TEM8语言学知识辅导讲座.doc

TEM8语言学知识辅导讲座1. What is language?The generally accepted definition:Language is a system of arbitrary vocal symbols used for human communication.2. Design features of languageThey refer to the quintessential characteristics of human language, which can distinguish any human language system from any non-human language system. They cover arbitrariness, duality, creativity, displacement, cultural transmission(文化传递) and interchangeability (互换性).a.Arbitrariness（任意性）b.Duality（二重性）c.Creativity（创造性）d.Displacement（移位性）3. Six functions of language:a.Informative （信息功能）b.Interpersonal（人际功能）c.Performative（施为功能）d.Emotive （感情功能）e.Phatic communion（交感性功能）f.Recreational（娱乐性功能）g.Metalangual（元语言功能）4. What is linguistics?Linguistics is generally defined as the scientific study of language. 5. The scope of linguisticsa. Phonetics（语音学）b. Phonology（音系学）c. Morphology（形态学）d. Syntax（句法）e. Semantics（语义学）f. Pragmatics（语用学）6 Macrolinguisticsa. Psycholinguistics（心理语言学）b. Sociolinguistics（社会语言学）c. anthropological linguistics（人类语言学）d. computational linguistics（计算语言学）7 Important distinctions in linguistics7.1 Descriptive vs. prescriptive（描述和规定）If a linguistic study describes and analyzes the language people actually use, it is said to be descriptive; if it aims to lay down rules for “correct” behaviour, i. e., to tell people what they should say and what they should not say, it is said to be prescriptive.Modern linguistics is mostly descriptive. It differs from the linguistic study normally known as “grammar”. Early grammars were based on “high” (religious, literary) written language. They set models for language users to follow. And today, the grammar taught to learners of a language is still basically prescriptive. It tells the learner what he should say, or what is supposed to be correct usage. On the other hand, modern linguistics is mostly descriptive. Linguistic study is supposed to be scientific and objective and the task of linguists is supposed to describe the language people actually use, be it “correct” or not. Linguists believe that whatever occurs in the language people use should be described and analyzed in their investigation.7.2 Synchronic vs. diachronic（共时和历时）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 study. A diachronic study of language is a historical study; it studies the historical development of language over a period of time. For example, a study of the features of the English used in Shakespeares time would be a synchronic study, and a study of the changes English has undergone since then would be a diachronic study.In modern linguistics, synchronic study seems to enjoy priority over diachronic study. The reason is that unless the various states of a language are successfully studied it would be difficult to describe the changes that have taken place in its historical development. Synchronic descriptions are often thought of as being descriptions of a language as it exists at the present day and most linguistic studies are of this type.7.3 Langue & parole（语言和言语）（Course in General Linguistics）The distinction between langue and parole was made by the Swiss linguist F. de Saussure（索绪尔） in the early 20th century. Langue and parole are French words. Langue refers to the abstract linguistic system shared by all the members of a speech community, and parole refers to the realization of langue in actual use. 7.4 Competence and performance（语言能力和语言运用）（Aspects of the Theory of Syntax）Proposed by the American linguist N. Chomsky（乔姆斯基） in the late 1950s. Chomsky defines competence as the ideal users knowledge of the rules of his language, and performance the actual realization of this knowledge in linguistic communication. 8.What is phonetics?Phonetics is defined as the study of the phonic medium of language; it is concerned with all the sounds that occur in the worlds languages.Phonetics looks at speech sounds from three distinct but related points of view.First, it studies the sounds from the speakers point of view, namely, how a speaker uses his speech organs to articulate the sounds (articulatory phonetics 发音语音学). Then, it looks at the sounds from the hearers point of view, namely, how the sounds are perceived by the hearer (auditory phonetics听觉语音学). Lastly, it studies the way sounds travel by looking at the sound waves, the physical means by which sounds are transmitted through the air from one person to another (acoustic phonetics声学语音学).9. What is phonology?Phonology is interested in the system of sounds of a particular language; it aims to discover how speech sounds in a language form patterns and how these sounds are used to convey meaning in linguistic communication.10. Phonemes and allophones, distinctive features; suprasegmental features11. Definition of 