第一章语言学导论解析

第一章语言学导论
Chapter1 Invitations to Linguistics
Linguistics is nowadays coming into wide use with combination of theories and practice as well as linguistics and other disciplines.
Linguistics is of great use with very wide application. —人工智能，人机对话，机器翻译
The research of linguistics has already gone beyond language itself.
Definition of Linguistics
How do you define linguistics? What is linguistics?
——Linguistics can be defined as the scientific or systematic study of language. It is a science in the sense that it scientifically studies the rules, systems and principles of human language. What are we going to learn about linguistics?
1. It is generally agreed that linguistics should include at least five parameters, namely, phonological, morphological, syntactic, semantic and pragmatic. These can be called microlinguistics.
语音学(phonetics);音系学(phonology);形态学(morphology);句法学(syntax) —Schools of Modern Linguistics 现代语言学流派; 语义学(semantics) ; 语用学(pragmatics) (chapter2-6) 2. Macrolinguistics——interdisciplinary learning
Saussure, father of modern linguistics(现代语言学之父) were intended to establish the autonomy of linguistics, giving it a well-defined subject of study and freeing it from reliance on other disciplines. However, the interactive links between linguistics and other sciences are developing fast.
尽管索绪尔的目的是给予语言学自主性，给它定义明确的研究对象，将它从对其他学科的依赖中解放出来。

然而，随着时间的推移，语言学和其他学科的联系越来越密切。

Psycholinguistics
Psycholinguistics, as implied by the name, is the study of psychological aspects of language. It usually studies the psychological states and mental activity associated with the use of language.
心理语言学，顾名思义，是对语言的心理方面的研究，它通常研究的是与语言使用相关的心理状态和心理活动。

比如语言习得，语言的理解，语言的生成等等。

(chapter 9/chapter11) Sociolinguistics
Sociolinguistics, as implied by the name, attempts to show the relationship between language and society.
Sociolinguistics attempts to look at language structures by paying attention to language use in a social context and on the other hand tries to understand sociological things of society by examining linguistic phenomena of a speaking community.
这就是社会与语言的关系，一方面通过社会语境中语言使用情况的调查了解语言结构的问题，另一方面又通过语言现象的分析了解社会构成的问题。

Research Focus1
Cross-cultural Communication
There exists a close relationship between language and culture. Language is an indispensable carrier of culture. Culture finds a better representation through language use.
语言是文化的载体，具有不可替代的重要性；文化通过语言得以凸现，其表现力得到充分展示。

心理学家罗杰斯(Rogers,1961), 真正的交流建立在理解基础上的倾听。

Anthropological Linguistics人类语言学
Anthropological linguists are interested primarily in the history and structure of formerly unwritten languages. They are concerned with the emergence of language and also with the divergence of languages over thousands of years. They start with the comparison of contemporary languages in order to draw inferences about the kinds of change in language that may have occurred in the past. This is the “diachronic” study of language.
人类语言学家主要对历史和早期无文字语言的结构感兴趣，他们关注语言的出现和上千年来语言的分化。

他们从当代语言的比较出发，推测语言过去发生了何种变化。

这就是对语言历时的研究，即研究语言的历史。

Computational Linguistics 计算机语言学
Some current application areas include Machine Translation, Corpus Linguistics and Information Retrieval as well as various forms of computer mediated(传递的) communication such as emails, QQ, online shopping transaction software and so on.
当前的一些应用领域包括机器翻译，语料库语言学和信息检索，各种各样因电脑的出现而改变的交际方式，比如电子邮件，QQ聊天，网上购物交易软件等等。

Instant Messenger on the internet (基于互联网的即时通讯), such as百度Hi, MSN, UC, YY语音，阿里旺旺等等。

Other interdisciplinary branches
1、认知语言学Cognitive Linguistics (chapter 10)
2、语言与语言教学(chapter 12 Applied Linguistics)
3、文本语言学或语篇分析—Discourse Analysis Chapter 7（研究语言和语境的关系the relationship between language and the contexts in which language is used, 语篇的衔接cohesion 连贯coherence等等）。

