杨忠《语言学概论》笔记

Chapter 1 IntroductionⅠ.What is language?1. Different definitions of language(1) Language is a system whose parts can and must be considered in theirsynchronic solidarity. (de Saussure, 1916)(2) [Language is] a set (finite or infinite) of sentences, each finite in length andconstructed out of a finite set of elements. (Chomsky, 1957)(3) Language is a purely human and non-instinctive method of communicatingideas, emotions and desires by means of voluntarily produced symbols.2. Each of the definitions above has pointed out some aspects of the essence oflanguage, but all of them have left out something. We must see the multi-faceted nature of language.3. As is agreed by linguists in broad terms, language can be defined as a system ofarbitrary vocal symbols used for human communication.Ⅱ.Features of human language1. Creativity(1) Language provides opportunities for sending messages that have neverbeen sent before and for understanding brand new messages.(2) The grammar rules and the words are finite, but the sentences are infinite.Every speaker uses language creatively.2. Duality(1) Language contains two subsystems, one of sounds and the other ofmeanings.(2) Certain sounds or sequences of sounds stand for certain meanings.(3) Certain meanings are conveyed by certain speech sounds or sequencesof speech sounds.3. Arbitrariness(1) The relationship between the two subsystems of language is arbitrary.(2) There is no logical connection between sound and meaning.4. Displacement(1) There is no limit in time or space for language.(2) Language can be used to refer to things real or imagined, past, present orfuture.5. Cultural transmission(1) Culture cannot be genetically transmitted. Instead, it must be learned.(2) Language is a way of transmitting culture.6. InterchangeabilityAll members of a speech community can send and receive messages.7. Reflexivity(1) Human languages can be used to describe themselves.(2) The language used to talk about language is called meta-language.Ⅲ.Functions of language – three meta-functions1. The ideational functionTo identify things, to think, or to record information.2. The interpersonal functionTo get along in a community.3. The textual functionTo form a text.Ⅳ.Types of language1. Genetic classification2. Typological classification(1) Analytic language –no inflections or formal changes, grammaticalrelationships are shown through word order, such as Chinese andVietnamese(2) Synthetic language – grammatical relationships are expressed by changingthe internal structure of the words, typically by changing the inflectionalendings, such as English and German(3) Agglutinating language – words are built out of a long sequence of units,with each unit expressing a particular grammatical meaning, such asJapanese and TurkishⅤ.The myth of language – language origin1. The Biblical accountLanguage was God’s gift to human beings.2. The bow-wow theoryLanguage was an imitation of natural sounds, such as the cries of animals, like quack, cuckoo.3. The pooh-pooh theoryLanguage arose from instinctive emotional cries, expressive of pain or joy.4. The yo-he-ho theoryLanguage arose from the noises made by a group of people engaged in joint labour or effort – lifting a huge hunted game, moving a rock, etc.5. The evolution theoryLanguage originated in the process of labour and answered the call of social need.Ⅵ.What is linguistics?1. Linguistics is the scientific study of language.(1) Observing & questioning(2) Formulating hypotheses(3) Verifying the hypotheses(4) Proposing a theory2. Branches of linguistics(1) Internal branches: intra-disciplinary divisions⏹Phonetics⏹Phonology⏹Morphology⏹Syntax⏹Semantics(2) External branches: inter-disciplinary divisions⏹Pragmatics⏹Psycholinguistics⏹Sociolinguistics⏹Applied linguistics⏹Computational linguistics⏹Neurolinguistics3. Features of linguistics(1) Descriptive(2) Dealing with spoken language(3) SynchronicChapter 2 PhoneticsⅠ.What is phonetics?1. Phonetics is termed as the study of speech sounds.2. Sub-branches of phonetics(1) Articulatory phonetics – the production of speech sounds(2) Acoustic phonetics – the physical properties of speech sounds(3) Auditory phonetics – the perceptive mechanism of speech soundsⅡ.The speech organs1. Where does the air stream come from?From the lung2. What is the function of vocal cords?Controlling the air stream3. What are the cavities?