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. Morphology is divided into two sub-branches: inflectional morphology and lexical or derivational morphology. The former studies the inflections and the latter the study of word-formation.a. definition of morphemeThe smallest meaningful unit of language for grammatical analysis is called morpheme. A morpheme is the basic unit in the study of morphology. Every morpheme has meaning, either lexical or grammatical. There are two types of morphemes: free morpheme and bound morpheme.Allomorph（词素变体/语素变体）: any of the different forms of a morpheme. Allomorphs should be realized by phonological representations. Allomorphs are put in braces .Let us consider the morpheme of the past tense for all three persons.booked treserved ddescended idb. borrowing（借词）Three types of processes with regard to borrowing:a. loanword（借词或外来词）: a process in which both form and meaning are borrowed with only a slight adaptation, in some cases, to the phonological system of the new language that they enter, e.g. au pair, encore, coup detat (French); tea(Chinese); sputnik(Russian)b. loanblend（混合借词）: a process in which part of the form is native and part is borrowed, but the meaning is fully borrowed, e.g.coconut (Spanish); China-town(Chinese)c. Loanshift（转移借词）: a process in which the meaning is borrowed, but the form is native.Bridge(Italian: ponte: a card game); artificial satellite(Russian : sputnik)d. Loan translation（翻译借词）: a special type of borrowing, in which each morpheme or word is translated in the equivalent morpheme or word in another language. This is also called Calque, which may be a word, a phrase, or even a short sentence, e.g.Free verse (Latin: verse libre); black humour( French: humour noir); found object(French: objet trouve)12. Lexicon: a list of all the words in a language assigned to various lexical categories and provided with semantic interpretation.13. What is syntax?Syntax is a subfield of linguistics that studies the sentence structure of language.13.1 The traditional approachWhat is category?Categories refer to parts of speech and functions, such as the classification of words in terms of parts of speech, the classification of terms of parts of speech, the identification of functions of words in terms of subject, predicate, etc.But the term category is also more specifically used for the defining properties of units like noun and verb, e.g. the noun is usually said to have the categories of number, gender, case; the verb the categories of tense, aspect, voice.English used to be said to have sixteen tenses as follows:Simple presentPresent progressivePresent perfectPresent perfect progressiveSimple pastPast progressivePast perfectPast perfect progressiveSimple futureFuture progressiveFuture perfectFuture perfect progressiveSimple past futurePast future progressivepast future perfectPast future perfect progressiveIn English, there are two aspects: perfective (or perfect) and progressive ( or continuous).13.2. The structural approachConcepts to be mastered:1. Syntagmatic（横组合关系） and paradigmatic relations（纵聚合关系）2. immediate constituent analysis（直接成分分析）3. endocentric and exocentric constructions（向心结构）（离心结构）13.3. The generative approachTransformational-generative grammar: also transformational grammar, TG grammar, generative-transformational grammar, generative transformational theory.A theory of grammar which was proposed by the American linguist Noam Chomsky（诺姆.乔姆斯基）in 1957. It has since been developed by him and many other linguists. Chomsky attempted to provide a model for the description of all languages. A transformational generative grammar tries to show, with a system of rules, the knowledge which a native speaker of a language uses in forming grammatical sentences.Deep and surface structuresAccording to Chomsky, a syntactic construction consists of two levels, that is deep structure (D-structure) and surface structure (S-structure).Deep structure: the abstract representation of the syntactic properties of a construction, i. e. the underlying level of structural relations between its different constituents, such as the relation between the underlying subject and its verb, or a verb and its object.Surface structure: the final stage in the syntactic derivation of a construction, which closely corresponds to the structural organization of a construction people actually produce and receive.13.4.The functional approach. Systemic-functional grammarAn approach to linguistics developed by M. A. K. Halliday（韩礼德） which sees language in a social context. Halliday inherited from the Polish anthropologist Bronislaw Malinowski（马林诺夫斯基）the idea that language is a social phenomenon, and emphasizes the study of language in relation to the functions it performs.According to Halliday, language has three main functions:a. the ideational function is to organize the speakers or writers experience of the real or imaginary world, i.e. language refers to real or imagined persons, things, actions, events, states, etc. 