语言学

Linguistics is the scientific study of languageTo understand this definition, we should focus on three wordsin this sentence: scientific, study and language. First of all,scientific here means a study which is based on the systematicinvestigation of linguistic data, conducted with reference tosome general theory of language structure. The linguist studiesit to discover the nature and rules of the underlying languagesystem. Secondly, the word study here refers to investigation orexamination. Thirdly, Language here is general term. It refersto any human language, Chinese spoken by the Chinese,English by the English people, German by the Germans, oreven Esperanto, an artificial language. Language here alsomeans the dialects or variants of a common language such asCantonese, a variant of Mandarin.Therefore, this wholesentence can be interpreted that linguistics is a language studythrough the systematic investigation of linguistic data and somegeneral theory of language structure.分支Phonetics:the study of sounds used in linguistic communication.It describes individual speech sounds and indicates theirphysical or phonetic properties.语音学Phonology: it studies the ways in which these sounds form patterns and systems and how they work to convey meaning in the systemof language.音韵学Morphology: a field of linguistics focused on the study of the forms and formation of words in a language 语态学Syntax: A set of rules that govern how words are combined to form phrases and sentences.句法学Pragmatics:the study of the use of language in a social context. 语用学特性Prescriptive and descriptive 规定与描写If a linguistic study describes and analyzes the language people actually use, it is said to be descriptive, if it aims to lay down rules to tell people what they should say and what they should not say, it is said to be prescriptive.Modern linguistics differs from traditional grammar. Traditional grammar is prescriptive while modern linguistics is descriptive. The task of linguists is supposed to describe the language people actually use, whether it is “correct” or not.Synchronic and diachronic 共时和历时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 is more important.Speech and writing 口头语与书面语Speech and writing are the two major media of communication. Modern linguistics regards the spoken form of language as primary, but not the written form. Reasons are: 1. Speech precedes writing; 2. There are still many languages that have only the spoken form; 3. In terms of function, the spoken language is used for a wider range of purposes than the written, and carries a larger load of communication than the written. Langue and parole 语言和言语The Swiss linguist F. de Saussure made the distinction between langue and parole early 20th century.Langue refers to the abstract linguistic system shared by all the members of a speech community, and parole refers to the realization of langue in actual use. Saussure made the distinction in order to single out one aspect of language for serious study. He believes what linguists should do is to abstract langue from parole, to discover the regularities governing the actual use of language and make them the subjects of study of linguistics. Competence and performance 语言能力和语言运用He defines competence as the ideal user’s knowledge of the rules of his language, and performance the actual realization of this knowledge in linguistic communication. He believes the task of the linguists is to discover and specify the language rules.1. In what basic ways does modern linguistics differ fromtraditional grammar?传统语法与现代语言学的区别1 Linguistics is descriptive while traditional grammar isprescriptive.2 Modern linguistics regards the spoken language asprimary, not the written.3 Modern linguistics differs from traditional grammar also inthat it does not force languages into a Latin-basedframework.2. Is modern linguistics mainly synchronic（共时）ordiachronic（历时）? Why?In modern linguistics, the linguists seem to give priority to synchronic studies other than diachronic ones. Because it is believed that unless the various states of a language in different historical periods are successfully studied, it would be difficult to describe the changes that have taken place in its historical development. That is to say, the diachronic studies should be based on synchronic ones. Synchronic descriptions are often thought of as being description of a language in its current existence. And most linguistic studies are of this type.3. For what reasons does modern linguistics give priority tospeech rather than to writing?