4、语言与文学Language and Literature（文体学Stylistics）
5、神经语言学neurolinguistics
What is language?
对语言的误解：wrong ideas about language
1、语言仅是一种交际方式
Language is only a means of communication.
2、语言的形式和意义对应一致
Language has a form-meaning correspondence.
3、语言的作用即交换信息
The function of language is to exchange information.
4、英语比汉语难学
English is more difficult to learn than Chinese.
5、黑人英语不标准需要改造
Black English is not standard and should be reformed.
误解语言仅仅是一个交际系统Language is only a system of communication.
If language is merely defined as a system of communication, we can call the noises that dogs make language. As we know, birds, bees, crabs, spiders, and most other creatures communicate in some way, but the information imparted is severely limited and confined to a small set of messages. So language can’t be defined merely as a system of communication, otherwise language is not unique to humans. Language is one of the unique possessions of human beings. It is used for human communication. It is one of our most articulated means of expressing ideas and thoughts.
The design features of language distinguish us from animals.
误解1 语言仅是一种交际方式Language is only a means of communication.
误解2 语言的形式和意义对应一致Language has a form-meaning correspondence
“土豆”，形式上是“土”和“豆”这两个字的组合，但意义上不是说一把土和一堆豆就是土豆了，而表达的是另外的意思，指的是一种蔬菜，我们把它叫做土豆。

误解3 语言的作用即交换信息The function of language is to exchange information
A man may say ouch! after striking a fingernail with a hammer, or he may mutter damn when realizing that he has forgotten an appointment. Such exclamations are usually uttered without any purpose of communicating to others but as essentially a verbal response to a person’s own feelings.
这些感叹词通常不具有跟他人交际的目的，只是一个自我感受的言语反应。

误解4 英语比汉语难学English is more difficult to learn than Chinese
英语和汉语是两种不同的语言，具有不同的结构体系，英语是拼音文字，汉语是象形文字，因此英语重形合，汉语重意合，汉语中词与词，句子与句子的组合只要实现意义上的连贯就可以了，但英语要想实现意义上的连贯，必须在形式上实现连贯，从而达到一个意义与形式珠联璧合的整体。

例：我从乡下跑到京城里，一转眼已经六年了。

Six years have passed since I came from the country to the capital.
英语所说的形合就在于since这个连接词，汉语不用连词也能将意义表达出来，但英语必须有连词才能实现形式和意义的连贯。

文化差异：高低语境
——中国人说话的语境高还是低？
——美国人是典型的低语境，美国人做事情一定要把事情给你讲得特别详细。

——汉语：象形文字 e.g. 交流
英语：拼读文字e.g. communication
——不同的语言在历史的变迁中都形成了不同的语言体系
误解5 黑人英语不标准需要改造Black English is not standard and should be reformed
语言没有优劣，只有不同
——有人说汉语是欠发达的语言，因为它缺乏屈折变化（也就是英语中的词缀，像单三，单复数，所属格，进行体“-ing”，完成体“-ed”），What do you think?
——洪堡特（洪堡特是18,19世纪著名的语言学家，专心致力于语言的研究，其影响力最大的著作是《论人类语言结构的差异及其对人类精神发展的影响》，简称《论语言》
语言学家们对语言的定义
A generally accepted definition is: Language is a system of arbitrary vocal symbols used for human communication.
system,语言是一个体系。

Elements in it are not arranged and combined randomly, but according to some rules and principles.
arbitrary: 任意性关于语言任意性的问题我在语言的本质特征上再详细讲解。

Language is vocal-the primary medium for all languages is sound. 所有语言的最基本媒介都是声音，书面文字系统的形成要大大晚于口头形式。

所以我们对语言定义的时候把它说成是vocal symbols
Language is used for human communication. It is human-specific, very different from systems of animal communication.
Origin of Language
No single theory about the origin of language is accepted by everybody. But one point we must be aware of is that man’s stepping into social life, leaving behind his primitive life is one of the major factors of the creation of language. The evolution of man’s social life paved the way for the evolution of language. So society is both the creator and the container of language.
语言是在社会文化中形成和习得的。

