《英语语言学概论》重、难点提示.

英语语言学概论》重、难点提示整理人:宁强县第一中学陈宁第一章语言的性质语言的定义:语言的基本特征(任意性、二重性、多产性、移位、文化传递和互换性;语言的功能(寒暄、指令、提供信息、询问、表达主观感情、唤起对方的感情和言语行为;语言的起源(神授说,人造说,进化说等。

第二章语言学语言学定义;研究语言的四大原则(穷尽、一致、简洁、客观;语言学的基本概念(口语与书面语、共时与历时、语言与言学、语言能力与言行运用、语言潜势与语言行为;普通语言学的分支(语音、音位、语法、句法、语义;;语言学的应用(语言学与语言教学、语言与社会、语言与文字、语言与心理学、人类语言学、神经语言学、数理语言学、计算语言学等。

第三章语音学发音器官的英文名称;英语辅音的发音部位和发音方法;语音学的定义;发音语音学;听觉语音学;声学语音学;元音及辅音的分类;严式与宽式标音等。

第四章音位学音位理论;最小对立体;自由变异;互补分布;语音的相似性;区别性特征;超语段音位学;音节;重音(词重音、句子重音、音高和语调等。

第五章词法学词法的定义;曲折词与派生词;构词法(合成与派生;词素的定义;词素变体;自由词素;粘着词素(词根,词缀和词干等。

第六章词汇学词的定义;语法词与词汇词;变词与不变词;封闭词与开放词;词的辨认;习语与搭配。

第七章句法句法的定义;句法关系;结构;成分;直接成分分析法;并列结构与从属结构;句子成分;范畴(性,数,格;一致;短语,从句,句子扩展等。

第八章语义学语义的定义;语义的有关理论;意义种类(传统、功能、语用;里奇的语义分类;词汇意义关系(同义、反义、下义;句子语义关系。

第九章语言变化语言的发展变化(词汇变化、语音书写文字、语法变化、语义变化;第十章语言、思维与文化语言与文化的定义;萨丕尔-沃夫假说;语言与思维的关系;语言与文化的关系;中西文化的异同。

