语言学重点难点简略.pdf

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1、1.What is language?u Language is system of arbitrary vocal symbols used for human communication.It is a system,since linguisticelements are arranged systematically,rather than randomly.Arbitrary,in the sense that there is usually no intrinsicconnection between a work(like“book)and the object it refe

2、rs to.This explains and is explained by the fact thatdifferent 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 soundsor vocal forms to symbolize w

3、hat they wish to refer to.It is vocal,because sound or speech is the primary medium for allhuman languages.Writing systems came much later than the spoken forms.The fact that small children learn and canonly learn to speak(and listen)before they write(and read)also indicates that language is primari

4、ly vocal,rather thanwritten.The term uhuman“in the definition is meant to specify that language is human specific.2.What are design features of language?uDesign fe a tu re s h e re refer to the defining properties of human language that tell the difference between humanlanguage and any system of ani

5、mal communication.They are arbitrariness,duality,productivity,displacement,culturaltransmission and interchangeability3.What is arbitrariness?By a arbitrariness,we mean there is no logical connection between meanings and sounds.A dog might be a pig if onlythe first person or group of persons had use

6、d it for a pig.Language is therefore largely arbitrary.But language is notabsolutely seem to be some sound-meaning association,if we think of echo words,like“bang,c ra s h，“roar”,which are motivated in a certain sense.Secondly,some compounds(words compounded to be one word)are not entirelyarbitrary

7、either.Type”and w rite”are opaque or unmotivated words,while“type-writer”is less so,or moretransparent or motivated than the words that make it.So we can say“arbitrariness“is a matter of degree.4.What is duality?Linguists refer“duality”(of structure)to the fact that in all languages so far investiga

8、ted,one finds two levels ofstructure or patterning.At the first,higher level,language is analyzed in terms of combinations of meaningful units(suchas morphemes,words etc.);at the second,lower level,it is seen as a sequence of segments which lack any meaning inthemselves,but which combine to form uni

9、ts of meaning.According to Hu Zhanglin et al.,language is a system of twosets of structures,one of sounds and the other of meaning.This is important for the workings of language.A smallnumber of semantic units(words),and these units of meaning can be arranged and rearranged into an infinite number o

10、fsentences(note that we have dictionaries of words,but no dictionary of sentences!).Duality makes it possible for aperson to talk about anything within his knowledge.No animal communication system enjoys this duality.5.What is productivity?Productivity refers to the ability to the ability to constru

11、ct and understand an indefinitely large number of sentences inone*s native language,including those that has never heard before,but that are appropriate to the speaking situation.Noone has ever said or heard u A red-eyed elephant is dancing on the small hotel bed with an African gibbon w,but he cans

12、ay it when necessary,and he can understand it in right register.Different from artistic creativity,though,productivitynever goes outside the language,thus also called urule-bound creativity”(by N.Chomsky).6.What is displacement?“Displacement”,as one of the design features of the human language,refer

13、s to the fact that one can talk about thingsthat are not present,as easily as he does things present.In other words,one can refer to real and unreal things,things ofthe past,of the present,of the future.Language itself can be talked about too.When a man,for example,is crying to awoman,about somethin

14、g,it might be something that had occurred,or something that is occurring,or something that is tooccur.When a dog is barking,however,you can decide it is barking for something or at someone that exists now andthere.It couldn t be bow-wowing sorrowfully for a bone to be lost.The bee,s system,nonethele

15、ss,has a small share of“displacem ent，but it is an unspeakable tiny share.7.What is cultural transmission?This means that language is not biologically transmitted from generation to generation,but that the details of thelinguistic system must be learned anew by each speaker.It is true that the capac

16、ity for language in human beings(N.Chomsky called it language acquisition device”,or LAD)has a genetic basis,but the particular language a personlearns to speak is a cultural one other than a genetic one like the dog,s barking system.If a human being is brought up inisolation he cannot acquire langu

17、age.The Wolf Child reared by the pack of wolves turned out to speak the wolf s roaring“tongue“when he was saved.He learned thereafter,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 r

18、eceiver of messages.Though some peoplesuggest that there is*differentiation in the actual language use,in other words,men and women may say differentthings,yet in principle there is no sound,or word or sentence that a man can utter and a woman cannot,or vice versa.Onthe other hand,a person can be th

19、e 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 andacceptable.Some male birds,however,utter some calls which females do not(or cannot).When a

20、dog barks,all theneighboring dogs bark.Then people around can hardly tell which dog(dogs)is(are)“speaking“and which listening.9.Why do linguists say language is human specific?First of all,human language has six a design featuresw hich animal communication systems do not have,at least not inthe true

21、 sense of them.Secondly,linguists have done a lot trying to teach animals such as chimpanzees to speak a humanlanguage but have achieved nothing inspiring.Washoe,a female chimpanzee,was brought up like a human child byBeatnice and Alan Gardner.She was taught u American sign L a n g u a g e,and learn

22、ed a little that made the teachershappy but did mot make the linguistics circle happy,for few believed in teaching chimpanzees.Thirdly,a human childreared among animals cannot speak a human language,not even when he is taken back and taught to do so.1 0.What functions does language have?Language has

23、 at least seven functions:phatic,directive,Informative,interrogative,expressive,evocative andperformative.According to Wang Gang(1988,p.l 1),language has three main functions:a tool of communication,a toolwhereby people learn about the world,and a tool by which people learn about the world,and a too

