1、Chapter 1 Invitations to Linguistics1.3 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.1.3.1 ArbitrarinessArbitrariness refers to the fact that the forms of linguistic
2、signs bear no natural relationship to their meanings.1.3.2 DualityDuality 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 has its own principles of organization.1.3.3 Creativity
3、Creativity 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 for the possibility of creating endless sentences.1.3
4、.4 DisplacementDisplacement 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.加 1 Discreteness（可分离性）Each sound in the language is treated as discrete.加 2 Iconicity 拟象性 : the direct/non-arbit
5、rary/non-symbolic relation between meaning and form. There are resemblances between the language form and what they refer to. That relationship is called icon. Iconicity exists in sounds, lexicons and syntax. It is the motivation between language forms and meanings. It is a relation of resemblance b
6、etween language form and what they refer to.1.5 Functions of languageAs is proposed by Jacobson, language has six functions:1. Referential: to convey message and information;2. Poetic: to indulge in language for its own sake;3. Emotive: to express attitudes, feelings and emotions;4. Conative: to per
7、suade 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 metafunctions of language. It means that language has three metafunctions:1. Ideational function: t
8、o convey new information, to communicate a content that is - 1 unknown to the hearer;2. Interpersonal function: embodying all use of language to express social and personal relationships;3. Textual function: referring to the fact that language has mechanisms to make any stretch of spoken and written
9、 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:1.5.1 InformativeThe informative function means language is the instrument of thought and people often use it to communicat
10、e new information.1.5.2 Interpersonal functionThe interpersonal function means people can use language to establish and maintain their status in a society.1.5.3 PerformativeThe performative function of language is primarily to change the social status of persons, as in marriage ceremonies, the sente
11、ncing of criminals, the blessing of children, the naming of a ship at a launching ceremony, and the cursing of enemies.1.5.4 Emotive functionThe emotive function is one of the most powerful uses of language because it is so crucial in changing the emotional status of an audience for or against someo
12、ne or something.1.5.5 Phatic 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 relationship between people without any factual content.1.5.6 Recreational functionThe recre
13、ational function means people use language for the sheer joy of using it, such as a babys babbling or a chanters chanting.1.5.7 Metalingual functionThe metalingual function means people can use language to talk about itself. E.g. I can use the word “book” to talk about a book, and I can also use the
14、 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 human beings.1.7 Main branches of linguistics1.7.1 PhoneticsPhonetics is the stu
15、dy of speech sounds, it includes three main areas: articulatory - 2 phonetics, acoustic phonetics, and auditory phonetics.1.7.2 PhonologyPhonology studies the rules governing the structure, distribution, and sequencing of speech sounds and the shape of syllables.1.7.3 MorphologyMorphology studies th
16、e minimal units of meaning morphemes and word-formation processes.1.7.4 SyntaxSyntax 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. 1.7.5 SemanticsSemantics examines how meaning is encoded in a language.1.
17、7.6 PragmaticsPragmatics is the study of meaning in context.1.8 Macrolinguistics1.8.1 Psycholinguistics1.8.2 Sociolinguistics1.8.3 Anthropological linguistics1.8.4 Computational linguistics1.9 Important distinctions in linguistics1.9.1 Descriptive vs. prescriptiveTo say that linguistics is a descrip
18、tive science is to say that the linguist tries to discover and record the rules to which the members of a language-community actually conform 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 an
19、d settle the disputes over usage once and for all.For example, “Dont say X.” is a prescriptive command; “People dont say X.” is a descriptive 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
20、 studied prescriptively. However, modern linguistics is mostly descriptive because the nature of linguistics as a science determines its preoccupation with description instead of prescription.1.9.2 Synchronic vs. diachronicA synchronic study takes a fixed instant (usually at present) as its point of
21、 observation. Saussures diachronic description is the study of a language through the course of its history. E.g. a study of the features 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 l
22、inguistics, synchronic study seems to enjoy - 3 priority over diachronic study. The reason is that unless the various state of a language are successfully studied it would be difficult to describe the changes that have taken place in its historical development.1.9.3 Langue langue is not spoken by an
23、 individual, parole is always a naturally occurring event. What a linguist should do, according to Saussure, is to draw rules from a mass of confused facts, i.e. to discover the regularities governing all instances of parole and make them the subject of linguistics.1.9.4 Competence and performanceAc
24、cording to Chomsky, a language users underlying knowledge about the system of rules is called the linguistic competence, and the actual use of language in concrete situations is called performance. Competence enables a speaker to produce and understand and indefinite number of sentences and to recog
25、nize grammatical mistakes and ambiguities. A speakers competence is stable while his performance is often influenced by psychological and social factors. So a speakers performance does not always match his supposed competence. Chomsky believes that linguists ought to study competence, rather than pe
26、rformance. Chomskys competence-performance distinction is not exactly the same as, though similar to, Saussures langue-parole distinction. Langue 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 langua
