语言学
What is linguistics? 什么是语言学？
Linguistics is generally defined as the scientific study of language. It studies not any particular language, but languages in general. 语言学是对语言科学地进行研究的学科。语言学所要研究的不是某一种特定的语言，而是人类所有语言的特性。
The scope of linguistics 语言学研究的范畴
Phonetics语音学\Phonology音系学\Morphology形态学\Syntax句法学\Semantics语义学\Pragmatics语用学\Sociolinguistics社会语言学\Psycholinguistics心理语言学\Applied linguistics应用语言学
Prescriptive vs. descriptive 规定性与描述性
Descriptive：a linguistic study describes and analyzes the language people actually use.
Prescriptive: it aims lay down rules for “correct” behavior.
Modern linguistics is descriptive; its investigations are based on authentic, and mainly spoken data.
Traditional grammar is prescriptive; it is based on “high” written language
Synchronic vs. diachronic 共时性与历史性
The description of a language at some point in time is a synchronic study
The description of a language as it changes through time is a diachronic study
In modern linguistics, synchronic study seems to enjoy priority over diachronic study.
Speech and writing 口头语与书面语
Speech enjoys priority over writing in modern linguistics study for the following reasons:
(1) speech precedes writing in terms of evolution
(2) a large amount of communication is carried out in speech tan in writing
(3) speech is the form in which infants acquire their native language
Language and parole 语言与言语
Language refers to the abstract linguistic system shared by all the members of a speech community
Parole refers to the realization of language in actual use
Competence and performance 能力与运用
Chomsky defines competence as the ideal users’ knowledge of the rules of his language
Performance: the actual realization of this knowledge in linguistic communication
What is language? 什么是语言？
Language is a system of arbitrary vocal symbols used for human communication
Characteristics of language: 语言的特性
Language is a rule-governed system
Language is basically vocal
Language is arbitrary (the fact different languages have different words for the same object is a good illustration of the arbitrary nature of language. This conventional nature of language is well illustrated by a famous quotation from Shakespeare’s play “Romeo and Juliet”: “A rose by any other name would smell as sweet.”)
Language is used for human communication
Design features of language 语言的甄别特征
American linguist Charles Hockett specified 12 design features:
1) arbitrariness 武断性
2) productivity 创造性
3) duality 二重性
4) displacement移位性
5) cultural transmission 文化传递性
二、音系学
语言的声音媒介
什么是语音学
发
音器官
音标……宽式和严式标音法
英语语音的分类
音系学和语音学
语音、音位、音位变体
音位对立、互补分部、最小对立
几条音系规则
超切分特征
Two major media of communication: speech and writing
The limited range of sounds which are meaningful in human communication and are of interest to linguistic studies are the phonic medium of language. 用于人类语言交际的声音称为语音，这些数目有限的一组语音构成了语言的声音媒介。
Phonetics语音学: is defined as the study of the phonic medium of language; it is concerned with all the sounds that occur in the world’s language.
Three branches of phonetics : articulatory phonetics 发音语音学（most highly developed）, auditory phonetics 听觉语音学and acoustic phonetics 声学语音学
Organs of speech 发音器官
The articulatory apparatus of a human being are contained in three important areas or cavities:
The pharyngeal cavity咽腔----the throat
The oral cavity口腔----the mouth
The nasal cavity 鼻腔---the nose
Vibration of the vocal cords (声带) results in a quality of speech sounds called “voicing” 浊音，which is a feature of all vowels 元音 and some consonants 辅音。
单词补充：
01) velum: The soft palate. 软腭
02) uvula: A small, conical, fleshy mass of tissue suspended from the center of the soft palate. 小舌，悬雍垂悬垂在软腭中央的小的圆锥状肉块
03) larynx: n. 喉
04) vocal cord: 声带
05) membrane: n. A thin, pliable layer of tissue covering surfaces or separating or connecting regions, structures, or organs of an animal or a plant. 膜薄而柔软的组织层，覆盖在表面或分割连接各种区域、结构或动植物器官
06) the soft palate: 软腭
07) the hard palate: 硬腭
08) the teeth ridge: 齿龈
09) alveolus: A tooth socket in the jawbone 牙槽颚骨处的牙床
10) the teeth: 牙齿
11) the lips: 上下唇
12) blade of tongue: 舌面
13) back of tongue: 舌根
14) pharyngeal cavity: 咽腔
15) nasal cavity: 鼻腔
16) velar: Articulated with the back of the tongue touching or near the soft palate, as (g) in good and (k) in cup.软腭音的用舌头后部挂触或靠近软腭清楚地发音的，如在 good中的(g)以及在 cup中的(k)
17) the tip of the tongue: 舌尖
18) the upper front teeth: 上齿
19) the roof of the mouth: 上颚
20) the lower lip: 下唇
音标……宽式和严式标音法
International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA)
The vowels (monophthongs and diphthongs) 元音（单元音&双元音）
The constants 辅音
Broad transcription: transcription with letter-symbols only. (in dictionaries and teaching textbooks)
用一个符号来表示一个语音的标音方式叫做宽式标音法，这种音标法常见于词典和教科书。
Narrow transcription: the transcription with diacritics.
但实际上， 同一语音在不
通的语音环境中的发音不尽相同， 比如Pit和spit中的/P/音发音就不一样。
在宽式标音的基础上， 再用变音符号表示同一语音在不同的语音环境下不同发音的标音法叫做窄式标音法。
Classification of English speech sounds
英语语音的分类
The basic difference between a vowel and a constant is that in the pronunciation of the former the air that comes from the lungs meets with no obstruction of any kind in the throat, the nose, or the mouth, while in that of the latter it is obstructed in one way or another.
Classification of English constants
英语辅音分类
此主题相关图片如下：
Classification of English vowels
:the position of the tongue in the mouth舌位高低
:the openness of the mouth,口的张开程度
:the shape of the lips园唇与否
:length of the vowels元音的长度
此主题相关图片如下：
Phonology 音系学
Phonology and phonetics
音系学和语音学
Phonetics is of a general nature; it is interested in all the speech sounds used in all human languages.
