语言学导论期末复习提纲

语言学导论期末复习提纲CHAPTER ONE1. What is language? LANGUAGE is a means of verbal communication. Language is a system of arbitrary vocal symbols used for human communication.2. What are design features of language? Arbitrariness: the forms of linguistic signs bear no relationship to their meaning. Duality: 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. Duality lies in the great productive power our language is endowed with. Creativity: language is resourceful because of its duality and its recursiveness. Creativity has potential to create endless sentences. The recursive nature of language provides a theoretical basis for this possibility, Displacement: human languages enable their users to symbolize objects, events and concepts which are present at the moment of communication. Displacements benefits human beings by giving them the power to handle generalizations and abstractions.3. What are the theories of the origin of language?The “bow-wow” theory: imitation of the sounds of animals evidence: onomatopoeic words(onomatopoeia)The “pooh-pooh” theory: utterance of instinctive sounds of pain, anger and joy evidence: interjectionsThe “yo-he-ho” theory: rhythmic grunts evidence: rhythms4. How many functions does language have? What are they?Jakobsons Views of the Functions of LanguageContext REFERANTIALAddresser EMOTIVE (e.g. intonation showing anger)Message POETIC (e.g. poetry)Addressee CONATIVE (e.g. imperatives and vocatives)Contact PHATIC (e.g. Good morning!)Code METALINGUAL (e.g. Hello, do you hear me?)Seven Categories of Language Functions HallidayINFORMATIVE: Informative function is predominantly the major role of language. Language is the instrument of thought and people often feel need to speak their thoughts aloud. The use of language to record the facts is a prerequisite of social development. This is indeed a crucial function of language. It is also called ideational function in the framework of functional grammar.INTERPERSONAL: The most important sociological use of language is the interpersonal function, by which people establish and maintain their status in a society. Attached to this function of language is its function of expressing identity (age, sex, personality, intelligence, class). PERFORMATIVE: This function of language is primarily to change the social status of persons, as in marriage ceremonies, the sentencing of the criminals. This kind of language is usually quite formal and ritualized. This function can also extend to the control of reality as on some magical or religious occasions.EMOTIVE: This is one of the most powerful uses of language because it is crucial in changing the emotional status of an audience for or against someone or something. It is also called expressive function of language.PHATIC CMMUNION: It refers to the social interaction of language. This function also refers to expressions that help define and maintain interpersonal relations.RECREATIONAL: The hearty joy of using a language is undeniable. This function of language is often overlooked because it seems so restrictive in purpose and supposedly so limited in usefulness. It is close to Jakobsons poetic function.METALINGUAL: Our language can be used to talk about itself. This makes the language infinitely self-reflexive: We human beings can talk about talk and think about thinking, and thus only humans can ask what it means to communicate, to think, to be human.5. What main branches is linguistics divided into?LINGUISTICS is usually defined as the scientific stuffy of language. It is a systematic inquiry into human language: structure, relationship, development and acquisition.PHONETICS studies speech sounds, including the production of speech, the description and classification of speech sounds, words and connected speech etc. 4 levels: organs in production of speech; articulatory phonetics; acoustic phonetics; auditory phonetics. A solid knowledge can serve as a good foundation for phonology.PHONOLOGY studies the rules governing the structure, distribution, and sequencing of speech sounds and the shape of syllables. It deals with the sound system of a language by treating phoneme as the point of departure. A phoneme is the smallest linguistic unit of sound that can signal a difference in meaning. Phonetics is the study of speech sounds that the human voice is capable of creating (chaos) while phonology is the study of a subset of those sounds that constitute language and meaning (order).MORPHOLOGY is concerned with the internal organization of words. It studies the minimal units of meaning-morphemes and word-formation processes. SYNTAX is about principles of forming and understanding correct English sentences.SEMANTICS examines how meaning is decoded in a language. It is not only concerned with meanings of words as lexical items, but also with levels of language below the word and about it.PRAGMATICS is the study of meaning in context. It deals with particular utterances in particular situations and is especially concerned with the various ways in which many social contexts of language performance can influence interpretation. It is one of the most promising fields of linguistic studies.6. What is macrolinguistics? MACROLINGUISTICS is a field of study concerned with language in its broadest sense and including cultural and behavioral features associated with language.PSYCHOLINGUISTICS investigates the interrelation of language and mind. Psycholinguistic constraints, language development in the child (such as language acquisition), biological foundations of languages, the relationship between language and cognition are studied in