普通语言学 2

6.Semantics
6.1 Definition
Semantics is the study of meaning.
The term meaning is used in many ways, not all of them equally relevant to language. Saying I didn’t mean to hurt him or exclaiming indignantly What is the meaning of this! refers to an intention. Another child means as extra mouth to feed or Smoke means fire signifies an inference. The Chinese 狗means ‘dog’ is a translation. And so on.
6.2 Five major meaning theories in the west
●Referential (also termed classical theory)
Representatives: Aristotle, Russell, Weitgenstein
●Weakness:
A: many words in the language system have no referents in the nonlinguistic world Entities---nouns
Activities---verbs
Events---sentences
B: we have cases in which the referent is the same, but the meaning are different
a: Lu Xun---the author of “the story of Ah Q”
b: Plato---the author of “the Republic”
c: morning star---evening star
C: what are the referents of verbs and adjectives:
a: run
b: beautiful, noble…
In the last analysis, reference is not a semantic question, instead, it is a pragmatic question (Leech, 1983).
●Conceptual
Representatives: John Locke, Hume, 洛克
休谟：Essay Concerning Understanding <人类理解论>
“A concept X provokes the speaker utter the word book. On hearing book, the concept X is brought up to the mind of the hearer. According to Locke, the concept X in the mind of the hearer is exactly representation of the concept X in the mind of the speaker. Then, in this case, X is the meaning of the word book.”
1) The idea: the meaning of a word is the concept it provokes in the mind.
关于语义三角，请参看《外语与外语教学》94，2 期
2) Weaknesses:
A: the nature of concept is hard to classify
B: subjective
3. Behaviorist
Representatives: Skinner, Bloomfield
●The concept: the meaning of a language form is “the situation in which the speaker utters it and the response it calls forth in the hearer.” (Bloomfield, 1933)
●The classical example is the Jill and Jack story:
S---r……s---R
●Weaknesses
A: responses may be different
B: displacement
4. Use theory (Wittgenstein) (1889--1951)
●The concept: the meaning of a word is its use (a contextual approach to meaning)
●Weaknesses
no stable meaning
5. Semantic theory
●The concept: the meaning of a sentence is the set of conditions for the proposition being true
e.g. “snow is white” is true if snow is white.
●Weaknesses
A: narrow in its coverage
B: many sentences do not have truth value
6.3 Kinds of meaning --- a functional approach (hu, 143) (Leech, 1983)
●Conceptual : logical, cognitive, or denotative content; Provided by the dictionary
●Connotative : what is communicated by virtue of what language refers to; Provided by the Encyclopedia. Classification:
A Universal
B Cultural
C Social C Individual
E Stable
F Changing
●Social: what is communicated of the social circumstances of language use;
A Social grouping
B Social distance
C Social situation
●Affective: what is communicated of the feelings and attitudes of the speaker/writer;
A Direct
B Indirect
C Intonation
D Colored words
5) Reflected: what is communicated through association with another sense of the same
expression;
6) Collocative: what is communicated through association with words which tend to occur in the environment of another word;
7) Thematic: what is communicated by the way in which the message is organized in terms of order and emphasis
Theme 由Mathesius (1939) 提出”On So-called Functional Perspective”, 他定义为：”The starting point of utterance which is known or at least obvious in the given situation and from which the speaker proceeds”
6.4 Analysis of meaning
●Componential analysis
●Predication analysis
●Dynamic relationship
●Ambiguity
●Inferential gap, Referential meaning
Componential analysis
●Componential analysis---- a way to analyze lexical meaning. The approach is based on the belief that the meaning of a word can be dissected into meaning components, called semantic features. For example,
●Man: [+HUMAN, +ADULT, +ANIMATE, +MALE]
●Boy: [+HUMAN, -ADULT, +ANIMATE, +MALE]
●Woman: [+HUMAN, +ADULT, +ANIMATE, -MALE]
●Girl: [+HUMAN, -ADULT, +ANIMATE, -MALE]
Predication analysis
●1) The meaning of a sentence is not to be worked out by adding up all the meanings of its component words, e.g “The dog bites the man” is semantically different from “The man bites the dog” though their components are exactly the same.