语音学研究的是人类所有语言的语音，旨在对语音进行描述和分类。
Phonology is interested in the system of sounds of a particular language; it aims to discover how speech sounds in a language form patterns and how these sounds are used to convey meaning in linguistic communication.
音系学研究的重点是特定语言的语音体系，语音表达意义作用。
Phone，phoneme and allophone
语音，音位，音位变体
Phones, which can be simply defined as the speech sounds we use when speaking a language.
语音是语音学研究的单位， 是一个个具体的声音。
Phonology is concerned with the speech sounds which distinguish meaning.
音位是音系学研究的单位，是抽象的概念， 每一个音位是一组语音特征的集合体，音位具有区别意义的作用。
The different which can represent a phoneme in different phonetic environments are called the allophones of that phoneme.
音位变体是一个音位在特定的语音环境力的具体体现， 同一音位在不同语音环境里体现为不同的变体，也就是语音。
Phonemic contrast, complementary distribution, and minimal pair
音位对立，互补分布，最小对立对
rope and robe that /P/ and /b/ can occur in the same environments and they distinguish meaning; therefore they are in phonemic contrast.
可以出现在不同语音组合中的同一为止， 产生意义差别。
/P/ and /Ph/ these two allophones of the same phoneme are said to be in complementary distribution.
When two different forms are identical in every way except for one sound segment which occurs in the same place in the strings, the two words are said to form a minimal pair. [pen] and [ben]
最小对立对指出现在同一位置上的一个音之外其余都相同的两个语音组合。
Some rules in phonology几条音
系规则
Sequential rules 序列规则 ：blik, klib , bilk, kilb is possible. But lbki, ilbk, bkil , ilkb not possible.
Assimilation rules 同化规则
Deletion rule 省略规则
Sign, design, there is no {g} sound
Signature, designation the {g} is pronounced.
Delete a [g] when it occurs before a final nasal constant.
Suprasegmental features--- stress, tone, intonation
超切分特征——重音， 声调，语调
the phonemic features that occur above the level of the segments are called suprasegmental features;
超切分特征指切分即单音层面以上的音系特征。
三、 MORPHOLOGY 形态学 请结合《词汇学中的构词法》进行学习。
语素：语言最小的意义单位
语素的类型
复合词的类型
复合词的特征
Morphology is a branch of grammar which studies the internal structure of words and the rules by which words are formed. It is divided into two sub-branches: inflectional morphology and lexical or derivational morphology.
形态学研究单词的内部结构以及构词规则， 有屈折形态学和词汇形态学两大分支。
Morpheme:the smallest meaningful unit of language.
语素：语言最小的意义单位。
Free Morpheme: A free morpheme is one that can stand by itself. (independent)
自由语素可以作为单词独立使用。
Bound Morpheme: A bound morpheme is one that cannot stand by itself.
粘着语素必须和其他语素结合成单词
Bound Morpheme includes two types: (1) root (2)Affix(词缀)
1)Inflectional affixes (屈折词缀)(inflectional morphemes):
affixes attached to the end of words to indicate grammatical relationships are inflectional
2)Derivational affixes(派生词缀) A) prefix: A prefix comes before words. B)suffix
An adjective suffix（形容词后缀） that is added to the stem, whatever classis belongs to , the result will be an adjective.
free=free root（自由词根）
Morpheme(词素)
Bound root prefix
bound derivational
affix suffix
inflectional
Root and stem（词根和词干）
1) Root 2) Stem
The differences between root and stem:
A root is the basic form of a word which cannot be further analyzed without total loss of identity.
A stem is the surplus part after the cutting of inflectional morpheme in a word with inflectional morphemes,can be further analyzed, it sometimes could be a root.
Individualistic Undesirables
Individualist (stem) undesirable (stem)
Individual (stem) desirable (stem)
dividual (stem) desire (root, stem)
divide(root, stem)
Affixation词缀法（Derivation派生法）：adding word-formation or derivational affixes to stem.
Prefixation前缀@：It's the formation of new words by adding a prefixes to stems.
1)'表示否定'nagative prefixes: un-,non,in-,dis,a- etc.
2)''reversative or privative prefixes: un-,de-dis etc.
3)'表示贬义'pejorative prefixes: mis-, mal-, pseudo- etc.
4)'表示程度'degree or size prefixes: arch-, super-,out-,sub-,over-
,under-,hyper-,ultra-,mini- etc.
5)'表示方向、态度'orientation & attitude prefixes:counter-,contra-,anti-,pro- etc.
6)locative prefixes:super-,sub-,inter-,trans- etc.
7)'表示时间、次序'time and order prefixes:fore-,pre-,post-,ex-,re- etc.
8)'表示数量'number prefixes:uni-/mono-,bi-/di-,tri-,multi-/poly- etc.
9)'混杂'miscellaneous prefixes：auto-, neo-, pan-, vice-
Suffixation后缀@: It's the formation of a new word by adding suffixes to stems.
1)noun suffixes 2)adjective suffixes 3)Adverb suffixes 4)verb suffixes
Compounding复合法 （also called composition）
Compounding: is the formation of new words by joining two or more stems
Formation of compounds
Noun + noun（名词＋名词） ——— handbook, sunshine
Adjective + noun（形容词＋名词）———highway, deadline
Adjective + noun + -ed（形容词＋名词＋ed）———white-haired, red-eyed
Verb + noun(动词＋名词)———driveway, breakwater(挡水板)
Adverb + noun（副词＋名词）———downtown, overburden
Noun + verb（名词＋动词）———toothpick, snowfall
Verb + adverb（动词＋副词）———follow-up, kick-off
Noun + adjective（名词＋形容词）———world-famous, lifelong
-ing form + noun（ing+名词）———baking power, dining-room
other forms（其他）———go-between, father-in-law
Features of compounds复合词的特征
1.Orthographically书写特征
（Compounds are written in three ways: solid(airmail) hyphenated(air-conditioning) open(air force, air raid)
2.Syntactically句法特征(复合词的词性一般取决于复合词最后一个成分的词性)
3.Semantically语义特征（复合词的意义具有习语性质，许多复合词的意义都不是其构成成分意义和总和）
4.Phonetically语音特征（复合词的单词重音落在第一个构成成分上）
四、句法学
句子的构成
句子的类型
句子的线性排列与层次结构
词类
词组类
短语结构规则
短语结构 规则的循环性
X标杆理论
名词词组移位与WH移位
其他类型的移位
深层结构与表层结构
移动a规则
普遍语法原则
普遍语法参数
Syntax is a subfield of linguistics that studies the sentence structure of language.
