语言学重点

第一章

Chapter 1 Invitations to Linguistics

一Design features of language语言的结构特征

Design features------ refers to the defining properties of human language that distinguish it from any animal system of communication. They are arbitrariness, duality, creativity/ productivity, displacement, clutural transmission and interchangeability.

Design features----- are features that define our human languages,such as arbitrariness,duality,creativity,displacement,cultural transmission,etc.(指决定了人类语言性质的特征.例如任意性,二重性,创造性,移位性,文化转移性等.)

The American linguist Charles Hockett specified twelve design features.

What is arbitrariness?任意性

a. arbitrariness----arbitrariness(任意性): one design feature of human language,which refers to the fact that the

forms of linguistic signs bear no natural relationship to their meaning.(人类语言的本质特征之一,指语

言符号的形式与意义之间没有自然的联系.)

It was discussed by Saussure first.The link between them is a matter of convention.

E.g. “house” uchi (Japanese)

Mansion (French)

房子(Chinese)

(1) arbitrary between the sound of a morpheme and its meaning语言的音和义之间的任意性

a. By “arbitrary”, we mean there is no logical connection between meanings and sounds. 语言的意义和语音之间没有逻辑关系。

A gog might be a pig if only the first person or group of persons had used it for a gig. Language therefore is largely arbitrary.

b. But language is not absolutely seem to be some sound-meaning association, if we think of echo words, like “bang ” ”crash” ”roar ” ” rumble ” ”cakle”, which are motivated in a certain sense.”

onomatopoeia拟声词---words that sound like the sounds they describe那些发音像它们的描写的声音的词

c. some compounds (words compounded to be one word ) are not entirely arbitary either. “type ” and ”write ”are

opaque or unmotivated words, while “type -writer” is less so, or more trans parent or motivated than the words that make it . so we can say “arbitrariness” is a matter of degree.

arbitrary and onometopoeic effect may work at the same time.任意性和拟声可以同时起作用。

Eg. The murmurous haunt of flies on summer eves.夏日黄昏，群蝇嗡嗡地非。

(2) Arbitrary at the syntactic level 句法上的非任意性

According to systematic-functionalists and American functionlists, language is not arbitrary at the syntactic level.

对于系统功能语言学家和美国功能语言学家来说，语言在句法上是非任意的。

Syntax-----it refers to the ways that sentences are constructed according to the grammar of arrangement.句法就是依据语法安排造句之法。

(3) Aribrtary and convention任意性和约定性

The link between a linguistic sign and its meaning is a matter of convention.语言学上的符号和它的意义之间是约定俗成的关系。

The other side of coin of arbitrariness , namely, conventionality.任意性的相反面，即约定性。

conventionality----It means that in any language there are certain sequences of sounds that have a conventionally accepted meaning. Those words are customarily used by all speakers with the same intended meaning and understood by all listeners in the same way.

Arbitrainess of langauge makes it potentially creative, and conventionality of language makes learning a language laborious.任意性赋予语言潜在的创造力，而语言的约定性又使学习语言变得费力。

There are two different schools of belief concerning arbitrariness. Most people, especially structural linguists believe that language is arbitrary by nature. Other people, however, hold that language is iconic, that is, there is

a direct relation or correspondence between sound and meaning, such as onomatopoeia.(cuckoo; crash)