A Brief Summery of Lingusitics英语语言学戴炜栋版整理笔记.docx

1、A Brief Summery of Lingusitics英语语言学戴炜栋版整理笔记戴炜栋版英语语言学整理笔记（2011） Chapter One Introduction1.1 What is linguisticsss:1.1.1 Definition1. linguisticss is generally defined as scientific study of language.2. linguistics tries to answer basic questions about language. It tries to probe into various problems

2、 related to language.3. linguistics studies not only particular languages, but also language in general.4. linguistics is a scientific of language based on systematic study of data conducted with the reference to general theory of language structure 1.1.2 Steps of scientific study a. Collect and obs

3、erve language factsb. Formulate hypothesisc. Check and prove the validity of the hypothesis 1.1.3 The scope of linguisticss 1. General linguisticss: to study language as a whole, which deals with basic concepts and theory applied in any linguistics study2. Branches of linguisticssa. Phonetics(语音学) T

4、he study of sounds used in linguistics communication, mainly the physical properties of a language.b. Phonology（音位学）The study of how sounds are put together to convey meanings c. MorphologyThe study of how symbols, which represent the sounds, are put together to form words. For example, with letters

5、 k,i,s,we can form words kiss,ski,which are different in meaning ,however, we can not form iks in English as an English wordd. SyntaxThe study of the rules by which the words are put together to form grammatically accepted sentencese. SemanticsThe study of the meaning conveyed by the sentences or wo

6、rdsf. PragmaticsThe study of the meaning of the words or sentences in the context of language use rather than the meaning in isolationg. SocialinguisticsThe study of social aspects of language or the relationship between language and society (a). The language a person use reveals his social backgrou

7、nd. (b). The language changes are always caused by the change of society. h. Psycholinguistics It related the study of language to the study of psychology. It tries to answer(a) How the minds work when people produce the language(b) How infants acquire their mother tongue.i. Applied linguisticsThe s

8、tudy of language applications which solve the particular problems .For example language teaching and acquisition 1.1.4 Some important distinctions:A. Description and prescription(1) Description and prescription are two types of language study. Description is the analysis of the language that people

9、actually use.(2) Prescription is to lay down the rules for correct and standard behavior in language use. It tells people what should say and should not say when using a language.(3) Modern linguistics study is usually descriptive while old English is usually prescriptive(4) Modern linguistics study

10、 is believed to be objective and scientific and the task for modern linguistics is to describe the language people use. Old English (Traditional Grammar) is to set rules for the correct using of languageB. Synchronic and diachronic(1) Synchronic study is to study language at certain point of time in

11、 history while diachronic study is to study the historical development of language over a period of time. Diachronic study describe languages as they develop.(2) Today, synchronic study is more popular because without synchronic study, diachronic study will be very difficult.C. Speech and WritingMod

12、ern linguistics regard spoken language as the primary medium of language, the reasons are as follows(a). According to language revolution, speech is prior to writing. Writing is used for recording when it is necessary, and there are languages that do not have writing system(b). Speech plays a more i

13、mportant role in terms of the message it conveys.（c）.When acquiring mother tongue, spoken language is firstly acquired and writing is taught in school(d).Speech reveals true features of a language but writing system is a record form of speechD. Langue and paroleThese two concepts were come up with b

14、y Saussure 1. Langue is the abstract linguistics system shared by all the members of a speech community. It is a set of rules that all the language users have to abide by.2. Parole is the realization of langue in practical use. Parole is concrete and various from person to person. It refers to the n

15、aturally occurred of language events3. Sausurre believed that parole is too confusing to be systematically studied and what linguistics study should do is to abstract langue from parole and linguists should study langue rather than parole.E. Competence and performancea) These two concepts were come

16、up with by Chomsky. Competence is the ideal users knowledge of language while performance is the realization of the competence. b) Chomsky believes that although speakers have acquire the rules for producing correct sentences, they will produce ungrammatical sentences due to personal or environmenta

17、l reasons. Therefore, competence is what should be studied in linguistics studyc) 索绪尔和乔姆斯基的理论比较：Both Saussure and Chomsky believe that the abstract system shared by language users should be studied without the consideration of individuality The difference is Saussure view the abstract system from th

