戴伟栋 新编简明英语语言学教程笔记.doc

戴版语言学Chapter One-IntroductionPart one-What is linguistics?1. Definition-linguistics is generally defined as the scientific study of language.Scientific means it is based on the systematic investigation of linguistic data, conducted with reference to some general theory of language structure.No Article before language in this definition means that linguistics studies language in general.Linguists task: basically study and understand the general principles upon which all languages are built.Interest of linguists is “what is said”2. The scopes of linguisticsGeneral linguistics-the study of language as a whole-the core of linguisticsPhonetics-the study of sounds used in linguistic communication.Phonology-the study of how sounds are put together and used to convey meanings in communication.Morphology-the study of the way in which the symbols are arranged and combined to form words.Syntax-the study of the rules for sentence formationSemantics-the study of meaning.Pragmatics-the study of meaning in the context of language use.Above are made up of the core of linguisticsSociolinguistics-the study of all social aspects of language and its relation with society from the core of the branch.Psycholinguistics-the study of language processing, comprehending and production, as well as language acquisition.Applied linguistics-the application of linguistic theories and principles to language teaching , especially the teaching of foreign and second languages.3. Some important distinctions in linguistics.(1) prescriptive vs. descriptiveprescriptive-the linguistic study aims to lay down rules for “correct and standard” behavior in using language, i.e. to tell people what they should say and what they should not say.Descriptive-the linguistic study aims to describe and analyze the language people actually use.Modern linguistics is mostly descriptive.(2) Synchronic vs. diachronicSynchronic-the description of a language at some point of time in history.Diachronic-the description of a language as it changes through time-the historical development of language over a period of time-another name: historical linguistics.A synchronic approach enjoys priority over a diachronic one.(3) Speech vs. writingTwo major media of linguistic communicationSpeech is prior to writing: (1)writing system is always “invented” by its users to record speech.(2)speech plays a greater role than writing in information conveyance.(3)speech is acquired as mother tongue while writing is learned and taught.(4)speech reveals true features of human speech while writing language is only the “revised” record of speech.(4) Langue vs. paroleProposed by Swiss linguist-F. de Saussure-sociological view.Purpose: discover the regularities governing the actual use of language and make them the subjects of study of linguistics.Langue-the abstract linguistic system shared by all the members of s speech community.-abstract & stable.Parole-the realization of language in actual use-concrete & varied(5) Competence vs. performanceProposed by American linguist Noam Chomsky-psychological viewPurpose: discover and specify the internalized sets of rules.Competence-the ideal users knowledge of the rules of his language.Performance-the actual realization of this knowledge in linguistic communication.(6) Traditional grammar and modern linguisticsThe beginning of modern linguistics- the publication of Saussures “Course in General Linguistics” in early 20thModern linguistics differs traditional grammar: (1) descriptive vs. prescriptive.(2) spoken language vs. written language.(3)ML doesnt force languages into a Latin-based framework.Part Two-What is language?1. Definition-language is a system of arbitrary vocal symbols used for human communication.System-elements of language are combined according to rules.Arbitrary-there is no intrinsic connection between a linguistic symbol and what symbol stands for.Vocal-the primary medium for all language is sound.Human-language is human-specific.2. Design features-proposed by American linguist Charles Hockett.(5/12)Design features: the defining properties of human language that distinguish it from any animal system of communication-human-specific.(1) Arbitrariness-there is no logical connection between meanings and sounds.Exceptions: Onomatopoeic words and some compound words are not entire arbitrary.(2) Productivity-language is creative in that it makes possible the construction and interpretation of new signals by its users-users can produce and understand sentences that they have never heard before.(3) Duality-(another name: double articulation.) Language is a system which consists of two sets of structures, or two levels. The lower lever is the structure of meaningless sounds and the higher level is the structure of meaning.