语言学笔记.doc

Chapter One Invitations to Linguistics重点： 语言的本质特征（1.3）； 语言的功能（1.5）； 语言学中的几个重要的区分（1.9）Some fundamental views about L Children learn their native language swiftly, efficiently and without instruction. Language operates by rules. All languages have three major components: a sound system, a system of lexicogrammar and a system of semantics. Everyone speaks a dialect. Language slowly changes. Languages are intimately related to the societies and individuals who uses them.3. Design Features of Language The features define our human languages can be called design features.l Design features can distinguish human language from any animal system of communication. 3.1 Arbitrariness Saussure: the forms of linguistic signs bear no natural relationship to their meaning Arbitrary relationship between the sound of a morpheme and its meaning, even with onomatopoeic words: eg:The dog barks wow wow in English but “汪汪汪” in Chinese. Arbitrariness at the syntactic level: language is not arbitrary at the syntactic level. He came in and sat down. He sat down and came in. He sat down after he came in. The link between a linguistic sign and its meaning is a matter of convention 3.2Duality The 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:l Primary units words (meaningful) consist of secondary units sounds (meaningless).l Duality distinguishes human communication and makes it immensely resourceful. 3.3Creativity Language is creative because of its duality and its recursiveness. We can use it to create new meanings and endless sentences.3.4 Displacement Human languages enable their users to symbolize objects, events and concepts which are not present (in time and space) at the moment of communication. l Our language enables us to communicate about things that do not exist or do not yet exist.l Displacement benefits us by giving us the power to handle generalizations and abstractions. 4. Origin of language The bow-wow theory The pooh-pooh theory The “yo-he-ho” theory5. Functions of languageFor Jakobson, language is above all for communication. six primary factors of any speech event:l speaker, addressee, context, message, code, contact referential 所指功能(to convey message and information), poetic 诗学功能(to indulge in language for its own sake), emotive 情感功能(to express attitudes, feelings and emotions), conative 意动功能(to persuade and influence others through commands and requests), phatic 交感功能(to establish communion with others) metalingual 元语言功能(to clear up intentions and meanings).For Halliday proposes a theory of metafunctions of language, that is, language has ideational, interpersonal and textual functions（概念功能，人际功能，语篇功能）. 1.Ideational function l to convey new information, to communicate a content that is unknown to the hearer 2.Interpersonal function l to express social and personal relationships3.Textual functionto make any stretch of spoken and written discourse into a coherentOur textbook: seven functions1Informative2Interpersonal function3Performative4Emotive function5Phatic communion6Recreational function7Metalingual functionWhat is linguistics? Linguistics is the scientific study of language. It studies not just one language of any one community, but the language of all human beings. 7. Main branches of linguistics Phonetics Phonology Morphology Syntax Semantics Pragmatics8. Macrolinguistics Linguistics is not the only field concerned with language. Other disciplines such as psychology, sociology, ethnography, the science of law and artificial intelligence etc. are also preoccupied with language. Some branches of macrolinguistics: psycholinguistics, Sociolinguistics, anthropological linguistics, computational linguistics, etc.9 Important distinctions in linguistics Descriptive vs. prescriptive Synchronic vs. diachronic Langue & parole Competence and performance9.1 Descriptive vs. prescriptive Dont say X. People dont say X. The first is a prescriptive command, while the second is a descriptive statement. l The distinction lies in prescribing how things ought to be and describing how things are.l The nature of linguistics as a science determines its preoccupation with description instead of prescription.9.2 Synchronic vs. diachronic A synchronic description takes a fixed instant (usually, but not necessarily, the present) as its point of observation. Most grammars are of this kind. Diachronic linguistics is the study of a language through the course of its history. 9.3 Langue & parole Saussure distinguished the linguistic competence of the speaker and the actual phenomena or data of linguistics (utterances) as langue and parole. l Langue is relative stable and systematic, parole is subject to personal and situational constraints; langue is not spoken by an individual, parole is always a naturally occurring event. What a linguist should do, according to Saussure, is to draw rules from a mass of confused facts, i.e. to discover the regularities governing all instances of parole and make them the subject of linguistics.9.4 Competence and performance According to Chomsky, a language users underlying knowledge about the system of rules is called the linguistic competence, and the actual use of language in concrete situations is called performance. l Competence enables a speaker to produce and understand and indefinite number of sentences and to recognize grammatical mistakes and ambiguities. A speakers competence is stable while his performance is often influenced by psychological and social factors. So a speakers performance does not always match his supposed competence. Chomsky believes that linguists ought to study competence, rather than performance. 