●2) There are two aspects to sentence meaning: grammatical meaning and semantic meaning, e.g.
●*Green clouds are sleeping furiously.
●*Sincerity shook hands with the black apple.
●Whether a sentence is semantically meaningful is governed by rules called selectional restrictions.
Predication analysis
●Predication analysis---- a way to analyze sentence meaning (British G. Leech).
●Predication----the abstraction of the meaning of a sentence. A predication consists of argument(s) and predicate.
●An argument is a logical participant in a predication, largely identical with the nominal
elements in a sentence.
●A predicate is something said about an argument or it states the logical relation linking the arguments in a sentence.
Predication analysis
●According to the number of arguments contained in a predication, we may classify the predications into the following types:
●One-place predication: smoke, grow, rise, run, …
●Two-place predication: like, love, save, bite, beat,…
●Three-place predication: give, sent, promise, call, …
●No-place predication: It is hot.
Predication analysis
●Tom smokes.→ TOM (SMOKE)
●The tree grows well.→ TREE (GROW)
●The kids like apples.→ KIDS (LIKE) APPLE
●I sent him a letter.→ I (SEND) HIM LETTER
Dynamic relationship
●The actual semantic features are called dynamic relationship.
●Different words in the same field will show different meanings.
①Verb
●John has long hair.
●John wears a sweater.
●John carries a gun
This is arranged according to intimacy i.e. what is close to John.. Carry is not “closeness to the body.”
●②Adjective
●Several young girls are in the room.
●She is a young girl of four.
●③Noun
●我家小弟在上幼儿班．
●我家小弟今年八十有三了
●Language as system
A: stability B: potentiality
C: abstractedness
●Language as behavior
A: unstable B: actual
C: concrete
●The contextual basis for dynamic relationship
A: contextual synonymy
B: contextual antonymy
C: the need of inference
Ambiguity
●Reasons for ambiguity
A: Unlimited number of meanings vs. limited number of symbols
B: Metaphorical vs. literal meanings
●Types
A: Phonological: with respect to medium: one sound capable of two or more than two interpretations
e.g. sun and air
son and heir
B: Lexical: one lexical item with at least two interpretations
●Polysomy and homonymy
●In a sense, almost every word is a case of polysomy or homonymy
e.g. play hamlet, play Mozart, play fire, play flute
C: Grammatical: one surface structure with at least two deep structures under it.
Examples:
●Flying planes can be dangerous.
--- Chomsky
Inferential gap, Referential meaning
Inferential gap (推理空白)；Referential meaning (推理意义)
In the communication some words are not expressible, hearers should make a guess from the semantic features. Those holes made by the inexpressible words must be closed by inference. The holes made by the inference are called inferential gap.
●①Turn the cereal off.
●②I want it.
③The parts were tried and found wanting.
④coax: to get somebody do something by kindness and patience (The speaker is active) persuade: to cause somebody by reasoning to do something (Both speaker and hearer are active) convince: to cause somebody to realize or feel certain (The hearer is active)
Compared with Chinese: 卖唱；卖狗皮膏药；卖乖；卖老
6.5 synonyms : Two lexical units with a shared meaning are called synonyms.
●Classwork: Draw a diagram about the following expressions:
not wet; not dry; wet; moist; dampish; dry
1) Dialectal synonym
autumn---fall; lift---elevator;
luggage---baggage; flat---apartment; torch—flashlight
白薯；红薯；红苕；地瓜；甘薯；番薯；
山芋
2) Stylistic synonym
start—begin—commence; kid---child---offspring
3) Emotive and evaluative synonym
collaborate---accomplice; statesman---politician (commendatory---derogatory)
4) Collocational synonym
addled eggs; rancid bacon; sour milk
5) Near synonym
probably---possibly---likely
6.6 Antonymy
●Definition
A: semantic oppositeness
B: incompatibility
C: belong to the same lexical field
D: one term may be antonymous to more than one
2) Types:
A: contradictories
Features: Complete occupation
Absolute mutual exclusion
Formula
B: conversives
Features: Middle concept
Gradable
Formula
C: complimentaries
Features: Mutual dependence
Simultaneity
3) Markedness
A Definition 沈家煊. 一个范畴内部存在的某种不对称现象。

