英语语言学期末考试重点

第一章

1.What is language?

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

2.Design features of language

①Arbitrariness(任意性)refers to the forms of linguistic signs bear no natural relationship to their meaning. (sounds and meanings)

②Duality（二层性）: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.

③Productivity/creativity(创造性）:Language is productive in that it makes possible the construction and interpretation of new signals by its users.

④Displacement(移位性):Human Languages enable their users to symbolize objects, events and concepts which are not present (in time and space) at moment of communication. (p7)

3.Functions of language

① Informative(信息功能): to give information about facts. (ideational)

②Interpersonal(人际功能): to establish and maintain social status in a society.(age, sex, language, background, accent, status)

③Performative(施为功能) : language is used to do things, to perform certain actions. (name, promise, apologize, sorry, declare)

④. Emotive/Expressive (情感功能): to express feelings and attitudes of the speaker.

⑤Phatic communion(寒暄交流) : to use small and meaningless expressions to establish a comfortable relationship or maintain social contact between people without any factual content. (health, weather)

⑥ Recreational function(娱乐): the use of language for sheer joy. (lyrics, poetry)

⑦Metalingual function(元语言功能): to talk about language itself.

4. What is linguistics?

Linguistics is generally defined as the scientific study of language.

5. Important distinctions in linguistics

Descriptive & prescriptive

Synchronic & diachronic

Langue & parole

Competence & performance

6.Descriptive(描写/述性)—describe and analyze linguistic facts or the language people actually use (modern linguistic)

Prescriptive(规定性)—lay down rules for “correct and standard” linguistic behavior in using language (traditional grammar: “never use a double negative”)

7.Synchronic study (共时)—description of a language at some point of time (modern linguistics) Diachronic study (历时)—description of a language as it changes through time (historical development of language over a period of time)

第四章

1．What is Syntax （句法）?

Syntax is the study of the rules governing the ways different constituents are combined to form

sentences.句法就是研究语言的不同成分组成句子的规则

2．Four Approaches :The traditional approach传统语言观(Parts of speech、Syntactic Function 不考、Category范畴、Concord and government一致关系和支配关系)、The structural approach 结构语言观、The generative approach、The functional approach功能语言观

3．The traditional grammar regards sentences as a sequence of words , so it pays great attention to the study of words , such as the classification of words in terms of parts of speech , the identification of function of words in terms of subject, predicate , etc.

4. Parts of speech

Traditional grammar defines 8 parts of speech: nouns, verbs, pronouns, adjectives, adverbs, prepositions, conjunctions and interjections.

5．The term Category范畴in some approaches refers to word classes and functions in its narrow sense,范畴这一术语狭义上是指词类和功能eg. Noun, Verb, Subject, Predicate. More specifically, it refers to the defining properties of these general units:

the categories of the noun名词的范畴, include number, gender, case and countability（case）; the categories of the verb动词的范畴: tense, aspect, voice, etc.

6．Number is mostly a category of the noun and pronoun名词和不可数名词.

Two terms of number in nouns: singular and plural单数和复数

Number is also reflected in the inflections of pronouns and verbs

7. Gender is also mostly a category of the noun and pronoun.

In English, the gender distinctions are on the whole natural, determined by the biological gender of the creature.

8. Case is used in the analysis of word classes to identify the syntactic relationship between words in a sentence.在词类分析中，格范畴用来辨别句子中词之间的句法关系

In English, pronouns have three cases of nominative主格, accusative受格, and genitive与格. Nouns have two of general and genitive所有格

In English, the case of noun is realized in three channels:(a) inflection(b) following a preposition(c) word order

9. Tense时态: the absolute location of an event or action on time. It is marked by an inflection of the verb. As a result, there are only two tenses recognized now: past and present.

Since the future time does not involve any inflection of the verb, we do not refer to a “future tense”, even though in many different ways we can talk about the future.

10. Aspect体: It has nothing with time, and it tells us whether an action is ongoing or completed. Perfective（完成体）and Imperfective（进行体）

Perfective and Progressive (in English)

11. Voice语态: describe the relationship between verb and subject

Passive被动语态and active主动语态

12. Concord and government

①Concord (一致关系) refers to agreement between words, especially between a verb and the subject of a sentence.

②Government (支配关系) is a type of grammatical relationship between two or more elements in a sentence.

In traditional grammar, the term government has typically been used to refer to the relationship between verbs and nouns or between prepositions and nouns.

13.The Structural Approach ，由Ferdinand de Saussure提出