①The writing system is invented by its users when needed②Today there are languages which can only be spoken but not written③Speech plays a greater role than writing in terms of theamount of information conveyed in daily communication④Each human being first acquires speech and then learns writing⑤Modern linguistics tends to pay more attention to authenticspeech as spoken language reveals more true features of human speech while written language is only the “revised”record of speech.4. How is Saussure’s distinction between langue and parolesimilar to Chomsky’s distinction between competence andperformance?Saussure defines langue as the abstract linguistic system shared by all the members of a speech community, and parole as the realization of langue in actual use. Chomsky defines competence as the ideal user’s knowledge of the rules of his language, and performance the actual realization of this knowledge in linguistic communication. Langue and competence both refer to the abstract issue, conventions and knowledge, and parole and performance both are their actual realization, the concrete use.On the other hand, in Saussure’s opinion, what linguists should do is to abstract langue from parole as parole is too varied and confusing. And this is the same as Chomsky. He thinks linguists should study the ideal speaker’s competence, not his performance, which is too haphazard to be studied. Language is a system of arbitrary vocal symbols used for human communication.1. What characteristics of language do you think should beincluded in a good, comprehensive definition of language? The important characteristics which should be included in a good definition of language are separately: systematic, arbitrary and vocal.First of all, language is a system. It has its own set of rules forpeople to abide by, or people will use the language in a wrong way.Second, language is arbitrary in the sense that there is no intrinsic connection between a linguistic symbol and what the symbol stands for. The fact that different languages have different words for the same object is a good illustration of the arbitrary nature of language.Third, language is vocal because the primary medium for all languages is sound.2. Design feature1) Arbitrariness:no natural/motivated/logical relationshipbetween the sign and what the sign stands for.(differentsounds are used to refer to the same object in differentlanguage)2) Productivity: provides opportunities for sending messagesthat have never been sent before and for understanding novelmessages.(bee dancing is used only to indicate food sourceswhich is the only kind of language that can be sent throughthe dancing )3)Duality:language is a system, which consists of two sets ofstuctures, or two levels. a. basic structure of sounds. b. grouped and regrouped into large number of units.4) Displacement: can be used to refer to things real or imagined,past, present or future5)Cultural transmission：Human capacity for language has agenetic basis, but we have to be taught and learned the details of any language system.2. What are the major functions of language?1) Descriptive function2) Expressive function3) Social functionChapter 21. What are the three branches of phonetics? How do they contribute to the study of speech sound? Articulatory —describes the way our speech organs work to produce the speech sounds and how they differ.Auditory-–studies the physical properties of speech sounds, reaches the important conclusion that phonetic identity is only a theoretical ideal. Acoustic-–studies the physical properties of speech sounds, the way sound travel from the speaker to the hearer.2. Difference between Phonetics（语音学）and Phonology（音位学）?Phonetics —description of all speech sounds and their find differences. Phonology —description of sound systems of particular languages and how sounds function to distinguish meaning.A phonetician would be more interested in such differences cos such differences will not cos differences in meaning.3.What’s a phone? How is it different from a phoneme? How are allophones related to a phoneme? Phone—a speech sound, a phonetic unit.Phoneme---a collection of abstract sound features, a phonological unit. Allophones---actual realization of a phoneme in different phonetic contexts.4. What are a minimal pair and a minimal set? Why isit important to identify the minimal set in a language? Minimal pair—two sound combinations identical in every way except in one sound element that occurs in the same position.除了出现在同一位置的一个语音成分不同外,其他部分都一样的两个语音组合.Minimal set—a group of sound combinations with the above feature.一组具有上述特征的语音组合.By identifying the minimal pair or the minimal set of a language, a philologist can identify its phonemes.通过分析一种语言的最小对立对或最小对立组,音位学家能辨别出它的音位.5. Explain with examples how broad transcription and narrow one transcription differ?Broad transcription—one letter symbol for one sound.Narrow transcription—diacritics are added to the one-letter symbols to show the finer differences between sounds.重要定义宽式音标Broad transcriptionThe transcription of speech sounds with letter symbols only.窄式音标Narrow transcriptionThe transcription of speech sound with letters symbols and the diacritics.