语言学名词解释

Definition
Language is a system of arbitrary vocal symbols used for human communication.
语言是一个用于人类交际的、具有任意性的语音符号系统。

Linguistics is generally defined as the scientific study of language.
语言学通常被定义为对语言进行科学性研究的学科。

Arbitrariness(任意性) There is no intrinsic(本质的) connection between the word and the thing it denotes(表示).
Duality(双层性) Language is a system, which consists of two sets of structures, or two levels, and it enables its users to talk about anything within their knowledge.
Creativity(创造性) It makes possible the construction(结构) and interpretation(翻译) of new signals by its users.
Displacement(移位性) Language can be used to refer to things, which are not present, real or imagined matters in the past, present or future, or in far-away places.
Phonetics(语音学) is defined as the study of the phonic medium of language; it is concerned with all the sounds that occur in the world's languages.
语音学被定义为对语言的语音媒介的研究；它涉及所有出现在世界语言中的声音。

Phonology(音位学) studies the patterning of speech sounds, that is, the ways in which speech sounds are arranged into meaningful units such as phonemes(音位) and allophones(音位变体).
Morphology(形态学) refers to the study of the internal structure of words and the rules by which words are formed.
Syntax(句法学) is a branch of linguistics that studies the rules that govern the formation of sentences.
Pragmatics(语用学) is the study of how speakers of a language use sentences to effect successful communication.
Phoneme(音位): a phonological speech sound with distinctive features, the
smallest linguistic unit which can distinguish meaning, an abstract unit, not a particular sound, but it is represented by a certain phone in certain phonetic context.
Allophone(音位变体): the phones that can represent a phoneme in different phonetic environments.
The assimilation(同化) rule assimilates one sound to another by "copying" a feature of a sequential phoneme, thus making the two phones similiar. Morpheme(语素/词素): the smallest unit of language that carries information about meaning or function.
Derivation(词源): when they are conjoined to other morphemes (or words), new words are derived, or formed.
Allomorph(语素变体): the variant forms of a morpheme.
Bound morpheme(粘着语素): a morpheme that must be attached to another one.
Free morpheme(自由语素): a morpheme which can be a word by itself.
The root(词根) constitutes the core of the word and carries the major component of its meaning.
Deep structure(深层结构): formed by the XP rule in accordance with the head’s sub-categorization properties. It contains all the units and relationships that are necessary for interpreting the meaning of the sentence. Surface structure(表层结构): corresponding to the final syntactic form of the sentence which results from appropriate transformations. It is that of the sentence as it is pronounced or written.。