Chapter 1 Invitation to Linguistics语言学.doc

Chapter I Invitation to LinguisticsI. Why study language?a.b.c.II. What is language? human speech the ability to communicate by this means a system of vocal sounds and combinations of such sounds to which meaning is attributed, used for the expression or communication of thoughts and feelings the written representation of such a system any means of expressing or communicating, as gestures, sings, or animal sounds a special set of symbols, letters. Numerals, rules ets. Used for the transmission of information. As in a computer(Websters New World Dictionary) language is a means of verbal communication instrumental social and conventional determined by biological, cognitive, psychosocial, and environmental factors more sophisticatedIII. Features of language(本质特征)1. Arbitrariness：Forms of linguistic signs bear no natural relationship to their meaning (Saussure) What is the link between a linguistic sign and its meaning? Its a matter of convention.2. Duality: 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” (Lyons, 1982:20)“Stratification this organization of levels on levels is the physical manifestation of the infinite use of finite means, the trait that most distinguishes human communication and that provides its tremendous resourcefulness” (Bolinger and Sears, 1981, 3-4)3. CreativityLanguage is resourceful because of its duality and its recursiveness. On the one hand, it can create new meanings; on the other hand, it has great potential to create new meanings, and the recursive nature provides a theoretical basis for this possibility.4. Displacement:Human languages are stimulus free, which enable their users to symbolize objects, events and concepts which are not present (in time and space) at the moment of communication. Displacement can give human beings the power to handle generalizations and abstractions and make it possible for us to talk and think in abstract terms. IV. Origin of languageWow-wow theoryPooh-pooh theoryYo-he-yo theoryLanguage evolves within specific historical. Social and cultural contexts.V. Functions of languageJacobson (1960: 21-22), on the basis of 6 key elements of communication (speaker, addressee, context, message, code, contact), established a well-know framework of language functions: referential, poetic, emotive, conative, phatic, metalingual. Halliday (1994) proposes a theory of metafunctions of language, that is, language has ideational, interpersonal and textual functions. To sum up, the following functions are mentioned: Informative (ideational) (cf. P12)InterpersonalPerformativeEmotivePhatic communicationRecreationalVI. What is linguistics?VII. Main branches of liguisticsPhoneticsPhonologyMorphologySyntaxSemanticsPragmaticsVIII. MacrolinguisticsPsycholinguisticsSociolinguisticsAnthropological linguisticsComputational linguist