由Trubetzkoy and Jakobson 创立。

（《外国语》92 年4期“布拉格学派标记理论管窥”）
B Types (according to Lyons, 1977)
a: formal: the markedness is carried by an extra or a different form
e.g. friendly --- unfriendly
actor --- actress
b: semantic : the markedness is carried by the possession of the opposite feature
e.g. man --- woman
C. Distributional : the marked term is distributionally more limited as in the following sentence patterns
Eg. ⑴How old are you?
⑵It is 5 meters wide (long)
⑶Everyone must do his duty.
⑷Man will conquer nature.
⑸He who laughs last laughs best.
In masculine/feminine opposition, it is always the female term that is marked, and the male term is unmarked. But in the case of nurse, the female term nurse is unmarked, and the male term male nurses marked. This kind of phenomenon is called markedness reversal . Because of the liberation-movement, the use of male terms as unmarked terms is severely questioned, which results in the following usages:
Everybody must do their duty.
Chairperson.
Greenberg pointed out in Linguistics is a pilot Science that now the markedness theory has become one of the major linguistic theories, it applies in all aspects of language.
Range of application:
A tense
B number
C aspect
D theme
E style
F order
If a single idea or thought can be expressed by two or more expressions, the usual and common way is the unmarked
6.7 Hyponymy
●Definition: meaning inclusion; paradigmatic relations between a general and a specific lexeme.
●Terminology
A Superordinate
B hyponym
C Transitivity
补充：胡壮麟在《语篇的衔接与连贯》（1994，上海外语教育出版社）用superordination 一词来概括下面四种关系
A hyponymy
B part-whole
C collectivity
D consistency: the relation whereby something is made up of something else as in the relationship between clothes and cotton
另有：A collocation
B non-binary oppositions
6.8 Icons and symbols( 图像与符号)
Imitation of nature can show meanings. Those imitations are called iconic and the pictures are called icons.
戊，斤，炅，旦山东莒县大汶口，1974 ）Chinese words are called pictograph.
6.9 Phonestheme(联觉音组): relationships between phones and words
We often find words clustering in groups with a vague resemblance in sound. Such a phenomenon is called phonestheme.
_ump: heaviness; bluntness (沉重和粗笨)
rump（臀部）; dump（堆存处）; hump（隆起）; mump（嘟哝）; lump（堆）; stump(桩); chump（木块）; thump（重击）; bump（颠簸）
-sle; - stle: chaos, disorder
hassle(争论); hustle（乱堆）; bustle（奔忙）; tussle（打斗）; wrestle（搏斗）
7 Pragmatics
7.1 Definition
•Pragmatics is the study how speakers use the sentences of a language to effect successful communication.(1960s---1970s)
(2) Pragmatics is usually conceived as a branch of semantics concerned with the meanings that sentences have in particular contexts in which they are uttered.
(3) Pragmatics is the study of implicatures as opposed to literal meanings.
(4) Pragmatics is the study of truth conditions of sentences.
(5) Pragmatics is the study of semiotics opposed to syntax.
7.2 Pragmatics vs. semantics
●“Today is Sunday”, semantically, it means that today is the first day of the week; pragmatic ally,
you can mean a lot by saying this, all depending on the context and the intention of the speaker, say, making a suggestion or giving an invitation…
7.3 Sentence meaning vs. utterance meaning
●Sentence meaning is the abstract, intrinsic property of the sentence itself in terms of predication.
●Utterance meaning is the meaning of something spoken on a specific occasion.
For example, “The bag is heavy” can mean
●a bag being heavy (sentence meaning);
●an indirect, polite request, asking the hearer to help him carry the bag;
●the speaker is declining someone‟s request for help.
●Note: The meaning of an utterance is based on the sentence meaning; it is the realization of the abstract meaning of a sentence in a real situation of communication, or simply in a context; utterance meaning is richer than sentence meaning; it is identical with the purpose for which the speaker utters the sentence.
