.c) they are both be glossed in terms of abstract knowledgeii) differences:a) the nature of knowledge

41、is conceived of in very different ways.saussure took a sociological view of language and his notion of langue is a matter of social conventions.chomsky looks at language from a psychological point of view and to him competence is a property of the mind of each individualb) the different study intere

42、stlangue, the focus of attention will be in what makes each language different. competence, the focus of attention will be in what makes languages alike.1.3.6 traditional grammar and modern linguistics1) definition:modern linguistics: the beginning of modem linguistics was marked by the publication

43、of f. de saussure's book course in general linguistics in the early 20lh century.traditional grammar: the general approach traditionally formed to the study of language over the years, before the book "course in general linguistics was published.2) differences between traditional grammar an

44、d modern linguistics:a) modern linguistics is descriptive while traditional grammar is prescriptive.b) modern linguistics regards the spoken language as primary, not the writing.traditional grammarians, on the other hand, tended to emphasize, the importance of the written word.c) traditional grammar

45、 forces languages into a latin-based framework, but modern linguistics does notreading recommendationbeginner-friendly:s. c. poole: an introduction to linguistics. macmillan publishers ltd, 1999;外語教學(xué)與研 究出版社2000 （劉潤清導(dǎo)讀）。h.g. widdowson: linguistics. oxford university press 1996；上海外語教育出版社，2001。胡壯麟、姜旺琪：

46、語言學(xué)教程（修訂版）。北京大學(xué)出版社，2001。more challenging:v. fromkin, et al : an introduction to language （the 7th edition）. holt, rinehart and winston inc. 2002；北京大學(xué)出版社，2004。d ciystal: the cambridge encyclopedia of language. cambridge university press, 1995， 2003;外語教學(xué)與研究出版社2002 （王克非等導(dǎo)讀）。chapter 1 introductionexerci

47、ses:1. which of the following statements about language is not true?a. language is a system.b. language is symbolic.c. language should have a written form.d. language is arbitrary.2. which of the following features is not one of the design features of language?a. symbolic. b. dual.c. productive. d.

48、arbitrary.3. what are the dual structures of language?a. sounds and letters.b. sounds and meaning.c. letters and meaning.d. sounds and symbols.4. which of the following statements can be used to describe 'displacement， one of the unique properties of language?a. we can easily teach our children

49、to learn a certain language.b. wc can use both "shu" and 1 tree1 to describe the same thing.c. we can use language to refer to something not present.d. we can produce sentences that have never been heard before.5. which of the following is one of the core branches of linguistics?a. phonolo

50、gy. b psycho-linguistics. c socio-linguistics. d. anthropology.6. which of the following branches of linguistics takes the inner structure of word as its main object of study?a. phonetics.b semantics.c. morphology. d. syntax.7. which of the following modes of study emphasizes on the "standards”

51、 of language?a. prescriptive. b descriptive. c. synchronic.d. diachronic.8. who put forward the distinction between langue and parolea. saussureb. chomsky c. hallidayd. anonymous9. the distinction between competence and performance is proposed by.a. saussureb. hallidayc. chomskyd. the prague school1

52、0. according to chomsky, is the ideal user's internalized knowledge of his language.a. competenceb. parolec performance d. langue11. is a design feature of human language that enables speakers to talk about a widerange of things, free from barriers caused by separation in time and space.a. displacement b. arbitrarinessc. dualityd. productivity12. general linguistics is the scientific study of.a. language of a certain individualb. the german languagec. human language in gener