现代语言学Chapter 10.doc

Chapter 10 Language Acquisition 语言习得1. First language acquisition 第一语言习得 a) The biological basis of language acquisition 语言习得的生物基础Language acquisition is a genetically determined capacity that all humans are endowed with. Human is biologically programmed to acquire at least one language.Any child who is capable of acquiring some particular human language is capable of acquiring any human language spontaneously and effortlessly.语言习得是全人类均具备的通过遗传而得来的能力。人生来就具备一种天赋，或一种生物机制，使他们至少能习得一种语言。儿童只要能习得某种人类语言，它就能本能而轻松地习得任何人类语言。b) Language acquisition as the acquisition of grammatical rules 语言习得即语法规则的习得Language acquisition is primarily the acquisition of the grammatical system of language. It doesnt mean that every specific rule allowed by the grammatical system of a language must be acquired. What is actually acquired by young children are some general principle that are fundamental to the grammaticality of speech.语言习得主要是语言的语法体系的习得。这并不意味着必须习得一种语言的语法体系的所有规则。儿童习得的是一些一般的原则，这些原则使口头语能合乎语法的基础。c) The role of input and interaction 语言输入与交流的作用Although human beings are genetically predetermined to acquire language, this genetic predisposition is not a sufficient condition for language development. For language to be eventually acquired, children must be provided with an appropriate linguistic environment which they have access to language data and opportunities to interact with the input.虽然人的语言习得的能力是由遗传决定的，但这种先天遗传并不是语言发展的充分条件。要最终习得语言必须给儿童提供适当的环境，使儿童可以接触到语言信息并有机会用输入的语言进行交流。d) The role of instruction 语言教学的作用For the vast majority of children, language development occurs spontaneously and requires little conscious instruction. In fact, parents often fail in their attempt to teach children grammatical rules.对绝大多数儿童而言，语言发展是本能进行的，几乎不需要成人刻意的传授。事实上，父母向儿童传授语法规则徒劳无益。e) The role of correction and reinforcement 纠错与强化的作用Correction and reinforcement are not key factors in child language development. Reinforcement has been found to occur usually in childrens pronunciation or reporting of the truthfulness of utterances, rather than in the grammaticality of sentences.纠错和强化并不是儿童语言发展的主要因素。强化通常出现在儿童的发音和转述事实方面，而不是句子的语法方面。f) The role of imitation 模仿的作用Selective imitation suggests that children do not blindly mimic adult speech in a parrot fashion, but rather exploit it in very restricted way to improve their linguistic skills. The point is that imitation plays at best a very minor role in the childs mastery of language.选择性的模仿说明，儿童不是鹦鹉学舌般地模仿成人语言，而是对之加以有限的利用提高其自身的语言技能。结论是，模仿在儿童的语言学习中所起的作用不大。2. Stages of first language acquisition 第一语言习得的发展阶段 a) The prelinguistic stage 前语言阶段The earliest sounds produced by infants cannot be considered early language. The noises such as cries and whimpers of the new born in all language communities sound the same. Such noises are completely stimulus-controlled.婴儿最早发出的多种声音不能算是早期的语言，是前语言阶段。无论哪个语言社区的新生儿都发出同样的声音。这些声音全部是应激性的。b) The one-word stage 独词句阶段At some point in the late part of the first year or the early part of the second year, the babbling stage gradually gives way to the earliest recognizable stage of language, often referred to as the one-word stage. 在儿童接近一岁或一岁初的某个时间，咿呀学语阶段逐步被语言最早的可辨识阶段所取代，此阶段通常被称为独词句阶段。Childrens one-word utterances are also called holophrastic sentences, because they can be used to express a concept or predication that would be associated with an entire sentence in adult speech.儿童发出的一个词也可以被称为独词句，因为它们能够表达概念或论断，起到成人语言中一句话的作用。One-word utterances sometimes show an overextension or under-extension of reference. Typically, children use the same word for things that have a similar appearance.独词句有时表现出语义扩展过度或扩展不足的情况。非常典型的是，儿童会用相同的词来描述外貌相似的事物。c) The two-word stage 双词句阶段In general, the two-word stage begins roughly in the second half of he childs second year. At this stage, children are heard uttering two-word expressions in a variety of combinations; express a certain variety of grammatical relations.一般而言，双语句阶段大概开始于儿童一岁半到两岁期间。这个阶段，儿童所说的双语句的组合方式是多样的，通过词序表达许多不同的语法关系。In addition, the language at this stage begins to reflect the distinction between sentence types, such as negative sentences, imperative and questions.除此之外，这一阶段的语言开始反映句型的区别，如否定句、祈使句和疑问句。