-sound & meaning(4) Displacement-language can be used to refer to things which are present or not present, real or imagined matters in the past, present, or future, in a faraway places- It doesnt matter how far away the topic is of conversation is in time or space-free from the barriers caused by separation in time and place.(5) Cultural transmission-the capacity for language is genetically based while the details of and language system should be taught and learned.-language is passed down from one generation to the next through teaching and learning, rather than by instinct.3. The functions of language.(1) Informative: The main function of language that when people use language to communicate with each other, their experience in the real world, record or describe the “content” of the reality, they are actually taking advantage of this function.-the most important function.(2) Interpersonal: people establish and maintain their identity in the society by this function.(3) Performative: this is a function whereby the language influences directly on the reality, such as the sentence of imprisonment by the judge, the naming of a certain ship and the curses as believed by the ancient people.(4) Emotive: this function is performed by those linguistic elements used to express strong feelings, such as exclamatory expressions.(5) Phatic: this is function realized by those “Phatic language”, aiming to establishing a harmonious and intimate relationship among people. Examples in Chinese:吃了没？in English: Good norning. & A nice day, isnt it?(6) Recreational: This function means that sometimes people may enjoy language for languages sake, i.e. no using language in any practical purposes, such as tongue-twisters and childrens babbles and chanters chanting.(7) Metalingual: people may use language to talk about, explain or even change language itself. This is the metalingual function of language. For example, we may use “book” to refer to the existing object in the real world, and yet may also use “the word book” to stand by the concept “book” as embodied in language.Chapter 2: PhonologyPart One: The phonic Medium of LanguageLinguists concern only with the sounds that are produced by humans through their speech organs and have a role to play in linguistic communication.phonic medium : The meaningful speech sound in human communication.Speech sounds: the individual sounds within phonic medium are the speech sounds.Part Two: Phonetics1. What is phonetics?phonetics : The study of phonic medium of language and it is concerned with all sounds in the worlds languages.Classification:articulatory phonetics : It studies sounds from the speakers point of view, i.e. how a speaker uses his speech organs to articulate the sounds. -speakeracoustic phonetics: It studies the way sounds travel by looking at the sound waves, the physical means by which sounds are transmitted through the air from one person to another.-physical properties2. Organs of Speech1 the pharyngeal cavity-throat.2 the oral cavity-mouth.-tongue: most flexible.3 the nasal cavity-nose. In English, there are three nasal sounds, namely, m, n, .voicing: the way that sounds are produced with the vibration of the vocal cords.voiceless: the way that sounds are produced with no vibration of the vocal cords.3. Orthographic representation of speech sounds-broad and narrow transcriptions.IPA: short for International Phonetic Alphabets, a system of symbols consists of letters and diacritics, used to represent the pronunciation of words in any language.broad transcription: The use of letter symbols only to show the sounds or sounds sequences in written form.narrow transcription: The use of letter symbol, together with the diacritics to show sounds in written form.diacritics: The symbols used in the narrow transcription to show detailed articulatory features of sounds.aspiration: A little puff of air that sometimes follows a speech sound.4. Classification of English Speech SoundsClassification: consonant: a speech sound in which the air stream is obstructed in one way or another.vowel : a speech sound in which the air stream from the lung meets with no obstruction.1 Classification of English consonants:1 Manner of articulation: The manner in which obstruction is created.Stops: p, b, t, d, k, g.Fricatives: f, v, s, z, , , 3, h.Affricates: t,d3Liquids: l, r.Nasals: m, n, Glides: w, j.