英语语言学复习总结.doc

1、How do you interpret the following definition of linguistics: linguistics is the scientific study of language.It is a scientific studies because it is based on the systematic investigation of linguistic data, conducted with reference to some general theory of language structure. In order to discover the nature and rules of the underlying language system, what the linguist has to do first is to collect and observe language facts, which are found to display some similarities, and generalizations are made about them; then he formulates some hypotheses about the language structure. But the hypotheses, thus formed have to be checked repeatedly against the observed facts to fully prove their validity.In linguistics, as in any other discipline, data and theory stand in a dialectical complementation; that is, a theory without the support of data can hardly claim validity, and data without being explained by some theory remain a muddled mass of things.2、The design/defining features of human language (Charles Hockett)(1) Arbitrariness-No logical (motivated or intrinsic) connection between sounds and meanings. - No natural and inevitable link between the sound and the meaningException: Onomatopoeic words and Some compound words.(2) Productivity/creativityWe can speak an endless number of sentences with a limited vocabulary and one sentence can expand into endless theoretically possible sentences in the way of recurringException: and bee dancing is used only to indicate food sources, which is the only kind of message that can be sent through the dancing.(3) Duality Lower level-sounds (meaningless) Higher level-meaning (larger units of meaning) Exception: the grouping of the three sounds/k/,/a:/,and/p/ can mean either a kind of fish(crap), or a public place for rest and amusement(park).(4) DisplacementDisplacement means that human languages enable their users to symbolize objects, events and concepts which are not present (in time and space) at the moment of communication.Exception: Yesterday which book did you read?(5) Cultural transmissionLanguage can transmit Culture which the language contains.Exception；an English speaker and a Chinese speaker are both able to use a language, but they are not mutually intelligible. This shows that language is culturally transmitted.3、word formation(1)CompoundIt refers to those words that consist of more than one lexical morpheme, or the way to join two separate words to produce a single form. icecream, sunrise, paperbag(2) DerivationIt refers to the formation of new words by adding affixes to other words or morphemes.Unconscious, national, nationalize(3) BlendingIt refers to the form of compounding, in which two words are blended by joining the initial part of the first word and the final part of the second word, or by joining the initial parts of the two words.Smoke + fog = smog 烟雾(4) Abbreviation1)cutting the final part ( or with a slight variation) advertisement-ad2) cutting the initial part aeroplane -plane3) cutting both the initial and final parts accordingly refrigerator - fridge(5) Acronym(I)It is made up from the first letters of the name of an organization, which has a heavily modified headword. WB : World BankAcronym(II)This process is also widely used in shortening extremely long words of word groups in science, technology and other special fields. VAT : value added tax 增殖税(6) Back- formationIt refers to an abnormal type of word-formation where a shorter word is derived by deleting an imagined affix from a longer form already in the languageEditor -edit(7) BorrowingLatin: cancer, page, i.e.(that is) e.g.( for example) etc. (et cetera)Chinese: taji, chow mein, kung-fuJapanese: JudoFrench, German, Italian, Spanish(8) InventionSince economic activities are the most important and dynamic in human life, many new lexical items come directly from the consumer items, their producers or their brand names such as Kodak, Coke, nylon, and others to cope with the Invention of new entities.4. XP rule1.XP rule: specifier + head + complement2. XP rule: (Specifier)XX X(complement)3. XP rule :(Specifier) X (Complement*)4. XP rule:(Spec) (Mod) X (Complement*) (Mod)Complement: (in grammar) that part of the sentence which follows the verb and which thus completes the sentence.Features: one or more complements are permitted (eg. A story about a sentimental girl with purple umbrella ) words that can take CP are not verbs alone. As, Ns and Ps can all take CP (e.g. take it; poor as a chuch mouse;the man with hat;right near the fireplace) A certain lexical item requires a certain type of complement. (e.g. come to school; go to bed; look through it)Modifier: is used to specify optionally expressible properties of heads.Modifier position in EnglishModifierPositionexampleAPPrecedes the heada very careful girlPPFollows the headopen with careAdvPPrecedes or follows the headread carefully; carefully read5. 