1、1胡壮麟语言学教程 （修订版）第一部分 各章节提纲笔记Chapter 1 Invitations to Linguistics1.1 Why study language?1. Language is very essential to human beings.2. In language there are many things we should know.3. For further understanding, we need to study language scientifically.1.2 What is language?Language is a means of v
2、erbal communication. It is a system of arbitrary vocal symbols used for human communication.1.3 Design features of languageThe features that define our human languages can be called design features which can distinguish human language from any animal system of communication.1.3.1ArbitrarinessArbitra
3、riness refers to the fact that the forms of linguistic signs bear no natural relationship to their meanings.1.3.2DualityDuality refers to the property of having two levels of structures, such that units of the primary level are composed of elements of the secondary level and each of the two levels h
4、as its own principles of organization.1.3.3CreativityCreativity means that language is resourceful because of its duality and its recursiveness. Recursiveness refers to the rule which can be applied repeatedly without any definite limit. The recursive nature of language provides a theoretical basis
5、for the possibility of creating endless sentences.1.3.4DisplacementDisplacement 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 conversation.1.4 Origin of language1. The bow-wow theoryIn primitive time
6、s people imitated the sounds of the animal calls in the wild environment they lived and speech developed from that.2. The pooh-pooh theoryIn the hard life of our primitive ancestors, they utter instinctive sounds of pains, anger and joy which gradually developed into language.3. The “yo-he-ho” theor
7、yAs primitive people worked together, they produced some rhythmic grunts which gradually developed into chants and then into language.1.5 Functions of languageAs is proposed by Jacobson, language has six functions:21. Referential: to convey message and information;2. Poetic: to indulge in language f
8、or its own sake;3. Emotive: to express attitudes, feelings and emotions;4. Conative: to persuade and influence others through commands and entreaties;5. Phatic: to establish communion with others;6. Metalingual: to clear up intentions, words and meanings.Halliday (1994) proposes a theory of metafunc
9、tions of language. It means that language has three metafunctions:1. Ideational function: to convey new information, to communicate a content that is unknown to the hearer;2. Interpersonal function: embodying all use of language to express social and personal relationships;3. Textual function: refer
10、ring to the fact that language has mechanisms to make any stretch of spoken and written discourse into a coherent and unified text and make a living passage different from a random list of sentences.According to Hu Zhuanglin, language has at least seven functions:1.5.1InformativeThe informative func
11、tion means language is the instrument of thought and people often use it to communicate new information.1.5.2Interpersonal functionThe interpersonal function means people can use language to establish and maintain their status in a society.1.5.3PerformativeThe performative function of language is pr
12、imarily to change the social status of persons, as in marriage ceremonies, the sentencing of criminals, the blessing of children, the naming of a ship at a launching ceremony, and the cursing of enemies.1.5.4Emotive functionThe emotive function is one of the most powerful uses of language because it
13、 is so crucial in changing the emotional status of an audience for or against someone or something.1.5.5Phatic communionThe phatic communion means people always use some small, seemingly meaningless expressions such as Good morning, God bless you, Nice day, etc., to maintain a comfortable relationsh
14、ip between people without any factual content.1.5.6Recreational functionThe recreational function means people use language for the sheer joy of using it, such as a babys babbling or a chanters chanting.1.5.7Metalingual functionThe metalingual function means people can use language to talk about its
15、elf. E.g. I can use the word “book” to talk about a book, and I can also use the expression “the word book” to talk about the sign “b-o-o-k” itself.1.6 What is linguistics?Linguistics is the scientific study of language. It studies not just one language of any one community, but the language of all
16、human beings.1.7 Main branches of linguistics1.7.1Phonetics3Phonetics is the study of speech sounds, it includes three main areas: articulatory phonetics, acoustic phonetics, and auditory phonetics.1.7.2PhonologyPhonology studies the rules governing the structure, distribution, and sequencing of spe
17、ech sounds and the shape of syllables.1.7.3MorphologyMorphology studies the minimal units of meaning morphemes and word-formation processes.1.7.4SyntaxSyntax refers to the rules governing the way words are combined to form sentences in a language, or simply, the study of the formation of sentences.