音位PhonemeThe basic unit in phonology, it’s a collection of distinctive phonetic features.音位变体AllophonesDifferent phones which can represent a phoneme in different environments are called the allophones of that phoneme.音素phoneA phonetic unit or segment. it doesnot necessarily distinguish meaning, it’s a speech sound we use when speaking a language.最小对立对Minimal pairWhen two different forms are identical in every way except for one soundsegment which occurs in the same place in the strings, the two words are said to form a minimal pair.超切分特征SuprasegmentalThe phonemic features that occur above the level of the segment are called suprasegmental features. The main suprasegmental features include stress, intonation and tone.Chapter 3Morphology(形态学): The part of the grammar that id concerned with word formation and word structure.1.词素MorphemeThe minimal units of meaning2.自由词素Free MorphemeFree morphemes are independent units of meaning and can be used freely all by themselves.3.黏着词素Bound morphemesBound morphemes are these morphemes that canot be used by themselves, must be combined with other morphemes to form words that can be used independently.6.曲折词缀inflectional affixesThe manifestation of grammatical relationships through the addition of inflectional affixes, such as number, tense, degree and case.7.派生词缀Derivational affixesThe manifestation of relation between stems and affixes through the addition of derivational affixes.1. What is syntax?Syntax is a branch of linguistics that studies how words are combined to form sentences and the rules that govern the formation of sentences.2. What is phrase structure rule?The grammatical mechanism that regulates the arrangement of elements (i.e. specifiers, heads, and complements) that make up a phrase is called a phrase structure rule.The phrase structural rule for NP, VP, AP, and PP can be written as follows:NP → (Det) N (PP) ...VP → (Qual) V (NP) ...AP → (Deg) A (PP) ...PP → (Deg) P (NP) ...We can formulate a single general phrasal structural rule in which X stands for the head N, V, A or P.The XP rule: XP → (specifier) X(complement)3. What is category? How to determine a word's category?Category refers to a group of linguistic items which fulfill the same or similar functions in a particular language such as a sentence, a noun phrase or a verb. To determine a word's category, three criteria are usually employed, namely meaning, inflection and distribution.4. What is coordinate structure and what properties does it have?The structure formed by joining two or more elements of the same type with the help of a conjunction is called coordinate structures. It has four important properties:1) There is no limit on the number of coordinated categories that can appear prior to the conjunction.2) A category at any level (a head or an entire XP) can be coordinated.3) Coordinated categories must be of the same type.4) The category type of the coordinate phrase is identical to the category type of the elements being conjoined.5. What elements does a phrase contain and what role does each element play?A phrase usually contains the following elements: head, specifier and complement. Sometimes it also contains another kind of element termed modifier.The role each element can play:Head:Head is the word around which a phrase is formed.Specifier:Specifier has both special semantic and syntactic roles. Semantically, it helps to make more precise the meaning of the head. Syntactically,it typically marks a phrase boundary.Complement:Complements are themselves phrases and provide information about entities and locations whose existence is implied by the meaning of the head.Modifier:Modifiers specify optionally expressible properties of the heads.6. What is deep structure and what is surface structure?There are two levels of syntactic structure. The first, formed by the XP rule in accordance with the head's subcategorization properties, is called deep structure (or D-structure). The second, corresponding to the final syntactic form of the sentence which results from appropriate transformations, is called surface structure (or S-structure).In terms of manner of articulationStops（塞音）:[p][b][k][g][t][d]Fricatives（擦音）:[f][v][s][z] [ϑ] [ð] [∫] [ʒ][h]Affricates（塞擦音）: [t∫] [dʒ]Liquids（滑音）: [l] [r]Nasals（鼻音）: [m][n] [ŋ]Glides（音渡）: [w] [j]In terms of place of articulationBilabial (双唇音)： [p] [b] [m] [w]Labiodentals(唇齿音) ： [f] [v]Dental (齿音) ：[ϑ] [ð]Alveolar (齿龈音) ：[t] [d] [s] [z] [k][g] [n] [l] [r]Palatal(硬腭音)：[∫] [ʒ] [dʒ] [t∫] [j]Velar (软腭音) ：[k] [g] [ŋ]Glottal(声门音)： [h]Vowels(1) Highest position of the tongueFront: [i:] [І] [ e ] [æ] [a]Central: [ə] [З:] [Λ]Back: [u:][u][ ɒ] [ɔ:] [ɑ:](2) Openness of mouthClose: [i:] [І][u][ u:]Semi-close: [ e ] [ə]Semi-open: [ə] [ɔ:]Open:[æ] [ ɒ] [Λ] [a]What is XP rule?XP can be different phrases, because X stands for the head N,V,A or P.。