7.4 Speech act theory
John Austin, British philosopher in the late 50s of last century made the distinctions between two types of utterances:
●Constative: It is verifiable and it is either true or false.
E.g. It is a book. (fact); The book is thick. (description)
●Performative: It is used to perform an action.
E.g. I do.(used in the marriage ceremony)
Late on Austin set up another model. When a person is speaking, he is performing three acts simultaneously.
●Locutionary act: syntax; lexicon; phonology
●Illocutionary act: intension
●Perlocutionary act: result
●Analyze the illocutionary acts of the following conversation between a couple:
----(the telephone rings)
----H: That’ the phone. (1)
----W: I’m in the bathroom. (2)
----H: Okay. (3)
●This seemingly incoherent conversation goes on successfully because the speakers understand each other‟s illocutionary acts:
●(1) Making a request of his wife to go and answer the phone.
●(2) A refusal to comply with the request; issuing a request of her husband to answer the phone instead.
●(3) Accepting the wife‟s refusal and accepting her request, meaning “all right, I’ll answer it.”
John Searle, an American philosopher and linguist did his classification of speech acts.
●(1) representatives: state or describe or say what the speaker believes to be true. (I state to you) The earth is a globe.
●(2) directives: trying to get the hearer to do something---Open the window.
●(3) commissives: committing the speaker himself to some future course of action---I promise to come.
●(4) expressives: expressing feelings or attitudes towards an existing state---I am sorry for being late.
●(5) declarations: bring about immediate changes by saying something---I appoint you chairman of the committee.
7.5 Cooperative principle (CP)
philosopher, logician Paul Grice (1967)
(1)The maxim of quantity: Make your contribution as informative as required (for the current purpose of the exchange).
(2)The maxim of quality: Do not say what you believe to be false.
(3)The maxim of relation: Be relevant.
(4)The maxim of manner:avoid obscurity, ambiguity, prolixity, to be brief and orderly
7.6Face theory Brown & Levinson(1978)
●Positive face: people want to get assertion and approbation.
●Negative face: When you give positive face to others, the speaker will keep his own face. Do not lose face.
7.7 Politeness principle (PP) Leech (1983) British linguist (1936)(中庸之道the doctrine of the mean)
(1) tact maxim:
minimize cost to others
maximize benefit to others
(2) generosity maxim:
minimize benefit to self
maximize cost to self
(3) approbation maxim:
minimize praise of self
maximize dispraise of self
(4) modesty maxim:
more praise to others
dispraise to self •agreement maxim:
more agreement with others
disagreement with self •sympathy maxim:
more sympathy with others
antipathy with self
7.8 Four characteristics of Chinese culture顾曰国（1992）
●(1) respectfulness (尊重)
●(2) modesty (谦虚)
●(3) attitudinal warmth(态度热情)
●(4) refinement (文雅)
Gu‟s five maxims:
●(1) respectfulness (尊人)
●(2) refinement (文雅)
●(3) agreement (求同)
●(4) virtue, words, behavior(德，言，行)
●(5) address (称呼)
Classwork:
１Linguistic context
(1)Leading Questions
●Teacher: Billie, What does C-A-T spell?
●Billy: Donˊt know ,sir.
●Teacher: What does your mother keep to catch mice?
●Billy: A trap, sir.
●Teacher: No. What animal is found of milk?
●Billy: The baby, sir.
●Teacher: You stupid! What was it that scratched your sisterˊs face?
●Billy: My nails, sir
●Teacher: You are putting me out of patience. Do you see that animal in the yard? Then tell me, what does C-A-T spell?
●Billy: Kitten, sir.
●(2)为犹太人哭泣吧，耶路撒冷！
●(3)十六岁了才长到一米三，他整天闷闷不乐，都快成拿破仑了。