(1) Oral cavity(2) Pharyngeal cavity(3) Nasal cavityⅢ.Transcription of speech sounds1. Units of representationSegments (the individual sounds)2. Phonetic symbols(1) The widely used symbols for phonetic transcription of speech sounds is theInternational Phonetic Alphabet (IPA).(2) The IPA attempts to represent each sound of human speech with a singlesymbol and the symbols are enclosed in brackets to distinguishphonetic transcriptions from the spelling system of a language.(3) In more detailed transcription (narrow transcription) a sound may betranscribed with a symbol to which a smaller is added in order to markthe finer distinctions.Ⅳ.Description of speech sounds1. Description of English consonants(1) General feature: obstruction(2) Criteria of consonant description⏹Places of articulation⏹Manners of articulation⏹V oicing of articulation(3) Places of articulationThis refers to each point at which the air stream can be modified toproduce a sound.⏹Bilabial: [p] [b] [m] [w]⏹Labiodental: [f] [v]⏹Interdental: [] []⏹Alveolar: [t] [d] [s] [z] [l] [n] [r]⏹Palatal: [] [] [t] [d] [j]⏹Velar: [k] [g] []⏹Glottal: [h](4) Manners of articulationThis refers to how the air stream is modified, whether it is completely blocked or partially obstructed.⏹Stops: [p] [b] [t] [d] [k] [g]⏹Fricatives: [s] [z] [] [] [f] [v] [] [] [h]⏹Affricates: [t] [d]⏹Liquids: [l] [r]⏹Glides: [w] [j]⏹Nasals: [m] [n] [](5) V oicing of articulationThis refers to the vibrating of the vocal cords when sounds areproduced.⏹V oiced sounds⏹V oiceless sounds2. Description of English vowels(1) General feature: without obstruction(2) Criteria of vowel descriptionA. Part of the tongue that is raised⏹Front⏹Central⏹BackB. Extent to which the tongue rises in the direction of the palate⏹High⏹MidLowC. Kind of opening made at the lipsD. Position of the soft palate(3) Single vowels (monophthongs) and diphthongs1. Classes of sounds that share a feature or features are called natural classes.2. Major class features can specify segments across the consonant-vowelboundary.3. Classification of segments by features is the basis on which variations of sounds canbe analyzed.Chapter 3 PhonologyⅠ.What is phonology?1. Phonology is the study of sound systems and patterns.2. Phonology and phonetics are two studies different in perspectives, which areconcerned with the study of speech sounds.3. Phonology focuses on three fundamental questions.(1) What sounds make up the list of sounds that can distinguish meaning ina particular language?(2) What sounds vary in what ways in what context?(3) What sounds can appear together in a sequence in a particular language Ⅱ.Phonemes and allophones1. A phoneme is a distinctive, abstract sound unit with a distinctive feature.2. The variants of a phoneme are termed allophones.3. We use allophones to realize phonemes.Ⅲ.Discovering phonemes1. Contrastive distribution – phonemes(1) If sounds appear in the same environment, they are said to be in contrastivedistribution.(2) Typical contrastive distribution of sounds is found in minimal pairs andminimal sets.A. A minimal pair consists of two words that differ by only one sound inthe same position.B. Minimal sets are more than two words that are distinguished by onesegment in the same position.(3) The overwhelming majority of the consonants and vowels represented bythe English phonetic alphabet are in contrastive distribution.(4) Some sounds can hardly be found in contrastive distribution in English.However, these sounds are distinctive in terms of phonetic features.Therefore, they are separate phonemes.2. Complementary distribution – allophones(1) Sounds that are not found in the same position are said to be incomplementary distribution.(2) If segments are in complementary distribution and share a number offeatures, they are allophones of the same phoneme.3. Free variationIf segments appear in the same position but the mutual substitution does not result in change of meaning, they are said to be in free variation.Ⅳ.Distinctive and non-distinctive features1. Features that distinguish meaning are called distinctive features, and features donot, non-distinctive features.2. Distinctive features in one language may be non-distinctive in another.