语言学考试要点复习

1、What are the main features of human languageThe features that define our human languages can be called DESIGN FEATURES. The following are the frequently discussed ones:1 Arbitrariness The widely accepted meaning of this feature first refers to the fact that the forms of linguistic signs bear no natu

2、ral relationship to their meaning. For instance, we cannotexplain why a book is called a/book/ and a pen a/pen/.However there seems to be different levels of ARBITRARINESS.Arbitrary relationship between the sound of a morpheme and its meaningArbitrariness at the syntactic levelLanguage is not arbitr

3、ary at the syntactic level. In other words, syntax is less arbitrary thanwords(3)Arbitrariness and conventionWhatthen is the linkbetween a linguistic sign andits meaning? Itis a matterofCONVENTION.2.Duality“By DUALITY is meant the property of having two levels of structures, such that units of the p

4、rimary level are composed of elements of the secondary level and each of the two levels has its own principles of organization ”Roughly speaking, the elements of the spoken language are sounds which do not convey meaning in themselves. The only function of sounds is to combine with one another to fo

5、rm units that have meaning, such as words. We call sounds here secondary units as opposed tosuch primary units as words, since the secondary units are meaningless and the primary units have distinct and identifiable meaning. The property of duality then only exits in such system, namely, with both e

6、lements and units.Now we can perceive the advantage of duality, which lies in the great productive power our language is endowed with.3 CreativityBy creativity we mean language is resourceful because of its duality and its recursiveness. One of the reasons why language is actually a far more complic

7、ated entity than traffic lights is that we can use it to create new meanings. This ability is one of the things that sets human1language apart from the kind of communication that goes on, for example, between birds,which can only convey a limited range of message.Language is creative in another sens

8、e, that is, its potential to create endless sentences. Therecursive nature of language provides atheoretical basis for this possibility.4 DisplacementDISPLACEMENT means that human languages enable their users to symbolize objects,events andconcepts whicharenotpresent (intimeandspace) atthemomentofco

9、mmunication. Our language enables us to communicate about things that dont exist ordont yet exist.Displacement benefits human beings by giving them the power to handle generalization and abstractions. In a word, the intellectual benefits of displacement to us is that it makes it possible for us to t

10、alk and think in abstract terms.1.5 Functions of language1 Informative( 信息功能 )2 Interpersonal function （人际功能）3 Performative( 行事功能 )4 Emotive function 表情功能The emotive function of language is one of the most powerful uses of language because it is so crucial in changing the emotional status of an audi

11、ence for or against someone or something. It is a means of getting rid of our nervous energy when we are under stress, e.g.swear wordsIt is also discussed under the term expressive function.5 Phatic communionIt refers to the social interaction of language. And different cultures have different topic

12、sof phatic communion. Broadly speaking, this function refers to expressions that help defineand maintain interpersonal relations, such as slang s,jokes, jargons, ritualisticexchanges,switches to social and regional dialects.6 Recreational functionThe Recreational function of a language is often over

13、looked because it seems so restrictive in purpose and supposedly so limited in usefulness. However, no one will deny the use of2language for the sheer joy of using it.7 Metalingual functionOur language can be used to talk about itself. For example, I can use the word book to talk about a book. The c

14、hange in linear order changes our perspective about the concerns of the clause. This is the METALINGUAL function of language.The lion ate the unicorn all round the town.All round the town the lion ate the unicorn.This makes the language infinitely self-reflexive: We human beings can talk about talk

15、and think about thinking, and thus only humans can ask what it means to communicate, to think, to be human.1.7 Main branches of linguisticsIt is generally agreed that linguistics should include at least five parameters, namely, phonologic, morphologic, syntactic, semantic nd pragmatic. The following

16、 are these main branches of linguistics.1 PhoneticsPHONETICS studies speech sounds, including the production of speech, that is how speech sounds are actually made, transmitted and received, the sound of speech, the description and classification of speech sounds, words and connected speech, etc.2 P