（侏儒情结）
●2 Situational context
●枯木逢春犹再发，人无两度再少年。

●为人莫作千年计，三十河东四十西。

●3 Zero situational context
●今日本店大卖鲜鱼。

8.Mind and language
8.1 Introduction
Some questions by children:
●What do the wind do when it doesn‟t blow?
●Where did I live before I was born?
●Where will I live after I die?
These questions puzzled the linguists, philosophers and psychologists for quite a long time.
●They also ask themselves such questions:
●How does the language we use influence our thinking?
●Is thinking even possible without language?
8.2 Language and thought
Language and thought are closely related. But how and how closely? The ultimate in closeness was claimed by a now outmoded school of psychology that held that thinking is merely talking to oneself in an implicit sub-vocal way. The opposite view was expressed by W.D.Whitneya century ago: Language is the spoken means whereby thought is communicated, and it is only that—thoughts are generated in their own sphere and then formulated in language.
①Plato: I have an idea when I am thinking. I am talking to myself.
●Thought is the language.
②Aristotle: Talking are symbols of mental experience. Words are symbols of talking. Human beings have not the same words and pronunciation, either, but those words and pronunciation are the representations of the same mental experience. I.e. Language is the symbols of thought; thought is not equal to language.
③Sapir-Whorf Hypothesis
●Language not only serves as a mechanism for communication, but as a guide to social reality.
●People who have different languages will have different views about the world. Thought is decided by language. (linguistic determinism语言决定论)
e.g. Shawnee: an Indian language
●I pull the branch aside.
●Ni-I’sawa-ko-n-a
●I-fork-tree-by hand-cause.
●I have an extra toe on my foot.
●Ni-I’sawa-ko-site
●I-fork-tree-on toes-[have]
④E.Haugen:
•Grammatical analysis
●I’sawa-ko in the first sentence is the object. While in the second sentence I’sawa-ko is the attribute.
(2) Closeness
●In Shawnee, the two sentences are not so close, let alone the second sentence is misunderstood in grammar and homemade as well. In English, the two sentences are not so loose in grammar. They are like the following:
●I move a branch with my hand.
●I have a branch on my foot.
(3) All human beings have the same ability in imagination.
●English: Branch: river, pipe, road, family, language, research---
●Shawnee: Branch: toe, tree---
9.Variation in Space
9.1 Language change
9.1.1Sound change
●modern times
story [st :ri] (Br.E) --- [stAri] (Am.E)
ask [a:sk] (Br.E) --- [ sk] (Am.E)
●ancient times: stan---stone
（１）古无轻唇
古汉语中只有双唇音（重唇），没有唇齿音（轻唇），故“古无轻唇”．“ｆ”的读音产生在公元７世纪后，它是从［p］帮母，［ｐ…］滂母［ｂ‟］并母在一定条件下发展起来的．
●非，绯，匪，排，俳
●方，放，肪，旁，彷
●番，翻，蕃，潘，番（禺）
（２）“古无舌上”，即无ｚｈ，ｃｈ
钱大昕在《十驾斋养新录》有“舌音类隔之说不可信。

”认为中古的舌上音“知彻澄”是从上古的端透定中分化出来的。

“古无舌头舌上之分，知彻澄三母，以今音读之，与照穿床无别也，求之古音，则与端透定无异。

”如：直读为特，竹读为笃，陈读为田。

又如：厦门话里，陈读为[TIN]
●扯一尺布．
●中央电视台
（３）“…娘’‘日’归泥”
章太炎先生在《古音娘日二纽归泥说》(《国故论衡》上卷)中曾从谐声偏旁、声训、异文等方面提出许多事实,论证“古音有舌头泥纽,其后支别,则舌上有娘纽,半舌半齿有日纽,于古皆泥纽电。