Ⅴ.Phonological rules1. Phonemes are abstract sound units stored in the mind, while allophones are theactual pronunciations in speech.2. What phoneme is realized by what allophones in what specific context isanother major question in phonology.3. The regularities that what sounds vary in what ways in what context aregeneralized and stated in phonology as rules.4. There are many phonological rules in English. Take the following ones asexamples.A. [+voiced +consonant] – [-voiced]/[-voiced +consonant]_B. [-voiced +bilabial +stop] – unaspirated/[-voiced +alveolar +fricative]_ Ⅵ.Syllable structure1. A syllable is a phonological unit that is composed of one or more phonemes.2. Every syllable has a nucleus, which is usually a vowel.3. The nucleus may be preceded by one or more consonants called the onset andfollowed by one or more consonants called the coda.Ⅶ.Sequence of phonemes1. Native speakers of any language intuitively know what sounds can be puttogether.2. Some sequences are not possible in English. The impossible sequences arecalled systematic gaps.3. Sequences that are possible but do not occur yet are called accidental gaps.4. When new words are coined, they may fill some accidental gaps but they will never fill systematic gaps.Ⅷ. Suprasegmental features1. Features that are found over a segment or a sequence of two or more segmentsare called suprasegmental features.2. These features are distinctive features.3. Stress(1) Stress is the perceived prominence of one or more syllabic elementsover others in a word.(2) Stress is a relative notion. Only words that are composed of two or moresyllables have stress.(3) If a word has three or more syllables, there is a primary stress and asecondary stress.(4) In some languages word stress is fixed, i.e. on a certain syllable. InEnglish, word stress is unpredictable.4. Intonation(1) When we speak, we change the pitch of our voice to express ideas.(2) Intonation is the variation of pitch to distinguish utterance meaning.(3) The same sentence uttered with different intonation may expressdifferent attitude of the speaker.(4) In English, there are three basic intonation patterns: fall, rise, fall-rise.5. Tone(1) Tone is the variation of pitch to distinguish words.(2) The same sequence of segments can be different words if uttered withdifferent tones.(3) Chinese is a typical tone language.Chapter 4 MorphologyⅠ.What is morphology?1. The total number of words stored in the brain is called the lexicon.2. Words are the smallest free units of language that unite sounds with meaning.3. Morphology is defined as the study of the internal structure and theformation of words.Ⅱ.Morphemes and allomorphs1. The smallest meaningful unit of language is called a morpheme.2. A morpheme may be represented by different forms, called allomorphs.3. “zero” form of a morpheme and suppletives(1) Some countable nouns do not change form to express plurality. Similarly,some regular verbs do not change form to indicate past tense. In thesetwo cases, the noun or verb contains two morphemes, among which thereis one “zero form” of a morpheme.(2) Some verbs have irregular changes when they are in past tense. In this case,the verbs also have two morphemes. Words which are not related in formto indicate grammatical contrast with their roots are called suppletives. Ⅲ.Free and bound morphemes1. Some morphemes constitute words by themselves. These morphemes are calledfree morphemes.2. Other morphemes are never used independently in speech and writing. They arealways attached to free morphemes to form new words. These morphemes are called bound morphemes.3. The distinction between a free morphemes and a bound morpheme is whether itcan be used independently in speech or writing.4. Free morphemes are the roots of words, while bound morphemes are the affixes1. Inflexional morphemes in modern English indicate case and number of nouns,tense and aspect of verbs, and degree of adjectives and adverbs.2. Derivational morphemes are bound morphemes added to existing forms toconstruct new words.(1) English affixes are divided into prefixes and suffixes.(2) Some languages have infixes, bound morphemes which are inserted intoother morphemes.(3) The process of putting affixes to existing forms to create new words iscalled derivation. Words thus formed are called derivatives.Morphemes(1) Free morphemes(2) Bound morphemesA. InflexionalB. Derivational: affixes⏹Prefixes: -s, -’s, -er, -est, -ing, -ed, -s⏹Suffixes⏹Ⅵ.Formation of new words1. Derivation(1) Derivation forms a word by adding an affix to a free morpheme.