17、honology 音系学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 bytreating phoneme as the point of departure. A phoneme is the smallest linguistic unit of sound that can signal a d

18、ifference in meaning. English has approximately 45 phonemes.Phonetics is the study of speech sounds that the human voice is capable of creatingwhereas phonology is the study of a subset of those sounds that constitute language and meaning. The first focuses on chaos while the second focuses on order

19、.3 Morphology 形态学MORPHOLOGY is concerned with the internal organization of words. It studies the minimal units of meaning morphemes 词素 and word-formation processes. Although many people think of words as the basic meaningful elements of a language, many words can be3broken into still smaller units,

20、called morphemes.4 Syntax 句法SYNTAX is about principles of forming and understanding correct English sentences.5 Semantics 语义学Semantics examines how meaning is encoded in a language. It is not only concerned withmeanings of words as lexical items, but also with levels of language below the word and a

21、boveit, e.g. meaning of morphemes and sentences.6 Pragmatics 语用学PRAGMATICS is the study of meaning in context. In other words, pragmatics is concerned with the way language is used to communicate rather than with the way language is structured.PSYCHOLINGUISTICS investigates the interrelation of lang

22、uage and mind, in processing and producing utterances and in language acquisition.A language user s underlying knowledge about the system of rules is called his linguisticcompetence. And performance refers to the actual use of language in concrete situations.(1)Variable and invariable wordsWords can

23、 be classified according to their variability. In VARIABLEWORDS,one couldfind ordered and regular series of grammatically different words forms; on the other hand, part of the word remains relatively constant. Thus, each ordered series constitutes a paradigm, e.g. follow, follows, following, followe

24、d.INVIARIABLE WORDS refer to those words such as since, when, seldom. They do nothave inflective endings.(2) Grammatical words and lexical wordsIn terms of the meaning expressed by words, they can be classified into GRAMMATICAL WORDS and LEXICAL WORDS. Those which express grammatical meanings, such

25、asconjunctions, prepositions, articles, and pronouns, are grammatical words. Those which have lexical meanings, that is, those which refer to substance, action and quality, such as nouns,4verbs, are lexical words.As the lexical words carry the main content of a language while the grammatical ones se

26、rveto link its different parts together, the lexical words are alsoknown as CONTENT WORDSand grammatical ones FUNCTION WORDS.(3)Closed-class words and open-class wordsA word that belongs to the CLOSED CLASS is one whose membership is fixed or limited.New members are not regularly added.The OPEN-CLAS

27、S is one whose membership is in principle infinite or limited. With the emergence of new ideas, inventions, etc., new expressions are continually and constantly being added to the lexicon.As a matter of fact, the distinction between closed-class words and open-class words is not quite as clear-cut a

28、s it seems.(3) Word class 词类Here are some of the categories newly introduced into linguistic analysis:PARTICLESAUXILIARIESPRO-FORMDETERMINERS限定词It refers to words which are used before the noun (including its premodifiers like adjectives) acting as head of a noun phrase, and determine 决定 the kind of

29、 reference the noun phrase has.Predeterminers: all, both, half, double, twice, three times, one-third, one-fifth and thelike.Central determiners: this, that, these, those, every, each, some, any, no, either, neither, my,Postdeterminers: including cardinal numbers; ordinal numbers; general ordinals l

30、ikenext, last, past, other, additional, many, few, several, much, little, a lot of, plenty of, a great deal of, etc.When different sub-classes of determiners occur together, they follow the order of predeterminers + central determiners +postdeterminers.词素 and Morphology 形态学Morpheme is the smallest u

31、nit of language in terms of relationship between expression and5content, a unit that can tbe divided into further smaller units without destroying or drasticallyaltering the meaning, whether it is lexical or grammatical.Morpheme is the immediate concern of a branch of linguistics called MORPHOLOGY,w