”这就是说,上古无娘日,舌上娘、半齿日都读为舌头音泥。

如“丘秽、奴低切,音泥,古泥纽。

●太阳大，太阳毒，晒得人肉流人油．
●报告营长，来了一个人．
9.1.2 V ocabulary change
●Addition of new words
●Bush, Kodak 进口，出口，理念，读物
●Loss of words
●Wash board, soap flakes, 昀，炅，冏，煚，熲；（马芮－马德华）
●Meaning change
●Silly=happy-naïve-foolish, 权（秤锤）衡（秤杆）－估计，衡量
9.1.3 Syntactic change
●I love thee not.---I don‟t love you.
●火车比汽车快．－火车快过汽车．
抽不抽烟――抽烟不抽．
●外公，状元公，新郎公，艄公，媒公，土地公――牛公，鸭公，鸡公
9.2 Social space and geographical space
9.2.1 langue and parole
●langue—social
●parole---idiosyncratic and specific
9.2.2 Variety of language
●dialect---related to the user
●register-- related to the use
9.2.3 Social space
●nationality
●social class—separation brought about by social conditions; received pronunciation (RP)
9.2.4 Geographical space
●Geographical barriers (mountains, rivers)
Chapter 10 Language acquisition
●Language acquisition----refers to the child‟s acquisition of his mother tongue, i.e. how the child comes to understand and speak the language of his community.
Theories of child language acquisition
●A behaviorist view of language acquisition (Skinners)
●An innatist view of language acquisition (Chomsky)
●An interactionist view of language acquisition
●Cognitive factors in child language development
A behaviorist view of language acquisition
●Traditional behaviorists view language as behavior and believe that language learning is simply
a matter of imitation and habit formation.
Imitation → Recognition → Reinforcement
●The inadequacy of behaviorist view lies in explaining how children acquire complex language
system.
An innatist view of language acquisition
●According to the innatist view of language acquisition, human beings are biologically
programmed for language and that the language develops in the child just as other biological functions such as walking.
An interactionist view of language acquisition
●The interactionist view holds that language develops as a result of the complex interplay
between the human characteristics of the child and the environment in which the child develops. Integrated with the innatist view, the interactionist further claims that the modified language which is suitable for the child‟s capability is crucial in his language acquisition. (motherese)
Cognitive factors in child language development
●1) Language development is dependent on both the concepts children form about the world and what they feel stimulated to communicate at the early and later stages of their language development. (the acquisition of perfect tense and the concept of present relevance)
●2) The cognitive factors determine how the child makes sense of the linguistic system himself instead of what meanings the child perceives and expresses. (the acquisition of negative form)
Critical Period Hypothesis (CPH)
●---- Eric Lenneberg argues that the LAD, like other biological functions, works successfully only when it is stimulated at the right time ---- a specific and limited time period for language acquisition.
●The strong version of CPH suggests that children must acquire their first language by puberty or they will never be able to learn from subsequent exposure.
●The weak version holds that language learning will be more difficult and incomplete after puberty. (Support in Victor‟s and Genie‟s cases)
Stages in child language development
●Phonological development
●Vocabulary development
1) Under-extension
2) Over-extension
3) Prototype theory
●Grammatical development
1) Telegraphic speech (2)
2) Sentences of three main elements (2.5)
●Pragmatic development
Atypical development
●Atypical or abnormal language development occurs due to trauma or injury. Atypical language development includes:
●Hearing impairment
●Mental retardation
●autism
●stuttering
●Aphasia
●Dyslexia and dysgraphia
Chapter 11 Second Language Acquisition
●Second Language Acquisition ---- formally established itself as a discipline around the 1970s,
refers to the systematic study of how one person acquires a second language subsequent to his native language.
●Distinguish second language & foreign language
Connections between first language acquisition and second language acquisition
●The first language study has served as a backcloth for perceiving and understanding new facts about second language learning (Littlewood, 1986).
●SLA is different from first language acquisition.
●Interlanguage
Contrastive analysis (CA) (1960s)
●Positive transfer----facilitate target language learning
●Negative transfer----interfere or hinder target language learning