(2) Since derivation can apply more than once, it is possible to create a derivedword with a number of affixes. For example, if we add affixes to theword friend, we can form befriend, friendly, unfriendly, friendliness,unfriendliness, etc. This process of adding more than one affix to a freemorpheme is termed complex derivation.(3) Derivation does not apply freely to any word of a given category.Generally speaking, affixes cannot be added to morphemes of a differentlanguage origin.(4) Derivation is also constrained by phonological factors.(5) Some English suffixes also change the word stress.2. Compounding(1) Compounding is another common way to form words. It is the combinationof free morphemes.(2) The majority of English compounds are the combination of words from thethree classes –nouns, verbs and adjectives –and fall into the threeclasses.(3) In compounds, the rightmost morpheme determines the part of speech ofthe word.(4) The meaning of compounds is not always the sum of meaning of thecomponents.3. Conversion(1) Conversion is the process putting an existing word of one class into anotherclass.(2) Conversion is usually found in words containing one morpheme.4. Clipping(1) Clipping is a process that shortens a polysyllabic word by deleting one ormore syllables.(2) Clipped words are initially used in spoken English on informal occasions.(3) Some clipped words have become widely accepted, and are used even informal styles. For example, the words bus (omnibus), vet (veterinarian),gym (gymnasium), fridge (refrigerator)and fax (facsimile)are rarely usedin their complete form.5. BlendingBlending is a process that creates new words by putting together non-morphemic parts of existing words. For example, smog(smoke + frog), brunch (a meal in the middle of morning, replacing both breakfast and lunch), motel(motor + hotel). There is also an interesting word in the textbook for junior middle school students –“plike” (a kind of machine that is like both a plane and a bike).6. Back-formationBack-formation is the process that creates a new word by dropping a real or supposed suffix. For example, the word televise is back-formed from television. Originally, the word television is formed by putting the prefix tele-(far) to the root vision (viewing). At the same time, there is a suffix -sion in English indicating nouns. Then people consider the -sion in the word television as that suffix and drop it to form the verb televise.7. Acronyms and abbreviations(1) Acronyms and abbreviations are formed by putting together the initialletters of all words in a phrase or title.(2) Acronyms can be read as a word and are usually longer than abbreviations,which are read letter by letter.(3) This type of word formation is common in names of organizations andscientific terminology.8. EponymsEponyms are words that originate from proper names of individuals or places. For example, the word sandwich is a common noun originating from the fourth Earl of Sandwich, who put his food between two slices of bread so that he could eat while gambling.9. Coinage(1) Coinage is a process of inventing words not based on existing morphemes.(2) This way of word formation is especially common in cases where industryrequires a word for a new product. For example, Kodak and Coca-cola.Chapter 5 SyntaxⅠ.What is syntax?1. The term syntax is from the ancient Greek word syntaxis, which literally means“arrangement” or “setting out together”.2. Traditionally, it refers to the branch of grammar dealing with the ways in whichwords, with or without appropriate inflexions, are arranged to show connexions of meaning within the sentence.3. Syntax is a branch of linguistics that analyzes the structure of sentences. Ⅱ.What is a sentence?1. Syntax is the analysis of sentence structure. A sentence is a sequence of wordsarranged in a certain order in accordance with grammatical rules.2. A sequence can be either well-formed or ill-formed. Native speakers of alanguage know intuitively what strings of words are grammatical and what are ungrammatical.