语言学教程chapter 1

Chapter 1 Invitation to linguistics

1.1 Why study language?

There are a few ignorance and wrong ideas about language, such as "language is only a means of communication", "language has a form-meaning correspondence". So if we are not fully aware of the nature and mechanism of our language, we will be ignorant of what constitutes our essential humanity. The understanding of language should not be confined to linguists, as it is a vital human resource that all of us share.

1.2 What is language?

Webster's New World Dictionary's several most frequently used sense of the

word "language"

Primary sense: a, human speech

b,the ability to communicate by this means

c,a system of vocal sounds and combinations Definition: language is a means of verbal communication. It's instrumental in that communication by speaking or writing is a purposeful act.

Language learning and use are determined by the intervention of biological,

cognitive, psychological, and environmental factor.

1.3 Design features of language

1, arbitrariness

Saussure: the forms of linguistic signs bear no natural relationship to their meaning

(1) arbitrary relationship between the sound of a morpheme and its meaning

(2) arbitrariness at the syntactic level--the most strictly arbitrary level

language exists in the distinctive units of sounds

(3) arbitrariness and convention--the link between a linguistic sign and its

meaning is a matter of convention

2,duality

Lyons: By duality is meant that the property of having two levels of

structures , such as that units of the primary level are composed of

elements of the secondary level and each of the level has its own principles

of organization.

Language is hierarchical.

Syllable

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

recursiveness.

This ability is one of the things that sets human apart from the kind of

communication that goes on between animals.

Language has the potential to create infinite set of sentences.

4,displacement

Displacement means that human languages enable their users to symbolize

objects, events, and concepts which are not present(in time and space) at

the moment of communication.

Displacement benefits human beings by giving them the power to handle

generalizations and abstractions. Words are often used with a reference for

referential application. Once we can talk about physical distant thing, we

acquire the ability to understand concept which denote "non-things".

1.4 origin of language

The "bow-wow" theory--imitating the sounds of animals

The "pooh-pooh" theory--instinctive sounds of pain, anger or joy

The "yo-he-yo" theory--rhythmic grunts during the work

1.5 functions of language

Jackobson: language is above all for communication.

Referential

Poetic

Emotive

Conative

Phatic

Metalingual

Halliday: a theory of metafunctions of language--language has ideational(a model of experience as well as logical relations), interpersonal(social

relationships) and textual(relevance to context) function.

1, informative: the instrument of thought and people often feel need to speak their thoughts loud

2, interpersonal: the most important sociological, interaction between the addresser and the addressee in the discourse situation and the

addresser’s attitude toward what he speaks or writes about

3, performative: Austin and Searle, primarily to change the social status of persons

4, emotive function: crucial tin changing the emotional status of an audience for or against someone or sth

5, phatic communion: Malinowski, we use these seemingly meaningless expressions to maintain a comfortable relationship between people

without involving any factual content

6, recreational function: sheer joy of using language, close to Jakobson’s poetic function

7, metalingual function: our language can be used to talk about itself, metalingual function of language and meshes with the thematic

function of language in functional grammar, self-reflexive

1.6 what is linguistics—the science of language, the scientific study of language, a

major branch of humanities and social science

1.7 main branches of linguistics

1, phonetics—studies the production of speech sounds, including the production of speech, that is how speech sounds are actually made,

transmitted and received, the description and classification of

speech sounds, words and connected speech, etc.