语言学作业第一章

语言学作业

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Chapter 1 Invitations to Linguistics

I. Please illustrate the following terms.

1. Arbitrariness:

The forms of linguistic signs bear no natural relationship to their meaning.

The different levels of arbitrariness:

(1) Arbitrary relationship between the sound of a morpheme and its meaning, even with onomatopoeic words

(2) Arbitrariness at the syntactic level: language is not arbitrary at the syntactic level.

(3) The link between a linguistic sign and its meaning is a matter of convention. 2. Duality

The property of having two levels of structures, such that units of the primary level are composed of elements of the secondary level and each of the two levels has its own principles of organization.

3. Phatic communion

Phatic communion refers to the social interaction of language.

4. Synchronic linguistics:

A synchronic description takes a fixed instant (usually, but not necessarily, the present) as its point of observation. Most grammars are of this kind.

II. Please distinguish the following terms:

1. Langue vs. Parole

Langue refers to the abstract linguistic system shared by all the members of a speech community, that is, the lexicon, grammar, and phonology implanted in each individual, and it is the linguist’s proper object;

Parole refers to the realization of langue, the immediately accessible data. While parole constitutes the immediately accessible data, and it is a mass of confused facts, so it is not suitable for systematic investigation.

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(1) Langue is abstract, while parole is specific to the situation in which it occurs.

(2) Langue is not actually spoken by anyone, while parole is always a naturally occurring event.

(3) Langue is relatively stable, systematic and social, while parole is subject to personal, individual and situational constraints.

(4) Langue is essential while parole is accessory and accidental.

2. Descriptive vs. Prescriptive

The distinction lies in prescribing how things ought to be and describing how things are.

Traditional grammar was very strongly normative in character.The grammarians tried to lay down rules for the correct use of language and settle the disputes over usage once and for all. That is prescriptive.

These attitudes are still with us, though people realize nowadays the facts of usage count more than the authority-made “standards”. The nature of linguistics as a science determines its preoccupation with description instead of prescription.

3. Synchronic vs. Diachronic

Synchronic description takes a fixed instant (usually, but not necessarily, the present) as its point of observation. Most grammars are of this kind.Actually synchrony is a fiction since any language is changing as the minutes pass.

Diachronic linguistics is the study of a language through the course of its history.

4. Competence vs. Performance

According to Chomsky:

A language user’s underlying knowledge about the system of rules is called his linguistic competence.

Performance refers to the actual use of language or the actual realization of this knowledge in utterances in concrete situations.

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 or equal his supposed competence.

He believes that linguists ought to study competence rather than performance.

5. Langue vs. Competence

According to Chomsky:

Langue is a social product, a systematic inventory of rules of the language, a set of conventions for a speech community.

Competence is defined from the psychological point of view, is deemed as a property of the mind of each individuals, or underlying competence as a system of generative processes.

According to Hymes:

He approaches language from a socio-cultural viewpoint with the aim of studying the varieties of ways of speaking on the part of individual and the community.

He extended notion of competence, restricted by Chomsky to a knowledge of grammar, to incorporate the pragmatic ability for language use. This extended idea of competence can be called communicative competence.

III. Answer the following questions in brief:

1. The following are some book titles of linguistics. Can you judge the synchronic or

diachronic orientation just from the titles?

1) English Examined: Two Centuries of Comment on the Mother Tongue