●It is believed that differences between the native language and the target language would pose difficulties in second/foreign language learning and teaching, e.g.
●*To touch the society .
●*There are more people come to study in the states.
●*I wait you at the gate of the school.
Shortcomings of CA
●The CA was soon found problematic, for many of the predictions of the target language learning difficulty formulated on the basis of contrastive analysis turned out to be either uninformative or
inaccurate. Predicted errors did not materialize in learner language while errors did show up that the contrastive analysis had not predicted. “differences” and “difficulties” are not identical concepts.
Error analysis (EA)
●The contrastive approach to learners‟ errors has shed new light on people‟s attitudes: t he errors
are significant in telling the teacher what needs to be taught, in telling the researcher how learning proceeds and those errors are a means whereby learners test their hypotheses about the language to be learnt.
●Two main sorts of errors: Interlingual errors & intralingual errors
Interlingual errors
----Interlingual errors mainly result from cross-linguistic interference at different levels such as phonological, lexical, grammatical or discoursal etc. For examples,
a. Substitution of [t] for [W] and [d] for [T]: three→tree, this→dis.
b. Shortening of long vowels: sheep→ship, meet→mit
Intralingual errors
----The intralingual errors mainly from faulty or partial learning of the target language, independent of the native language.
●Two types of errors have been well exploited:
overgeneralization & cross-association
Overgeneralization
Overgeneralization ---- the use of previously available strategies in new situations.
●Walked, watched, washed…
*rided, *goed, *doed, *eated…
●Jane advise me to give up smoking.
Jane told me to give up smoking.
*Jane hoped me to give up smoking.
*Jane suggested me to give up smoking.
Cross-association
●Cross-association refers to the phenomenon that the close association of the two similar words often leads to confusion, e.g.
●Other/another, much/many, stalagmite/stalactite…
●It may also occurs at all levels of language from phonological to syntactic, e.g.
The coffee is too hot to drink.
*The apricot is too sour to eat it.
Errors & mistakes
●Errors ---- unintentionally deviant from the target language and not self-corrigible by the learner (failure in competence)；
performance).
Interlanguage (S. Pit Corder & Larry Selinker)
●Interlangauge ---- learners‟ independent system of the second language which is of neither the
native language nor the second language, but a continuum or approximation from his native language to the target language.
●What learners produce, correct or wrong, are evidence or the approximation from their first
language to the target language.
Characteristics of interlanguage
●Interlanguage has three important characteristics: systematicity, permeability and fossilization.
●Fossilization---- a process occurring from time to time in which incorrect linguistic features
become a permanent part of the way a person speaks or writes a language.
The role of native language
in 2nd language learning
●Language transfer: positive & negative (behaviorism)
●Mentalists argued that few errors were caused by language transfer; transfer is not transfer, but a kind of mental process.
●Three interacting factors in determining language transfer:
A learner’s psychology
Perception of native-target language distance
Actual knowledge of the target language
2nd language learning models and input hypothesis
●Behaviorism model emphasizes the role of imitation and positive reinforcement, a “nurture” position;
●The mentalists or the innativists shift to a “nature” position by stressing that human beings equipped innately with language acquisition device, are capable of language learning provided with adequate language input.
●The social interactionists argue that language and social interaction cannot be separated. Krashen’s Input Hypothesis
●Krashen make a distinction between acquisition & learning.
●He put forward that learners advance their language learning gradually by receiving comprehensible input.
●He defined comprehensible input as “i + 1” :
“i” represents learners‟ current state of knowledge, the next stage is an “i + 1”.
●Krashen mistook input and intake, thus receive criticism.
Individual differences
●Language aptitude
●Motivation。