As a major component of grammar, syntax consists of a set of abstract rules that allow words to be combined with other words to form grammatical sentences.
句法是一个由一套数量有限的抽象规则组成的系统。
Normally a sentence consists of at least a subject and its predicate which contains a finite verb or a verb phrase.
句子通常由主语和谓语两大部分构成。 谓语通常由限定动词或动词词组构成。
The referring expression is grammatically called subject. 主语是指句子中所被指称的对象。
Types of sentences句子的类型
The simple sentence: consists of a single clause which contains a subject and a predicate and s
tands alone as its own sentence.简单句含一个主语和一个谓语的独立句子
The coordinate sentence: contains two clauses joined by a linking word called coordinating conjunction.并列句含由连接词串联起来的两个句子成分
The complex sentence: contains two, or more, clauses, one of which is incorporated into the other.
The two clauses in a complex sentence hold unequal status, one subordinating the other.复合句由两个或两个以上的子句组成， 其中之一为主要子句， 其余为从属子句。
The liner and hierarchical structure of sentences 句子的线性排列与层次结构
The liner word order of a sentence: when a sentence is uttered or written down, the words of the sentence are produced one after another in sequence.句子的线性排列， 句子无论就其口头或书面表现形式看， 所含的次都按线性次序排列。(表面上的排列)
The hierarchical structure of a sentence：sentences are organized with words of the same syntactic category, such as noun phrase(NP),or verb phrase (VP), grouped together.
句子的结构是一种由名词词组和动词词组等句法成分单位构成的层次性结构。
Tree diagrams of sentence structure
S
NP VP
V S
NP VP
V NP
John suggested (that)Mary take the linguistics class.
The points at which the tree branches at various levels are called branching nodes.（分节点）
Syntactic categories 句法类型
Words and phrases are organized according to the syntactic categories they belong to.
Lexical categories 词类
Major Lexical Categories主要词类
Noun(N)\ Verb(V)\Adjective(Adj)\Adverb(Adv) 名词、动词、形容词、副词
Minor Lexical Categories
Determiner(Det)\Auxiliary(Aux)\Preposition(Prep)\Pronoun(Pron)\Conjunction(Conj)\Interjection(Int)限定词、助动词、介词、代名词、连接词、感叹词
Phrasal categories词组类
Noun phrase (NP)\Verb phrase (VP)\Prepositional phrase(PP)\Adjective phrase(AP)
名词短语、动词短语、介词短语、形容词短语
Grammatical relations 语法关系
Our linguistic knowledge includes an awareness of a distinction between the structural and logical functional relations of constituents called grammatical relations.
语法关系是指句子中名词词组与动词的关系， 其中涉及到主语和宾语的结构性和逻辑性。
The structural subject and the structural object结构主语与结构宾语
The logic subject (the doer of the action) and the logical object (the recipient of the action)
逻辑主语（行动的执行者）与逻辑宾语（行动的接受者）
Combinational rules 组合规则
Phrase structure rules（rewrite rule）短语结构规则
短语结构规则是一组句法重写规则。
NP?Det N (a/the man)
NP---Det Adj N PP S(the tall man with glasses that I met)
The recursiveness of Phrase structure rules 短语结构规则的循环性
These rul
es can generate an infinite number of sentences, and sentence with infinite length, due to their recursive properties.根据短语结构规则， 短语和句子可以无限循环地组合起来。
1.1. What is language?
“Language is system of arbitrary vocal symbols used for human communication. It is a system, since linguistic elements are arranged systematically, rather than randomly. Arbitrary, in the sense that there is usually no intrinsic connection between a work (like “book”) and the object it refers to. This explains and is explained by the fact that different languages have different “books”: “book” in English, “livre” in French, in Japanese, in Chinese, “check” in Korean. It is symbolic, because words are associated with objects, actions, ideas etc. by nothing but convention. Namely, people use the sounds or vocal forms to symbolize what they wish to refer to. It is vocal, because sound or speech is the primary medium for all human languages, developed or “new”. Writing systems came much later than the spoken forms. The fact that small children learn and can only learn to speak (and listen) before they write (and read) also indicates that language is primarily vocal, rather than written. The term “human” in the definition is meant to specify that language is human specific.
1.2. What are design features of language?
“Design features” here refer to the defining properties of human language that tell the difference between human language and any system of animal communication. They are arbitrariness, duality, productivity, displacement, cultural transmission and interchangeability
1.3. What is arbitrariness?
By “arbitrariness”, we mean there is no logical connection between meanings and sounds (see I .1). A dog might be a pig if only the first person or group of persons had used it for a pig. Language is therefore largely arbitrary. But language is not absolutely seem to be some sound-meaning association, if we think of echo words, like “bang”, “crash”, “roar”, which are motivated in a certain sense. Secondly, some compounds (words compounded to be one word ) are not entirely arbitrary either. “Type” and “write” are opaque or unmotivated words, while “type-writer” is less so, or more transparent or motivated than the words that make it. So we can say “arbitrariness” is a matter of degree.
1.4.What is duality?
Linguists refer “duality” (of structure) to the fact that in all languages so far investigated, one finds two levels of structure or patterning. At the first, higher level, language is analyzed in terms of combinations of meaningful units (such as morphemes, words etc.) ; at the second, lower level, it is seen as a sequence of segments which lack any meaning in themselves, but which combine to form units of meaning. According to Hu Zhanglin et al. (p.6) , language is a system of two sets of structures, one of sounds and the other o
f meaning. This is important for the workings of language. A small number of semantic units (words), and these units of meaning can be arranged and rearranged into an infinite number of sentences (note that we have dictionaries of words, but no dictionary of sentences!). Duality makes it possible for a person to talk about anything within his knowledge. No animal communication system enjoys this duality, or even approaches this honour.
