What I have learnt about English Linguistics 语言学论文.doc

what i have learnt about english linguisticsabstract: a linguist, though, does not have to know and use a large number of languages, but to investigate how each language is constructed. he is also concerned with how a language varies from dialect to dialect, from class to class, how it changes from century to century, how children acquire their mother tongue and perhaps how a person learns or should learn a foreign language. in short, linguistics studies the general principles whereupon all human languages are constructed and operate as systems of communication in their societies or communities我对英语语言学的认知摘要：作为一个语言学家，虽然他们没必要了解和使用各种各样的语言，但是语言学家们会调查出各种各样的语言是如何搭建的。语言学家们会关心一个语种是如何在方言与等级和不同年代之中变化的。儿童是如何学会母语以及可能研究一个人该学会和如何学会一门外语。简而言之，语言学研究语言的通则，人类是如何组建和使用者日常社会中和交际中的交流系统。关键词：语言学; 音系学; 形态学；句法学key words: linguistics; phonology; morphology; syntax一、key points of linguistics1. the scope of linguisticsphoneticsphonologymorphologysyntaxsemanticspragmaticssociolinguisticspsycholinguisticsapplied linguistics2. prescriptive vs. descriptivedescriptive：a linguistic study describes and analyzes the language people actually use.prescriptive: it aims lay down rules for correct behavior.modern linguistics is descriptive; its investigations are based on authentic, and mainly spoken data.traditional grammar is prescriptive; it is based on high written language3. synchronic vs. diachronic the description of a language at some point in time is a synchronic study the description of a language as it changes through time is a diachronic studyin modern linguistics, synchronic study seems to enjoy priority over diachronic study.4. speech and writing speech enjoys priority over writing in modern linguistics study for the following reasons:（1） speech precedes writing in terms of evolution（2） a large amount of communication is carried out in speech tan in writing（3） speech is the form in which infants acquire their native language5. language and parole language refers to the abstract linguistic system shared by all the members of a speech community parole refers to the realization of language in actual use6. competence and performance chomsky defines competence as the ideal users knowledge of the rules of his languageperformance: the actual realization of this knowledge in linguistic communication what is language? language is a system of arbitrary vocal symbols used for human communicationcharacteristics of language: language is a rule-governed system language is basically vocal language is arbitrary （the fact different languages have different words for the same object is a good illustration of the arbitrary nature of language. this conventional nature of language is well illustrated by a famous quotation from shakespeares play romeo and juliet: a rose by any other name would smell as sweet.） language is used for human communication design features of language：american linguist charles hockett specified 12 design features:1） arbitrariness2） productivity3） duality4） displacement5） cultural transmission 二、what is a phone? what is a phoneme? what is an allophone?a “phone” is a phonetic unit or segment. the speech sounds we hear and produce during linguistic communication are all phones. when we hear the following words pronounced pit, tip, spit, etc., the similar phones we have heard are p for one thing, and three differentps, readily making possible the “narrow transcription or diacritics”. phones may and may not distinguish meaning. a “phoneme” is a phonological unit; it is a unit that is of distinctive value. as an abstract unit, a phoneme is not any particular sound, but rather it is represented or realized by a certain phone in a certain phonetic context. for example, the phonemep is represented differently in pit, tip and spit. the phones representing a phoneme are called its “allophones”, i. e., the different (i.e., phones) but do not make one word so phonetically different as to create a new word or a new meaning thereof. so the differentps in the above words are the allophones of the same phonemep. how a phoneme is represented by a phone, or which allophone is to be used, is determined by the phonetic context in which it occurs. but the choice of an allophone is not random. in most cases it is rule-governed; these rules are to be found out by a phonologist. 三、phonologytwo major media of communication: speech and writingthe limited range of sounds which are meaningful in human communication and are of interest to linguistic studies are the phonic medium of language. phonetics: is defined as the study of the phonic medium of language; it is concerned with all the sounds that occur in the worlds language.three branches of phonetics : articulatory phonetics （most highly developed）, auditory phonetics and acoustic phonetics organs of speechthe articulator apparatus of a human being are contained in three important areas or cavities:the pharyngeal cavitythe throatthe oral cavitythe mouththe nasal cavity the nosevibration of the vocal cords （声带） results in a quality of speech sounds called voicing 浊音，which is a feature of all vowels 元音 and some consonants 辅音。单词补充：01） velum: the soft palate. 软腭 02） uvula: a small, conical, fleshy mass of tissue suspended from the center of the soft palate. 小舌，悬雍垂悬垂在软腭中央的小的圆锥状肉块 03） larynx: n. 