第十一章语用学语用学的定义;语义学与语用学的区别;语境与意义;言语行为理论(言内行为、言外行为和言后行为;合作原则。

1.1. What is language?“Language is system of arbitrary vocal symbols used for huma n communication. It is a system, since linguistic elements are arranged systematically, rather than randomly. Arbitrary, in the sense that there is usually no intrinsic connection between a work (like “book” and the object it refers to. This explains and is explained by the fact that different languages have different “books”: “book” in English, “livre” in French, in Japanese, in Chinese, “check” in Korean. It is symbolic, because words are associated with objects, actions, ideas etc. by nothing but convention. Namely, people use the sounds or vocalforms to symbolize what they wish to refer to. It is vocal, because sound or speech is the primary medium for all human languages, developed or “new”. Writing systems came much later than the spoken forms. The fact that small children learn and can only learn to speak (and listen before they write (and read also indicates that language is primarily vocal, rather than written. The term “human” in the definition is meant to specify that language is human specific.1.2. What are design features of language?“Design features” here refer to the defining properties of human language that tell the difference between human language and any system of animal communication. They are arbitrariness, duality, productivity, displacement, cultural transmission and interchangeability1.3. What is arbitrariness?By “arbitrariness”, we mean there is no logical connection between meanings and sounds (see I .1. A dog might be a pig if only the first person or group of persons had used it for a pig. Language is therefore largely arbitrary. But language is not absolutely seem to be some sound-meaning association, if we think of echo words, like “bang”, “crash”, “roar”, which are motivated in a certain sense. Secondly, some compounds (words compounded to be one word are not entirely arbitrary either. “Type” and “write” are o paque or unmotivated words, while “type-writer” is less so, or more transparent or motivated than the words that make it. So we can say “arbitrariness” is a matter of degree.1.4.What is duality?Linguists refer “duality” (of structure to the fact that in all languages so far investigated, one finds two levels of structure or patterning. At the first, higher level, language is analyzed in terms of combinations of meaningful units (such as morphemes, words etc. ; at the second, lowerlevel, it is seen as a sequence of segments which lack any meaning in themselves, but which combine to form units of meaning. According to Hu Zhanglin et al. (p.6 , language is a system of two sets of structures, one of sounds and the other of meaning. This is important for the workings of language. A small number of semantic units (words, and these units of meaning can be arranged and rearranged into an infinite number of sentences (note that we have dictionaries of words, but no dictionary of sentences!. Duality makes it possible for a person to talk about anything within his knowledge. No animal communication system enjoys this duality, or even approaches this honour.1.5.What is productivity?Productivity refers to the ability to the ability to construct and understand anindef initely large number of sentences in one‟s native language, including those that has never heard before, but that are appropriate to the speaking situation. No one has ever said or heard “A red-eyed elephant is dancing on the small hotel bed with an African gibbon”, but he can say it when necessary, and he can understand it in right register. Different from artistic creativity, though, productivity never goes outside the language, thus also called “rule-bound creativity” (by N.Chomsky.1.6.What is displacement?“Displacement”, as one of the design features of the human language, refers to the fact that one can talk about things that are not present, as easily as he does things present. In other words, one can refer to real and unreal things, things of the past, of the present, of the future. Language itself can be talked about too. When a man, for example, is crying to a woman, about something, it might be something that had occurred, or something that is occurring, or something that is to occur. When a dog is barking, however, you can decide it is barking for something or at someone that exists now and there. It couldn‟t be bow-wowing sorrowfully for dome lost love or a bone to be lost. The bee‟s system, nonetheless, has a small share of “displacement”, but i t is an unspeakable tiny share.1.7.What is cultural transmission?This means that language is not biologically transmitted from generation to generation, but that the details of the linguistic system must be learned anew by each speaker. It is true that the capacity for language in human beings(N. Chomsky called it “language acquisition device”, or LAD has a genetic basis, but the particular language a person learns to speak is a cultural one other than a genetic one like the dog‟s barking system. If a human being is brought up in isolation he cannot acquire language. The Wolf Child reared by the pack of wolves turned out to speak the wolf‟sroaring “tongue” when he was saved. He learned thereafter, with no small difficulty, the ABC of a certain human language.1.8.What is interchangeability?Interchangeability means that any human being can be both a producer and a receiver of messages. We can say, and on other occasions can receive and understand, for example, “Please do something to make me happy.” Though some people (including me suggest that there is sex differentiation in the actual language