语言学导论期末复习提纲.doc

1、语言学导论期末复习提纲CHAPTER ONE1. What is language? LANGUAGE is a means of verbal communication. Language is a system of arbitrary vocal symbols used for human communication.2. What are design features of language? Arbitrariness: the forms of linguistic signs bear no relationship to their meaning. Duality: t

2、he property of having two levels of structures, such that units of the primary level are composed of elements of the secondary level and each of the two levels has its own principles of organization. Duality lies in the great productive power our language is endowed with. Creativity: language is res

3、ourceful because of its duality and its recursiveness. Creativity has potential to create endless sentences. The recursive nature of language provides a theoretical basis for this possibility, Displacement: human languages enable their users to symbolize objects, events and concepts which are presen

4、t at the moment of communication. Displacements benefits human beings by giving them the power to handle generalizations and abstractions.3. What are the theories of the origin of language?The “bow-wow” theory: imitation of the sounds of animals evidence: onomatopoeic words(onomatopoeia)The “pooh-po

5、oh” theory: utterance of instinctive sounds of pain, anger and joy evidence: interjectionsThe “yo-he-ho” theory: rhythmic grunts evidence: rhythms4. How many functions does language have? What are they?Jakobsons Views of the Functions of LanguageContext REFERANTIALAddresser EMOTIVE (e.g. intonation

6、showing anger)Message POETIC (e.g. poetry)Addressee CONATIVE (e.g. imperatives and vocatives)Contact PHATIC (e.g. Good morning!)Code METALINGUAL (e.g. Hello, do you hear me?)Seven Categories of Language Functions HallidayINFORMATIVE: Informative function is predominantly the major role of language.

7、Language is the instrument of thought and people often feel need to speak their thoughts aloud. The use of language to record the facts is a prerequisite of social development. This is indeed a crucial function of language. It is also called ideational function in the framework of functional grammar

8、.INTERPERSONAL: The most important sociological use of language is the interpersonal function, by which people establish and maintain their status in a society. Attached to this function of language is its function of expressing identity (age, sex, personality, intelligence, class). PERFORMATIVE: Th

9、is function of language is primarily to change the social status of persons, as in marriage ceremonies, the sentencing of the criminals. This kind of language is usually quite formal and ritualized. This function can also extend to the control of reality as on some magical or religious occasions.EMO

10、TIVE: This is one of the most powerful uses of language because it is crucial in changing the emotional status of an audience for or against someone or something. It is also called expressive function of language.PHATIC CMMUNION: It refers to the social interaction of language. This function also re

11、fers to expressions that help define and maintain interpersonal relations.RECREATIONAL: The hearty joy of using a language is undeniable. This function of language is often overlooked because it seems so restrictive in purpose and supposedly so limited in usefulness. It is close to Jakobsons poetic

12、function.METALINGUAL: Our language can be used to talk about itself. This makes the language infinitely self-reflexive: We human beings can talk about talk and think about thinking, and thus only humans can ask what it means to communicate, to think, to be human.5. What main branches is linguistics

13、divided into?LINGUISTICS is usually defined as the scientific stuffy of language. It is a systematic inquiry into human language: structure, relationship, development and acquisition.PHONETICS studies speech sounds, including the production of speech, the description and classification of speech sou

14、nds, words and connected speech etc. 4 levels: organs in production of speech; articulatory phonetics; acoustic phonetics; auditory phonetics. A solid knowledge can serve as a good foundation for phonology.PHONOLOGY studies the rules governing the structure, distribution, and sequencing of speech so

15、unds and the shape of syllables. It deals with the sound system of a language by treating phoneme as the point of departure. A phoneme is the smallest linguistic unit of sound that can signal a difference in meaning. Phonetics is the study of speech sounds that the human voice is capable of creating

16、 (chaos) while phonology is the study of a subset of those sounds that constitute language and meaning (order).MORPHOLOGY is concerned with the internal organization of words. It studies the minimal units of meaning-morphemes and word-formation processes. SYNTAX is about principles of forming and understanding correct English sentences.SEMANTICS examines how meaning is decoded in a langua