32、hich studies the internal structure of words, and the rules by which words are formed.There are two fields Morphology concerns: (i)the study of INFECTIONS (also called INFLECTIONAL MORPHOLOGY), and (ii) the studyof WORD-FORMATION (often referred to as LEXICAL DERIVATIONAL MORPHOLOGY)Inflection. INFL

33、ECTION is the manifestationof grammatical relationships through the addition of inflectional affixes, such as number, person, finiteness, aspect 体 and case格 , which do not change the grammatical class of the stems to which they are attached.Word formationWORD-FORMATION, in its restricted sense,refer

34、s to the process of word variations signaling lexical relationships. It can be furthersubclassified into the compositional type (COMPOUND) and the derivational type(DERIV ATION)CompoundCompounds can be further divided into two kinds:the endocentric 内向的 compound and the exocentric 外向的 compoundDerivat

35、ionDifferent from compounds, DERIV ATION shows the relation between roots and affixes. In contrast with inflections, derivations can make the word class of the original word eitherchanged or unchanged.音系学 and morphology 形态学(1) Morpheme 词素 andphoneme 音素Since a phoneme is the smallest unit of sound an

36、d a morpheme is the smallest unit in grammar, is there any correspondence between the two levels of language? To answer the question, we have to move on to the “joint venture” of the two levels, that is,MORPHOPHONOLOGY形态音位学or MORPHOPHONEMICS词素音位学 .6(3) Allomorph词素变体Some morphemes have a single form

37、in all contexts. In other instances there may beconsiderable variations.Itis to be noted some morphemicshapes represent differentmorphemes and thus have different meanings.(4) Morphophonology or MorphophonemicsMORPHONOLOGY(MORPHONOLOGY)orMORPHOPHONEMICS(MORPHONEMICS)is a branch of linguistics referr

38、ing to the analysis and classification ofthe phonological factors that affect the appearance of morphemes, and, correspondingly, thegrammatical factors that affect the appearance of phonemes音素 . At any rate, it studies therelationships between phonology音系学 and morphology 形态学 .NUMBER is mostly a cate

39、gory of the noun and pronoun. There are usually two terms ofnumber: singular and plural.Gender 性 is also mostly a category of the noun and pronoun. In English, the genderdistinctions are on the whole natural, determined by the biological gender of the creature.The category of CASE is prominent in th

40、e grammarof Latin with six distinctions ofnominative 主格 , vocative 呼格 , accusative 宾格 , genitive 属格 , dative 与格 and ablative 离格 ,夺格 . In English, pronouns have three cases of nominative (e.g. I ), accusative (e.g. me ) andgenitive (e.g. my ). But nouns have only two cases: general (e.g. John, boy) a

41、nd genitive (e.g.Johns, boys), distinguished by the morphological 形态学 form, that is, the genitive has anadditional morpheme/ s/. The distinctions of nominative and accusative in nouns are realized by word order, with the one before the verb as the nominative and the one after it as the accusative. T

42、he dative case is shown by prepositions like to as in I gave a book to him. And the ablative case is shown by prepositions likewith as in He opened the door with a key.What is the syntagmatic relationship?The syntagmatic relationship is a relation between one item and others in a sequence, or betwee

43、n elements which are all present, such as the relation between weather and the others in the following sentence:If the weather is nice, well go out.There are syntactic and semantic conditions the words in a syntagmatic relation must meet.7For example, 1 below is an acceptable sentence, but 2 and 3 a

44、re not:The boy kicked the ball.Boy the ball kicked the.The ball kicked the boy.The paradigmatic relation, Saussure originally called Associative, is a relation holdingbetween elements replaceable with each other at a particular place in a structure, or betweenone element present and the others absen

45、t. For example, in the context The _ issmiling, there are constraints on the possible elements occurring here.So immediate constituent analysis may be defined as: the analysis of a sentence in terms ofits immediate constituentsword groups(or phrases), which are in turn analyzed into the immediate co

