北大语言学课件

1、Invitation to linguisticsWhat is language?n Human speechn The ability to communicate by this meansn A system of vocal sounds and combinations of such sounds to which meaning is attributed used for the expression or communication of thoughts and feelingsn The written representation of such a systemn

2、Definition: language is a means of verbal communicationn Instrumental, social and conventional, sophisticatedDesign features of languagen Arbitrariness: (There is no natural relationship between a form and its sound) dog狗 Onomatopoeia Levels of Arbitrariness: morpheme, syntax, Conventionn Duality: (

3、the property of having two levels of structure such that units of the primary level(meaning) are composed of elements of the secondary level(sound) and each of the two levels has its own principles of organization.) Hierarchical: letter-syllable-morpheme-word-phrase-sentence-paragraphsDesign feature

4、s of languagen Creativity: (resourceful because of its duality and recursiveness)n The ability to create new meaningsn Watergate门n Recursive: I lent her the book that my father gave me in the library where there is a famous person who influenced the whole country in 1923 when the immigrates flooded

5、in who wanted to escape from.n Displacement (human lgs. Enable their speakers to symbolize objects, events, and concepts which are not present at the moment of communication. )n Can dogs tell his mother that he saw a bone yesterday?Origin of lg.n The bow-wow theory: animal callsn The pooh-pooh theor

6、y: instinctive sounds of pain, anger, joyn The “yo-he-ho” theory: rhythmic gruntsn The experiments aimed to find out about the origin of languages.Functions of lg.n Informative: lg. Is the instrument of thought and people use it to communicate with each othern Interpersonal: the sociological use of

7、lg. By which people establish and maintain their status in a society. -“I was wondering if you could be so kind as to close the door.” “the door!” Identity: physically, psychologically, geographically, ethnically, socially.Functions of lg.n Performative: changing the social status of persons.-I here

8、by pronounce you husband and wife.-I sentence you fifteen years of imprisonment.n Emotive: changing the emotions of the audience for and against someone. -She is a very bad girl. I dont like her.n Phatic communion: to maintain a comfortable relationship between people without involving any factual c

9、ontent.-Lovely weather, isnt it?Functions of lg.n Recreational: the use of lg. For the sheer joy of using it.Poem. R is roaring thunder A is amazing lightening I is incredible downpower N is nothing to do.n Metalingual: lg. Can be used to talk about itself. Paraphrase, explanations.-What do you mean

10、?-I mean that .What is linguistics?n Definition: the science of lg., or the scientific study of lg.n Main branches of linguistics -phonetics -phonology -morphology -syntax -semantics -pragmaticsn Macrolinguistics: interdisciplinary studies -psycholinguistics -sociolinguistics -Anthropological lingui

11、stics -computational linguisticsphoneticsn The study of speech sound, including the production of speech, that is, how speech sounds are actually made, transmitted, and received, the sounds of speech, the description and classification of speech sounds, words and connected speech.n Anatomy and physi

12、ologyn Articulatory phoneticsn Acoustic phoneticsn Auditory phoneticsphonologyn The study of the rules governing the structure, distribution, and sequencing of speech sounds, and the shape of syllable.n The point of departure is phoneme.n A phoneme is the smallest unit of sound system that can signa

13、l a difference in meaning.n /p/ in put and please, put and butmorphologyn The study of the internal organization of words. It studies the minimal units of meaningmorphemes and word-formation processes.n Morpheme is the smallest unit of meaning.-The dog sees the rabbit.-The rabbit sees the dog.-Der L

14、ehrer seht mich.-Mich seht der Lehrer.syntaxn The study of the principles of forming and understanding correct English sentences. The rules specify word order, word classes and other sentence elements.n I saw ( (a man) with a binoscope).n I saw ( a man ) with a binoscope.semanticsn Examine how meani

15、ng is encoded in a language.the study of the meaning of linguistic units, words and sentences in particular.n Sense relations. A word and its reference.n What is a human being?n What is a table?four legs?n What is a horse?n Is crow always black?pragmaticsn The study of meaning in context. It deals w

16、ith particular utterances in particular situation and is especially concerned with the various ways in which the many social contexts of language performance can influence interpretation.n You are beautiful without glasses.Psycholinguisticsn The investigation of the interrelation of language and min

17、d, in processing and producing utterances and in language acquisition.n How does a child learn a language?n How do people relate language to the world?n What is the relation between language and cognition?n There is a boat in the lake.湖里有一条船。sociolinguisticsn The study of the characteristics of lang

18、uage varieties, the characteristics f their functions, and the characteristics of their speakers as these three constantly interact and change within a speech community.n What lag. Do you speak? Where do you come from? What social class do you belong to?Anthropological linguistics-Anthropology field

19、work and linguistics-How languages are related? what history does it have?n Computational linguistics-The interdisciplinary field which centers around the use of computer to process or produce human languages.Important distinctions in linguisticsn Descriptive vs. prescriptive-What lg. Should be like