1.5.What is productivity?
Productivity refers to the ability to the ability to construct and understand an indefinitely large number of sentences in one’s native language, including those that has never heard before, but that are appropriate to the speaking situation. No one has ever said or heard “A red-eyed elephant is dancing on the small hotel bed with an African gibbon”, but he can say it when necessary, and he can understand it in right register. Different from artistic creativity, though, productivity never goes outside the language, thus also called “rule-bound creativity” (by N.Chomsky).
1.6.What is displacement?
“Displacement”, as one of the design features of the human language, refers to the fact that one can talk about things that are not present, as easily as he does things present. In other words, one can refer to real and unreal things, things of the past, of the present, of the future. Language itself can be talked about too. When a man, for example, is crying to a woman, about something, it might be something that had occurred, or something that is occurring, or something that is to occur. When a dog is barking, however, you can decide it is barking for something or at someone that exists now and there. It couldn’t be bow-wowing sorrowfully for dome lost love or a bone to be lost. The bee’s system, nonetheless, has a small share of “displacement”, but it is an unspeakable tiny share.
1.7.What is cultural transmission?
This means that language is not biologically transmitted from generation to generation, but that the details of the linguistic system must be learned anew by each speaker. It is true that the capacity for language in human beings(N. Chomsky called it “language acquisition device”, or LAD) has a genetic basis, but the particular language a person learns to speak is a cultural one other than a genetic one like the dog’s barking system. If a human being is brought up in isolation he cannot acquire language. The Wolf Child reared by the pack of wolves turned out to speak the wolf’s roaring “tongue” when he was saved. He learned thereafter, with no small difficulty, the ABC of a certain human language.
1.8.What is interchangeability?
Interchangeability means that any human being can be both a producer and a receiver of messages. We can say, and on other occasions can receive and understand, for example, “Please do something to make me happy.” Though some people (including me) suggest that there is sex differentiation in
the actual language use, in other words, men and women may say different things, yet in principle there is no sound, or word or sentence that a man can utter and a woman cannot, or vice versa. On the other hand, a person can be the speaker while the other person is the listener and as the turn moves on to the listener, he can be the speaker and the first speaker is to listen. It is turn-taking that makes social communication possible and acceptable.
Some male birds, however, utter some calls which females do not (or cannot?) , and certain kinds of fish have similar haps mentionable. When a dog barks, all the neighbouring dogs bark. Then people around can hardly tell which dog (dogs) is (are0 “speaking” and which listening.
1.9.Why do linguists say language is human specific?
First of all, human language has six “design features” which animal communication systems do not have, at least not in the true sense of them(see I .2-8). Let’s borrow C. F. Hocket’s Chart that compares human language with some animals’ systems, from Wang Gang(1998,p.8).
Secondly, linguists have done a lot trying to teach animals such as chimpanzees to speak a human language but have achieved nothing inspiring. Washoe, a female chimpanzee, was brought up like a human child by Beatnice and Alan Gardner. She was taught “American sign Language”, and learned a little that made the teachers happy but did mot make the linguistics circle happy, for few believed in teaching chimpanzees.
Thirdly, a human child reared among animals cannot speak a human language, not even when he is taken back and taught to lo to so (see the “Wolf Child”in I.7)
1.10.What functions does language have?
Language has at least seven functions: phatic, directive, Informative, interrogative, expressive, evocative and performative. According to Wang Gang (1988,p.11), language has three main functions: a tool of communication, a tool whereby people learn about the world, and a tool by which people learn about the world, and a tool by which people create art . M .A. K.Halliday, representative of the London school, recognizes three “Macro-Functions”: ideational, interpersonal and textual(see !.11-17;see HU Zhuanglin et al.,pp10-13,pp394-396).
1.11What is the phatic function?
The “phatic function” refers to language being used for setting up a certain atmosphere or maintaining social contacts(rather than for exchanging information or ideas). Greetings, farewells, and comments on the weather in English and on clothing in Chinese all serve this function. Much of the phatic language (e.g. “How are you?” “Fine, thanks.”) is insincere if taken literally, but it is important. If you don't say “Hello” to a friend you meet, or if you don’t answer his “Hi”, you ruin your friendship.
1.12. What is the directive function?
The “directive function” means that language may be used to get the hearer to do something. Most imperative se
ntences perform this function, e. g., “Tell me the result when you finish.” Other syntactic structures or sentences of other sorts can, according to J.Austin and J.Searle’s “indrect speech act theory”(see Hu Zhuanglin et al.,pp271-278) at least, serve the purpose of direction too, e.g., “If I were you, I would have blushed to the bottom of my ears!”
1.13.What is the informative function?
Language serves an “informational function” when used to tell something, characterized by the use of declarative sentences. Informative statements are often labelled as true(truth) or false(falsehood). According to P.Grice’s “Cooperative Principle”(see Hu Zhuanglin et al., pp282-283), one ought not to violate the “Maxim of Quality”, when he is informing at all.
1.14.What is the interrogative function?
When language is used to obtain information, it serves an “interrogative function”. This includes all questions that expect replies, statements, imperatives etc., according to the “indirect speech act theory”, may have this function as well, e.g., “I’d like to know you better.” This may bring forth a lot of personal information. Note that rhetorical questions make an exception, since they demand no answer, at least not the reader’s/listener’s answer.
1.15.What is the expressive function?
The “expressive function” is the use of language to reveal something about the feelings or attitudes of the speaker. Subconscious emotional ejaculations are good examples, like “Good heavens!” “My God!” Sentences like “I’m sorry about the delay” can serve as good examples too, though in a subtle way. While language is used for the informative function to pass judgement on the truth or falsehood of statements, language used for the expressive function evaluates, appraises or asserts the speaker’s own attitudes.
1.16.What is the evocative function?