喉 04） vocal cord: 声带 05） membrane: n. 06） the soft palate: 软腭 07） the hard palate: 硬腭 08） the teeth ridge: 齿龈 09） alveolus: a tooth socket in the jawbone 牙槽颚骨处的牙床 10） the teeth: 牙齿 11） the lips: 上下唇 12） blade of tongue: 舌面 13） back of tongue: 舌根 14） pharyngeal cavity: 咽腔 15） nasal cavity: 鼻腔 16） velar 17） the tip of the tongue: 舌尖 18） the upper front teeth: 上齿 19） the roof of the mouth: 上颚 20） the lower lip: 下唇 音标宽式和严式标音法international phonetic alphabet （ipa）the vowels （monophthongs and diphthongs） 元音（单元音&双元音）the constants 辅音broad transcription: transcription with letter-symbols only. （in dictionaries and teaching textbooksnarrow transcription: the transcription with diacritics. classification of english speech sounds四、morphology 形态学morphology is a branch of grammar which studies the internal structure of words and the rules by which words are formed. it is divided into two sub-branches: inflectional morphology and lexical or derivational morphology支。morpheme: the smallest meaningful unit of language.free morpheme: a free morpheme is one that can stand by itself. （independent） bound morpheme: a bound morpheme is one that cannot stand by itself.bound morpheme includes two types: （1） root （2）affix（词缀）1）inflectional affixes （屈折词缀）（inflectional morphemes）: affixes attached to the end of words to indicate grammatical relationships are inflectional2）derivational affixes（派生词缀） a） prefix: a prefix comes before words. b）suffixan adjective suffix（形容词后缀） that is added to the stem, whatever classis belongs to , the result will be an adjective.free=free root（自由词根）morpheme（词素）bound root prefixbound derivationalinflectionalroot and stem（词根和词干）1） root 2） stem the differences between root and stem:a root is the basic form of a word which cannot be further analyzed without total loss of identity.a stem is the surplus part after the cutting of inflectional morpheme in a word with inflectional morphemes, can be further analyzed, it sometimes could be a root. individualistic undesirablesindividualist （stem） undesirable （stem） individual （stem） desirable （stem）dividual （stem） desire （root, stem） divide（root, stem）affixation词缀法（derivation派生法）：adding word-formation or derivational affixes to stem.prefixation前缀：its the formation of new words by adding a prefixes to stems.1）表示否定nagative prefixes: un-,non,in-,dis,a- etc.2）reversative or privative prefixes: un-,de-dis etc.3）表示贬义pejorative prefixes: mis-, mal-, pseudo- etc.4）表示程度degree or size prefixes: arch-, super-,out-,sub-,over-,under-,hyper-,ultra-,mini- etc.5）表示方向、态度orientation & attitude prefixes:counter-,contra-,anti-,pro- etc.6）locative prefixes:super-,sub-,inter-,trans- etc.7）表示时间、次序time and order prefixes:fore-,pre-,post-,ex-,re- etc.8）表示数量number prefixes:uni-/mono-,bi-/di-,tri-,multi-/poly- etc.9）混杂miscellaneous prefixes：auto-, neo-, pan-, vice-suffixation后缀: its the formation of a new word by adding suffixes to stems.1）noun suffixes 2）adjective suffixes 3）adverb suffixes 4）verb suffixescompounding复合法 （also called composition）compounding: is the formation of new words by joining two or more stemsformation of compoundsnoun noun（名词名词） handbook, sunshineadjective noun（形容词名词）highway, deadlineadjective noun -ed（形容词名词ed）white-haired, red-eyedverb noun（动词名词）driveway, breakwater（挡水板）adverb noun（副词名词）downtown, overburdennoun verb（名词动词）toothpick, snowfallverb adverb（动词副词）follow-up, kick-offnoun adjective（名词形容词）world-famous, lifelong-ing form noun（ing 名词）baking power, dining-roomother forms（其他）go-between, father-in-law features of compounds复合词的特征1.orthographically书写特征（compounds are written in three ways: solid（airmail） hyphenated（air-conditioning） open（air force, air raid）2.syntactically句法特征（复合词的词性一般取决于复合词最后一个成分的词性）3.semantically语义特征（复合词的意义具有习语性质，许多复合词的意义都不是其构成成分意义和总和）4.phonetically语音特征（复合词的单词重音落在第一个构成成分上五、syntaxsyntax is a subfield of linguistics that studies the sentence structure of language.as a major component of grammar, syntax consists of a set of abstract rules that allow words to be combined with other words to form grammatical sentences.normally a sentence consists of at least a subject and its predicate which contains a finite verb or a verb phrase.the referring expression is grammatically called subject.types of sentences the simple sentence: consists of a single clause which contains a subject and a predicate and stands alone as its own sentence.the coordinate sentence: contains two clauses joined by a linking word called coordinating conjunction.the complex sentence: contains two, or more, clauses, one of which is incorporated into the other.the two clauses in a complex sentence hold unequal status, one subordinating the other.the liner and hierarchical structure of sentences.the liner word order of a sentence: when a sentence is uttered or written down, the words of the sentence are produced one after another in sequence.the hierarchical structure of a sentence: sentence are organized with words of the same syntactic category, such as noun phrase(np), or verb phrase(vb), grouped together.tree diagrams of sentence structuresnp vpv snp vpv npjohn suggested (that) mary take the linguistics class.the points at which the tree branches at various levels are called branching nodes. (分节点) syntactic categories words and phrases are organized according to the syntactic categories they belong to.lexical categories 词类major lexical categories.noun /verb/ adjective/ adverbminor lexical categories determiner /auxiliary/preposition/pronoun/conjunction/interjectionphrasal categories 词组类noun phrase (np)/verb phrase (vb)/prepositional phrase (pp)/adjective phrase (ap)grammatical relations 语法关系our linguistic knowledge includes an awareness of a distinction between the structural and logical functional relations of constituents called grammatical relations.the structural subject and the structural object.the logic subject (the doer of action) and the logic object (the recipient of the action).combin