Language is culturally not genetically transmitted. Design features of language
——These features, now called design features, are found utterly lacking in animal communication and thus set human language apart from animal cry systems.
arbitrariness: 任意性
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, there is no reason why English should use the sounds/dog/to refer to the animal dog, o r why Chinese should use “gou” to refer to the same animal.
语言的任意性是现代语言学之父索绪尔提出来的。

他认为，一个语言单位或一个语言符号是概念和声音的结合，不是把物和名称结合起来（P9上面第二句说的任意性指的是物和名称，而索绪尔指的是概念和声音。

对语言任意性最大的挑战在于语言的象似性，比如一些拟声词（onomatopoetic words, words that imitate natural sounds），bang（敲门声）。

Duality 二重性
Sounds such as d, g, f, o mean nothing separately. They normally take on meaning only when they are combined in certain ways, as in dog, fog and god. This organization of language into two levels-a level of sounds which combine into a second level of larger units is called duality.
话语的组成元素是本身不传达意义的语音，语音的唯一作用就是相互组合构成有意义的单位，比如词。

本身不传达意义的语音的唯一作用就是相互组合构成有意义的单位，比如词。

二层性使语言拥有了一种强大的能产性。

成千上万的词来自于一套语音系统，在英语中是48个音标。

大量的词产生无穷的句子，句子又形成无穷的语篇。

productivity/creativity 生成性/创造性
Because of its duality, language is productive or creative. 语言的创造性来源于语言的二层性。

根据语言的二层性，语音相互组合构成成千上万的词，词语又是不断更新变化的，不断产生新词新意，词又无止境地生成句子，句子再形成语篇。

以前没有过的或没有听过的新词新句能立刻被人们所理解。

因此我们说语言并不仅仅是一个交际体系，动物之间也有进行交流的“语言”体系，那语言之所以为人类所独有就在于它的创造性，动物只能传递有限的信息，而人类的语言却在时刻创造无穷的词语，句子。

语言的创造性另一方面来源于语言的递归性，即语言有制造无穷长句的潜力。

He bought a book which was written by a teacher who taught in a school which was known for its graduates who….
我们可以将这个句子无限地扩展下去。

Interchangeability 相互性
Interchangeability refers to the fact that man can both produce and receive messages,(信息的输出者和接受者) and his roles as a speaker and a hearer can be exchanged at ease. 在动物界却不然，像蜜蜂和长臂猿（gibbons）They are endowed with the ability to produce and receive message. This communicative ability is found lacking in other animals. Some male birds, for example, possess calls which females do not have. So this feature distinguishes human language from animals’ communication.
Displacement 移位性
Displacement is a property of language enabling people to talk about things remote either in space or in time. Most animals can only communicate about things in the immediate situation, but human beings can communicate about things that are absent as easily as about things that are present.
我们在交际时用语言符号代表时间上和空间上并不可及的物体，时间或观点。