d) The multiword stage 多词句阶段Between two and three years old, children begin to produce longer utterances with more complex grammatical structures. When a child starts stringing more than two words together, the utterances may be two, three, four, or five words or longer, hence the multiword stage.儿童在两三岁的时候，开始说更长的具有更复杂语法结构的话。当儿童的话语超过两个词后，就出现了两词、三词、四词、五词或更长的话语，此阶段被称为多语句阶段。The early multiword utterances typically lack inflectional morphemes and most minor lexical categories as “to”, “the”, “can”. These multiword utterances are usually the “substantive” or “content” words that carry the main message. Because of their resemblance to the style of language found in telegrams, utterances at this acquisition stage are often referred to as telegraphic speech.儿童早期的多语句有一个典型的特点，即缺少屈折语素和大多数的功能词，如to/the/can等。存在于多语句中的通常是一些表达主要信息的实词。由于这些言语与电报中的电文风格相似，所以这个习得阶段的言语经常被称为电报式言语。Although they lack grammatical morphemes, telegraphic sentences are not simply words that are randomly strung together, but follow the principles of sentence formation.尽管电报式言语缺少起语法作用的词素，但它们也不是随意攒到一起的，而是遵循一定的句法组合规则的。As this type of telegram-format speech increases, a number of grammatical morphemes begin to appear in childrens speech, such as “-s”, “-ed” and prepositions.随着这类电报式言语的增多，儿童言语中开始出现一些语法性词素，如-s/-ed和介词等。It is normally assumed that by the age of five, with an operating vocabulary of more than 2000 words, children have completed the greater part of the language acquisition process.通常认为，儿童五岁时的有用词汇量应该超过2000个，语言习得过程基本完成。3. The development of the grammatical system 语法体系的发展a) The development of phonology 音系学的发展Its suggested that even before children master the phonemic contrasts of their language, they begin to develop the articulatory movements needed to produce these distinctions in speech.儿童在掌握其语言的音位对立之前，就已经开始了这些相对的音所需要的发音实践。As they develop their native language, children must master a systematic set of patterns and learn how to fit given sounds into those patterns.儿童在习得母语的同时，必须掌握一套系统的模式，并学会将特定的语音纳入这些模式中。Children first acquire the sounds found in all languages of the world, no matter what language they are exposed to, and in later stage acquire the “more difficult” sounds.儿童无论处于何种语言环境，他们最初习得的语音是全世界各种语言所共有的，而一些“较难”的语音则在以后阶段习得。It has been noted that certain sounds that occur in babbling are lost when children begin to speak the language, and then reappear at a later stage.人们注意到，儿童开始说话后，一些咿呀学语阶段的语音暂时消失了，以后又会出现。 b) The development of syntax 句法的发展As children produce sentences that more and more closely approximate the adult grammar, they begin to use functional words as well as inflectional and derivational morphemes of the language.随着儿童的语言越来越接近成人语法，他们开始使用其语言中的屈折因素、派生词素和功能词。c) The development of morphology 词形的发展Childrens early words are simply a bunch of bare stems without affixes. By the time they are going beyond the telegraphic stage, childrens begin to incorporate some of the inflectional morphemes which indicate the grammatical function of nouns and verbs used. ing/-s/-ed.儿童早期的用词仅有词干，没有词缀。到多词句阶段后，儿童开始使用一些体现所用名词和动词语法的屈折性词素。如-ing/-s/-ed等。d) The development of vocabulary and semantics 词汇与语义的发展It is estimated that during the first two years, a child have a very limited vocabulary ranging from 50 to 100 words. 儿童在出生后的两年里，词汇量极为有限，一般在50到100个单词之间。At this stage, the semantic referent of a word expands. Overgeneralization can be observed in childrens acquisition of the semantic system, as they acquire more and more words, the “over-generalized” meaning narrows down.在这个阶段，词义有泛指的特点。儿童习得语义体系有过度概括的情况，随着词汇量的增长，过度概括消除。By the age of two and a half years, childrens vocabulary is expanding rapidly and they are actually initiating more talks. By five, childrens utterances average about 4.6 words per sentence, and their vocabulary increases by about twenty words each day.Six-7800Eight-17600 (28000 if derived forms included)两周岁半的儿童的词汇量迅速增长，他们的话语实际上也增多了。五周岁时，儿童每句话平均大约有4.6个单词，而且词汇的增长达到日均20个。六周岁时词汇量可达7800个。八周岁时词汇量可达17600个，若包括派生形式，则为28000个。In general, children have virtually acquired the basic fabric of their native language at the age of five or six. It is agreed that the pre-school years are a crucial period for first language acquisition.