use, in other words, men and women may say different things, yet in principle there is no sound, or word or sentence that a man can utter and a woman cannot, or vice versa. On the other hand, a person can be the speaker while the other person is the listener and as the turn moves on to the listener, he can be the speaker and the first speaker is to listen. It is turn-taking that makes social communication possible and acceptable.Some male birds, however, utter some calls which females do not (or cannot? , and certain kinds of fish have similar haps mentionable. When a dog barks, all the neighbouring dogs bark. Then people around can hardly tell which dog (dogs is (are0 “speaking” and which listening.1.9.Why do linguists say language is human specific?First of all, human language has six “design features” which animalcommunication systems do not have, at least not in the true sense of them(see I .2-8. Let‟s borrow C. F. Hocket‟s Chart that compares human language with some animals‟ systems, from Wang Gang(1998,p.8.Secondly, linguists have done a lot trying to teach animals such as chimpanzees to speak a human language but have achieved nothing inspiring. Washoe, a female chimpanzee, was brought up like a human child by Beatnice and Alan Gardner. She was taught “American sign Language”, and learned a little that made the teachers happy but did mot make the linguistics circle happy, for few believed in teaching chimpanzees.Thirdly, a human child reared among animals cannot speak a human language, not even when he is taken back and taught to lo to so (see the “Wolf Child”in I.71.10.What functions does language have?Language has at least seven functions: phatic, directive, Informative, interrogative, expressive, evocative and performative. According to Wang Gang (1988,p.11, language has three main functions: a tool of communication, a tool whereby people learn about the world, and a tool by which people learn about the world, and a tool by which people create art . M .A. K.Halliday, representative of the London school, recognizesthre e “Macro-Functions”: ideational, interpersonal and textual(see !.11-17;see HU Zhuanglin et al.,pp10-13,pp394-396.1. 11What is the phatic function?The “phatic function” refers to language being used for setting up a certain atmosphere or maintaining social contacts(rather than for exchanging information or ideas. Greetings, farewells, and comments on the weather in English and on clothing in Chinese all serve this function. Much of the phatic language (e.g. “How are you?” “Fine,thanks.” is insincer e if taken literally, but it is important. If you don't say “Hello” to a friend you meet, or if you don‟t answer his “Hi”, you ruin your friends hip.1.12. What is the directive function?The “directive function” means that language may be used to get the hearer to do something. Most imperative sentences perform this function, e. g., “Tell me the result when you finish.” Other syntactic structures or sentences of other sorts can, according to J.Austin and J.Searle‟s “indrect speech act theory”(see H u Zhuanglin et al.,pp271-278 at least, serve the purpose of direction too, e.g., “If I were you, I would have blushed to the bottom of my ears!”1.13.What is the informative function?Language serves an “informational function” when used to tell someth ing,characterized by the use of declarative sentences. Informative statements are often labelled as true(truth or false(falsehood. According to P.Grice‟s“Cooperative Principle”(see Hu Zhuanglin et al., pp282-283, one ought not to violate the “Maxim of Quality”, when he is informing at all.1.14.What is the interrogative function?When language is used to obtain information, it serves an “interrogative function”. This includes all questions that expect replies, statements, imperatives etc., according to the “indirect speech act theory”, may have this function as well, e.g., “I‟d like to know you better.” This may bring forth a lot of personal information. N ote that rhetorical questions make an exception, since they demand no answer, at least not the reader‟s/listener‟s answer.1.15.What is the expressive function?The “expressive function” is the use of language to reveal something about the feelings or attitudes of the speaker. Subconscious emotional ejaculations are good examples, like “Good heavens!” “My God!” Sentences like “I‟m sorry about the delay” can serve as good examples too, though in a subtle way. While language is used for the informative function to pass judgement on the truth or falsehood of statements,language used for the expressive function evaluates, appraises or asserts the speaker‟s own attitudes.1.16.What is the evocative function?The “evocative function” is the use of language to cr eate certain feelings in the hearer. Its aim is , for example, to amuse, startle, antagonize, soothe, worry or please. Jokes(not practical jokes, though are supposed to amuse or entertain the listener; advertising to urge customers to purchase certain commodities; propaganda to influence public opinion. Obviously, the expressive and the evocative functions often go together, i.e., you may express, for example, your personal feelings about a political issue but end up by evoking the same feeling in, or impos ing it on, your listener. That‟s also the case with the other way round.1.17.What is the performative function?This means people speak to “do things” or perform actions. On certain occasions the utterance itself as an action is more important than what words or sounds constitute the uttered sentence. When asked if a third Yangtze bridge ou ght to be built in Wuhan, the mayor may say “OK”, which means more than speech, and more than an average social individual may do for the construction. The judge‟s impr isonment sentence, the president‟s war or independence declaration, etc., areperformati ves as well(see J.Austin‟s speech Act Theory, Hu Zhuanglin,ecal.,pp271-278.1.18.What is linguistics?