27、ge more from a sociological or sociolinguistic point of view than Chomsky since the latter deals with his issues psychologically or psycholinguistically.1.9.5 Etic vs. emicBeing etic means researchers making far too many, as well as behaviorally and inconsequential, differentiations, just as often t
28、he case with phonetics vs. phonemics analysis in linguistics proper.An emic set of speech acts and events must be one that is validated as meaningful via final resource to the native members of a speech community rather than via appeal to the investigators ingenuity or intuition alone.Chapter 2 Spee
29、ch Sounds2.1 Speech production and perception- 4 Phonetics 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 phonetic
30、s the study of perception of speech soundsMost phoneticians are interested in articulatory phonetics.2.3 Segments, divergences, and phonetic transcription2.3.2 Phonetic transcriptionInternational Phonetic Alphabet (IPA): the system of symbols for representing the pronunciation of words in any langua
31、ge according to the principles of the International Phonetic Association. The symbols consist of letters and diacritics. Some letters are taken from the Roman alphabet, some are special symbols.2.4 Consonants2.4.3 Manners of articulation1. Stop/plosive: 2. Fricative: 3. (Median) approximant: 4. Late
32、ral (approximant): 2.4.4 Places of articulation1. Bilabial: A speech sound which is made with the two 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.4. Alveola
33、r: A speech sound which is made with the tongue tip or blade and the alveolar ridge.5. Postalveolar: 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 to
34、ngue tip or blade forms a stricture with the back of the alveolar ridge or the hard palate.7. Palatal: 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
35、is made with the back of the tongue and the uvula, the short projection of the soft tissue and muscle at the posterior end of - 5 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 pie
36、ces of vocal folds pushed towards each other.2.4.5 The consonants of EnglishReceived Pronunciation (RP): 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”
37、or “Oxford English” because it is widely used in the private sector of the education system and spoken by most newsreaders of the BBC network.A chart of English consonantsPlace of articulationManner of articulation Bilabial Labio-dental Dental Alveolar Post-alveolar Palatal Velar GlottalStopNasalFri
38、cativeApproximantLateralAffricatep voiceless bilabial stopb voiced bilabial stops voiceless alveolar fricativez voiced alveolar fricativem bilabial nasaln alveolar nasall alveolar lateralj palatal approximanth glottal fricativer alveolar approximantChapter 3 Lexicon3.1 What is word?1. What is a lexe
39、me?A lexeme is the smallest unit in the meaning system of a language that can be - 6 distinguished from other similar units. It is an abstract unit. It can occur in many different forms in actual spoken or written sentences, and is regarded as the same lexeme even when inflected. E.g. the word “writ
40、e” is the lexeme of “write, writes, wrote, writing and written.”2. What is a morpheme?A morpheme is the smallest unit of language in terms of relationship between expression and content, a unit that cannot be divided into further smaller units without destroying or drastically altering the meaning,
41、whether it is lexical or grammatical. E.g. the word “boxes” has two morphemes: “box” and “es,” neither of which permits further division or analysis shapes if we dont want to sacrifice its meaning.3. What is an allomorph?An allomorph is the alternate shapes of the same morpheme. E.g. the variants of
42、 the plurality “-s” makes the allomorphs thereof in the following examples: map maps, mouse mice, ox oxen, tooth teeth, etc.4. What is a word?A word is the smallest of the linguistic units that can constitute, by itself, a complete utterance in speech or writing.3.1.1 Three senses of “word”1. A phys
43、ically definable unit2. The common factor underlying a set of forms3. A grammatical unit3.1.2 Identification of words1. Stability2. Relative uninterruptibility3. A minimum free form3.1.3 Classification of words1. Variable and invariable words2. Grammatical words and lexical words3. Closed-class word
44、s and open-class words4. Word class3.2 The formation of word3.2.1 Morpheme and morphologyMorphology studies the internal structure of words, and the rules by which words are formed.3.2.2 Types of morphemes1. Free morpheme and bound morphemeFree morphemes: Those which may occur alone, that is, those
45、which may constitute words by themselves, are free morphemes.Bound morphemes: Those which must appear with at least another morpheme - 7 are called bound morphemes.2. Root, affix and stemA root is the base form of a word that cannot further be analyzed. An affix is the collective term for the type o
46、f formative that can be used only when added to another morpheme. A stem is any morpheme or combination of morphemes to which an inflectional affix can be added.3. Inflectional affix and derivational affixInflection is the manifestation of grammatical relationships through the addition of inflection
47、al affixes, such as number, person, finiteness, aspect and case, which do not change the grammatical class of the stems to which they are attached.The distinction between inflectional affixes and derivational affixes is sometimes known as a distinction between inflectional morphemes and derivational
48、 morphemes. We can tell the difference between them with the following ways:(1) Inflectional affixes very often add a minute or delicate grammatical meaning to the stem. E.g. toys, walks, Johns, etc. Therefore, they serve to produce different forms of a single word. In contrast, derivational affixes
49、 often change the lexical meaning. E.g. cite, citation, etc.(2) Inflectional affixes dont change the word class of the word they attach to, such as flower, flowers, whereas derivational affixes might or might not, such as the relation between small and smallness for the former, and that between brother and brotherhood for the latter.(3) Inflectional affixes are often conditioned by nonsemantic linguistic factors outside the word they attach to but within the phrase or sentence. E.g. the choice of likes in “The boy likes to naviga
