语言学教程1Word格式文档下载.docx

1、 As is agreed by linguists in broad terms, language can be defined as a system of arbitrary vocal symbols used for human communication. Features of human language Creativity Language provides opportunities for sending messages that have never been sent before and for understanding brand new messages

2、. The grammar rules and the words are finite, but the sentences are infinite. Every speaker uses language creatively. Duality Language contains two subsystems, one of sounds and the other of meanings. Certain sounds or sequences of sounds stand for certain meanings. Certain meanings are conveyed by

3、certain speech sounds or sequences of speech sounds. Arbitrariness The relationship between the two subsystems of language is arbitrary. There is no logical connection between sound and meaning. Displacement There is no limit in time or space for language. Language can be used to refer to things rea

4、l or imagined, past, present or future. Cultural transmission Culture cannot be genetically transmitted. Instead, it must be learned. Language is a way of transmitting culture. Interchangeability All members of a speech community can send and receive messages. Reflexivity Human languages can be used

5、 to describe themselves. The language used to talk about language is called meta-language. Functions of language three meta-functions The ideational function To identify things, to think, or to record information. The interpersonal function To get along in a community. The textual function To form a

6、 text. Types of language Genetic classification Typological classification Analytic language no inflections or formal changes, grammatical relationships are shown through word order, such as Chinese and Vietnamese Synthetic language grammatical relationships are expressed by changing the internal st

7、ructure of the words, typically by changing the inflectional endings, such as English and German Agglutinating language words are built out of a long sequence of units, with each unit expressing a particular grammatical meaning, such as Japanese and Turkish The myth of language language origin The B

8、iblical account Language was Gods gift to human beings. The bow-wow theory Language was an imitation of natural sounds, such as the cries of animals, like quack, cuckoo. The pooh-pooh theory Language arose from instinctive emotional cries, expressive of pain or joy. The yo-he-ho theory Language aros

9、e from the noises made by a group of people engaged in joint labour or effort lifting a huge hunted game, moving a rock, etc. The evolution theory Language originated in the process of labour and answered the call of social need. What is linguistics? Linguistics is the scientific study of language.

10、Observing & questioning Formulating hypotheses Verifying the hypotheses Proposing a theory Branches of linguistics Internal branches: intra-disciplinary divisions Phonetics Phonology Morphology Syntax Semantics External branches: inter-disciplinary divisions Pragmatics Psycholinguistics Sociolinguis

11、tics Applied linguistics Computational linguistics Neurolinguistics Features of linguistics Descriptive Dealing with spoken language SynchronicChapter 2 Phonetics What is phonetics? Phonetics is termed as the study of speech sounds. Sub-branches of phonetics Articulatory phonetics the production of

12、speech sounds Acoustic phonetics the physical properties of speech sounds Auditory phonetics the perceptive mechanism of speech sounds The speech organs Where does the air stream come from? From the lung What is the function of vocal cords? Controlling the air stream What are the cavities? Oral cavi

13、ty Pharyngeal cavity Nasal cavity Transcription of speech sounds Units of representation Segments （the individual sounds） Phonetic symbols The widely used symbols for phonetic transcription of speech sounds is the International Phonetic Alphabet （IPA）. The IPA attempts to represent each sound of human speech with a single symbol and the symbols are enclosed in brackets to distingui