Ⅲ.Knowledge of sentence structure1. Structural ambiguityStructural ambiguity is one or more string(s) of words has/have more than one meaning. For example, the sentence Tom said he would come yesterday can be interpreted in different ways.2. Word orderDifferent arrangements of the same words have different meanings. For example, with the words Tom, love and Mary, we may say Tom loves Mary or Mary loves Tom.3. Grammatical relationsNative speakers know what element relates to what other element directly or indirectly. For example, in The boats are not big enough and We don’t have enough boats, the word enough is related to different words in the two sentences.4. RecursionThe same rule can be used repeatedly to create infinite sentences. For example, I know that you are happy. He knows that I know that you are happy.She knows that he knows that I know that you are happy.5. Sentence relatednessSentences may be structurally variant but semantically related.6. Syntactic categories(1) A syntactic category is a class of words or phrases that can substitute forone another without loss of grammaticality. For example, consider thefollowing sentences:◆The child found the knife.◆ A policeman found the knife.◆The man who just left here found the knife.◆He found the knife.(2) All the italicized parts belong to the same syntactic category called nounphrase (NP). The noun phrases in these sentences function as subject. Theknife, also a noun phrase, functions as object.Ⅳ.Traditional grammar1. In traditional grammar, a sentence is considered a sequence of words which areclassified into parts of speech.2. Sentences are analyzed in terms of grammatical functions of words: subjects,objects, verbs (predicates), predicatives, ....3. Compulsory elements of a sentence: subject, verb, object, complement,adverbial...4. Nouns: number, case, gender...5. Verbs: tense, aspect, voice...6. Adjectives and adverbs: comparative and superlative degrees7. Agreement in number/person/gender8. Parsing: trying to make detailed analysis in structureⅤ.Structural grammar1. Structural grammar arose out of an attempt to deviate from traditional grammar.It deals with the inter-relationships of different grammatical units. In the concern of structural grammar, words are not just independent grammatical units, but are inter-related to one another.2. Form class(1) Form class is a wider concept than part of speech in traditional grammar.(2) Linguistic units which can appear in the same slot are said to be in thesame form class. For example, a(n), the, my, that, every, etc. can beplaced before nouns in English sentences. These words fall into one formclass.(3) These linguistic units are observed to have the same distribution.3. Immediate constituent (IC) analysis(1) Structural grammar is characterized by a top-down process of analysis.(2) A sentence is seen as a constituent structure. All the components of thesentences are its constituents. A sentence can be cut into sections. Eachsection is its immediate constituent. Then each section can be further cutinto constituents. This on-going cutting is termed immediate constituentanalysis.(3) Examples:⏹Old men and women: old | men and women, old || men | and women.⏹The ||| little || girl | speaks || French.(4) In this way, sentence structure is analyzed not only horizontally but alsovertically. In other words, IC analysis can account for the linearity andthe hierarchy of sentence structure.⏹I will suggest | that this || in itself reflects ||| a particular ideology|||| about gender ||||| that deserves to be re-examined.(5) Two advantages of IC analysis:A. It can analyze some ambiguities.B. It shows linearity and hierarchy of one sentence.Ⅵ.Transformational-generative (TG) grammar1. Background and the goal of TG grammar(1) Chomsky (1957) – grammar is the knowledge of native speakers.⏹Adequacy of observation⏹Adequacy of description⏹Adequacy of explanation(2) Writing a TG grammar means working out two sets of rules –phrasestructure rules and transformation rules – which are followed by speakersof the language.(3) TG grammar must account for all and only grammatical sentences.2. Syntactic categories⏹Noun Phrase (NP) ⏹Verb Phrase (VP) ⏹Sentence (S)⏹Determiner (Det) ⏹Adjective (Adj) ⏹Pronoun (Pro)⏹Verb (V)⏹Auxiliary Verb (Aux)⏹Prepositional Phrase (PP) ⏹Adverb (Adv)3. Phrase structure (PS) rules◆S → NP VP(Det) (Adj) N◆N P →Pro◆VP → (Aux) V (NP) (PP)◆PP → P NP4. Tree diagrams (omit)5. Recursion and the infinitude of languageS contains NP and VP and that S may be a constituent of NP and VP. NP and PP can be mutually inclusive. If phrasal categories appear on both sides of the arrow in phrase structure rules, the rules are recursive. Recursive rules can be applied again and again, and the phrase structure can grow endlessly.6. Sub-categorization of the lexicon.The process of putting words of the same lexical category into smaller classes according to their syntactic characteristics is called sub-categorization.7. Transformational rules (T-rules)(1) Particle movement T-ruleJohn turned the machine off. John turned off the machine.