“Linguistics” is the scientific study of language. It studies no t just one language of any one society, but the language of all human beings. A linguist, though, does not have to know and use a large number of languages, but to investigate how each language is constructed. He is also concerned with how a language varies from dialect to dialect, from class to class, how it changes from century to century, how children acquire their mother tongue, and perhaps how a person learns or should learn a foreign language. In short, linguistics studies the general principles whereupon all human languages are constructed and operate as systems of communication in their societies or communities (see Hu Zhuanglin et al.,pp20-221.19.What makes linguistics a science?Since linguistics is the scientific study of language, it ought to base itself upon the systematic, investigation of language data which aims at discovering the true nature of language and its underlying system. To make sense of the data, a linguist usually has conceived some hypotheses about the language structure, to be checked against the observed orobservable facts. In order to make his analysis scientific, a linguist is usually guided by four principles: exhaustiveness, consistency, and objectivity. Exhaustiveness means he should gather all the materials relevant to the study and give them an adequate explanation, in spite of the complicatedness. H e is to leave no linguistic “stone” unturned. Consistency means there should be no contradiction between different parts of the total statement. Economy means a linguist should pursue brevity in the analysis when it is possible. Objectivity implies that since some people may be subjective in the study, a linguist should be (or sound at least objective, matter-of-face, faithful to reality, so that his work constitutes part of the linguistics research.1.20.What are the major branches of linguistics?The study of language as a whole is often called general linguistics (e.g.Hu Zhuanglin et al.,1988;Wang Gang,1988.But a linguist sometimes is able to deal with only one aspect of language at a time, thus the arise of various branches :phonetics ,phonology ,morphology, syntax, semantics, sociolinguistics, applied linguistics, pragmatics, psycholinguistics, lexicology, lexicography, etymology, etc.1.21.What are synchronic and diachronic studies?The description of a language at some point of time (as if it stoppeddeveloping is a synchrony study (synchrony. The description of a language as it changes through time is a diachronic study (diachronic. An essay entitled “On the Use of THE”, for example, may be synchronic, if the author does not recall the past of THE, and it may also be diachronic if he claims to cover a large range or period of time wherein THE has undergone tremendous alteration (see Hu Zhuanglin et al.,pp25-27.1.22.What is speech and what is writing?No one needs the repetition of the general principle of linguistic analysis, namely, the primacy of speech over writing. Speech is primary, because it existed long long before writing systems came into being. Genetically children learn to speak before learning to write. Secondly, written forms just represent in this way or that the speech sounds : individual sounds, as in English and French as in Japanese.In contrast to speech, spoken form of language, writing as written codes, gives language new scope and use that speech does not have. Firstly, messages can be carried through space so that people can write to each other. Secondly, messages can be carried through time thereby, so that people of our time can be carried through time thereby, so that people of our time can read Beowulf, Samuel Johnson, and Edgar A. Poe. Thirdly, oral messages are readily subject to distortion, either intentional orunintentional (causing misunderstanding or malentendu, while written messages allow and encourage repeated unalterable reading. Most modern linguistic analysis is focused on speech, different from grammarians of the last century and theretofore.1.23.What are the differences between the descriptive and the prescriptive approaches?A lin guistic study is “descriptive” if it only describes and analys es the facts of language, and “prescriptive” if it tries to lay down rules for “correct” language behavior. Linguistic studies before this century were largely prescriptive because many earlyg rammars were largely prescriptive because many early grammars were based on “high” (literary or religious written records. Modern linguistics is mostly descriptive, however. It (the latter believes that whatever occurs in natural speech (hesitation, incomplete utterance, misunderstanding, etc. should be described in the analysis, and not be marked as incorrect, abnormal, corrupt, or lousy. These, with changes in vocabulary and structures, need to be explained also.1.24.What is the difference between langue and parole?F. de Saussure refers “langue”to the abstra ct linguistic system shared by all the members of a speech community and refers “parole” to the actualor actualized language, or the realization of langue. Langue is abstract, parole specific to the speaking situation; langue not actually spoken by an individual, parole always a naturally occurring event; langue relatively stable and systematic, parole is a mass of confused facts, thus not suitable for systematic investigation. What