18、e social aspect (Langue) and believe that langue is a set of conventions for members to obey while Chomsky regard the abstract system as a property of mind and call it competence from psychological aspects.F. Traditional grammar and modern linguistics 1 .The start of modern linguistics is the public

19、ation of Saussures Course in General linguistics2. Differences between traditional grammar and modern linguisticsa. Traditional grammar is prescriptive but modern linguistics is descriptive b. Traditional grammar emphasizes written language while modern linguistics regards spoken language as the pri

20、mary of a language c. Modern linguistics does not judge a language with the standard of another and English is not forced to the Latin form in modern linguistics.1.2 What is language1.2.1 Definition of languageLanguage is a system of arbitrary and vocal symbols for human communicationa. Arbitrary: T

21、here is no connections between sounds and the meanings they stand forb. Vocal: The primary medium for language is symbolsc. Human: Language is human specific1.2.2 Design Featurea. Arbitrariness Arbitrariness means that there is no logical connections between meaning and sounds. A example is that dif

22、ferent languages use different words for the same objects. Arbitrariness makes it possible for languages to have unlimited sources of expressions b. Productivity Productivity means that language users can construct and interpret grammatically accepted sentences that have never been used before quick

23、ly. Productivity is human specificc. DualityDuality means that language has two levels sound level and meaning level. Sound level is a lower level without meaning. However, at the higher level, the sounds are grouped into small unites of meaning and then into sentences. An example is sounds like /k/

24、、/p/、/a:/ are meaningless but they can be arranged into / pa:k/ (park) or / ka:p/(carp)which are meaningful. Duality allows people to talk about anything within their knowledged. DisplacementDisplacement allows people to talk about things which are removed from the immediate situation of the speaker

25、s. This property allows speakers to talk about things free from separation of time and space e. Cultural transmitionHuman capacity for language has a genetic basis ,i.e. we are born with the ability for acquiring language. However, the detail of a language is culturally transmitted by language teach

26、ing and learning Chapter Two Phonology2.1 The phonic medium of language(1). Speech and sound are two media used by natural language for communication(2). Two thirds of languages do not have written forms today(3). Linguists are interested in the sounds produced by speech organs and play an important

27、 role in linguistics communication.(4). The meaningful sounds in human communication constitute the phonic media of language .The meaningful individual sound is called speech sound.2.2 Phonetics2.2.1 what is phoneticsA. Phonetics is the study of phonic media of languageB. Phonetics studies sounds fr

28、om three related but distinct aspects.a. Articulation phonetics(发声语音学): to study the sound from speakers point of view (how we produce sounds)b. Auditory phonetics（听觉语音学）: to study sound from the hears point of view (how we hear sounds)c. Acoustic phonetics（语音传播学）: to study how sound is transmitted

29、by looking at sound waves d. Articulatory phonetics has the longest history among three branches. Acoustic phonetics studies physical properties of sounds with spectrographs（频谱仪） 2.2.2 Organs of speech: The articulatory apparatus contains pharyngeal cavity(咽腔), oral cavity（口腔） and nasal cavity（鼻腔） 1

30、. Pharyngeal cavity Glottis(声门) is the first place where sound modification may occur. Vocal cords lie across glottis ,they can be held tightly to cut off streams When the vocal cords are partially open, the vibration of vocal cords may result in voiced sounds including vowels and some consonants Wh

31、en the vocal cords are down wide to let air go through, the sounds will be voiceless(由此可见，声带是否震动决定了这个音是带声还是不带声，而无法区别音是元音还是辅音)2. Oral cavity The greatest source for modification of air stream is found in oral cavity Oral cavity includes tongue, uvular(小舌), soft plate（软腭）, hard plate（硬腭） teeth ridge（齿

32、龈）, teeth, lips. Tongue is the most flexible among the all.3. Nasal cavity: Nasal cavity and oral cavity are connected with each other The soft palate can down back to close the passage so that the air can only come from mouth, which will produce unassimilated sounds（无鼻音化音） including vowels and most consonants. If the passage is open to let the air go from the nose ,the sounds produced are called nasal consonants including m、n、2.2.3