Chapter 1 本章重点看概念和术语
1 what is linguistics?
1.1Linguistics is generally defined as the scientific study of language. (why?) It studies not just one language of any one society, but the language of all human beings.
Process of linguistic study: ① Certain linguistic facts are observed, generalization are formed; ② Hypotheses are formulated; ③ Hypotheses are tested by further observations; ④ A linguistic theory is constructed. 1.2What 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 usually 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 the following principles: exhaustiveness穷尽性, consistency一致性,Economy经济性 and objectivity客观性.
Exhaustiveness means he should gather all the materials relevant to the study and give them an adequate explanation, in spite of the complicatedness.
Consistency means there should be no contradiction between different parts of the total statement.
Economy means a linguist should pursue brevity 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.
2 the scope of linguistics? P2
General linguistics: the study of language as a whole
Phonetics语音学: the general study of the characteristics of speech sounds (or the study of the phonic medium of language) (How speech sounds are produced and classified)
Phonology音位学: is essentially the description of the systems and patterns of speech sounds in a language. (How sounds form systems and function to convey meaning)
Morphology形态学: the study of the way in which morphemes are
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arranged to form words (how morphemes are combined to form words)
Syntax句法学: the study of those rules that govern the combination of
words to form permissible sentences (how morphemes and words are combined to form sentences)
Semantics语义学: the study of meaning in abstraction Pragmatics语用学: the study of meaning in context of use
Sociolinguistics社会语言学: the study of language with reference to society
Psycholinguistics心理语言学: the study of language with reference to the workings of the mind
Applied linguistics应用语言学: the application of linguistics principles and theories to language teaching and learning 3 some important distinctions in linguistics
重点看 langue and parole 和 competence and performance
① Prescriptive vs. Descriptive
A linguistic study is “descriptive” if it only describes and analyses the facts of language, and “prescriptive” if it tries to lay down rules for “correct” language behavior.
② Synchronic vs. Diachronic
The description of a language at some point in time; The description of a language as it changes through time. ③ Speech and writing
Spoken language is primary, not the written ④ Langue and parole
Proposed by Swiss linguists F. de Sausse (sociological)
Langue: refers to the abstract linguistic system shared by all the members of a speech community
Parole: refers to the realization of langue in actual use ⑤ Competence and performance
Proposed by the American linguist N. Chomsky (psychological) Competence: the ideal user’s knowledge of the rules of his language
Performance：the actual realization of the ideal user’s knowledge in utterances ⑥ Traditional grammar and modern grammar 4 what is language? P8
Language is a system of arbitrary vocal symbols used for human communication.
a) System: combined together according to rules
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b) Arbitrary: no intrinsic connection between a work (like “pen”) and the object it refers to.
c) Vocal: the primary medium is sound for all languages
d) Human: language is human-specific（交际性与信息性） 5 design features
a含义 b 5个特点以及各自的含义
“Design features” here refer to the defining properties of human language that tell the difference between human language and any system of animal communication. They are arbitrariness, productivity,duality, displacement and cultural transmission.
①Arbitrariness（任意性） There is no logical or natural connection between a linguistic form (either sound or word) and its meaning.
While language is arbitrary by nature, it is not entirely arbitrary. a) echo of the sounds of objects or activities: onomatopoeic words b) some compound words ②Productivity（能产性，创造性）
Language is productive in that it makes possible the construction and interpretation of new signals by its users. (Creativity or open-endedness)
③Duality（双重结构性，两重性或二元性） Language is organized at two levels or layers simultaneously. The lower or basic level is a structure of sounds which are meaningless. The higher level is morpheme or word (double articulation)
④Displacement（跨时空性，移位性）
Language can be used to refer to contexts removed from the immediate situations of the speaker (refer to past and future time and to other locations)
⑤Cultural transition（文化传递性）
While human capacity for language has a genetic basis (everyone was born with the ability to acquire a language), the details of any language system are not genetically transmitted, but instead have to be taught and learnt.
6 Why do linguists say language is human specific?
First of all, human language has 5 “design features” which animal
communication systems do not have, at least not in the true sense of them. Let?s borrow C. F. Hocket?s Chart that compares human language with some animals? systems.
