英语语言学教程胡壮麟版.docx

英语语言学教程胡壮麟版.docx

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英语语言学教程胡壮麟版

英语语言学教程（胡壮麟版）

Chapterone.InvitationtoLinguistic.

1.Whatislanguage?

“Languageissystemofarbitraryvocalsymbolsusedforhumancommunication.Itisasystem,sincelinguisticelementsarearrangedsystematically,ratherthanrandomly.Arbitrary,inthesensethatthereisusuallynointrinsicconnectionbetweenawork（like“book”）andtheobjectitrefersto.Thisexplainsandisexplainedbythefactthatdifferentlanguageshavedifferent“books”:

“book”inEnglish,“livre”inFrench,“shu”inChinese.Itissymbolic,becausewordsareassociatedwithobjects,actions,ideasetc.bynothingbutconvention.Namely,peopleusethesoundsorvocalformstosymbolizewhattheywishtoreferto.Itisvocal,becausesoundorspeechistheprimarymediumforallhumanlanguages.Writingsystemscamemuchlaterthanthespokenforms.Thefactthatsmallchildrenlearnandcanonlylearntospeak（andlisten）beforetheywrite（andread）alsoindicatesthatlanguageisprimarilyvocal,ratherthanwritten.Theterm“human”inthedefinitionismeanttospecifythatlanguageishumanspecific.

2.DesignFeaturesofLanguage.

“Designfeatures”hererefertothedefiningpropertiesofhumanlanguagethattellthedifferencebetweenhumanlanguageandanysystemofanimalcommunication.Theyarearbitrariness,duality,productivity,displacement,culturaltransmissionandinterchangeability

（1）Arbitrariness:

By“arbitrariness”,wemeanthereisnologicalconnectionbetweenmeaningsandsounds.

（2）Duality:

Thepropertyofhavingtwolevelsofstructures（phonologicalandgrammatical）,unitsoftheprimarylevelbeingcomposedofelementsofthesecondarylevelandeachlevelhavingitsownprinciplesoforganization.

（3）Productivity:

Productivityreferstotheabilitytotheabilitytoconstructandunderstandanindefinitelylargenumberofsentencesinone’snativelanguage,includingthosethathasneverheardbefore,butthatareappropriatetothespeakingsituation.Thepropertythatenablesnativespeakerstoconstructandunderstandanindefinitelylargenumberofutterances,includingutterancesthattheyhaveneverpreviouslyencountered.

（4）Displacement:

“Displacement”,asoneofthedesignfeaturesofthehumanlanguage,referstothefactthatonecantalkaboutthingsthatarenotpresent,aseasilyashedoesthingspresent.Inotherwords,onecanrefertorealandunrealthings,thingsofthepast,ofthepresent,ofthefuture.Languageitselfcanbetalkedabouttoo.

（5）Culturaltransmission:

Thismeansthatlanguageisnotbiologicallytransmittedfromgenerationtogeneration,butthatthedetailsofthelinguisticsystemmustbelearnedanewbyeachspeaker.

（6）Interchangeability:

Interchangeabilitymeansthatanyhumanbeingcanbebothaproducerandareceiverofmessages.

3.FunctionsofLanguage.

Languagehasatleastsevenfunctions:

phatic,directive,Informative,interrogative,expressive,evocativeandperformative.

（1）Phaticfunction:

The“phaticfunction”referstolanguagebeingusedforsettingupacertainatmosphereormaintainingsocialcontacts（ratherthanforexchanginginformationorideas）.Greetings,farewells,andcommentsontheweatherinEnglishandonclothinginChineseallservethisfunction.

（2）Directivefunction:

The“directivefunction”meansthatlanguagemaybeusedtogetthehearertodosomething.Mostimperativesentencesperformthisfunction,e.g.,“Tellmetheresultwhenyoufinish.”

（3）Informativefunction:

Languageservesan“informationalfunction”whenusedtotellsomething,characterizedbytheuseofdeclarativesentences.Informativestatementsareoftenlabeledastrue（truth）orfalse（falsehood）.

（4）Interrogativefunction:

Whenlanguageisusedtoobtaininformation,itservesan“interrogativefunction”.Thisincludesallquestionsthatexpectreplies,statements,imperativesetc.

（5）Expressivefunction:

The“expressivefunction”istheuseoflanguagetorevealsomethingaboutthefeelingsorattitudesofthespeaker.

（6）Evocativefunction:

The“evocativefunction”istheuseoflanguagetocreatecertainfeelingsinthehearer.Itsaimis,forexample,toamuse,startle,antagonize,soothe,worryorplease.

（7）Performativefunction:

Thismeanspeoplespeakto“dothings”orperformactions.

4.Whatislinguistic?

“Linguistics”isthescientificstudyoflanguage.Itstudiesnotjustonelanguageofanyonesociety,butthelanguageofallhumanbeings.Inshort,linguisticsstudiesthegeneralprincipleswhereuponallhumanlanguagesareconstructedandoperateassystemsofcommunicationintheirsocietiesorcommunities.

5.Mainbranchesoflinguistics.

Thestudyoflanguageasawholeisoftencalledgenerallinguistics.Butalinguistsometimesisabletodealwithonlyoneaspectoflanguageatatime,thustheariseofvariousbranches:

phonetics,phonology,morphology,