18、1.7.5SemanticsSemantics examines how meaning is encoded in a language.1.7.6PragmaticsPragmatics is the study of meaning in context.1.8 MacrolinguisticsMacrolinguistics is the study of language in all aspects, distinct from microlinguistics, which dealt solely with the formal aspect of language syste
19、m.1.8.1PsycholinguisticsPsycholinguistics investigates the interrelation of language and mind, in processing and producing utterances and in language acquisition for example.1.8.2SociolinguisticsSociolinguistics is a term which covers a variety of different interests in language and society, includi
20、ng the language and the social characteristics of its users.1.8.3Anthropological linguisticsAnthropological linguistics studies the relationship between language and culture in a community.1.8.4Computational linguisticsComputational linguistics is an interdisciplinary field which centers around the
21、use of computers to process or produce human language.1.9 Important distinctions in linguistics1.9.1Descriptive vs. prescriptiveTo say that linguistics is a descriptive science is to say that the linguist tries to discover and record the rules to which the members of a language-community actually co
22、nform and does not seek to impose upon them other rules, or norms, of correctness.Prescriptive linguistics aims to lay down rules for the correct use of language and settle the disputes over usage once and for all.For example, “Dont say X.” is a prescriptive command; “People dont say X.” is a descri
23、ptive statement. The distinction lies in prescribing how things ought to be and describing how things are. In the 18th century, all the main European languages were studied prescriptively. However, modern linguistics is mostly descriptive because the nature of linguistics as a science determines its
24、 preoccupation with description instead of prescription.1.9.2Synchronic vs. diachronicA synchronic study takes a fixed instant (usually at present) as its point of observation. Saussures 4diachronic description is the study of a language through the course of its history. E.g. a study of the feature
25、s of the English used in Shakespeares time would be synchronic, and a study of the changes English has undergone since then would be a diachronic study. In modern linguistics, synchronic study seems to enjoy priority over diachronic study. The reason is that unless the various state of a language ar
26、e successfully studied it would be difficult to describe the changes that have taken place in its historical development.1.9.3Langue langue is not spoken by an individual, parole is always a naturally occurring event. What a linguist should do, according to Saussure, is to draw rules from a mass of
27、confused facts, i.e. to discover the regularities governing all instances of parole and make them the subject of linguistics.1.9.4Competence and performanceAccording to Chomsky, a language users underlying knowledge about the system of rules is called the linguistic competence, and the actual use of
28、 language in concrete situations is called performance. Competence enables a speaker to produce and understand and indefinite number of sentences and to recognize grammatical mistakes and ambiguities. A speakers competence is stable while his performance is often influenced by psychological and soci
29、al factors. So a speakers performance does not always match his supposed competence. Chomsky believes that linguists ought to study competence, rather than performance. Chomskys competence-performance distinction is not exactly the same as, though similar to, Saussures langue-parole distinction. Lan
30、gue is a social product and a set of conventions of a community, while competence is deemed as a property of mind of each individual. Saussure looks at language more from a sociological or sociolinguistic point of view than Chomsky since the latter deals with his issues psychologically or psycholing
31、uistically.1.9.5Etic vs. emicBeing etic means researchers making far too many, as well as behaviorally and inconsequential, differentiations, just as often the case with phonetics vs. phonemics analysis in linguistics proper.An emic set of speech acts and events must be one that is validated as mean
32、ingful via final resource to the native members of a speech community rather than via appeal to the investigators ingenuity or intuition alone.Following the suffix formations of (phon)etics vs (phon)emics, these terms were introduced into the social sciences by Kenneth Pike (1967) to denote the dist
33、inction between the material and functional study of language: phonetics studies the acoustically measurable and articulatorily definable immediate sound utterances, whereas phonemics analyzes the specific selection each language makes from that universal catalogue from a functional aspect.Chapter 2
