CHAPTER 1 INTRODUCTION

Definition : linguistics can be defined as the scientific or systematic study of language. It is always guided by the

three cannons of science:exhaustiveness, consistency and economy.

Linguistics describes languages and does not lay down rules of correctness while traditional

grammar emphasizes correctness.

Linguistics

Linguists regard the spoken language as primary, not the written while traditional grammar

Linguistics versus traditional grammar: emphasizes the priority of written language.

Traditional grammar is based on Latin and it tries to impose the Latin categories and

structures on other languages. Linguistics describes each language on its own merits.

Scope Microlinguistics Phonetics Phonology Morphology Syntax Semantics Pragmatics Macrolinguistics Sociolinguistics Psycholinguistics Neurolinguistics Stylistics Discourse analysis Computational linguistics Cognitive linguistics

language is a system of arbitrary vocal symbols used for human communication.

Language is a system---elements in it are not arranged and combined randomly, but according to some rules and

Definition: principles. Language is arbitrary --- there is no intrinsic connection between the word (e.g. pen) and the thing(e.g.

what we write with).Language is vocal---the primary medium for all languages is sound. Language is used for human

communication ---it is human-specific, very different form systems of animal communication.

Ding-Dong Theory: human speech developed from primitive man giving vocal expression to the objects he encountered. Sing-Song Theory: language developed from primitive ritual songs of praise.

Pooh-Pooh Theory: language came from interjections, which express he speaker’s emotions. Origins Yo-He-Ho Theory: language came from the cries uttered, during strain of work.

Ta-Ta Theory : language came from the combination of certain gestures and tongues movements. Bow-Wow Theory: language came from imitation of animal cries and other sounds heard in nature.

Design features

Arbitrariness: this refers to the fact that there is no logical or intrinsic connection between a particular sound and the meaning it is associated with. For example, English should use the sounds/d?g/ to refer to the animal dog, but Chinese should use “gou” to refer to te same animal. A dog may be called a pig if the first man happens to name it as a “pig”. So, the relationship between the sounds and their meaning is quite accidental. Of course, onomatopoetic words such as “quack-quack” and “bang” are exceptions, but words these are relatively few compared withe the total number of words in language.

Duality: language operates on two levels of structure. At one level are elements which have no meaning in themselves but which combine to form units at another level which do have meaning.

Productivity: productivity or creativity refers to man’s linguistic ability which enables him to produce and understand an infinitely large number of sentences in our native language, including the sentences which were never heard before.

Interchangeability : interchangeability or reciprocity refers to the fact that man can both produce and receive messages, and his roles as a speaker and a hearer can be exchanged at ease.

Displacement: displacement is a property of language enabling people to talk about things remote either in space or in time. Specialization: specialization refers to the fact that man does not have a total physical involvement in the act of communication.

Cultural transmission: language is culturally transmitted. It cannot be transmitted through heredity. A human being brought up in isolations simply doesn’t acquire language, as is demonstrated by the studies of children brought up by animals without human contact. Animals transmit their cries simply from parent to child, while human baby doesn’t speak any language at birth. What language a baby is going to speak is determined by the culture he is born into. A Chinese baby born and brought up in London by an English family will speak English, while an English kid brought up in a Chinese community will speak Chinese.

Functions Phatic function/communion Directive function Informative function

Interrogative function Expressive function Evocative function Performative function

Some major concepts in linguistics

Descriptive and prescriptive grammar

Descriptive grammars attempt to tell what is in the language; while prescriptive grammars tell people what should be in the language.As traditional grammars tried to lay down rules, they are often called prescriptive. Most modern linguistics is descriptive.

Synchronic and diachronic linguistics

When we study language at one particular time, it is called synchronic linguistics. When we study language developments through time, it is called diachronic or historical linguistics. Synchronic linguistics focuses on the state of language at any point in history while diachronic linguistics focuses on he difference in two or more than two tates of language over decades or centuries.

Langue and parole

F.de Saussure made an important distinction between langue and parole. Langue refers to the abstract linguistic system shared by all the members of a speech community. Parole refers to particular realizations of langue. Langue is the social, conventional side of language, while parole is individualized speech.

Competence and performance

According to Chomsky, competence refers to the knowledge that native speakers have of their language as a system of abstract formal relations, while performance refers to their actual linguistic behavior, that is , the actual use of this knowledge.

Syntagmatic and paradigmatic relations

Saussure has put forward another pair of concepts: syntagmatic and paradigmatic relations. The former refers to the horizontal relationship between linguistic elements, which form linear sequences. The later means the vertical relationship between forms, which might occupy the same particular place in a structure.

Functionalism and formalism

Functionalism or functional linguistics refers to the study of the forms of language in reference to their social function in communication. Formalism or formal linguistics is the study of the abstract forms of language and their internal relations.

课后练习

If language is partially defined as communication, can we call the noises that dogs make language? Why or why not?