The “evocative function” is the use of language to create certain feelings in the hearer. Its aim is , for example, to amuse, startle, antagonize, soothe, worry or please. Jokes(not practical jokes, though) are supposed to amuse or entertain the listener; advertising to urge customers to purchase certain commodities; propaganda to influence public opinion. Obviously, the expressive and the evocative functions often go together, i.e., you may express, for example, your personal feelings about a political issue but end up by evoking the same feeling in, or imposing it on, your listener. That’s also the case with the other way round.
1.17.What is the performative function?
This means people speak to “do things” or perform actions. On certain occasions the utterance itself as an action is more important than what words or sounds constitute the uttered sentence. When asked if a third Yangtze bridge ought to be built in Wuhan, the mayor may say “OK”, which means more than speech, and more than an average social individual may do
for the construction. The judge’s imprisonment sentence, the president’s war or independence declaration, etc., are performatives as well(see J.Austin’s speech Act Theory, Hu Zhuanglin, ecal.,pp271-278).
1.18.What is linguistics?
“Linguistics” is the scientific study of language. It studies not just one language of any one society, but the language of all human beings. A linguist, though, does not have to know and use a large number of languages, but to investigate how each language is constructed. He is also concerned with how a language varies from dialect to dialect, from class to class, how it changes from century to century, how children acquire their mother tongue, and perhaps how a person learns or should learn a foreign language. In short, linguistics studies the general principles whereupon all human languages are constructed and operate as systems of communication in their societies or communities (see Hu Zhuanglin et al.,pp20-22)
1.19.What makes linguistics a science?
Since linguistics is the scientific study of language, it ought to base itself upon the systematic, investigation of language data which aims at discovering the true nature of language and its underlying system. To make sense of the data, a linguist usually has conceived some hypotheses about the language structure, to be checked against the observed or observable facts. In order to make his analysis scientific, a linguist is usually guided by four principles: exhaustiveness, consistency, and objectivity. Exhaustiveness means he should gather all the materials relevant to the study and give them an adequate explanation, in spite of the complicatedness. He is to leave no linguistic “stone” unturned. Consistency means there should be no contradiction between different parts of the total statement. Economy means a linguist should pursue brevity in the analysis when it is possible. Objectivity implies that since some people may be subjective in the study, a linguist should be (or sound at least) objective, matter-of-face, faithful to reality, so that his work constitutes part of the linguistics research.
1.20.What are the major branches of linguistics?
The study of language as a whole is often called general linguistics (e.g.Hu Zhuanglin et al.,1988;Wang Gang,1988).But a linguist sometimes is able to deal with only one aspect of language at a time, thus the arise of various branches : phonetics ,phonology ,morphology, syntax, semantics, sociolinguistics, applied linguistics, pragmatics, psycholinguistics, lexicology, lexicography, etymology, etc.
1.21.What are synchronic and diachronic studies?
The description of a language at some point of time (as if it stopped developing) is a synchrony study (synchrony). The description of a language as it changes through time is a diachronic study (diachronic). An essay entitled “On the Use of THE”, for example, may be synchronic, if the author does not recall the past of THE, and it may
also be diachronic if he claims to cover a large range or period of time wherein THE has undergone tremendous alteration (see Hu Zhuanglin et al.,pp25-27).
1.22.What is speech and what is writing?
No one needs the repetition of the general principle of linguistic analysis, namely, the primacy of speech over writing. Speech is primary, because it existed long long before writing systems came into being. Genetically children learn to speak before learning to write. Secondly, written forms just represent in this way or that the speech sounds : individual sounds, as in English and French as in Japanese.
In contrast to speech, spoken form of language, writing as written codes, gives language new scope and use that speech does not have. Firstly, messages can be carried through space so that people can write to each other. Secondly, messages can be carried through time thereby, so that people of our time can be carried through time thereby, so that people of our time can read Beowulf, Samuel Johnson, and Edgar A. Poe. Thirdly, oral messages are readily subject to distortion, either intentional or unintentional (causing misunderstanding or malentendu), while written messages allow and encourage repeated unalterable reading.
Most modern linguistic analysis is focused on speech, different from grammarians of the last century and theretofore.
1.23.What are the differences between the descriptive and the prescriptive approaches?
A linguistic study is “descriptive” if it only describes and analyses the facts of language, and “prescriptive” if it tries to lay down rules for “correct” language behavior. Linguistic studies before this century were largely prescriptive because many early grammars were largely prescriptive because many early grammars were based on “high” (literary or religious) written records. Modern linguistics is mostly descriptive, however. It (the latter) believes that whatever occurs in natural speech (hesitation, incomplete utterance, misunderstanding, etc.) should be described in the analysis, and not be marked as incorrect, abnormal, corrupt, or lousy. These, with changes in vocabulary and structures, need to be explained also.
1.24.What is the difference between langue and parole?
F. de Saussure refers “langue”to the abstract linguistic system shared by all the members of a speech community and refers “parole” to the actual or actualized language, or the realization of langue. Langue is abstract, parole specific to the speaking situation; langue not actually spoken by an individual, parole always a naturally occurring event; langue relatively stable and systematic, parole is a mass of confused facts, thus not suitable for systematic investigation. What a linguist ought to do, according to Saussure, is to abstract langue from instances of parole, i. e. to discover the regularities governing all instances of parole and make than the subject of linguistics. The langue-parole distincti
on is of great importance, which casts great influence on later linguists.
1.25.What is the difference between competence and performance?
According to N. Chomsky, “competence” is the ideal language user’s knowledge of the rules of his language, and “performance” is the actual realization of this knowledge in utterances. The former enables a speaker to produce and understand an indefinite number of sentences and to recognize grammatical mistakes and ambiguities. A speaker’s competence is stable while his performance is often influenced by psychological and social factors. So a speaker’s performance does not always match or equal his supposed competence.
Chomsky believes that linguists ought to study competence, rather than performance. In other words, they should discover what an ideal speaker knows of his native language.
Chomsky’s competence-performance distinction is not exactly the same as , though similar to , F. de Saussure’s langue-parole distinction. Langue is a social product, and a set of conventions for a community, while competence is deemed as a property of the mind of each individual. Sussure looks at language more from a sociological or sociolinguistic point of view than N. Chomsky since the latter deals with his issues psychologically or psycholinguistically.