psycholinguistics.SOCIOLINGUISTICS is the study of the characteristics of language varieties, the characteristics of their functions, and the characteristics of their speakers as these three constantly interact and change within a speech community. It seeks to discover the societal rules, norms, attitudes and the symbolic value. ANTHROPOLOGICAL LINGUISTICS is interested primarily in the history and structure of formerly unwritten languages. Those linguists are concerned with the emergence of language and also with the divergence of languages over thousands of years. COMPUTATIONAL LINGUISTICS is an interdisciplinary field which centers around the use of computers to process or produce human language.7. What are descriptive and prescriptive studies?DESCRIPTIVE study means that linguist tries to discover and record the rules to which the members of a language community actually conform and does not seek to impose upon them other rules, or norms, of correctness.PRESCIPTIVE study means that the European grammarians in 1800s tried to lay down rules for the correct use for language and settle the disputes over usage once and for all. Some usages were prescribed to be learnt by heart, followed accurately or avoided altogether. The nature of linguistics as a science determines its preoccupation with description instead of prescription.8. What are synchronic and diachronic descriptions?A SYNCHRONIC description takes a fixed instant as its point of observation. Most grammars are of this kind, such as “A Grammar of Modern Greek” and “The Structure of Shakespeares English”. The fiction of synchronic description is essential to linguistics.Saussures DIACHRONIC linguistics is the study of a language through the course of its history. 9. What are langue and parole?Saussure distinguished the linguistic competence of the speaker and the actual phenonema or data of linguistics as LANGUE and PAROLE. While PAROLE constitutes the immediately accessible data, the linguists proper object is the LANGUE of each community. Language (LANGUE) is not complete in any speaker; it perfectly exists only within a collectivity. In separating language (LANGUE) from speaking (PAROLE) we at the same time separating what is social from what is individual; and what is essential from what is accessory and more less accidental.10. What are competence and performance?A language users underlying knowledge about the system of rules is called his linguistic COMPETENCE. And PERFORMANCE refers to the actual use of language in concrete situations.CHAPTER TWO11. What many branches is phonetics divided into?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.12. What do speech organs consist of?They are the lungs, the trachea (or windpipe), the throat, the nose, and the mouth.13. What is IPA?IPA is the abbreviation of International Phonetic Alphabet, which is devised by the International Phonetic Association in 1888 then it has undergone a number of revisions. IPA is a comprised system employing symbols of all sources, such as Roman small letters, italics uprighted, obsolete letters, Greek letters, diacritics, etc. 14. How do we classify consonants and vowels?CONSONANTS are produced “by a closure in the vocal tract, or by a narrowing which is so marked that air cannot escape without producing audible friction. By contrast, a VOWEL is produced without such “stricture” so that “air” escapes in a relatively unimpeded way through the mouth or nose.The Manners of ArticulationSTOP (or PLOSIVE): Complete closure of the articulators is involved so that the airstream cannot escape through the mouth. 3 phases: the closing phase; the hold or compression phase; the release phase. p, b, t, d, k, gNASAL: If the air is stopped in the oral cavity but the soft palate is down so that it can go out through the nasal cavity. m, n, FRICATIVE: A fricative is produced when there is close approximation of two articulators so that the airstream is partially obstructed and turbulent airflow is produced. f, v, , , s, z, , , hAPPROXIMANT: This is an articulation in which one articulator is close to another, but without the vocal tract being narrowed to such an extent that turbulent airstream is produced. w, r, jLATERAL: The obstruction of the airstream is at a point along the center of the oral tract, with incomplete closure between one or both sides of the tongue and the roof of the mouth. lTRILL: A trill (or roll) is produced when an articulator is set vibrating by the airstream. rTAP and FLAP: When the tongue makes a single tap against the alveolar ridge to produce only one vibration, the sound is called a TAP (t, d, n). The FLAP (r) is pronounced with the tip of the tongue curled up and back in a retroflex gesture and then striking the roof of the mouth in the post-alveolar region as it returns to its position behind the lower front teeth. AFFRICATE: Affricates involve more than one of these manners of articulation in that they consist of a stop followed immediately afterwards by a fricative at the same place of articulation. t, dThe Place of ArticulationBILABIAL: Bilabial consonants are made with the two lips. p, b, m, wLABIODENTAL: These are made with the lower lip and the upper front teeth. f, vDENTAL: Dental sounds are made by the tongue tip or blade and the upper front teeth. , ALVEOLAR: Alveolars are made with the tongue tip or blade and the alveolar ridge. t, d, n, s, z, r, lPOSTALVEOLAR: These are made with the tongue tip and the back of the alveolar ridge. , RETROFLEX: Retroflex sounds are made with the tongue tip or blade curled back so that the underside of the tongue tip or blade forms a stricture with the back of the