语言学第一单元总结

1：Definitions of Language:

Language is a means of verbal communication.

It is instrumental; it is social and conventional.(P3)

Generally Accepted Definition

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

1)Why a system?

Language is a system--rule-governed, since elements in it are arranged according to certain rules systematically, rather than randomly, they can not be arranged at will.

e.g. He the table cleaned.

2）arbitrary?Why

no intrinsic (logic) connection between the word and the thing it denotes.

e.g. "pen" by any other name is the thing we use to write with

3）Why vocal?

Language is primary vocal--the primary medium is sound for all languages; writing system came much later than spoken form

4) Why symbols?

Words are just the symbols associated with objects, actions, and ideas by nothing but convention. Namely, people use the sounds or vocal forms to symbolize what they wish to refer to.

5)Why human?

Language is human-specific.

Human being have different kinds of brains and vocal capacity.

6)Why communication?

In this process information is transmitted from a source (sender or speaker) to a goal (receiver or listener.)

2. Design Features of Language

Design features (本质特征) refer to the defining properties of human language that distinguish it from any animal system of communication.

2.1 Arbitrariness(任意性)

It means there is no logical connection between the sound of a word and its meaning.

Onomatopoeia (拟声词) refers to a word that sounds like what it represents.

Can onomatopoeia change the arbitrary nature of language?

Why not?

Every language has only a small amount of onomatopoeic words.

Different languages use different words to describe the same sound

Ducks “嘎嘎”in Chinese, “quack [kwæk]”in English, “gack”in German.

Arbitrariness and convention

Human language is arbitrary and conventional.

Arbitrariness of language makes it potentially creative.

Conventionality of language makes learning a language laborious.

2.2 Duality (双重性)

Duality means that language has two levels of structure, the primary level and the secondary level.

At secondary level are elements which have no meaning but which combine to form units at primary level which do have meaning.

Secondary level is made up of meaningless sounds, and primary level of meaningful words.

2.3 Creativity（创造性）

By creativity we mean language is resourceful because of its duality and its recursiveness.

Recursiveness （递归性）means that one sentence can expand into endless possible sentences in a way of recurring. e.g. He came into a room that had a big shelf which was full of books which were covered by magazine which were put there by the lady who used to …

e.g. The man in a coat on a bus with his wife…

2.4 Displacement （移位性）

It means that we can communicate things, concepts which are not present at the right time or place of communication

we can refer to Confucius, or the North Pole, even though the first has been dead for over 2500 years and the second is situated far away from us .

Displacement enables us to talk about a wide range of things.

3. The origin of language

The creation theory

the divine origin theory

The invention theory

the “bow-wow”theory

the “yo-he-ho”theory

the “pooh-pooh”theory

The evolution theory

4.Functions of language

Functions of language（4.1 Informative 4.2 Interpersonal function 4.3 Performative 4.4Emotive function 4.5. Phatic communion 4.6 Recreational function 4.7 Metalingual function）

4.1 Informative (信息功能)

It is to offer information about facts and to tell what the speaker believes.

e.g. “Tomorrow is Tuesday.”“Linguistics is a scientific study of language.”

4.2 Interpersonal function(人际功能)

It embodies the use of language to express, establish and maintain social relations.

Give me that teapot. leader

Could you please give me that teapot? Equal

4.3 Performative(施为功能)

It means that language is also used to “do things”, to perform actions.

It is primarily to change the social status of a person, or the state of a thing.

“I declare the meeting open”

“I sentence you to the ten years of hard labor”

“I now pronounce you husband and wife”