请从Behaviorism 的角度来举例说明其意义：Behaviorists attempted to define the meaning of a language form as the “situation in which the speaker utters it and the response it calls forth in the hearer.”S_Tang Wanyi_r-s_Vicky_RWhen Tang Wanyi sees an apple and wants to have it, she has a physical stimulus, (represented by the capital letters), which gives rise to a verbal response(r) to Vicky. For instance, she might say to Vicky ”Im thirsty”. What she says results in a verbal stimulus to Vicky (represented by the small letter S). This stimulus, in its turn, leads to a non-verbal response from Vicky, such as picking the apple for her.6. synonymy(同义现象)Synonymy refers to the sameness or close similarity of meaning. Words that are close in meaning are called synonyms1) Dialectal synonyms- synonyms used in different regional dialects（地区方言）autumn - fall, biscuit - cracker, petrol gasoline 地方2) Stylistic synonyms-synonyms differing in style,（文体风格上不同） kid, child, offspring; start, begin, commence;3) Synonyms that differ in their emotive or evaluative meaning（examples in Mandarin)（情感上和评价判断上的不同）合作者/同谋；结果/下场；鼓励/；领袖/；赞扬/团结4) Collocational synonyms（搭配意义上的不同）A group of people; a herd of wolves; a swarm of bees5) Semantically different synonyms(语义不同)surprise/astonish; finish/complete7、locutionary act, illocutionary act，perlocutionary actFor example,“It is cold in here.”Its locutionary act is the saying of it with its literal meaning “the weather is clod in here” ;Its illocutionary act can be a request of the hearer “to shut the window” ;Its perlocutionary act is the effect brought about; it can be “the hearers shutting the window or his refusal to comply with the request”.(作业本)You have left the door wide open the locutionary act performed by the speaker is his utterance of all the words ”you”, ”have”, ”door”, ”open”, etc. thus expressing what the words literally mean the illocutionary act performed by the speaker is that by making such an utterance he has expressed his intention of speaking. i.e. asking someone to close the door. The perlocutionary act refers to the effect (result) of the utterance. It can be “the hearer close the door or refuse to comply with the request.8、Four maxims of CP (I)The maxim of quality-Do not say what you believe to be false.-Do not say that for which you lack adequate evidence.The maxim of quantity-Make your contribution as informative as required for the current purpose of the exchange.-Do not make your contribution more informative than is required.The maxim of relation-Be relevant ( make your contribution relevant).The maxim of manner-Avoid obscurity of expression.-Avoid ambiguity.-Be brief.-Be orderly.（先判断在分析，先判断是不是relation从literal meaning是不是同一个主题）Conversational implicature 会话含义，言外之意；会话含意In real communication, however, speakers do not always observe these maxims strictly. These maxims can be violated for various reasons. When any of the maxims is violated, i.e. both the speaker and the hearer are aware of the violation, our language becomes indirect, then conversational implicature arises.填空，definition 判断 选择Phonetics: the study of sounds used in linguistic communication led to establishment of phoneticsPhonology: how sounds are put together and used to convey meaning in communication.Morphology: is concerned with the internal organization of words. It studies the minimal units of meaning morphemes and word-formation processesSyntax: the study of how word combine to form sentences and the rules which govern the formation of sentences.Semantics: it examines how meaning is encoded in language. It is concerned with 1)meanings of the words. 2) levels of language below the word and above itPragmatics: the study of the use of language in communication, particularly the relationships between sentences and the contexts and situation in which they are used.Sociolinguistics: the study of all these social aspects of language and its relation with society form the core of the branchPsycholinguistics: relates the study of language to psychology. It aims to answer such questions as how the human mind works when we use language, how. , howArticulatory phonetics发音语音学-from the speakers point of view, “how speakers produce speech sounds”-speakingAcoustic phonetics声学语音学；-from the physical way or means by which sounds are transmitted from one to another.-soundingAuditory phonetics听觉语音学-from the hearers point of view, “how sounds are perceived”-listeningClassification of consonants- English consonants may be classified according to two dimensions: The manner of articulation The place of articulation Broad transcription - used in dictionary and textbook for general purpose, without diacritics, e.g. clear l , pit Narrow transcription - used by phonetician for careful study, with diacritics, e.g. dark l , aspirated p Semantics-the study of language meaning.Meaning is central to the study of communication.Naming theorys Limitations1) Applicable to nouns only.2) There are nouns which denote things that do not exist in the real world.3) There are nouns that do not refer to physical objects but abstract notions.Conclusion on semantic triangleThe symbol or form refers to the linguistic elements (words and phrases);The referent refers to the object in the world of experience;Thought or reference refers to concept.Relations:The symbol or a word signifies things by virtue of the concept associated with the form of the word in the minds of the speaker; and the concept looked at from this point of view is the meaning of the word.7. Antonymy(反义现象)Antonymy: refers to the oppositeness of meaning.1. Gradable antonyms-there are often intermediate forms between the two members of a pair. Old-young, hot-cold, tall-short2. Complementary antonyms-the denial of one member of the pair implies the assertion of the other. Alive-dead, male-female, 3. Relational opposites-exhibits the reversal of the relationship between the two itemsHusband-wife, father-son, doctor-patient, buy-sell, employer-employee, give-receive8. Homonymy（同形异义）Homonymy- the phenomenon that words having different meanings have the same form, e.g. different words are identical in sound or spelling, or in both.Homophone - when two words are identical in sound, rain-reign, night/knight, Homogragh - when two words are identical in spelling. tear(n.)-tear(v.), lead(n.)