34、 Speech Sounds2.1 Speech production and perceptionPhonetics is the study of speech sounds. It includes three main areas:1. Articulatory phonetics the study of the production of speech sounds2. Acoustic phonetics the study of the physical properties of the sounds produced in speech3. Auditory phoneti
35、cs the study of perception of speech soundsMost phoneticians are interested in articulatory phonetics.52.2 Speech organsSpeech organs are those parts of the human body involved in the production of speech. The speech organs can be considered as consisting of three parts: the initiator of the air str
36、eam, the producer of voice and the resonating cavities.2.3 Segments, divergences, and phonetic transcription2.3.1Segments and divergencesAs there are more sounds in English than its letters, each letter must represent more than one sound.2.3.2Phonetic transcriptionInternational Phonetic Alphabet (IP
37、A): the system of symbols for representing the pronunciation of words in any language according to the principles of the International Phonetic Association. The symbols consists of letters and diacritics. Some letters are taken from the Roman alphabet, some are special symbols.2.4 Consonants2.4.1Con
38、sonants and vowelsA consonant is produced by constricting or obstructing the vocal tract at some places to divert, impede, or completely shut off the flow of air in the oral cavity.A vowel is produced without obstruction so no turbulence or a total stopping of the air can be perceived.2.4.2Consonant
39、sThe categories of consonant are established on the basis of several factors. The most important of these factors are:1. the actual relationship between the articulators and thus the way in which the air passes through certain parts of the vocal tract (manner of articulation);2. where in the vocal t
40、ract there is approximation, narrowing, or the obstruction of the air (place of articulation).2.4.3Manners of articulation1. Stop/plosive: A speech sound which is produced by stopping the air stream from the lungs and then suddenly releasing it. In English, are stops and are nasal stops.2. Fricative
41、: A speech sound which is produced by allowing the air stream from the lungs to escape with friction. This is caused by bringing the two articulators, e.g. the upper teeth and the lower lip, close together but not closes enough to stop the airstreams completely. In English, are fricatives.3. (Median
42、) approximant: An articulation in which one articulator is close to another, but without the vocal tract being narrowed to such an extent that a turbulent airstream is produced. In English this class of sounds includes .4. Lateral (approximant): A speech sound which is produced by partially blocking
43、 the airstream from the lungs, usually by the tongue, but letting it escape at one or both sides of the blockage. is the only lateral in English.Other consonantal articulations include trill, tap or flap, and affricate.2.4.4Places of articulation1. Bilabial: A speech sound which is made with the two
44、 lips.2. Labiodental: A speech sound which is made with the lower lip and the upper front teeth.3. Dental: A speech sound which is made by the tongue tip or blade and the upper front teeth.64. Alveolar: A speech sound which is made with the tongue tip or blade and the alveolar ridge.5. Postalveolar:
45、 A speech sound which is made with the tongue tip and the back of the alveolar ridge.6. Retroflex: A speech sound which is made with the tongue tip or blade curled back so that the underside of the tongue tip or blade forms a stricture with the back of the alveolar ridge or the hard palate.7. Palata
46、l: A speech sound which is made with the front of the tongue and the hard palate.8. Velar: A speech sound which is made with the back of the tongue and the soft palate.9. Uvular: A speech sound which is made with the back of the tongue and the uvula, the short projection of the soft tissue and muscl
47、e at the posterior end of the velum.10. Pharyngeal: A speech sound which is made with the root of the tongue and the walls of the pharynx.11. Glottal: A speech sound which is made with the two pieces of vocal folds pushed towards each other.2.4.5The consonants of EnglishReceived Pronunciation (RP):
48、The type of British Standard English pronunciation which has been regarded as the prestige variety and which shows no regional variation. It has often been popularly referred to as “BBC English” or “Oxford English” because it is widely used in the private sector of the education system and spoken by
49、 most newsreaders of the BBC network.A chart of English consonantsPlace of articulationManner of articulation Bilabial Labio-dental Dental Alveolar Post-alveolar Palatal Velar GlottalStop Nasal Fricative Approximant Lateral Affricate In many cases there are two sounds that share the same place and manner of articulation. These pairs of consonants are distinguished by voicing, the one appearing on the left is voiceless and the one on the right is voiced.T
