胡壮麟《语言学教程》期末考试复习笔记Word文档下载推荐.docx

1、 1.3.3 CreativityCreativity means that language is resourceful because of its duality and its recursiveness. Recursiveness refers to the rule which can be applied repeatedly without any definite limit. The recursive nature of language provides a theoretical basis for the possibility of creating endl

2、ess sentences. 1.3.4 Displacement1.4 Origin of language 1. The bow-wow theoryIn primitive times people imitated the sounds of the animal calls in the wild environment they lived and speech developed from that. 2. The pooh-pooh theoryIn the hard life of our primitive ancestors, they utter instinctive

3、 sounds of pains, anger and joy which gradually developed into language. 3. The “yo-he-ho” theoryAs primitive people worked together, they produced some rhythmic grunts which gradually developed into chants and then into language.1.5 Functions of language As is proposed by Jacobson, language has six

4、 functions: 1. Referential: to convey message and information; 2. Poetic: to indulge in language for its own sake; 3. Emotive: to express attitudes, feelings and emotions; 4. Conative: to persuade and influence others through commands and entreaties; 5. Phatic: to establish communion with others; 6.

5、 Metalingual: to clear up intentions, words and meanings.What is contextualism?“Contextualism” is based on the presumption that one can derive meaning from, or reduce it to, observable context: the “situational context” and the “linguistic context”. Every utterance occurs in a particular spatial-tem

6、poral situation, as the following factors are related to the situational context: （1） the speaker and the hearer; （2） the actions they are performing at the time; （3） various external objects and events; （4） deictic features. The “linguistic context” is another aspect of contextualism. It considers

7、the probability of one words co-occurrence or collocation with another, which forms part of the meaning, and an important factor in communication. Halliday （1994） proposes a theory of metafunctions of language. It means that language has three metafunctions:According to Hu Zhuanglin, language has at

8、 least seven functions:1.5.1 Informative 1.5.2 Interpersonal function The interpersonal function means people can use language to establish and maintain their status in a society.1.5.3 Performative The performative function of language is primarily to change the social status of persons, as in marri

9、age ceremonies, the sentencing of criminals, the blessing of children, the naming of a ship at a launching ceremony, and the cursing of enemies.1.5.4 Emotive function 1.5.5 Phatic communionThe phatic communion means people always use some small, seemingly meaningless expressions such as Good morning

10、, God bless you, Nice day, etc., to maintain a comfortable relationship between people without any factual content.1.5.6 Recreational functionThe recreational function means people use language for the sheer joy of using it, such as a babys babbling or a chanters chanting.1.5.7 Metalingual function

11、The metalingual function means people can use language to talk about itself. E.g. I can use the word “book” to talk about a book, and I can also use the expression “the word book” to talk about the sign “b-o-o-k” itself.1.6 What is linguistics? Linguistics is the scientific study of language. It stu

12、dies not just one language of any one community, but the language of all human beings.1.7 Main branches of linguistics 1.7.1 PhoneticsPhonetics is the study of speech sounds, it includes three main areas: articulatory phonetics, acoustic phonetics, and auditory phonetics. 1.7.2 PhonologyPhonology st

13、udies the rules governing the structure, distribution, and sequencing of speech sounds and the shape of syllables. 1.7.3 MorphologyMorphology studies the minimal units of meaning morphemes and word-formation processes. 1.7.4 SyntaxSyntax refers to the rules governing the way words are combined to fo

14、rm sentences in a language, or simply, the study of the formation of sentences. 1.7.5 Semantics Semantics examines how meaning is encoded in a language. 1.7.6 Pragmatics Pragmatics is the study of meaning in context.1.8 Macrolinguistics Macrolinguistics is the study of language in all aspects, disti

15、nct from microlinguistics, which dealt solely with the formal aspect of language system. 1.8.1 PsycholinguisticsPsycholinguistics investigates the interrelation of language and mind, in processing and producing utterances and in language acquisition for example. 1.8.2 SociolinguisticsSociolinguistic