1.26.What is linguistic potential? What is actual linguistic behaviour?
These two terms, or the potential-behavior distinction, were made by M. A. K. Halliday in the 1960s, from a functional point of view. There is a wide range of things a speaker can do in his culture, and similarly there are many things he can say, for example, to many people, on many topics. What he actually says (i.e. his “actual linguistic behavior”) on a certain occasion to a certain person is what he has chosen from many possible injustice items, each of which he could have said (linguistic potential).
1.27.In what way do language, competence and linguistic potential agree? In what way do they differ? And their counterparts?
Langue, competence and linguistic potential have some similar features, but they are innately different (see 1.25). Langue is a social product, and a set of speaking conventions; competence is a property or attribute of each ideal speaker’s mind; linguistic potential is all the linguistic corpus or repertoire available from which the speaker chooses items for the actual utterance situation. In other words, langue is invisible but reliable abstract system. Competence means “knowing”, and linguistic potential a set of possibilities for “doing” or “performing actions”. They are similar in that they all refer to the constant underlying the utterances that constitute what Saussure, Chomsky and Halliday respectively called parole, performance and actual linguistic behavior. Paole, performance and actual linguistic behavior enjoy more similarities than differences.
1.28.What is phonetics?
“Phonetics” is the sc
ience which studies the characteristics of human sound-making, especially those sounds used in speech, and provides methods for their description, classification and transcription (see Hu Zhuanglin et al., pp39-40), speech sounds may be studied in different ways, thus by three different branches of phonetics. (1)Articulatory phonetics; the branch of phonetics that examines the way in which a speech sound is produced to discover which vocal organs are involved and how they coordinate in the process. (2)Auditory phonetics, the branch of phonetic research from the hearer’s point of view, looking into the impression which a speech sound makes on the hearer as mediated by the ear , the auditory nerve and the brain. (3)Acoustic phonetics: the study of the physical properties of speech sounds, as transmitted between mouth and ear.
Most phoneticians, however, are interested in articulatory phonetics.
1.29.How are the vocal organs formed?
The vocal organs (see Figure1, Hu Zhuanglin et al.,p41), or speech organs, are organs of the human body whose secondary use is in the production of speech sounds. The vocal organs can be considered as consisting of three parts; the initiator of the air-stream, the producer of voice and the resonating cavities.
1.30.What is place of articulation?
It refers to the place in the mouth where, for example, the obstruction occurs, resulting in the utterance of a consonant. Whatever sound is pronounced, at least some vocal organs will get involved,e. g. lips, hard palate etc., so a consonant may be one of the following (1 )bilabial:[p,b,m]; (2) labiodental:[f,v]; (3) dental:[,]; (4) alveolar:[t,d,l,n.s,z]; (5) retroflex; (6) palato-alveolar:[,]; (7) palatal:[j]; (8) velar[k,g,]; (9) uvular; (10)glottal:[h].
Some sounds involve the simultaneous use of two places of articulation. For example, the English [w]has both an approximation of the two lips and that two lips and that of the tongue and the soft palate, and may be termed “labial-velar”.
1.31.What is the manner of articulation?
The “manner of articulation” literally means the way a sound is articulated. At a given place of articulation, the airstream may be obstructed in various ways, resulting in various manners of articulation, are the following : (1) plosive:[p,b,t,d,k,g]; (2) nasal:[m,n,]; (3) trill; (4) tap or flap; (5) lateral:[l]; (6) fricative:[f,v,s,z]; (7) approximant:[w,j]; (8) affricate:[].
1.32.How do phoneticians classify vowels?
Phoneticians, in spite of the difficulty, group vowels in 5 types: (1) long and short vowels, e.g.,[i:,]; (4) rounded and unround vowels,e.g.[,i]; (5) pure and gliding vowels, e.g.[I,].
1.33.What is IPA? When did it come into being ?
The IPA, abbreviation of “International Phonetic Alphabet”, is a compromise system making use of symbols of all sources, including diacritics indicating length, stress and intonation, indicating phonetic variation. Ever since it was developed in
1888, IPA has undergone a number of revisions.
1.34.What is narrow transcription and what is broad transcription?
In handbook of phonetics, Henry Sweet made a distinction between “narrow” and “broad” transcriptions, which he called “Narrow Romic”. The former was meant to symbolize all the possible speech sounds, including even the most minute shades of pronunciation while Broad Romic or transcription was intended to indicate only those sounds capable of distinguishing one word from another in a given language.
1.35.What is phonology? What is difference between phonetics and phonology?
(1)“Phonology” is the study of sound systems- the invention of distinctive speech sounds that occur in a language and the patterns wherein they fall. Minimal pair, phonemes, allophones, free variation, complementary distribution, etc., are all to be investigated by a phonologist.
(2)Phonetics, as discussed in I.28, is the branch of linguistics studying the characteristics of speech sounds and provides methods for their description, classification and transcription. A phonetist is mainly interested in the physical properties of the speech sounds, whereas a phonologist studies what he believes are meaningful sounds related with their semantic features, morphological features, and the way they are conceived and printed in the depth of the mind phonological knowledge permits a speaker to produce sounds which from meaningful utterances, to recognize a foreign “accent”, to make up new words, to add the appropriate phonetic segments to from plurals and past tenses, to know what is and what is not a sound in one’s language.
1.36.What is a phone? What is a phoneme? What is an allophone?
A “phone” is a phonetic unit or segment. The speech sounds we hear and produce during linguistic communication are all phones. When we hear the following words pronounced:[pit], [tip], [spit], etc., the similar phones we have heard are [p] for one thing, and three different[p]’s, readily making possible the “narrow transcription or diacritics”. Phones may and may not distinguish meaning. A “phoneme” is a phonological unit; it is a unit that is of distinctive value. As an abstract unit, a phoneme is not any particular sound, but rather it is represented or realized by a certain phone in a certain phonetic context. For example, the phoneme[p] is represented differently in [pit], [tip] and [spit].