Secondly, linguists have done a lot trying to teach animals such as chimpanzees to 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
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was taught “American sign Language”, and learned a little that made the teachers happy but did mot make the linguistics circle happy, for few 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 lo to so (see the “Wolf Child”).
Chapter 2 phonology 本章重点看音位描述 1 辅音表 元音表 p20-21
2 What is phonology? What is difference between phonetics and phonology? (1)“Phonology” is the study of sound systems- the invention of distinctive speech sounds that occur in a language and the patterns wherein they fall. Minimal pair, phonemes, allophones, free variation, complementary distribution, etc., are all to be investigated by a phonologist.
(2)Phonetics is the branch of linguistics studying the characteristics of speech sounds and provides methods for their description, classification and transcription. A
phonetist is mainly interested in the physical properties of the speech sounds, whereas a phonologist studies what he believes are meaningful sounds related with their
semantic features, morphological features, and the way they are conceived and printed in the depth of the mind phonological knowledge permits a speaker to produce sounds which from meaningful utterances, to recognize a foreign “accent”, to make up new words, to add the appropriate phonetic segments to from plurals and past tenses, to know what is and what is not a sound in one?s language. 3 What are minimal pairs?
When two different phonetic forms are identical in every way except for one sound segment which occurs in the same place in the string , the two forms(i. e., word) are supposed to form a “minimal pair”, e.g., “pill” and “bill”, “pill” and “till”, “till” and “dill”, “till” and “kill”, etc. All these words together constitute a minimal set. They are identical in form except for the initial consonants. There are many minimal pairs in English, which makes it relatively easy to know what are English phonemes. It is of great importance to find the minimal pairs when a phonologist is dealing with the sound system of an unknown language(see Hu Zhuanglin et al., pp65-66)
23. phone 24. Phoneme
A “phone” is a phonetic unit or segment. The speech sounds we hear and produce during linguistic communication are all phones. When we hear the following words pronounced:[pit], [tip], [spit], etc., the similar phones we have heard are [p] for one thing, and three different[p]?s, readily making possible the “narrow transcription or diacritics”. Phones may and may not distinguish meaning.
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A “phoneme” is a phonological unit; it is a unit that is of distinctive value. As an abstract unit, a phoneme is not any particular sound, but rather it is represented or
realized by a certain phone in a certain phonetic context. For example, the phoneme[p] is represented differently in [pit], [tip] and [spit].
Chapter 3 morphology
1 50个术语里面本章涉及到的术语
26. prefix( suffix) 27.root
A “root” is the base form of a word that cannot be further analyzed without total loss of identity. In other words, a “root” is that part of the word left when all the affixes are removed. “Internationalism” is a four-morpheme derivative which keeps its free morpheme “nation” as its root when “ inter-”, “-al” and “-ism” are taken away. 2 看3.2 和3.3 在p35 3.1 What is a morpheme?
The “morpheme” is the smallest unit in terms of relationship between expression and content, a unit which cannot be divided without destroying or drastically altering the meaning, whether it is lexical or grammatical. The word “boxes”, for example, has two morphemes: “box” and “-es”, neither of which permits further division or
analysis if we don?t wish to sacrifice meaning. Therefore a morpheme is considered the minimal unit of meaning.
3.2 What is a free morpheme? What is a bound morpheme?
A “free morpheme” is a morpheme that constitutes a word by itself, such as ?bed”, “tree” ,etc. A “bound morpheme” is one that appears with at least another morpheme, such as “-s” in “beds” , “-al” in “national” and so on. All monomorphemic words are free morphemes. Those polymorphemic words are either compounds (combination of two or more free morphemes )or derivatives (word derived from free morphemes).
Chapter4 syntax
1 50个术语里面本章涉及到的术语
28. category
The term “category” in some approaches refers to classes and functions in its narrow sense, e.g., noun, verb, subject, predicate, noun phrase, verb phrase, etc. More
specifically it refers to the defining properties of these general units: the categories of the noun, for example, include number, gender, case and countability ;and of the verb, for example, tense, aspect, voice, etc.
29.transformation 30. deep(surface) structure
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