alveolar ridge or the hard palate. (书，事儿)PALATAL: Palatal sounds are made with the front of the tongue and the hard palate. jVELAR: Velars are made with the back of the tongue raised to touch the velum. k, g, UVULAR: Uvular are made with the back of the tongue and the uvula. rPHARYNGEAL: Pharyngeal sounds are made with the root of the tongue and the walls of the pharynx.GLOTTAL: Glottal sounds are made with the two pieces of vocal folds pushed towards each other.CONSONANTS:p, b Bilabial Stop/Plosivem Bilabial Nasalf, v Labiodental Fricative, Dental Fricativet, d Alveolar Stop/Plosiven Alveolar Nasals, z Alveolar Fricativer Alveolar Approximantl Alveolar Lateral, Postalveolar Fricativet, d Postalveolar Affricativej Palatal Approximantk, g Velar Stop/Plosive Velar Nasalw Velar Approximanth Glottal FricativeVOWELS:15. What is minimal pair?Theory: When two different forms are identical in every way except for one sound segment which occurs in the same place in the strings, the two words are said to form a minimal pair.Example: When two words such as pat and bat are identical in form except for a contrast in one phoneme, occurring in the same position, the two words are described as a minimal pair.16. What is coarticulation?COARTICULATION is a kind of phonetic process in which simultaneous or overlapping articulations are involved. If the sound becomes more like the following sound, as in the case of “lamp”, it is known as anticipatory coarticulation. If the sound displays the influence of the proceeding sound, it is perseverative coarticulation, as is the case of “map”.17. What are phonemes?The PHONEME is the smallest meaning-distinguishing unit in phonological analysis. It is not a specific sound, but an abstract segment.18. What are allophones?When we have a set of phones, all of which are versions of one phoneme, we refer to them as ALLOPHONES of that phoneme. 19. What is complementary distribution?Not all speech sounds occur in the same environment, when the two sounds never occur in the same environment they are said in COMPLEMENTARY DISTRIBUTION.20. What is assimilation? What is dissimilation?ASSIMILATION is a process by which one sound takes on some or all the characteristics of a neighboring sound. NASALIZATION, DENTALIZATION and VELARIZATION are 3 major kinds of ASSIMILATION. Assimilation is a phonological term, while coarticulation is more of a phonetic term. 2 possibilities of assimilation: if a following sound is influencing a preceding sound, we call it REGRESSIVE ASSIMILATION; otherwise, we call it PROGRESSIVE ASSIMILATION.21. What is phonological rule?The regularities that what sounds vary in what ways in what contexts are generalized and stated in phonology as rules. 22. How do you understand distinctive features?The idea of DISTINCTIVE FEATURES was first developed by Roman Jokobson 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 include consonantal, sonorant, nasal and voiced.23. How do you understand a syllabic structure?A syllable must have a NUCLEUS or PEAK, which is often the task of a vowel. We can divide a syllable into two parts, the RHYME and the ONSET. The vowel within the rhyme is the NUCLEUS, with the consonants after it termed the CODA. All of these elements make a SYLLABIC STRUCTURE of a word. All syllables must have a nucleus but not all syllables contain an onset and a coda.24. What is stress/ tone/ intonation?ATRESS refers to the degree of force used in producing a syllable.TONE is the variation of pitch to distinguish words.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 varying length.25. What are phonetics and phonology?Phonetics and phonology are two disciplines dealing with speech sounds. While both are related to the study of sounds, they differ in their approach and focus. PHONETICS studies how speech sounds are made, transmitted and received. PHONOLOGY is essentially the description of the systems and patterns and how these sounds are used to convey meaning in linguistic communication. Phonology is concerned with the abstract and mental aspect of the sounds in language rather than with the actual physical articulation of speech sounds. CHAPTER FOUR26. What is word order?Positional relation, or WORD ORDER, refers to the sequential arrangement of words in a language. If a word is put in a wrong position, the whole sentence may be ungrammatical or nonsensical at all. 27. What are syntagmatic and paradigmatic relations?Positional relations of the words in sentences are a manifestation of one aspect of “SYNTAGMATIC RELATIONS” observed by F. de Saussure. Syntagmatic relation is a relation between one item and others in a sequence, or between elements which are all present. PARADIGMATIC RELATION is a relation holding between elements replaceable with each other at a particular place in a structure, or between one element present and the other absent.28. What is co-occurrence?CO-OCURRENCE means that words of different sets of clauses may permit, or require, the occurrence of a word of another set or class to form a sentence or a particular part of a sentence.29. What is immediate constituent?If two constituents of one sentence are joined to form a hierarchically higher constituent, the two constituents are called IMMEDIATE CONSTITUENTS of the sentence.30. What is a tree diagram and how do you use it to analyze sentences?A TREE DIAGRAM is used to represent the constituent structure of a grammatical unit. In a tree diagram, syntactic categories are used to label the nodes. Word-level: N=noun, A=adjective, V=verb, P=preposition, Det=determiner, Adv=adverb, Conj=conjunctionPhrasal: NP=noun phrase, AP=adjective p