The phones representing a phoneme are called its “allophones”, i. e., the different (i.e., phones) but do not make one word so phonetically different as to create a new word or a new meaning thereof. So the different[p]’s in the above words are the allophones of the same phoneme[p]. How a phoneme is represented by a phone, or which allophone is to be used, is determined by the phonetic context in which it occurs. But the choice of an allophone is not random. In most cases it is rule-governed; these rules are to be found out by a
phonologist.
1.37.What are minimal pairs?
When two different phonetic forms are identical in every way except for one sound segment which occurs in the same place in the string , the two forms(i. e., word) are supposed to form a “minimal pair”, e.g., “pill” and “bill”, “pill” and “till”, “till” and “dill”, “till” and “kill”, etc. All these words together constitute a minimal set. They are identical in form except for the initial consonants. There are many minimal pairs in English, which makes it relatively easy to know what are English phonemes. It is of great importance to find the minimal pairs when a phonologist is dealing with the sound system of an unknown language(see Hu Zhuanglin et al., pp65-66).
1.38.What is free variation?
If two sounds occurring in the same environment do not contrast; namely, if the substitution of one for the other does not generate a new word form but merely a different pronunciation of the same word, the two sounds then are said to be in “free variation”. The plosives, for example, may not be exploded when they occur before another plosive or a nasal (e. g., act, apt, good morning). The minute distinctions may, if necessary, be transcribed in diacritics. These unexploded and exploded plosives are in free variation. Sounds in free variation should be assigned to the same phoneme.
1.39.What is complementary distribution?
When two sounds never occur in the same environment, they are in “complementary distribution”. For example, the aspirated English plosives never occur after[s], and the unsaturated ones never occur initially. Sounds in complementary distribution may be assigned to the same phoneme. The allophones of[l], for example, are also in complementary distribution. The clear[l] occurs only before a vowel, the voiceless equivalent of[l] occurs only after a voiceless consonant, such as in the words “please”, “butler”, “clear”, etc., and the dark[l] occurs only after a vowel or as a syllabic sound after a consonant, such as in the words “feel”, “help”, “middle”, etc.
1.40.What is the assimilation rule? What is the deletion rule?
(1) The “assimilation rule” assimilates one segment to another by “copying” a feature of a sequential phoneme, thus making the two phones more similar. This rule accounts for the raring pronunciation of the nasal[n] that occurs within a word. The rule is that within a word the nasal consonant[n] assumes the same place of articulation as the following consonant. The negative prefix “in-“ serves as a good example. It may be pronounced as [in], [i] or [im] when occurring in different phonetic contexts: e. g., indiscrete-[ ](alveolar)
inconceivable-[ ](velar)
input-[‘imput](bilabial)
The “deletion rule” tells us when a sound is to be deleted although is orthographically represented. While the letter “g” is mute in “sign”, “design” and “paradigm”, it
is pronounced in their corresponding derivatives: “signature”, “designation” and “paradigmatic”. The rule then can be stated as: delete a [g] when it occurs before a final nasal consonant. This accounts for some of the seeming irregularities of the English spelling (see Dai Weidong ,pp22-23).
1.41.What is suprasegmental phonology? What are suprasegmental features?
“Suprasegmental phonology” refers to the study of phonological properties of linguistic units larger than the segment called phoneme, such as syllable, word and sentence.
Hu Zhuanglin et al.,(p,73) includes stress, length and pitch as what they suppose to be “principal suprasegmental features”, calling the concurrent patterning of three “intonation”. Dai Weidong(pp23-25) lists three also, but they are stress, tone and intonation.
1.42.What is morphology?
“Morphology” is the branch of grammar that studies the internal structure of words, and the rules by which words are formed. It is generally divided into two fields: inflectional morphology and lexical/derivational morphology.
1.43.What is inflection/inflexion?
“Inflection” is the manifestation of grammatical relationships through the addition of inflectional affixes, such as number, person, finiteness, aspect, and case, which does not change the grammatical class of the items to which they are attached.
1.44.What is a morpheme? What is an allomorph?
The “morpheme” is the smallest unit in terms of relationship between expression and content, a unit which cannot be divided without destroying or drastically altering the meaning, whether it is lexical or grammatical. The word “boxes”, for example, has two morphemes: “box” and “-es”, neither of which permits further division or analysis if we don’t wish to sacrifice meaning. Therefore a morpheme is considered the minimal unit of meaning.
Allomorphs, like allophones vs. phones, are the alternate shapes (and thus phonetic forms) of the same morphemes. Some morphemes, though, have no more than one invariable form in all contexts, such as “dog”, “cat”, etc. The variants of the plurality “-s” make the allomorphs thereof in the following examples: map-maps, mouse-mice, sheep-sheep etc.
1.45.What is a free morpheme? What is a bound morpheme?
A “free morpheme” is a morpheme that constitutes a word by itself, such as ‘bed”, “tree” ,etc. A “bound morpheme” is one that appears with at least another morpheme, such as “-s” in “beds” , “-al” in “national” and so on. All monomorphemic words are free morphemes. Those polymorphemic words are either compounds (combination of two or more free morphemes )or derivatives (word derived from free morphemes).
1.46.What is a root ? What is a stem? What is an affix?
A “root” is the base form of a word that cannot be further analyzed without total loss of identity. In other words, a “root” is that part of the wo
rd left when all the affixes are removed. “Internationalism” is a four-morpheme derivative which keeps its free morpheme “nation” as its root when “ inter-”, “-al” and “-ism” are taken away.
A “stem” is any morpheme or combination of morphemes to which an affix can be added. It may be the same as , and in other cases, different from, a root. For example, in the word “friends” , “friend” is both the root and the stem, but in the word “friendships”, “friendships” is its stem, “friend” is its root. Some words (i. e., compounds ) have more than one root ,e. g., “mailman” , “girlfriend” ,ect.
An “affix” is the collective term for the type of formative that can be used, only when added to another morpheme(the root or stem). Affixes are limited in number in a language, and are generally classified into three subtypes: prefix, suffix and infix, e. g. , “mini-”, “un-”, ect.(prefix); “-ise”, “-tion”, ect.(suffix).
1.47.What are open classes? What are closed classes?
