英语语言学复习资料

语言学Linguistic

各章重点，学习资料整理

1.1What is language?

Language is a system of arbitrary vocal symbols used for human communication.

1.2Design features of language

①Arbitrariness任意性: The property of language by which there is in general no natural (i.e. logical) relation between the form of a single lexical unit and its meaning.

②Duality二重性Language consists of two levels of structures. The lower (secondary) level is a definite set of meaningless sounds, which combine to form meaningful units which constitute a higher (primary) level.

③Creativity创造性Language is creative in the sense that its users can understand and produce sentences they have never heard before.

④Displacement移位性By displacement is meant that language can be used to refer to things that are not present (in time and space) at the moment of communication.

1.3Functions of language

①Informative信息功能Language serves an informative function when it is used to express the speaker’s opinion, to state a fact, or to reason things out.

②Interpersonal function人际功能Language serves to establish and maintain social relations between people.

③Performative行事功能Language can be used to do things, to perform action.

e.g. “I surrender.”“I’ll do it tonight.”“I declare the meeting open.”“ I sentence you to three years in prison.”

④Emotive function感情功能The use of language to reveal the feelings and attitudes of the speaker.

e.g. “Ouch!”, “I’m terribly sorry about…” (alternatively called expressive function)

⑤Phatic communion寒暄交谈The use of language to establish or maintain a comfortable social contact between people without involving any factual content.

E.g. greetings, farewells, and talking about the weather.

⑥Recreational function娱乐功能The use of language for the sheer joy of using it. E.g. singing, poetry writing.

⑦Metalingual function元语言功能The use of language to make statements about language itself. The language about which they are made is called the object language.

1.4What is linguistics?

The scientific study of language.

1.5Microlinguistics

①Phonetics语音学The study of the nature, production, and perception of sounds of speech, in abstraction from the phonology of any specific language. Variously divided into acoustic phonetics, articulatory phonetics, and auditory phonetics.

②Phonology音系学The study of the sound systems of individual languages and of the nature of such systems generally.

③Morphology形态学Morphology is concerned with the internal organization of words. It studies the minimal units of meaning – morphemes and

word-formation processes.

④Syntax句法学The branch of linguistics which studies the rules governing the combination of words into sentences.

⑤Semantics语义学The study of meaning.

⑥Pragmatics语用学The study of the meanings that sentences have in particular contexts.

1.6Language and culture

Language is an indispensable carrier of culture. Culture finds a better representation through language use.

1.7Maximal Onset Principle (MOP)最大节前辅音原则

Which states that when there is a choice as to where to place a consonant, it is put into the onset rather than the code.

1.8Important distinctions in linguistics

①Descriptive vs. prescriptive描写vs.规定