20、. Vs. what lg. Is like.-You should say this.-People say this.n Synchronic vs. diachronic (Saussure)-Shakespeare English, modern Chinese.-The change of the existential sentence through history.Important distinctions in linguisticsn Langue vs. parole (Saussure)-The linguistic competence of the speaker

21、 vs. the actual phenomena or data of linguistics.-The social bond that constitute language -. the actual use of speakingn Competence vs. performance (Chomsky)-A language users underlying knowledge about the system of rules-the actual use of language in concrete situationsII. Speech soundsSpeech prod

22、uction and perception transmittedn Speech production (move the organs) speech perception (hearing the sounds)-Articulatory phonetics: the study of the production of speech sounds-Acoustic phonetics: the study of the physical properties of the sounds produced in speech-Auditory phonetics: the study o

23、f the perception of speech sounds.Speech organsn Lungs, trachea(动气管), throat, nose, mouth.n Mouth: tongue, palate(解上腭)n Throat: pharynx(解咽), larynx(解 喉), vocal folds (vocal cords解声带)n Airstream(lung)Bronchioles(解细支气管) & bronchi(医支气管)tracheapulmonic sound (肺闭塞音)n The vocal folds apartvoiceless p,s,tn

24、 The vocal folds close togethervoiced b,z,dn The vocal folds totally closed ? mouthn Upper lip Upper teethn Alveolar(齿槽)ridge Hard palaten Soft palate (velum【解剖学】 软腭)n Uvula(解 小舌)n Lower lip Lower teethn Tongue Mandible(下颚, 下颚骨)n Tongue: tip, blade, front, back, rootconsonantsn Sounds produced by co

25、nstricting or obstructing the vocal tract at some place to divert, impede, or completely shut off the flow of air in the oral cavityn Factors to distinguish between consonants-manners of articulation: The actual relationship between articulators and the way in which the air passes through certain pa

26、rts of the vocal tract-places of articulation: Where in the vocal tract there is approximation, narrowing, or the obstruction of air. manners of articulation:n Stop (爆破音plosive): p, b; t, d; k, g m, nn Fricative(摩擦音): f,v; s,z this, through, share, genren Median approximation: w, jn Lateral (边音，旁流音a

27、pproximant): ln Affricate(塞擦音): churchplaces of articulation:n Bilabial(双唇音):p,b,mn Labiodental(唇齿音): this, throughn Alveolar(齿槽音): t,d; n, s,z; ln Postal veolar (后齿龈音):share, genren Retroflex(卷舌音): rn Palatal(上腭音): jn Velar(语软颚音): k,gn Uvular(小舌音): richtichn The consonants of English: p voiceless b

28、ilabial stopvowelsn The sound produced without any obstruction so the turbulence or a total stopping of the air can be perceived-Semi-vowels, or semi-consonants w,jn The criteria of vowel description-The part of the tongue that is raised (front, center, back)-The extent to which the tongue raises in

29、 the direction of the palate (high, mid, low)-The opening made at the lips(rounding, unrounding of the lips)vowelsn The theory of cardinal vowels: 8 vowelsn Secondary: another 8 vowelsn Vowel glidesn Pure or monophthong(单元音):the quality of the vowel remain constant throughout the articulationn Dipht

30、hong(双重元音): a single movement of the tongue is involved in the production of a vowel ain Triphthong: a double movement of the tongue involved in the production of a vowel towerPhonetics and Pronunciationn IPA:International Phonetic Alphabetn RP:Received Pronunciationn Tense vowellax vowel i:, in Thu

31、s, a vowel can be described as:n i: high, front, tense, unrounded voweln u: high, front, tense, rounded vowelCoarticulation and transcritionn When simultaneous or overlapping articulation are involved, there is coarticulation-Lamb (a sound becomes more like the following soundanticipatory coarticula

32、tion)-Map (a sound becomes more like the preceding soundperseverative coarticulation)n Transcription: -narrow transcription (the use of more specific symbols to show more phonetic details)-Broad transcrption (the use of a simple set of symbols in our description of a sound) Peak-speakSuprasegmental

33、features超语段特征n -those aspects of speech that involve more than single sound segmentsn Syllablen Stressn Tonen intonationSyllablen Monosyllabic (mean, dog, cat)n Polysyllabic (interesting, excellent)n Syllabic structure syllable onset rhyme(nucleus) codan (onset) Rhyme(Coda)n cat clean crispn Open sy

34、llable (a syllable without coda)n Closed syllable (a syllable with coda)n ( ( (C) C) C ) V ( ( ( ( C) C) C) C) sixths stringn (C)V (C ) mang, manSinority scalen What governs the arrangement of different classes of sounds in the syllable.n Sinority scale: vowel approximants nasals fricatives stopsn C

35、lasp lcaps Syllabification and the maximal onset principlen The Maximal Onset Principle: the requirement that when there is a choice as to where to place a consonant, it is put into the onset rather than the coda.n coun-try princ-iple.Stress:the degree of force used in producing a syllablen At the w