-semi-vowels2 place of articulation : The place where obstruction is created.Bilabial: p, b, m, w.Labiodental: f, vDental: , Alveolar: t, d, s, z, n, l, rPalatal: 3, t,d3, j.Velar: k, g, Glottal: h.Manner of articulation, place of articulation and voicing/ voiceless help describe a consonant.2 Classification of English Vowels.1 the position of the tongue:front: i:, i, e, , æ, acentral: :, , /back: u:, u, o, o:, a:2 the openness of the mouth.Close vowels: i:, i, u:, u,Semi-close: e, :Semi-open: , o:Open vowels: æ, a, /,o, a:3 shape of the lips:unrounded: i:, i, e, , æ, a, :, , /,a:rounded: u:, u, o, o:.4 length of the sound:long vowels: i:, :, u:, o:, a:short vowels: i, e, , æ, a, , /,u, o.5 monophthong : the individual vowel.-above vowels are all monophthongs.diphthong : The vowel which consists of two individual vowels, and functions as a single one.ei, ai, oi, i, au, u, e, u-eight diphthongs.Part Three: Phonology1. Phonology and Phoneticsphonetics : The study of phonic medium of language and it is concerned with all sounds in the worlds languages.phonology : The description of sound systems of particular languages and how sounds function to distinguish meaning.Similarity: all concerned with the same aspect of language-the speech sounds.Differences: approach and focus.1 Phonetics is of a general nature; it is interested in all the speech sounds used in all human languages-how they are produced, how they differ from each other, what phonetic features they possess, how they can be classified.2 Phonology aims to discover how speech sounds in a language from patterns and how these sounds are used to convey meaning in linguistic communication.E.g. allophones clear l and dark l:Phonetically speaking, they are interested in the differences how they are pronounced.Phonologically speaking, they are the same in functioning conveyance of the meanings.2. Phone, Phoneme, and Allophonephone : The speech sound we use when speaking a language, which does not necessarily distinguish meaning in the English language.phoneme : The smallest unit of sound in a language which can distinguish two sounds.allophone : any different forms of the same phoneme in different phonetic environments, e.g. clear l and dark l of the same l, aspirated p and unaspirated p of the same p in different phonetic environments.3. Phonemic contrast, complementary distribution, and minimal pairphonemic contrast : two similar sounds occur in the same environment and distinguish meaning. E.g. b in bit and p in pit form phonemic contrast.complementary distribution : allophones of the same phoneme and they dont distinguish meaning but complement each other in distribution. E.g. clear l and dark l respectively in the pronunciation of light and feel.minimal pair: two different forms are identical in every way except one sound and occurs in the same position. The two sounds are said to form a minimal pair. E.g. bat and bet are a minimal pair.4. Some Rules in Phonology1 sequential rules: The rules to govern the combination of sounds in a particular language.2 assimilation rule: The rule assimilates one sound to another by copying a feature of a sequential phoneme, thus making the two phones similar.3 deletion rule: The rule that a sound is to be deleted although it is orthographically represented.5. Suprasegmental Features-stress, tone, intonationsuprasegmental features: The phonemic features that occur above the level of the segments-syllable, word, sentence are called suprasegmental features, which include stress, tone and intonation.1 Stress:Classification: word stress & sentence stress.Word Stress:1 The location of stress in English distinguishes meaning.A shift of stress may change the part of speech of a word from a noun to a verb although its spelling remains unchanged. E.g. impott (n)-import (v), record (n)-record (v)blackbird (compound)-black bird (noncompound)2 The meaning-distinctive role played by word stress is also manifested in the combinations of ing forms and nouns. E.g. dining room(compound)-sleeping baby (noncompound)Sentence Stress:Sentence stress: It refers to the relative force given to the components of a sentence.he parts of speech that are normally stressed in an English sentence are: N, V, Adj., Adv., Numerals, demonstrative pronouns. E.g. He is driving my car.-He drive, my, car.2 Tone:tone: Tones are pitch variations, which are caused by the differing rates of vibration of the vocal cords.Tone (pitch variation) can distinguish meaning in such languages as Chinese, but English is not a tone language.3 Intonation:intonation: When pitch, stress and sound length are tied to the sentence rather than the word in isolation, they are collectively known as intonation.Intonation plays a very important role in the conveyance of meaning in almost every language, especially in a language like English. -four basic types of intonation, namely, the falling tone, the