英语语言学笔记概要.doc

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1、第一章Chapter 1 Invitations to LinguisticsTeaching aims: let the students have the general idea about language and linguistics.Teaching difficulties: design features of language ; some important distinctions in linguisticsTeaching procedures1. language1.1 Why study language?为什么学习语言A tool for communicat

2、ion交流的工具An integral part of our life and humanity 人类生活与人性中不可或缺的一部分.If we are not fully aware of the nature and mechanism of our language, we will be ignorant of what constitutes our essential humanity.如果不能完全理解语言的本质与结构,我们就会对人类的本质一无所知.1.2 What is language?什么是语言1.2.1 different senses of language 语言的不同意

3、义1. what a person says( concrete act of speech)a persons consistent way of speaking or writinga particular level of speaking or writing e.g. colloquial languagean abstract system2. A websters New Dictionrary offers a frequently used sense of the word “language”:a. human speech 人类的言语b. the ability to

4、 communicate by this means 通过言语来交流的能力c. a system of vocal sounds and combinations of such sounds to which meaning is attributed, used for the expression or communication of thoughts and feelings; 用来表达或交流思想与感觉的一套声音及这些声音互相结合的系统d. the written representation of such a system 系统的文字表达3. the barest of defi

5、nition, language is a means of verbal communication.最简洁的定义:语言是言语交流的一种方式.Language is instrumental in that communicating by speaking or writing is a purposeful act. It is social and conventional in that language is a social semiostic and communication can only take place effectively if all the users s

6、hare a broad understanding of human interaction including such associated factors as nonverbal cues, motivation, and socio-cultural roles. Language distinguishes us from animals.因为说与写的交流方式是一种有目的的行为,所以语言是实用性的;因为语言是社会符号,语言的交流只能在所有参与者广泛理解了人类的那些非言语的暗示,动机,社会文化角色等等互相关联的因素之后才能有效进行,因此语言又是社会的,约定俗成的.语言使人类区别于动

7、物.1.2.2 definitionsLanguage is a system of arbitrary vocal symbols used for human communication.What is communication?A process in which information is transmitted from a source (sender or speaker) to a goal (receiver or listener).A system-since elements in it are arranged according to certain rules

8、 systematically, rather than randomly. They cannot be arranged at will. e.g. He the table cleaned. () bkli ()Why do we say language is arbitrary?Arbitrary-there is no intrinsic (logic) connection between a linguistic form and its meaning, between the sounds that people use and the objects to which t

9、hese sounds refer. This explains and is explained by the fact that different language have different words for the same object, it is good illustration of the arbitrary nature of language . it is only our tacit agreement of utterance and concept at work and not any innate relationship bound up in th

10、e utterance. A typical example to illustrate the arbitrary of language is a famous quotation from shakepeares play:” Romeo and Juliet: A rose by any other name would smell as sweet.一朵玫瑰不管它叫什么名字,闻起来都是一样香的.Symbols-words are just the symbols associated with objects, actions, and ideas by nothing but co

11、nvention. Namely, people use the sounds or voval forms to symbolize what they wish to refer to.Vocal- the primary medium for all languages is sound, no matter how well developed their writing systems are. Writing systems came much later than the spoken forms. The fact that small children learn and c

12、an only learn to speak and listen before they write or read also indicates that language is primarily vocal, rather than written. Writing systems came into being much later than the spoken forms. People with little or no literacy can also be competent language users.Human -language is human-specific

13、. Human beings have different kinds of brains and vocal capacity. “Language Acquisition Device”(LAD)二.What characteristics of langauge do you think should be included in a good ,comprenhensive definition of language?Language is a rule-governed system; langauge is basically vocal; langauge is arbitra

14、ry ; langague is used for human communication.1.3 Design features of language 语言的结构特征Design features- refers to the defining properties of human language that distinguish it from any animal system of communication. They are arbitrariness, duality, creativity/ productivity, displacement, clutural tra