46、nstituents of their own, and the process goes on until the ultimate constituents are reached.The immediate constituent analysis of a sentence may be carried out with brackets as:(Poor)(John) (ran)(away)Now the question is : how do we know where to make the cuts? The answer, the criterionused here, i

47、s substitutability: whether a sequence of words can be substituted for a single wordand the structure remains the same.: (John)( ran)(2) Its advantagesThrough IC analysis, the internal structure of a sentence may be demonstrated clearly, and ambiguities, if any, will be revealed.(3)Its problemsHowev

48、er, there are also problems in ICanalysis. First, at the beginning, some advocatorsinsisted on binary divisions. Any construction, at any level, will be cut into two parts. But thisis not always possible.Leave the book on the shelf.Leave + the book +on the shelf.Leave it there.Second, constructions

49、with discontinuous constituents will pose technical problems for tree diagrams in IC analysisThe former may be defined as the abstract representation of the syntactic properties of a8construction, e.g. the underlying level of structuralrelations 底层结构关系between itsdifferent constituents, such as the r

50、elation between the underlying subject and its verb, or averb and its object. In contrast, the latter is the final stage in the syntactic derivation of a construction, which closely corresponds to structural organization of a construction people actually produce and receive.5.1 Meanings of “meaning”

51、G. Leech in a more moderate tone recognize 7 types of meaning in his Semantics.1. Conceptual 概念上的meaning: Logical, cognitive, or denotative 外延的 content.Associative meaning 联想意义 :2. Connotative 内涵的 meaning: What is communicated by virtue效力 of what language refersto.Social meaning: What is communicate

52、d of the social circumstances of language use.Affective 情感的 meaning: What is communicated of the feelings and attitudes of the speaker/writer.Reflected meaning 反映意义 : What is communicated through association with another senseof the same expression.Collocative meaning搭配意义 : What is communicated thro

53、ugh association with words which tend to occur in the environment of another word.Thematic 主题 meaning: What is communicated by the way in which the message isorganized in term of order and emphasis.图式与推论It is believed that SCHEMATA, meaning packets of stored knowledge, play an important role in lang

54、uage processing.The features of schemata are as follows:1.Schemata can vary considerably in the information they contain, from the very simple to thevery complex.2.Schemata are frequently organized hierarchically,for example, in addition to a rathergeneral restaurant schema or script, we probably al

55、so have more specific restaurant schemata for different kinds of restaurant （ e.g. fast-food places，up-market French restaurants, and so on）3.Schemata operate in a top-down or conceptually driven way to facilitate interpretation of9environmental stimuli.There are various characteristics of language

56、processing which indicate the key role played by schematic and other stored knowledge. For example, language comprehension frequentlyrequires us to go far beyond the literal meanings of the sentences we read or hear. Essential information is often only implied, so it is necessary to draw inferences

57、in order to understandfully what is intended.For example, in the text interpretation, schemata presumably play a part. Readers make use of a restaurant schema or script to understand a story about Jack eating out at a restaurant.Subsequently, they falsely recognized sentences fitting into the schema

58、 but not actually included in the story (e.g. Jack sat down at the table.) Schemata thus lead people to draw schema-relevant inferences which facilitate comprehension and interpretation.Our comprehension of and memory for stories highly “selective”, in the sense that we focus on the central theme of

59、 the story rather than on the relatively unimportant details.They argued that there were additional processesinvolved in the task of understandingthe gist or MACROSTRUCTURE宏观结构of a story. Morespecially, they claimed thatreaders or listeners make extensive use of their general knowledge to work out t

60、he majortheme of a story. This leads to the production of MACROPROPOSITIONS宏观命题 , whichare general propositions used to form an overall macrostructure of the story.Firth, a leading figure in a linguistic tradition later known as the London School, tried toset up a model for illustrating the close re