24、l by which peoplecreate art.M.A.K.Halliday,representative of the London school,recognizes three u M acro-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 socialcontacts(r

25、ather than for exchanging information or ideas).Greetings,farewells,and comments on the weather in Englishand 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 don*t say“Hello“to a frie

26、nd you meet,or if you don t answerhis“Hi”,you ruin your friendship.12.What is the directive function?The“directive functionM means that language may be used to get the hearer to do something.Most imperativesentences perform this function,e.g.,“Tell me the result when you finish.Other syntactic struc

27、tures or sentences ofother sorts can,according to J.Austin and J.Searle s uIndirect speech act theory“at least,serve the purpose ofdirection 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 functionw when used

28、 to tell something,characterized by the use of declarativesentences.Informative statements are often labelled as true(truth)or false(falsehood).According to P.Grice suCooperative P rin c ip le,one ought not to violate the“Maxim of Q u a lity,when he is informing at all.14.What is the interrogative f

29、unction?When language is used to obtain information,it serves an interrogative f u n c tio n.This includes all questions thatexpect replies,statements,imperatives etc.,according to the u indirect speech act theory may have this function as well,e.g.,“I d like to know you better.This may bring forth

30、a lot of personal information.Note that rhetorical questionsmake an exception,since they demand no answer,at least not the reader s/listener,s 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.S

31、ubconscious emotional ejaculations are good examples,like“Good heavens!”“My God!”Sentences like Tm sorry about the delayn can serve as good examples too,though in a subtle way.While language is used for theinformative function to pass judgment on the truth or falsehood of statements,language used fo

32、r the expressive functionevaluates,appraises or asserts the speakerJ s own attitudes.16.What is the evocative function?The“evocative f u n c tio n is the use of language to create certain feelings in the hearer.Its aim is,for example,toamuse,startle,antagonize,soothe,worry or please.Jokes(not practi

33、cal jokes,though)are supposed to amuse or entertainthe 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,yourpersonal feelings about a p

34、olitical 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 as an action ismore important t

35、han what words or sounds constitute the uttered sentence.The judge s imprisonment sentence,thepresident,s war or independence declaration,etc.,are performatives.18.What is linguistics?“Linguistics“is the scientific study of language.It studies not just one language of any one society,but the languag

36、e ofall human beings.A linguist,though,does not have to know and use a large number of languages,but to investigate howeach language is constructed.He is also concerned with how a language varies from dialect to dialect,from class to class,how it changes from century to century,how children acquire

37、their mother tongue,and perhaps how a person learns orshould learn a foreign language.In short,linguistics studies the general principles whereupon all human languages areconstructed and operate as systems of communication in their societies or communitieso19.What makes linguistics a science?Since l

38、inguistics is the scientific study of language,it ought to base itself upon the systematic,investigation of languagedata which aims at discovering the true nature of language and its underlying system.To make sense of the data,alinguist usually has conceived some hypotheses about the language struct

39、ure,to be checked against the observed orobservable 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 the materials relevant to the study and give theman adequate explana

40、tion,in spite of the complicatedness.He is to leave no linguistic“stone”unturned.Consistencymeans there should be no contradiction between different parts of the total statement.Economy means a linguist shouldpursue brevity in the analysis when it is possible.Objectivity implies that since some peop

41、le may be subjective in thestudy,a linguist should be(or sound at least)objective,matter-of-face,faithful to reality,so that his work constitutes partof the linguistics research.20.What are the major branches of linguistics?The study of language as a whole is often called general linguistics.But a l

42、inguist sometimes is able to deal with onlyone aspect of language at a time,thus the arise of various branches:phonetics,phonology,morphology,syntax,semantics,pragmatics,sociolinguistics,applied linguistics,psycholinguistics etc.21.What are synchronic and diachronic studies?The description of a lang

43、uage at some point of time(as if it stopped developing)is a synchrony study(synchrony).Thedescription of a language as it changes through time is a diachronic study(diachronic).An essay entitled“On the Use ofT H E，for example,may be synchronic,if the author does not recall the past of THE,and it may

44、 also be diachronic if heclaims 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 repetition of the general principle of linguistic analysis,namely,the primacy of speech over writing.Speech is primary,becau

45、se it existed long long before writing systems came into being.Genetically children learn tospeak before learning to write.Secondly,written forms just represent in this way or that the speech sounds:individualsounds,as in English and French as in Japanese.In contrast to speech,spoken form of languag

46、e,writing as written codes,gives language new scope and use that speech does not have.Firstly,messages can be carried through space so thatpeople can write to each other.Secondly,messages can be carried through time thereby,so that people of our time can becarried through time thereby,so that people

47、 of our time can read Beowulf,Samuel Johnson,and Edgar A.Poe.Thirdly,oral messages are readily subject to distortion,either intentional or unintentional,while written messages allow andencourage repeated unalterable reading.Most modern linguistic analysis is focused on speech,different fromgrammaria

48、ns 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 up re sc rip tiv e if it triesto lay down rules for“correct“language behavior.Lingu

49、istic studies before this century were largely prescriptivebecause many early grammars were largely prescriptive because many early grammars were based on high”(literaryor religious)written records.Modern linguistics is mostly descriptive,however.It(the latter)believes that whateveroccurs in natural

50、 speech(hesitation,incomplete utterance,misunderstanding,etc.)should be described in the analysis,and not be marked as incorrect,abnormal,corrupt,or lousy.These,with changes in vocabulary and structures,need to beexplained also.24.What is the difference between langue and parole?F.de Saussure refers