我们可以提及孔子或北极，虽然前者已经去世两千五百五十多年而后者位置距我们非常之远。

但动物不行，大多数动物都处在“外界或内部直接刺激控制之下”（immediate external or internal stimulus control）。

我们人是不受刺激控制的。

一只狗不能告诉人们若干天后主人在家，而我们能够谈及已不存在或还未出现的事物。

蜜蜂的舞蹈展示出少许的移位性，它能指示食物源，在它回来报告时，食物源在时间和空间上是过去的和遥远的。

移位性赋予人们概括和抽象能力。

我们还具备理解“非实体”概念的能力，如真理和美。

Specialization
Specialization refers to the fact that man does not have a total physical involvement in the act of communication. We can talk about an exciting experience while engaged in activities completely detached from(分离) the subject under discussion. For example, a mother can tell a story to her child while slicing up a cake.
Animals can only respond to a stimulus and they are totally involved physically in the communication process.
Cultural Transmission
Language is culturally transmitted. It cannot be transmitted through heredity(遗传) . A human being brought up in isolation simply does not acquire language as is demonstrated by the studies of children brought up by animals without human contact. Animals transmit their cries through heredity, that is, simple from parent to child.
——一个人若不处在特定的社会文化背景下，是不可能习得人类语言的
Functions of language
Language is a tool of communication. The term “communication” can be used to cover much of the function of language. Linguists have used different terms for different specific functions. Here are some of the major categories.
Phatic（交际性的）function/communion:寒暄功能/寒暄交谈，It refers to the social interaction of language. 指言语的交互性
Language is used to establish an atmosphere or maintain social contact between the speaker and the hearer. Greetings, farewells and comments on the weather serve this function.
Mr. P sneezes violently
Mr. Q: Bless you
Mr. P: Thank you
Expressions such as “How do you do?” “How are you doing?”are of phatic function. They don’t convey any meaning, but are used to establish a common sentiment between the speaker and the hearer.
建立人际关系，社会交往，增进了解，搭建情感的纽带。

例如：“生意好吗？”“在忙什么呢？”
We all use such small, seemingly meaningless expressions to maintain a comfortable relationship between people without involving any factual content. 我们都会用这种短小看似无意义的表述来维持人们之间和谐的关系，并不涉及任何实质内容。

Directive function: 指令功能
Language is used to get the hearer to do something. Most imperative sentences are of this function.
Informative function: 信息功能
Language is used to tell something, to give information, or to reason things out.（分析问题）Declarative sentences serve this function.
For most people the informative function is predominantly the major role of language.
People often feel need to speak their thoughts aloud, for instance, when they are working on a math problem.
The use of language to record the facts is a prerequisite of social development.
能够用语言记录事实是社会发展的前提。

The symbol “Road Closed” on a road
Language serves for the expression of content. ——Halliday
语言为表达“内容”服务。

Language of phatic function is used to establish or maintain social contact without involving any factual content.
Interrogative function 疑问功能
Ask for information from others
All questions expecting replies serve this function.
Rhetorical questions do not have the interrogative function, such as Shelly’s famous line “If Winter comes, can Spring be far behind?”
Expressive function 表达功能
Language is used to reveal the speaker’s attitudes and feelings，such as “My God”,“Good Heavens”,“What a sight”, “Wow”.
The expressive function can often be entirely personal and totally without any implication of communication to others.表达功能能够完全个人化而不掺入任何与他人的交际。

For example, a man may say “ouch!” after striking a fingernail with a hammer, or he may say “My God!” when realizing that he has slept over. Such exclamations are usually uttered without any purpose of communic ating to others but as essentially a verbal response to a person’s own feelings.
你被什么东西砸了一下然后大叫“哎呦！”意识到睡过了会大叫“天哪！”这些表达个人情感
的感叹词通常不具有跟他人交际的目的，但对于自我感受来说，却是很重要的言语反应。

Evocative(唤起，引起) function
Language is used to create certain feelings in the hearers. Such as to amuse, to anger, to worry or to please the hearer.
Jokes, advertising and propaganda serve this function.
Utterances of encouragement, inspiration and consolation are of this function.
According to some investigation, though the conveying of information occurs in most uses of language, it probably represents not more than 20 percent of what takes place in verbal communication. The emotive function of language is one of the most powerful uses of language because it is crucial in changing the emotional status of an audience for or against someone or something.
根据调查，虽然信息的传递发生在大多数语言使用中，但它们最多占全部语言交际的20%。

语言的感情功能是语言最有用的功能之一，因为它在改变听者赞成或反对某人，某物的态度上作用非常关键。

Performative function 施为功能
At a meeting, when the chairman says: “I declare the meeting open”, the meeting has started.
I apologize.
I name this ship the Queen Elizabeth.
I bet you sixpence it will rain tomorrow.
I warn you that the bull will charge.
施为句，其中的动词叫施为性动词
Language is used to do things or to perform acts. 这是牛津哲学家奥斯汀提出的理论。

Metalingual Function 元语言功能
What is metafunction of language or metalingual function?
Our language can be used to talk about itself. 我们的语言可以用来讨论语言本身。