15、nsmission and interchangeability.Design features- are features that define our human languages,such as arbitrariness,duality,creativity,displacement,cultural transmission,etc.(指决定了人类语言性质的特征.例如任意性,二重性,创造性,移位性,文化转移性等.)The American linguist Charles Hockett specified twelve design features.What is arbit

16、rariness?任意性a. arbitrariness【 btrrns】- arbitrariness(任意性): one design feature of human language,which refers to the fact that the forms of linguistic signs bear no natural relationship to their meaning.(人类语言的本质特征之一,指语言符号的形式与意义之间没有自然的联系.) It was discussed by Saussure first.The link between them is a

17、matter of convention. E.g. “house” uchi (Japanese) Mansion (French) 房子(Chinese)(1) arbitrary between the sound of a morpheme and its meaning语言的音与义之间的任意性 a. By “arbitrary”, we mean there is no logical connection between meanings and sounds. 语言的意义与语音之间没有逻辑关系。A gog might be a pig if only the first pers

18、on or group of persons had used it for a gig. Language therefore is largely arbitrary.b. But language is not absolutely seem to be some sound-meaning association, if we think of echo words, like “bang ” ”crash” ”roar ” ” rumble ” ”cakle”, which are motivated in a certain sense.”onomatopoeia拟声词-words

19、 that sound like the sounds they describe那些发音像它们的描写的声音的词c. some compounds (words compounded to be one word ) are not entirely arbitary 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 ca

20、n say “arbitrariness” is a matter of degree.arbitrary and onometopoeic effect may work at the same time.任意性与拟声可以同时起作用。Eg. The murmurous haunt of flies on summer eves.夏日黄昏，群蝇嗡嗡地非。(2) Arbitrary at the syntactic level 句法上的任意性According to systematic-functionalists and American functionlists, language is

21、 not arbitrary at the syntactic level. 对于系统功能语言学家与美国功能语言学家来说，语言在句法上是非任意的。Syntax-it refers to the ways that sentences are constructed according to the grammar of arrangement.句法就是依据语法安排造句之法。(3) Aribrtary and convention任意性与约定性The link between a linguistic sign and its meaning is a matter of convention.

22、语言学上的符号与它的意义之间是约定俗成的关系。The other side of coin of arbitrariness , namely, conventionality.任意性的相反面，即约定性。conventionality-It means that in any language there are certain sequences of sounds that have a conventionally accepted meaning. Those words are customarily used by all speakers with the same intend

23、ed meaning and understood by all listeners in the same way.Arbitrainess of langauge makes it potentially creative, and conventionality of language makes learning a language laborious.任意性赋予语言潜在的创造力，而语言的约定性又使学习语言变得费力。There are two different schools of belief concerning arbitrariness. Most people, espe

24、cially structural linguists believe that language is arbitrary by nature. Other people, however, hold that language is iconic, that is, there is a direct relation or correspondence between sound and meaning, such as onomatopoeia.(cuckoo; crash)For the majority of animal signals, there does appear to

25、 be a clear connection between the conveyed message and the signal used to convey it, And for them, the sets of signals used in communication is finite.b. duality【djult】 (二重性):- one design feature of human language, which refers to the property of having two levels of structures , such as units of t

26、he primary level are composed of elements of the secondary level and each of the two levels has its own principles of organization.(人类语言的本质特征之一,指拥有两层结构的这种特性,底层结构是上层结构的组成成分,每层都有自身的组合规则.)duality-language is simultaneously organized at two levels or layers, namely, the level of sounds and that of meani

27、ng. the higher level -words which are meaningfulthe lower or the basic level-sounds which are meaningless, but can be grouped and regrouped into words.Dog: woof (but not “w-oo-f ” ) This duality of levels is, in fact, one of the most economical features of human language, since with a limited set of

28、 distinct sounds we are capable of producing a very large number of sound combinations (e.g. words) which are distinct in meaning. The principle of economy 经济原则Linguists refer “duality” (of structure) to the fact that in all language so far investigated, one finds two levels of structure or patterni