一般来说，儿童在五六岁时，实际上已经掌握了其母语的基本结构。现在已有这样的共识：对儿童而言，学前阶段是第一语言习得的关键时期。4. Second language acquisition 第二语言习得a) Acquisition and learning 习得与学习Acquisition refers to the gradual and subconscious development of ability in the first language by using it naturally in daily communicative situations.习得指的是日常交际环境中通过自然的运用第一语言能力而逐步地、下意识地发展这种能力。Learning, however, is defined as a conscious process of accumulating knowledge of a second language usually obtained in school settings.而学习则被定义为在学校环境中有意识地积累第二语言知识的过程。b) Transfer and interference 转移与干扰Naturally, learners will subconsciously use their L1 knowledge in learning a second language. This is known as language transfer.学习者在学第二语言的过程中总是下意识地运用第一语言的知识，这种现象叫做语言转移。Transfer can be positive or negative. Presumably, positive transfer occurs when an L1 pattern is identical with, or similar to, a target language pattern. Conversely, negative transfer occurs when an L1 pattern is different from the counterpart pattern of the target language. Negative transfer is a process more commonly known as interference.语言转移可为正向转移，也可为负向转移。如果第一语言和目的语的模式相同或相似时，就很可能出现正向转移。相反，如果第一语言的模式和目的语中相应的模式不同时出现的就是负向转移，即人们常说的干扰。In order to identify the areas of learning difficulty, an inter-lingual contrastive procedure called Contrastive Analysis was developed. 语言学家们提出一种被称为对比分析的方法来研究本族语和目的语的不同之处。被称为“对比分析家”的学者认为，正向转移对第二语言学习起帮助作用，而负向转移学习则对第二语言学习起干扰作用，是造成错误的主要原因。It was found that a large proportion of grammatical errors could not be explained by mother tongue interference. Many actual errors are attributable to overgeneralization instead of negative transfer.实际调查发现，有相当大比例的语法错误无法用母语干扰加以解释。实际的许多错误是由于过度概括而导致的。c) Error analysis and the natural route of SLA development 错误分析与第二语言习得的自然发展轨道The Error Analysis approach shows that there are striking similarities in the ways in which different L2 learners acquire a new language. A large proportion of developmental-type errors in learners L2 utterances provide support for the claim that these similarities point to a natural route of L2 development which resembles that reported for L1 development. Evidence from a number of morpheme and longitudinal studies also lend support for the claim that L2 learners follow broadly similar routes, although minor differences exist due to variable learner factors and learning situations.错误分析方法表明，不同的第二语言学习者在习得新语言时其方法具有惊人的相似性。第二语言学习者所犯的很多语言发展错误表明，不同的第二语言学习者在学习方法上的相似性体现了第二语言习得与第一语言习得一样，都有一条自然发展轨道。一些词素和纵向研究的结果也表明，第二语言学习者遵循着大致相同的发展轨道，尽管由于自身的一些因素与学习环境的不同，他们的语言发展轨道也存在一些细微的差别。d) Inter-language and fossilization 语际语与语言僵化现象SLA is viewed as a process of creative construction, in which a learner constructs a series of internal representations that comprises the learners interim knowledge of the target language, known as inter-language, that is, the language that a learner constructs at a given stage of SLA.第二语言习得是一个创造性构建过程，在这一过程中，学习者构建了一系列内在的表达方式，这种表达方式组成了学习者对目的语的过渡性知识，此种知识被称为语际语，即学习者在第二语言习得的某一阶段所说的语言。Specifically, inter-language consists of a series of interlocking and approximate linguistic systems in-between and yet distinct form the learners native and target language. It represents the learners transitional competence moving along a learning continuum stretching from ones L1 competence to the target competence.具体地说，语际语包含一系列与本族语和目的语相关并相似的语言体系。既介于它们之间，又不同于它们的语言体系。它反映了学习者从第一语言能力向目的语语言能力的过度。Learners inter-language fossilized some way short of target language competence while the internalized rule system contained rules that are different from those of the target language system. The fossilization of the learners inter-language is believed to be a major source of incorrect forms resistant to further instruction.学习者的语际语在未到达目的语言能力时，就发生了僵化，此时其内在化的规则体系与目的语语言体系所包含的规则不尽相同。据认为，学习者语际语的僵化现象是导致错误的语言形式的不可救药的主要原因。 e) The role of input 语言输入的作用It is evident that SLA takes place only when the learner has access to L2 input and the opportunity to interact with the input.很明显，学习者只有接受到第二语言输入并有机会纳入输入信息时，才能进行第二语言习得。f) The role of formal instruction 正规教学的作用A great number of adults learn a second language through formal instruction. Formal instruction occurs in classrooms when attempts are made