This makes the language infinitely self-reflexive.
We can use the word “book” to talk about a book, and we can also use the expression “the word book” to talk about the sign “book” itself.
The lion chased the unicorn all around the town.
All round the town the lion chased the unicorn.
The change of sentence order changes our perspective about the concerns of the clause.
“what did the lion do?”
“where or in what scope did the lion chase the unicorn?”
This is the metalingual function of language.
We human beings can talk about talk. 人类可以谈论“说话”。

A: Let’s get the kids something.
B: Okey, but I veto I-C-E-C-R-E-A-M-S.
This is a conversation which violates the forth maxim of the cooperative principle, that is to avoid obscurity of expression.
Some Major Concepts in Linguistics
Descriptive vs. Prescriptive
描写式vs. 规定式
Do/Don’t say X.(主观规定)
a prescriptive command （规定式指令）
People do/don’t say X.（客观描述）
a descriptive statement （描述性陈述）
Traditional grammar which is based on the grammars of Latin contains statements like “do not split infinitives” , “You should never use a double-negative” or “do not end sentences with a preposition” For example, in traditional grammar, it is incorrect to say “to quickly go” or “a person who I play with”.
As traditional grammars tried to lay down rules, they are often called prescriptive.
What is “prescriptive”? 什么是规定式？
The early languages were studied prescriptively. The grammarians tried to lay down rules for the correct use of language before people’s actual use of it.
Most modern linguistics is descriptive.
Modern linguists try to discover and record the living languages used by people in real life and do not seek to impose upon them the rules and norms before their actual use of language.
语言学家并不是在人们使用语言之前就强加给他们规则和使用语言的标准，而是试图发现和记录人们使用的活生生的语言。

——语言是被人们使用的，而不应该在人们使用语言之前就制定各种规则。

例：阳光给了万物温暖。

你很阳光
语言的规范
“There are obvious administrative and education advantages, in the modern world, in standardizing the principal dialect that is employed within a particular country or region.”
在现代社会，规范一个特定国家和地区的主要方言带来管理上和教育上明显的便利。

普通话是对各种方言的规范。

简体字
量词用语规范
一个人，一头牛
What is the difference between a prescriptive and a descriptive approach to language?
A prescriptive approach to language aims to lay down rules for the correct use of language and tell people what should be in the language.
To say that linguistics is a descriptive science is to say that the linguist tries to discover and record the rules to which the members of a language community actually conform instead of imposing upon them rules of correctness.
Synchronic and diachronic linguistics
“A Grammar of modern Greek”
《现代希腊语语法》
“The structure of Shakespeare’s English”
《莎士比亚英语语法研究》
When we study language at one particular time, it is called synchronic linguistics.
共时的描写取特定的时刻作为观察点，
When we study language developments through time, it is called diachronic or historical linguistics.
索绪尔的历史语言学是在语言的历史演化中研究语言
Language changes as the minutes pass, so synchronic study is a fiction.
语言的变化使共时这个相对稳定的时间段具有了历时的动态特征
However, the fiction of synchronic description is essential to linguistics.
To study language diachronically relies on the synchronic study of language because linguists will fail to make any valid statements about linguistic change without good descriptions of a language.
Langue and parole 语言和言语
The distinction between langue and parole was made by the famous linguist F.de Saussure. Langue refers to the abstract linguistic system shared by all the members of a speech community.
It is the social, conventional side of language.
langue指的是同一语言共同体的成员所使用的语言集合体，例如普通话是13亿人这个社会团体共同使用的语言集合体。

langue 体现的是语言的社会层面，是一个抽象的集合体。

Parole is individualized speech. It is the concrete manifestation of language either through speech or writing.
Parole是个人的言语，是语言的具体体现。

普通话-langue
个人的言语-parole
方言-langue
个人的言语-parole
Competence and performance 语言能力和语言运用
The distinction between competence and performance is made by the well-known American linguist Noam Chomsky, which is related to the langue-parole distinction of Saussure.
索绪尔是从社会角度区分langue和parole, 他把语言和言语分开的同时也把社会和个人区别开来。