29、ng. 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 seen as a sequence of segments which lack any meaning in themselves, but which combine to form units of meaning.According to HUZHUANGLI

30、N, language is a system of two sets of structures or two levels, one of sound and the other of meaning. This is important for the workings of language. A small number of semantic words /units, and these units of meaning can be arranged and rearranged into an infinite number of sentences.这些意义单位组成无数个句

31、子。(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 anmial communication system enjoys this duality.To talk about duality we must notice that language is hierarchical.说到语言的二重性，我们必须注意语言的等级

32、性。 lic. Creativity-language is resourceful. It makes possible the construction and interpretation of new signals by its users.(novel utterances are continually being created.) non-human signals ,on the other hand, appears to have little flexibility. creativity(创造性): one design feature of human langu

33、age ,by creativity we mean language is resourceful because of its duality and its recursiveness. (指语言的能产性,因为语言有二重性与递归性.)productivity-productivity refers to the ability to construct and understand an indefinitely large number of sentences in ones native language , including those that has never heard

34、 before , but that are appropriate to the speaking situation.人们能够利用语言中原有的规则来理解从未碰到过的语言符号的特征。e.g. an experiment of bee communication:The worker bee, normally able to communicate the location of a nectar source , will fail to do so if the location is really new .In one experiment, a hive of bees was p

35、laced at the foot of a radio tower and a food source at the top. Ten bees were taken to the top, shown the food source, and sent off to tell the rest of the hive about their find. The message was conveyed via a bee dance and the whole gang buzzed off to get the free food. They flow around in all dir

36、ections, but couldnt locate the food. The problem may be that bee communication regarding location has a fixed set of signals, all of which related to horizonta distance. The bee cannot create a new message indicating vertical distance.No one has never said or heard “A red-eyed elephant is dancing o

37、n 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, productivity never goes outside the language, thus productivity is also called “rule-bound creativity” (by N. Chomsky) Productivity is uniqu

38、e to human language. 创造性是人类语言的独一无二的特征。d. displacement(移位性): one design feature of human language, which means human language enable their users to symbolize objects, events and concepts which are not present c in time and space, at the moment of communication.(指人类语言可以让使用者来表示在说话时(时间与处所)并不存在的物体,时间与观点.

39、) Bee communication: When a worker bee finds a source of nectar and returns to the hive, it can perform a complex dance routine to communicate to the other bees the location of this nectar. Depending on the type of dance (round dance for nearby and tail-wagging dance, with variable tempo, for furthe

40、r away and how far), The other bees can work put where this newly discovered feast can be found. Bee communication has displacement in an extremely limited form. However, it must be the most recent food source.Displacement , as one of the design features of the human language, refers to the fact tha

41、t one can talk about things that are not present, as easily as he does things present. In other words, one can refer to real or unreal things, things of the past, of the present, of the future.人类语言可以被用来指不在当时当地发生的事情，这就使得人类能够谈论许多事情而不受时空限制。Language can be used to refer to contexts removed from the imme

42、diate situations of the speak, that means language has the feature of displacement.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

43、dog is barking, however, you can decide it is barking 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 its an unspeakable tiny sharee. Cultural transmission-geneti

44、c transmission You acquire a language in a culture with other speakers and not from parental genes.The process whereby language is passed on from one generation to the next is described as cultural transmission.This means that language is not biologically transmitted from generation to generation, b

45、ut 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 person learns to speak is a cultural one other

46、than a genetic one like the dogs barking system. （人类学习语言的能力有遗传基础，但任何详细的语言系统都必须通过教授与学习才能获得，这说明语言具有文化传递性，它不是靠人类的本能而获得的。）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.

47、He learned thereafter, with no small difficulty, the ABC of a certain human language. Animal call systems are genetically transmitted.动物是靠其基因来传递其呼叫系统的。f. interchangeability 互换性interchangeability means that any human being can be both a producer and a receiver of messages. Though some people suggest

48、that there is differentiation in the actual language use, in other words, men and 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 the first speaker is to listen. It is turn-taking that makes social communication possible and acceptable. Som