(2) Replacement T-ruleJohn beat Tom. He beat Tom.The house needs repairing (to be repaired).(3) Insertion T-ruleA fish is swimming in the pond. There is a fish swimming in the pond.(4) Deletion T-ruleThey came in and (they) sat down.(5) Copying T-ruleHe is coming, isn’t he?He has finished his homework, hasn’t he?(6) Reflexivization T-ruleI wash me (myself).8. TG grammar accounts for the mental process of our speaking.Ⅶ.Systematic-functional grammar1. Background and the goal of systemic-functional grammar⏹M. A. K. Halliday(1) Language is a system of meaning potential and a network of meaningas choices.(2) Meaning determines form, not vice versa. Meaning is realized throughforms.(3) The goal of systemic-functional grammar is to see how function andmeaning are realized through forms.(4) The three meta-functions of languageA. Ideational functionB. Interpersonal functionC. Textual function2. The transitivity system of language(1) Elements⏹Process⏹Participants⏹Circumstances(2) Categorization of realityA. Doing – material process⏹Processes involving physical actions: walking, running,throwing, kicking, wrapping, etc.⏹Actor, goal and circumstanceB. Being – relational process⏹Processes representing a relation being set up between twoseparate entities.⏹Be (identifying), have (attributive)⏹Carrier/possessor and attribute/possessedC. Sensing – mental process⏹Processes of sensing, including feeling, thinking, perceiving,imagining, wanting, liking, etc.⏹Senser and phenomenonD. Less central types of linguistic process⏹Verbal processes – saying somethingSayer and receiver⏹Behavioural processes – active conscious processesBehaver and range⏹Existential processes – existence of an entityExistent3. Mood and modality(1) Mood expresses the speaker’s attitude and serves for interpersonal function.It is a syntactic constituent made up of the subject and the finite.(2) Modality is the degree of certainty or frequency expressed by thegrammatical forms of finite. It can be categorized by modalization and modulation.4. Theme and rheme(1) Theme is the given information, while rheme is the new information.(2) Examples:⏹John | is my friend.⏹He | should have replied to my letter.Chapter 6 SemanticsⅠ.What is semantics?1. Semantics is defined as the study of meaning. However, it is not the onlylinguistic discipline that studies meaning.2. Semantics answers the question “what does this sentence mean”. In other words,it is the analysis of conventional meanings in words and sentences out of context.Ⅱ.Reference and sense1. Linguistic expressions stand in a relation to the world. There are two aspects of meaning.2. Reference is the relation by which a word picks out or identifies an entity in theworld. But the referential theory fails to account for certain kinds of linguistic expression.(1) Some words are meaningful, but they identify no entities in the real world,such as the words dragon, phoenix, unicorn, and mermaid.(2) It is not possible for some words to find referent in the world, such as thewords but, and, of, however, the, etc.(3) Speakers of English understand the meaning of a round triangle althoughthere is no such graph.3. Sense is the relation by which words stand in human mind. It is mentalrepresentation, the association with something in the speaker’s or hearer’s mind.The study of meaning from the perspective of sense is called the1. Referential meaning (denotative meaning) – central meaning of words, stable, universal2. Associative meaning – meaning that hinges on referential meaning, less stable, more culture-specific(1) Connotative meaning –the communicative value an expression has byvirtue of what it refers to, embraces the properties of the referent,peripheral(2) Social meaning (stylistic meaning) –what is conveyed about the socialcircumstances of the use of a linguistic expression(3) Affective meaning – what is communicated of the feeling or attitude of thespeaker/writer towards what is referred to(4) Reflected meaning –what is communicated through association withanother sense of the same expression⏹Taboos(5) Collocative meaning – the associated meaning a word acquires in line withthe meaning of words which tend to co-occur with it。