本章小节 一系列基本概念 一个图 本章容易出名词解释、问答和论述题，都是围绕基本概念的。所以，记牢基本概念，或分或合，灵活运用。 本章处处都可能是考点，但是重中之重是1.3、1.5、1.9三节的内容，坚决拿下。Chapter Two Speech Sounds本章重点： 对英语的辅音、元音进行分类和描写； 协同发音； 音位和音位变体； 英语中常见的音系规则； 区别性特征； 超音段特征Phonetics & phonologyPhonetics studies how speech sounds are produced, transmitted, and perceived. Speech transmission Articulatory Phonetics is the study of the production of speech sounds. Acoustic Phonetics is the study of the physical properties of speech sounds. Perceptual or Auditory Phonetics is concerned with the perception of speech sounds.Phonology is the study of the sound patterns and sound systems of languages. It aims to discover the principles that govern the way sounds are organized in languages, and to explain the variations that occur.2. Consonants and vowels A consonant is produced by constricting or obstructing the vocal tract at some places to divert, impede, or completely shut off the flow of air in the oral cavity. A vowel is produced without obstruction so no turbulence or a total stopping of the air can be perceived. The distinction between vowels and consonants lies in the obstruction of airstream. As there is no obstruction of air in the production of vowels, the description of the consonants and vowels cannot be done along the same lines.2.1 Consonants The description of consonants Voicing +place of articulation +manner of articulation The manner of articulation refers to ways in which articulation can be accomplishedl Stop (oral stop)l Nasal (nasal stop)l Fricativel Approximantl Laterall Trilll Tap/flapl Affricate The place of articulation refers to the point where a consonant is made. l Practically consonants may be produced at any place between the lips and the vocal folds. 2.2 VowelsCardinal Vowels, as exhibited by the vowel diagram in the IPA chart, are a set of vowel qualities arbitrarily defined, fixed and unchanging, intended to provide a frame of reference for the description of the actual vowels of existing languages.English consonants The consonants of English can be described in the following manner: voicing+place+manner of articulationl pvoiceless bilabial stopl bvoiced bilabial stopl svoiceless alveolar fricativel zvoiced alveolar fricativeEnglish vowels The description of English vowels needs to fulfill four basic requirements: l the height of tongue raising (high, mid, low);l the position of the highest part of the tongue (front, central, back);l the length or tenseness of the vowel (tense vs. lax or long vs. short), and l lip-rounding (rounded vs. unrounded).The English vowels can be described in this way: 3. From phonetics to phonology Speech is a continuous process, so sounds show the influence of their neighbors. l For example, map, lamb. -This is nasalization鼻音化3.1 Co articulation When such simultaneous or overlapping articulations are involved, we call the process co articulation. l If the sound becomes more like the following sound, as in the case of lamb, it is known as anticipatory co articulation. l If the sound shows the influence of the preceding sound, it is perseverative co articulation, as is the case of map. p is aspirated in peak and unaspirated in speak. l This aspirated voiceless bilabial stop is thus indicated by the diacritic h, as ph, whereas the unaspirated counterpart is transcribed as p. When we use a simple set of symbols in our transcription, it is called a broad transcription. The use of more specific symbols to show more phonetic detail is referred to as a narrow transcription. Both are phonetic transcriptions so we put both forms in square brackets . 3.2 Phonemes Phoneticians are concerned with how sounds differ in the way they are pronounced while phonologists are interested in the patterning of such sounds and the rules that underlie such variations. Crystal: Phonological analysis relies on the principle that certain sounds cause changes in the meaning of a word or phrase, whereas other sounds do not. Minimal pairs test Phonemes Minimal pairs are two words in a language which differ from each other by only one distinctive sound and which also differ in meaning. E.g. the English words tie and die are minimal pairs as they differ in meaning and in their initial phonemes /t/ and /d/. By identifying the minimal pairs of a language, a phonologist can find out which sound substitutions cause differences of meaning. The word phoneme simply refers to a unit of explicit sound contrast. the existence of a minimal pair automatically grants phonemic status to the sounds responsible for the contrasts.l By selecting one sound instead of another we can distinguish one word from another. Languages differ in the selection of contrastive sounds. l In English, the distinction between aspirated ph and unaspirated p is not phonemic. l In Chinese, however, the distinction between /p/ and /ph/ is phonemic.3.3 Allophones p, ph are two different phones and are variants of the phoneme /p/. Such variants of a phoneme are called allophones of the same phoneme. In this case the allophones are said to be in complementary distribution because they never occur in the