36、ord level, it only applies to words with at least two syllables (word, happy)n At the sentence level, a monosyllabic word may be said to be stressed relative to other words in the sentence. ( He went there)n Stress in English may change meanings ( produce / produce, black board / blackboard, black b

37、ird / blackbird)n Primary stresses (the more stressed syllable)n secondary stresses (the less stressed syllable)-Phenomenal transportationn Sentence stress-John flew to New York yesterday.-John flew to New York yesterday.-John flew to New York yesterday.-John flew to New York yesterday.Phonological

38、studyn Phonology is the study of the sound system of languages. It is concerned with the linguistic patterns of sounds in human languages, with its primary aim being to discover the principles that govern the way sounds are organized in languages, and to explain the variations that occur.Minimal pai

39、rsn The pair of sounds where the replacement of one by another would produce a change in meaning of the word concerned.n Pit / put, bit /pit, bit/ butn By using the minimal pair test, we can identify some important units in a language which can signify a difference in meaning, thus they are recogniz

40、ed as the phonemes, that is, the unit of explicit sound contrast.The phoneme theoryn The word phoneme refers to a unit of explicit sound contrast, therefore, the existence of a minimal pair automatically grants phonemic status to the sounds responsible for the contrast.n BY selecting one type of sou

41、nd instead of another we can distinguish one word from another.n Language differ in the selection of contrastive sounds: speak / peak, dada /dateAllophones (the variants of a phoneme)n Speak / peak (allophones of the same phoneme /p/. Allophones should be in complementary distribution.n The phenomen

42、on of variation in the pronunciation of phonemes in different positions is called allophony or allophonic variation. (deal /lead)allophonesn Not all the phones in complementary distribution are allophones of the same phoneme. There are restriction: the phones must be phonetically similar and in comp

43、lementary distribution.n Phonetic similarity: speak/ peak, voiceless bilabial stops (aspiration); deal / lead, lateral approximants (place of articulation)n Free variants ( dialect, habit, individual preference)Phonological processesn Assimilation (a process by which one sound becomes more like the

44、neighboring one)n Nasalization (cap / can )n Dentalization (tent / tenth)n Velarization (since/ sink)n Devoicing (five past, love to)n Regressive assimilation (a following sound influences the preceding one)n Progressive assimilation ( a preceding sound influences the following one)Phonological proc

45、essn A process in which a target or affected segment undergoes a structural change in certain environment or context.n Any phonological process must have three aspects to it (1) a set of sounds to undergo the process; (2) a set of sounds produced by the process); (3) a set of situation in which the

46、process appliesn Voiced fricative voiceless / _voicelessn /v/ f: a voiced fricative is transformed into the corresponding voiceless sound when it appears before a voiceless sound.n Epenthesis: a an: an hour, an applePlural forms of English nounsn Sibilants: see, zero, share, genre, chair, jumpn /s/

47、appears after voiceless soundsn /z/ appears after voiced soundsn /ez/ appears after sibilantsn /z/ is the basic form, thus, underlying form or underlying representation, whereas /s/ and /ez/ are the derived form, thus surface form or surface representation. Rule orderingn z s / -voice, C _ (devoicin

48、g)n o e / sibilant _z (epenthesis)n si:t +z bed+z keis+z s N/A s devoicing N/A N/A N/A epenthesis si:ts bedz keissN/A N/A e epenthesis s N/A N/A devoicing si:ts bedz keisesDistinctive featuresn Distinctive features refer to those features which can distinguish one phoneme from another. n Many of the

49、 distinctive features are binary features. -voiced +voicedn /p/ -voiced n /b/ +voiced Chapter 3MeaningSemantics (the study of meaning)n Semantics: the study of meaning, or to be more specific, the study of the meaning of linguistic units, words and sentences in particular.Meanings of meaningn Concep

50、tual meaning: logical, cognitive or denotative contentn Connotative meaning: what is communicated by what language refers to (politician statesman)n Social meaning: what is communicated of the social circumstances of language usen Affective meaning: what is communicated of the feelings and attitudes

51、 of the speaker/writern Reflected meaning: what is communicated through association with another sense of the same expressionn Collocative meaning: what is communicated through association with words which tend to occur in the environment of another wordn Thematic meaning: what is communicated by th

52、e way in which the message is organized in terms of order and emphasis.n What is a table? How do you explain that to a person who does not know what a table is?The referential theoryn The theory of meaning which relates the meaning of a word to the thing it refers to, or stands for, is known as the

53、referential theory.n Conceptsomething abstract which has no existence in the material world and can only be sensed in our minds.The semantic trianglen The relation between a word and a thing is not direct, but mediated by concept.n conceptn word thingSense and referencen Senseconceptual meaning (Lee

54、ch)n Sense and reference: connotation and denotationn Sense/ connotation: abstract properties of an entityn Reference / denotation: the concrete entity having these properties.n Every word has a sense, but not every word has a reference.n Sense: the semantic relation between one linguistic unit and anothern Reference: the relation between one linguistic unit and a non-linguistic entity it refers to.Sense relati