a linguist ought to do, according to Saussure, is to abstract langue from instances of parole, i. e. to discover the regularities governing all instances of parole and make than the subject of linguistics. The langue-parole distinction is of great importance, which casts great influence on later linguists.1.25.What is the difference between competence and performance? According to N. Chomsky, “competence” is the ideal language user‟s knowledge of the rules of his language, and “performance” is the actual realization of thi s knowledge in utterances. The former enables a speaker to produce and understand an indefinite number of sentences and to recognize grammatical mistakes and ambiguities. A speaker‟s competence is stable while his performance is often influenced by psychological and social factors. So a speaker‟s performance does not always match or equal his supposed competence.Chomsky believes that linguists ought to study competence, rather than performance. In other words, they should discover what an ideal speakerknows of his native language.Chomsky‟s competence-performance distinction is not exactly the same as , though similar to , F. de Saussure‟s langue-parole distinction. Langue is a social product, and a set of conventions for a community, while competence is deemed as a property of the mind of each individual. Sussure looks at language more from a sociological or sociolinguistic point of view than N. Chomsky since the latter deals with his issues psychologically or psycholinguistically.1.26.What is linguistic potential? What is actual linguistic behaviour? These two terms, or the potential-behavior distinction, were made by M.A. K. Halliday in the 1960s, from a functional point of view. There is a wide range of things a speaker can do in his culture, and similarly there are many things he can say, for example, to many people, on many topics. What he actually says (i.e. his “actual linguistic behavior” on a certain occasion to a certain person is what he has chosen from many possible injustice items, each of which he could have said (linguistic potential.1.27.In what way do language, competence and linguistic potential agree? In what way do they differ? And their counterparts?Langue, competence and linguistic potential have some similar features, but they are innately different (see 1.25. Langue is a social product, and a set of speaking conventions; competence is a property or attribute ofeach ideal speaker‟s mind; linguistic potential is all the linguistic corpus or repertoire available from which the speaker chooses items for the actual utterance situation. In other words, langue is invisible but reliable abstract system. Competence means “knowing”, and linguistic potential a set of possibilities for “doing” or “performing actions”. They are similar in that t hey all refer to the constant underlying the utterances that constitute what Saussure, Chomsky and Halliday respectively called parole, performance and actual linguistic behavior. Paole, performance and actual linguistic behavior enjoy more similarities than differences.1.28.What is phonetics?“Phonetics” is the science which studies the characteristics of human sound-making, especially those sounds used in speech, and provides methods for their description, classification and transcription (see Hu Zhuanglin et al., pp39-40, speech sounds may be studied in different ways, thus by three different branches of phonetics. (1Articulatory phonetics; the branch of phonetics that examines the way in which a speech sound is produced to discover which vocal organs are involved and how they coordinate in the process. (2Auditory phonetics, the branch of phonetic research from the hearer‟s point of view, looking into the impression which a speech sound makes on the hearer as mediated by the ear , the auditory nerve and the brain. (3Acoustic phonetics: the study ofthe physical properties of speech sounds, as transmitted between mouth and ear.Most phoneticians, however, are interested in articulatory phonetics.1.29.How are the vocal organs formed?The vocal organs (see Figure1, Hu Zhuanglin et al.,p41, or speech organs, are organs of the human body whose secondary use is in the production of speech sounds. The vocal organs can be considered as consisting of three parts; the initiator of the air-stream, the producer of voice and the resonating cavities.1.30.What is place of articulation?It refers to the place in the mouth where, for example, the obstruction occurs, resulting in the utterance of a consonant. Whatever sound is pronounced, at least some vocal organs will get involved,e. g. lips, hard palate etc., so a consonant may be one of the following (1 bilabial p,b,m];(2 labiodental f,v]; (3 dental ,]; (4 alveolar t,d,l,n.s,z]; (5 retroflex; (6 palato-alveolar ,]; (7 palatal j]; (8 velar[k,g,]; (9 uvular; (10glottal h].Some sounds involve the simultaneous use of two places of articulation. For example, the English [w]has both an approximation of the two lips and that two lips and that of the tongue and the soft palate, and may betermed “labial-velar”.1.31.What is the manner of articulation?The “manner of articulation” literally means the way a sound is articulated. At a given place of articulation, the airstream may be obstructed in various ways, resulting in various manners of articulation, are the following : (1 plosive p,b,t,d,k,g]; (2 nasal m,n,];(3 trill; (4 tap or flap; (5 lateral l]; (6 fricative f,v,s,z]; (7 approximant w,j]; (8 affricate ].1.32.How do phoneticians classify vowels?Phoneticians, in spite of the difficulty, group vowels in 5 types: (1 long and short vowels, e.g.,[i:,]; (4 rounded and unround vowels,e.g.