乔姆斯基是从心理角度区分一个人的潜在的语言能力和具体表现的语言运用能力。

innate competence :与生俱来的语言能力
Language Acquisition Device(语言习得机制)
As language users, we have intuitive grasp of the rules of our native language.
—— Competence refers to the knowledge that native speakers have of their language as a system of abstract formal relations.
人生来就有关于母语这个语言规则系统的知识。

——A language user’s underlying knowledge about the system of rules is called his linguistic competence.(Chomsky, 1965: 3)
一名语言使用者对于语言规则系统的潜在意识称为他的语言能力。

——Performance refers to their actual linguistic behavior, that is, the actual use of this knowledge.
——Performance refers to the actual use of language in concrete situations. (Chomsky, 1965: 3) 语言运用指在具体场景中语言的实际运用。

The Innateness Hypothesis 天赋假设
Chomsky believes that language is somewhat innate, and that children are born with what he calls a Language Acquisition Device which is a kind of underlying knowledge about the system of rules.
乔姆斯基认为语言是某种天赋，儿童天生就具有一种学习语言的能力，叫做“语言习得机制”，即语言使用者对语言规则系统的潜在意识，
A child demonstrates by the way he uses words that he knows what a noun is long before he can define the term. 比如儿童使用名词的方式，在他能给名词定义之前便知道名词是什么。

Chomsky’s Innateness Hypothesis is based on his observations of children’s acquisi tion of language.
Children learn their native language very fast and with little effort.
There is no formal instruction in first language acquisition.
Children become competent speakers of a language at a comparatively early age before they are ready for other cognitively complex tasks such as learning mathematics, physics or chemistry.
universal grammar 普遍语法
Chomsky thinks that all human languages share certain universal grammar/properties(such as they all have nouns, verbs and so on) and that human children are born with some knowledge of these universal grammars.
全世界的孩子对所有人类语言所共有的普遍特性有天生的把握。

1. paradigmatic relations: 纵聚合关系
vertical relations 纵向关系
relation of substitutability: 替代关系
choice relations: 选择关系
Paradigmatic relations are relations of substitution, that is, linguistic forms (e.g. letters, words and phrases) can be substituted for each other in the same position in a word or sentence.
.
Syntagmatic and paradigmatic relations
E.g. b-i-t E.g.(a) The ______smiles
f man
h boy
k girl
p strong man
s tallest boy
w pretty girl
E.g. (b)He went there yesterday.
last week.
the day before.
Firstly, paradigmatic relation refers to letters substitutable for each other in the same position in a word.
Secondly, it refers to classes or sets of words substitutable for each other grammatically in sentences with the same structure.
1、纵聚合关系（替代关系）指在相同结构的句子中，语法上可以互相替代的词类或语词的集合。

Thirdly, it refers to groups of more than one word which may be jointly substitutable grammatically for a single word of a particular set.
它还可指由多个词组成的词组，语法上代替特定集合中的单个语词。

2. Syntagmatic relations : 横组合关系
positional relations
relation of co-occurrence: 同现关系
By the relation 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 class to form a sentence or a particular part of a sentence.
同现关系指小句中不同集合的词语允许或要求和另一集合或类别中的词语一起组成句子或句子的某一特定部分。

(preceded by) (followed by)
A pretty girl smiles.
The tallest boy sings.
The African man cries.
……
A noun can be preceded by a determiner and adjectives and followed by a verb or a verbal phrase.
Functionalism and formalism
1、Formalism studies the abstract forms of language and their internal relations.
语言的层级性：语音-词-词组-句子
语言的递归性
形式主义研究语言内部的运作机制，研究语言内部的转换和生成。

E.g. What is your name?---surface structure
Your name is what.---deep structure
Formalism fixes on the forms and internal relations of language without considering how these forms function in communication and the ways of social life in different communities.
2、Functionalism refers to the study of the forms of language in reference to their social function in communication.
功能主义研究语言外部的意义和功能
It originated from the Prague School (布拉格学派) and one outstanding representative of functionalism is Halliday’s systemic-functional linguistics.
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