16、s is a term which covers a variety of different interests in language and society, including the language and the social characteristics of its users. 1.8.3 Anthropological linguistics,Anthropological linguistics studies the relationship between language and culture in a community. 1.8.4 Computation

17、al linguisticsComputational linguistics is an interdisciplinary field which centers around the use of computers to process or produce human language.1.9 Important distinctions in linguistics 1.9.1 Descriptive vs. prescriptiveTo say that linguistics is a descriptive science is to say that the linguis

18、t tries to discover and record the rules to which the members of a language-community actually conform and does not seek to impose upon them other rules, or norms, of correctness.Prescriptive linguistics aims to lay down rules for the correct use of language and settle the disputes over usage once a

19、nd for all.For example, “Dont say X.” is a prescriptive command; “People dont say X.” is a descriptive statement. The distinction lies in prescribing how things ought to be and describing how things are. In the 18th century, all the main European languages were studied prescriptively. However, moder

20、n linguistics is mostly descriptive because the nature of linguistics as a science determines its preoccupation with description instead of prescription. 1.9.2 Synchronic vs. diachronicA synchronic study takes a fixed instant （usually at present） as its point of observation. Saussures diachronic des

21、cription is the study of a language through the course of its history. E.g. a study of the features of the English used in Shakespeares time would be synchronic, and a study of the changes English has undergone since then would be a diachronic study. In modern linguistics, synchronic study seems to

22、enjoy priority over diachronic study. The reason is that unless the various state of a language are successfully studied it would be difficult to describe the changes that have taken place in its historical development. 1.9.3 Langue & paroleSaussure distinguished the linguistic competence of the spe

23、aker and the actual phenomena or data of linguistics as langue and parole. Langue is relative stable and systematic, parole is subject to personal and situational constraints; langue is not spoken by an individual, parole is always a naturally occurring event. What a linguist should do, according to

24、 Saussure, is to draw rules from a mass of confused facts, i.e. to discover the regularities governing all instances of parole and make them the subject of linguistics. 1.9.4 Competence and performanceAccording to Chomsky, a language users underlying knowledge about the system of rules is called the

25、 linguistic competence, and the actual use of language in concrete situations is called performance. Competence enables a speaker to produce and understand and indefinite number of sentences and to recognize grammatical mistakes and ambiguities. A speakers competence is stable while his performance

26、is often influenced by psychological and social factors. So a speakers performance does not always match his supposed competence. Chomsky believes that linguists ought to study competence, rather than performance. Chomskys competence-performance distinction is not exactly the same as, though similar

27、 to, Saussures langue-parole distinction. Langue is a social product and a set of conventions of a community, while competence is deemed as a property of mind of each individual. Saussure looks at language more from a sociological or sociolinguistic point of view than Chomsky since the latter deals

28、with his issues psychologically or psycholinguistically. Chapter 2 Speech Sounds2.1 Speech production and perception Phonetics is the study of speech sounds. It includes three main areas: 1. Articulatory phonetics the study of the production of speech sounds2. Acoustic phonetics the study of the phy

29、sical properties of the sounds produced in speech 3. Auditory phonetics the study of perception of speech sounds Most phoneticians are interested in articulatory phonetics.2.2 Speech organs Speech organs are those parts of the human body involved in the production of speech. The speech organs can be

30、 considered as consisting of three parts: the initiator of the air stream, the producer of voice and the resonating cavities.2.3 Segments, divergences, and phonetic transcription 2.3.1 Segments and divergencesAs there are more sounds in English than its letters, each letter must represent more than one sound. 2.3.2 Phonetic transcriptionInternational Phonetic Alphabet （IPA）: the system of symbols for representing the pronunciation of words in any language according to the principles of the International Phonetic Association. The symbols consists of letters and diacritics. Some letters