1、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 usually no intrinsic connection between a work (like “book”) and the obj
2、ect 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, because words are associated with objects, actions, ideas etc. by nothing but convention. Namely, people use the sound
3、s 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
4、) 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 be
5、tween 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
6、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 compo
7、unds (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
8、 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 see
9、n 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 sem
10、antic 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
11、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 ones native language, including those that has never heard before, but that are appropriate to the speaking situation. No one
12、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 he can understand it in right register. Different from artistic creativity, though, productivity never goes outside the language, thus also called “rule-bound
13、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
14、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 b
15、arking for something or at someone that exists now and there. It couldnt be bow-wowing sorrowfully for a bone to be lost. The bees 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 biological
16、ly 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
17、person learns to speak is a cultural one other than a genetic one like the dogs 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 wolfs roaring “tongue” when he was saved. He learned thereafter,
18、 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 * differentiation in the actual language use, in other words, men and
19、 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 t
20、he 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) “speaki
21、ng” 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
22、 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
23、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, evoc
24、ative 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 Lond
25、on 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, far
26、ewells, 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 dont say “Hello” to a friend you meet, or if you dont answer his “Hi”, you
27、 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 syntactic structures or sentences of other sorts ca
28、n, according to J. Austin and J. Searles “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, chara
29、cterized by the use of declarative sentences. Informative statements are often labelled as true (truth) or false (falsehood). According to P. Grices “Cooperative Principle”, one ought not to violate the “Maxim of Quality”, when he is informing at all.14. What is the interrogative function?When langu
30、age is used to obtain information, it serves an “interrogative function”. This includes all questions that expect replies, statements, imperatives etc., according to the “indirect speech act theory”, may have this function as well, e.g., “Id like to know you better.” This may bring forth a lot of pe
31、rsonal information. Note that rhetorical questions make an exception, since they demand no answer, at least not the readers/listeners 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. Subcon
32、scious emotional ejaculations are good examples, like “Good heavens!” “My God!” Sentences like “Im 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 use
33、d for the expressive function evaluates, appraises or asserts the speakers 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. Joke
34、s(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 per
35、sonal feelings about a political issue but end up by evoking the same feeling in, or imposing it on, your listener. Thats 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
36、as an action is more important than what words or sounds constitute the uttered sentence. The judges imprisonment sentence, the presidents war or independence declaration, etc., are performatives.18. What is linguistics?“Linguistics” is the scientific study of language. It studies not just one langu
37、age of any 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 chang
38、es 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 c
39、ommunities。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 us
40、ually 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
41、 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 brevit
42、y 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
43、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 lingui
44、stics, 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 entitl
45、ed “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 repetitio
46、n 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 t
47、hat 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 oth
48、er. 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 time can read Beowulf, Samuel Johnson, and Edgar A. Poe. Thirdly, oral messages are readily subject to distortion, either intentional or unintentional, wh
49、ile 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 f