[,i]; (5 pure and gliding vowels, e.g.[I,].1.33.What is IPA? When did it come into being ?The IPA, abbreviation of “International Phonetic Alphabet”, is a compromise system making use of symbols of all sources, including diacritics indicating length, stress and intonation, indicating phonetic variation. Ever since it was developed in 1888, IPA has undergone a number of revisions.1.34.What is narrow transcription and what is broad transcription?In handbook of phonetics, Henry Sweet made a distinction between “narrow” and “broad” transcriptions, which he called “Narrow Romic”. The former was meant to symbolize all the possible speech sounds, including even the most minute shades of pronunciation while Broad Romic or transcription was intended to indicate only those sounds capable of distinguishing one word from another in a given language.1.35.What is phonology? What is difference between phonetics and phonology?(1 “Phonology” is the study of sound systems- the invention of distinctive speech sounds that occur in a language and the patterns wherein they fall. Minimal pair, phonemes, allophones, free variation, complementary distribution, etc., are all to be investigated by a phonologist.(2 Phonetics, as discussed in I.28, is the branch of linguistics studying the characteristics of speech sounds and provides methods for their description, classification and transcription. A phonetist is mainly interested in the physical properties of the speech sounds, whereas a phonologist studies what he believes are meaningful sounds related with their semantic features, morphological features, and the way they are conceived and printed in the depth of the mind phonological knowledgepermits a speaker to produce sounds which from meaningful utterances, to recognize a foreign “accent”, to make up new words, to add the appropriate phonetic segments to from plurals and past tenses, to know what is and what is not a sound in one‟s language.1.36.What is a phone? What is a phoneme? What is an allophone?A “phone” is a phonetic unit or segment. The speech sounds we hear and produce during linguistic communication are all phones. When we hear the following words pronounced pit], [tip], [spit], etc., the similar phones we have heard are [p] for one thing, and three different[p]‟s, readily making possible the “narrow transcription or diacritics”. Phones may and may not distinguish meaning. A “phoneme” is a phonological unit; it is a unit that is of distinctive value. As an abstract unit, a phoneme is not any particular sound, but rather it is represented or realized by a certain phone in a certain phonetic context. For example, the phoneme[p] is represented differently in [pit], [tip] and [spit].T he phones representing a phoneme are called its “allophones”, i. e., the different (i.e., phones but do not make one word so phonetically different as to create a new word or a new meaning thereof. So the different[p]‟s in the above words are the allophones of the same phoneme[p]. How a phoneme is represented by a phone, or which allophone is to be used, is determined by the phonetic context in which it occurs. But the choice ofan allophone is not random. In most cases it is rule-governed; these rules are to be found out by a phonologist.1.37.What are minimal pairs?When two different phonetic forms are identical in every way except for one sound segment which occurs in the same place in the string , the two forms(i. e., word are supposed to form a “minimal pair”, e.g., “pill” and “bill”, “pill” and “till”, “till” and “dill”, “till” and “kill”, etc. All these words together constitute a minimal set. They are identical in form except for the initial consonants. There are many minimal pairs inEnglish, which makes it relatively easy to know what are English phonemes. It is of great importance to find the minimal pairs when a phonologist is dealing with the sound system of an unknown language(see Hu Zhuanglin et al., pp65-66.1.38.What is free variation?If two sounds occurring in the same environment do not contrast; namely, if the substitution of one for the other does not generate a new word form but merely a different pronunciation of the same word, the two sounds then are said to be in “free variation”. The plosives, for example, may not be exploded when they occur before another plosive or a nasal (e. g., act, apt, good morning. The minute distinctions may, if necessary, betranscribed in diacritics. These unexploded and exploded plosives are in free variation. Sounds in free variation should be assigned to the same phoneme.1.39.What is complementary distribution?When two sounds never occur in the same environment, they are in “complementary distribution”. For example, the aspirated English plosives never occur after, and the unsaturated ones never occur initially. Sounds in complementary distribution may be assigned to the same phoneme. The allophones of[l], for example, are also in complementary distribution. The clear[l] occurs only before a vowel, the voiceless equivalent of[l] occurs only after a voiceless consonant, such as in the words “please”, “butler”, “clear”, etc., and the dark[l] occurs only after a vowel or as a syllabic sound after a consonant, such as in the words “feel”, “help”,“middle”, etc.1.40.What is the assimilation rule? What is the deletion rule?(1 The “assimilation rule” assimilates one segment to another by “copying” a feature of a sequential phoneme, thus making the two phones more similar. This rule accounts for the raring pronunciation of the nasal[n] that occurs within a word. The rule is that within a word the nasal consonant[n] assumes the same place of articulation as the。