No,we can’t call the noises that dogs make as language even though language is partially defined as communication. There are two reasons for that: first, language is human-specific,it is a system of arbitrary vocal symbols used only for human communication. Second, language has design features which are totally lack in animal communication systems. For example, language has two levels of structures: at one level are elements which have no meaning in themselves but which combine to form units at another level which do have meaning. Noises made by dogs represent certain meaning but can not be further analyzed into smaller units.

What is the difference between a prescriptive and a descriptive approach to language?

Descriptive approach to language attempt to tell what is in the language, while prescriptive approach to language tells people what should be in the language. Most contemporary linguists believe that whatever occurs naturally in the language should be described. Certain forms are sued more regularly than others and by different people. Though some forms occur less frequently they should not be ignored. They can all be recorded and explained as aspects of the languages since hey are actually used.

A wolf is able to express subtle gradations of emotion by different positions of the ears, the lips, and the tail. There are eleven postures of the tail that express such emotions as self-confidence, confident threat, lack of tension, uncertain threat, depression, defensiveness, active submission, and complete submission. This system seems to be complex. Suppose there were a thousand different emotions that the wolf could express in this way. Would you then say a wolf had a language similar to man’s ? If not, why not?

No, we can not say a wolf has a language similar to that of men even though there were a thousand different emotions that the wolf could express with his positions of body parts. There are two reasons for that:

First, language is a system of arbitrary vocal symbols used for human communication. Language is human-specific. Second, language has design features which are lack in animals’ communication systems. For example, language has two levels of structures: at one level are elements which have no meaning in themselves but which combine to form units at another level which do have meaning. But in wolf’s communication system, one position stands for one certain meaning, and can not be further analyzed into smaller units. And no the other hand, human linguistic units can be grouped and regrouped, arranged and rearranged according to certain rules but those positions owned by wolf have no such features. Therefore, wolf’s this system is not so productive as human languages.

Chapter 2 THE SOUNDS OF LANGUAGE

INTRODUCTION

Phonology : is the description of the systems and patterns of speech sounds in a language.

Phoneme: and minimal sets \\

Distinctive features syllables

In English some words may contain a sequence of two or more consonants in one syllable, for example, /spl/ in

Consonant cluster

/’splendid/. Sequences of consonants like this are called consonant clusters.

Initial cluster: /spl/ in /’spl??/ splash Final cluster: /st/ in /test/ test Medial cluster: /str/ in /’pe?str?/ pastry

A word which begins with three-consonant clusters always observes three strict rules:

The first consonant must be /s/

The second phoneme must be /p /or /t/ or /k/

The third consonant must be /l / or /r / or /w / or /j /

Suprasegmentals

Sound contrasts that extend over several segments (phonemes),and such contrasts are called suprasegmentals.

Suprasegmental features Stress Intonation When a word has more than one syllable, one of them will be pronounced with more prominence than others. This brings us to another speech sound phenomenon, that of stress.

When sounds which are identical as to their place or manner features may differ in length, pitch or loudness. When speaking, people generally raise and lower the pitch of their voice. This phenomenon is called intonation.

The English word beautiful consists of three speech units: beau-ti-ful. These units, which are often longer than one sound and smaller than a whole word, are called syllables.

Phoneme is the phonological units of language, and it is an abstract collection of phonetic features which and distinguish meaning.

For example, sip and zip is signaled by the fact that the initial sound of the first word is s/s/ and the initial sound of the second word is z/z/./s/and /z/can therefore distinguish or contrast words. Such distinctive sounds are called phonemes. Minimal pairs are pairs of words which differ from each other only by one sound. For example, chunk and junk ,ban and bin, be and bat, fan and van, fine and vine, sink and zinc, site and side are minimal pairs in English. When a group of words can be differentiated each one from the others, by changing one phoneme (always in the same position), then we have a minimal set. For example, a minimal set based on the vowel phonemes of English would include feat, fit ,fate fat fought and foot, and one based on consonants could have big, pig, rig, fig, dig and wig. when two or more sounds occur in the same positon without any apparent change of meaning, they are said to be in For example, there are two pronunciation of the word either,we can say /i:δ?r/ and /’a?δ?r/.

When a feature distinguishes one phoneme from another it is a distinctive feature (or a phonemic feature). For example, seal and zeal distinguishes by /s/ ad /z/,/s/ is voiceless and /z/ is voiced,so /s/ and /z/ is a voicing difference.

With some phonetic knowledge we can give a much more precise description to speech sounds. And with some phonological knowledge we can become more aware of the functions of sounds in different languages. More importantly, phonetics and phonology have made the greatest contribution to “teaching”machines to “talk”.

Minimal pairs

Free variation free variation.

Syllable structure syllable

onset

Rime(rhyme)

Nucleus(peak) coda Consonant(s) vowel consonant(s)