In English, nouns, verbs, adjectives, and adverbs make up the largest part of the vocabulary. They are “open -class words”, since we can regularly add new lexical entries to these classes. The other syntactic categories are, for the most part, closed classes, or closed-class words. The number of them is hardly alterable, if they are changeable at all.
1.48.What is lexicon? What is word? What is lexeme? What is vocabulary? Lexicon? Word? Lexeme? Vocabulary?
“Lexicon”, in its most general sense, is synonymous with vocabulary. In its technical sense, however, lexicon deals with the analysis and creation of words, idioms and collocations. “Word” is a unit of expression which has universal intuitive recognition by native-speakers, whether it is expressed in spoken or written form. This definition is perhaps a little vague as there are different criteria with regard to its identification and definition. It seems that it is hard , even impossible, to define “word” linguistically. Nonetheless it is universally agreed that the following three senses are involved in the definition of “word”, none of which, though, is expected to cope with all the situations: (1)a physically definable unit ,e. g.,[it iz ‘w ](phonological), “It is wonder” (orthographic); (2) the common factor underlying a set of forms (see what is the common factor of “checks”, “checked”, “checking ”, etc.); (3) a grammatical unit(look at (1) again; every word plays a grammatical part in the sentence).
According to Leonard Bloomfield, a word is a minimum free form (compare: a sentence is a maximum free form, according to Bloomfield ). There are other factors that may help us identify words: (1) stability (no great change of orthographic features); (2)relative uninterruptibility (we can hardly insert anything between two parts of a word or between the letters). To make the category clearer we can subclass
ify words into a few types: (1) variable and invariable words(e. g.,-mats, seldom-?); (2) grammatical and lexical words(e. g. to, in ,etc., and table, chair, ect. By “lexical words” we mean the words that carry a semantic content, e.g., nouns, verbs, adjectives and many adverbs; (3) closed-class and open-class words(see I.47).
In order to reduce the ambiguity of the term “word” ,the term “lexeme” is postulated as the abtract unit which refers to the smallest unit in the meaning system of a language that can be distinguished from other smaller units. A lexeme can occur in many different forms in actual spoken or written texts. For example, “write” is the lexeme of the following words: “write”, “write”, “wrote”, “writing”, and “written.”
“Vocabulary” usually refers to all words or lexical items a person has acquired about technical or/and untechnical things. So we encourage our students to enlarge their vocabulary. “vocabulary” is also used to mean word list or glossary.
1.49.What is collocation?
“Collocation” is a term used in lexicology by some linguists to refer to the habitual co-occurrences of individual lexical items. For example, we can “read” a “book”; “correct” can narrowly occur with “book” which is supposed to have faults, but no one can “read” a “mistake” because with regard to co-occurrence these two words are not collocates.
1.50.What is syntax?
“Syntax” is the study of the rules governing the ways in which words, word groups and phrases are combined to form sentences in a language, or the study of the interrelationships between sentential elements.
1.51.What is a sentence?
L. Bloomfield defines “sentence” as an independent linguistic form not included by some grammatical marks in any other linguistic from, i. e., it is not subordinated to a larger linguistic form, it is a structurally independent linguistic form. It is also called a maximum free form.
1.52.What are syntactic relations?
“Syntactic relations” refer to the ways in which words, word groups or phrases form sentences; hence three kinds of syntactic relations: positional relations, relations of substitutability and relations of co-occurrence.
“Positional relation”, or “word order”, refers to the sequential arrangement to words in a language. It is a manifestation of a certain aspect of what F. de Saussure called “syntagmatic relations”, or of what other linguists call “horizontal relations” or “chain relations”.
“Relations of substitutability” refer to classes or sets of words substitutable for each other grammatically in same sentence structures. Saussure called them “associative relations”. Other people call them “paradigmatic/vertical/choice relations”.
By “relations of co-occurrence”, one means that words of different sets of clauses may permit or require the occurrence of a word of another set or cla
ss to form a sentence or a particular part of a sentence. Thus relations of co-occurrence partly belong to syntagmatic relations and partly to paradigmatic relations.
1.53.What is IC analysis? What are immediate constituents(and ultimate constituents)?
“IC analysis” is a new approach of sentence study that cuts a sentence into two(or more) segments. This kind of pure segmentation is simply dividing a sentence into its constituent elements without even knowing what they really are . What remain of the first cut are called “immediate constituents”, and what are left at the final cut are called “ultimate constituents”. For example, “John left yesterday” can be thus segmented: “John| left | | yesterday”. We get two immediate constituents for the first cut (|), and they are “John” and “left yesterday”. Further split(||) this sentence generates three “ultimate constituents”: “John”, “left ” and “yesterday”.
1.54.What are endocentric and exocentric constructons?
“Endocentric construction” is one whose distribution is functionally equivalent to that of one or more of its constituents, i. e., a word or a group of words, which serves as a definable “centre” or “head”. Usually noun phrases, verb phrases and adjective phrases belong to endocentric types because the constituent items are subordinate to the head. “Exocentric construction”, opposite of endocentric construction, refers to a group of syntactically related words where none of the words is functionally equivalent to the group as whole ;that is to say ,there is no definable centre or head inside the group. Exocentric construction usually includes basic sentence, prepositional phrase, predicate(verb+object) construction, and connective(be+complement) construction.
1.55.What is a subject? A predicate? An object?
In some language, an “subject” refers to one of the nouns in the nominative case, such as “pater” in the following example: “pater filium amat” (put literally in English: the father the son loves). In English, a “grammatical subject” refers to a noun which can establish correspondence with the verb and which can be checked by a tag-question test, e.g., “He is a good cook(, isn’t he?).”
A “predicate” refers to a major constituent of sentence structure in a binary analysis in which all obligatory constituents other than the subject are considered together. e.g., in the sentence “The monkey is jumping ”, “is jumping ” is the predicate.
Traditionally “object” refers to the receiver or goal of an action, and it is further classified into two kinds: direct object and indirect object. In some inflecting languages, an object is marked by case labels: the “accusative case” for direct object, and the “dative case ” for direct object, and the “dative case” for indirect to word order(after the verb and preposition) and by inflections(of pronouns). E .g., in the sent