达意功能：指组织说话者或作者现实世界或虚构世界的体验，即语言指称实际或虚构的人、物、动作、事件、状态等。b. the interpersonal function is to indicate, establish, or maintain social relationships between people. It includes forms of address, speech function, modality, etc. 人际功能表明建立或维持人与人之间的社会关系，包括称谓形式、言语功能、情态等。c. the textual function is to create written or spoken TEXTs which cohere within themselves and which fit the particular situation in which they are used. 语篇功能指组成书面或口头的语篇，这些语篇内部连贯，并适用于所有的特定场景。14. Semantics can be simply defined as the study of meaning.Meanings of “meaning”In the light of Geoffrey Leech（杰夫瑞. 利奇）, the world-known contemporary British linguist, meaning consists of the following seven categories:1. Conceptual meaning（概念意义）: logical, cognitive, or denotative content.2. Associative meaning（联想意义）1) Connotative meaning（内涵意义）2) Social meaning（社会意义）3) Affective meaning（情感意义）4) Reflected meaning（反映意义）5) Collocative meaning（搭配意义）3.Thematic meaning（主题意义）Sense relations（意义关系）There are generally three kinds of sense relations: sameness relation, oppositeness relation and inclusiveness relation1.Synonymy（同义关系）Synonymy is a technical name for the sameness relation. Words that are close in meaning are called synonyms.2. Antonymy（反义关系）Antonymy: is the name for oppositeness relation; words that are opposite in meaning are antonyms. There are three main sub-types: gradable antonymy（等级反义关系）, complementary antonymy（互补反义关系）, and converse antonymy（反向反义关系）3.Hyponymy（上下义关系）(inclusive relation)Hyponymy refers to the sense relation between a more general, more inclusive word and more specific words. The word which is more general in meaning is called the superordinate （上坐标词）, and the more specific words are called its hyponyms（下义词）. Hyponyms of the same superordinate are co-hyponyms（并列下义词） to each other15. What is pragmatics?Pragmatics is the study of how speakers of a language use sentences to effect successful communication. It is also regarded as a kind of meaning study.1. Speech act theory（言语行为）Speech act theory is an important theory in the pragmatic study of language. It was originated by the British philosopher John Austin (1911 - 1960) in the late 50s of the 20th century.a distinction between what he called performative（施为句、言有所为） and constative（表述句、言有所述）.performative: an utterance by which a speaker does something（实施行为句）.Constative: an utterance by which a speaker express a proposition（命题） which may be true or false.locutionary act（发话行为、以言指事）, illocutionary act（行事行为、以言行事）, and perlocutionary act（取效行为、以言成事）.A locutionary act is the act of uttering words, phrases, clauses. It is the act of conveying literal meaning by means of syntax, lexicon and phonology.An illocutionary act is the act of expressing the speakers intention; it is the act performed in saying something.A perlocutionary act is the act performed by or resulting from saying something; it is the consequence of, or the change brought about by the utterances; it is the act performed by saying something.2. The theory of conversational implicature（会话含义理论）A philosopher and logician, Paul Grice made an attempt to explain the course of natural conversation, in which implied messages are frequently involved. His idea is that in making a conversation, the participants must first of all be willing to cooperative; otherwise, it would not be possible for them to carry on the talk. This general principle is called the Cooperative Principle, abbreviated as CP.Definition of conversational implicature and CP: Conversational implicature: the extra meaning not contained in the literal utterances, understandable to the listener only when he shares the speakers knowledge or knows why and how he violates intentionally one of the four maxims of the Cooperative Principle (CP).Cooperative principle: proposed by H. P. Grice. There are four maxims of the cooperative principle: a: the maxim of quantity: give as much information as is needed.b: the maxim of quality: speak truthfullyc: the maxim of relevance: say things that are relevant.d: the maxim of manner: say things clearly and brieflyThe four maxims of CP in detail:1) Quantity maxim(量的准则)a) make your contribution as informative as required (for the current purpose of the exchange)（所说的话应包含交谈目的所需要的信息）b) do not make your contribution more informative than is required.（所说的话不应包含超出需要的信息）2) Quality maxim（质的准则）a) do not say what you believe to be false.（不要说自知是虚假的话）b) Don not say that for which you lack adequate evidence.（不要说缺乏足够证据的话）3) Relation maxim（关系准则）Be relevant.（要有关联）4) Manner maxim（方式准则）a) avoid obscurity of expression.（避免晦涩）b) Avoid ambi