-lead(v.), Complete homonym- when two words are identical in both sound and spelling, ball(E,F), bank, watch, scale, fast, Polysemy-the same one word may have more than one meaning. “table” may mean: 1. A piece of furniture 2. All the people seated at a table 3.The food that is put on a table 4. A thin flat piece of stone, metal wood, etc. 5. Orderly arrangement of facts, figures, etc. X entails Y(蕴含关系) X: John married a blond heiress. Y: John married a blond. X: Marry has been to Beijing. Y: Marry has been to China. Entailment is a relation of inclusion. If X entails Y, then the meaning of X is included in Y. If X is true, Y is necessarily true; if X is false, Y may be true or false. X presupposes Y（预射关系） X: His bike needs repairing. Y: He has a bike. Paul has given up smoking. Paul once smoked. If X is true, Y must be true; If X is false, Y is still true. The Relatedness between Language and SocietyThere are many indications of the inter-relationship between language and society.1. Language is often used to establish and maintain social relationships2. The use of language is in part determined by the users social background. (social class, age, sex, education level, etc.)3. Language, especially the structure of its lexicon, reflects both the physical and the social environments of a society. (“snow” for Eskimo)4. As a social phenomenon language is closely related to the structure of the society in which it is used, the evaluation of a linguistic form is entirely social ( the postvocalic r ).Predication analysis(III)1)The meaning of a sentence is not to be worked out by adding up all the meanings of its component words, e.g “The dog bites the man” is semantically different from “The man bites the dog” though their components are exactly the same.2)There are two aspects to sentence meaning: grammatical meaning and semantic meaning, e.g.*Green clouds are sleeping furiously.*Sincerity shook hands with the black apple.Whether a sentence is semantically meaningful is governed by rules called selectional restrictions.According to the number of arguments contained in a predication, we may classify the predications into the following types:One-place predication: smoke, grow, rise, run, Two-place predication: like, love, save, bite, beat,Three-place predication: give, sent, promise, call, No-place predication: It is hot.I like you(two place)It is hot (no place)Performatives Features (Austins)“I declare the meeting open.”1. first person, singular subject2. simple present tense3. indicative mood4. active voice5. performative verbs基本上所有的动词都是perfomativesSearles Classification of Speech Acts (1969) （判断出是那一种）Assertives/representatives（陈述）- Stating or describing, saying what the speaker believes to be true, e.g.I think the film is moving.Im certain I have never seen the man before.I solemnly swear that he had got it. I think it is good.Directives（指令）- Trying to get the hearer to do something, e.g.I order you to leave right now.Open the window, please.Your money or your life! Sit down, please.Commissives （承诺）- Committing the speaker himself to some future course of action, such as promise or a threat. e.g.I will bring you the book tomorrow without fail.If you do not stop fighting, Ill call the police.I promise to come.Expressives（表达）-Expressing the speakers psychological state(feeling and attitudes) about something,such as an aplology, a complaint, to thank someone, to congratulate someone. e.g.Im sorry for being late.I apologize for the sufferings that the war has caused to your people. You are so wonderful!Declarations（宣告）-Bringing about an immediate change in the existing state or affairs, e.g.I now appoint you chairman of the committee.You are fired.I now declare the meeting open. I now pronounce you man and wife.Note: All the acts that belong to the same category share the same purpose but differ in their strength or force, e.g.(1)I guess / am sure / swear he is the murderer.e.g.(2)In order to get someone open the door, we can choose one from a variety of the forms in below:Could you open the door, please!Can you open the door!Do you mind opening the door?Open the door!The door please!Language changeperiods1) 4491100: Old EnglishBeginning: English-speaking Anglo-Saxon and Jutes invaded into the British IslesThe End: “Norman Conquest” : the arrival of Norman French invadersGls; guma; gat-glass -man -goat“Beowulf”-England 8century poem,brave warrior2) 11001500 Middle EnglishBeginning: “Norman Conquest” : the arrival of Norman French invadersThe End:“European Renaissance Movement”Latin and French“The Canterbury Tales”-Geoffrey Chaucer (1345-1400)3) 1500the present Modern EnglishBeginning: “European Renaissance Movement”The End: the presentDiphthongs appears: ai, au, ei, eu, ou, oiBecause of pressing industry overspreading, the spelling forms are determined/less changes.Regional dialectReason: This differentiation is accounted for the lack of communication in the old days when travel was difficult.Female Speechs Features1. Women are usually more status-conscious than men in the English-speaking world; therefore, their speech closely approaches the standard variety than the speech of men.2. The female speakers tend to have a wider range in their intonation.3. Female speech is, on the whole, less assertive and thus sounds to be more polite than male speech.Register: a Speech Variety used by a particular group of people, usually sharing the same occupation (e.g. doctors, lawyers) or the same interests (e.g. stamp collectors, baseball fans).In a broader sense, according to Halliday, “language varies as its function varies; it differs in different situations.” The type of language which is selected as appropriate to