same context: l p occurs after s while ph occurs in other places. /p/ p /s _ ph elsewhere This phenomenon of variation in the pronunciation of phonemes in different positions is called allophony or allophonic variation. Three conditions for a phoneme Phonemes must be in contrast to each other in the same environment; the substitution of one changes the meaning. The allophones must be in complementary distribution. The allophones of a phoneme must bear some phonetic resemblance.4. Phonological processes, phonological rules and distinctive features Some phonological processesl Assimilationl Epenthesis Assimilation is a phonological term, often used synonymously with coarticulation, which is more of a phonetic term. Nasalization, dentalization, and velarization are all instances of assimilation, a process by which one sound takes on some or all the characteristics of a neighboring sound. There are two possibilities of assimilation:l If a following sound is influencing a preceding sound, we call it regressive assimilation. l The converse process, in which a preceding sound is influencing a following sound, is known as progressive assimilation. Phonological processesIn phonological processes, a target or affected segment undergoes a structual change in certain environments or contexts. in each process, the change is conditioned or triggered by a following sound or, in the case of progressive assimilation, a preceding sound. l we can represent the process by means of an arrow.l We can write a phonological process in a phonological rule in which the arrow refers to the process, the slash specifies the environment in which the change takes place, and the bar indicates the position of the target segment. l The following are some phonological rules that represent some phonological processes:Devoicing rule /v/ f /z/s etc. voiced fricative voiceless / _ voicelessNasalization rule: -nasal +nasal / _ +nasalDentalization rule: -dental dental / _ dentalVelarization rule: -velar +velar / _ +velar4.2 Epenthesis, rule ordering and the Elsewhere Condition Epenthesis (Insertion) Rule: a. The s appears after voiceless sounds. b. The z appears after voiced sounds. c. The ?z appears after sibilants. /z/ s / voice, C _ (Devoicing) ? / +sibilant _ z (Epenthesis) Rule orderingl With two rules at hand, we have to follow a specifically stipulated rule ordering to derive the correct surface. l The Elsewhere Condition (The more specific rule applies first.)4.3 Distinctive features The idea of Distinctive Features was first developed by Roman Jacobson (1896-1982) in the 1940s as a means of working out a set of phonological contrasts or oppositions to capture particular aspects of language sounds. Some of the major distinctive features:consonantal can distinguish between consonants and vowels, so all consonants are +consonantal and all vowels consonantal. l sonorant distinguishes between what we call obstruents (stops, fricatives and affricates) and sonorants (all other consonants and vowels), with obstruents being sonorant and others +sonorant. l nasal and voiced of course distinguish nasal (including nasalized) sounds and voiced sounds respectively.l These are known as binary features because we can group them into two categories: one with this feature and the other without. l The place features are not binary features they are divided up into four values: l PLACE: Labiall PLACE: Coronall PLACE: Dorsal l PLACE: Radicall They are often written in shorthand forms as l Labialpl Coronalpl Dorsalpl RadicalpPhonological rule for the English past tense written with distinctive features:5. Suprasegmentals Suprasegmental features are those aspects of speech that involve more than single sound segments. The principal suprasegmentals are: syllable stress tone intonation5.1 The syllable structure Onset Rime Nucleus Coda k r k t Open syllable: bar, tie Closed syllable: bard, tied English Syllable: (C)C)C)V(C)C)C)C) Chinese syllable: (C)V(C) Maximal Onset Principle (MOP)l When there is a choice as to where to place a consonant, it is put into the onset rather than the coda. 5.2 Stress Stress refers to the degree of force used in producing a syllable. In transcription, a raised vertical line is often used just before the syllable it relates to. l A basic distinction is made between stressed and unstressed syllables, the former being more prominent than the latter, which means that stress is a relative notion. At the word level, it only applies to words with at least two syllables. At the sentence level, a monosyllabic word may be said to be stressed relative to other words in the sentence.Changing English Stress PatternBecoming norm Considered conservative inTEGral INtegral coMMUNal COMMunal forMIDable FORmidable conTROVersy CONtroversyRP vs. GARP GAlaBORatory LABoratoryDEBris deBRISGARage gaRAGEV vs. N Verb Noun conVICT CONvict inSULT INsult proDUCE PROduce reBEL REbelPrimary vs. Secondary Stress epiphenomenal unsatisfactory discrimination standardization communication industrializationSentence Stress John bought a red car. JOHN bought a red car. John BOUGHT a red car. John bought a RED car. John bought a red CAR.5.3 Intonation Intonation involves the occurrence of recurring fall-rise patterns, each of which is used with a set of relatively consistent meanings, either on single words or on groups of words of varyi