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1、01 Introduction汪立荣 QQ：752256232,Specific expressions快,for example,is used in Chinese when people are coming to your house:快请进,快请坐,快喝杯水,快喝杯茶,快吃个苹果.In this way we Chinese express our welcome and warmth to the visitors.And慢is used when people are to say goodbye:慢走,慢慢吃,慢慢喝,慢慢聊,慢慢倾(Cantonese),慢慢压(Cantone
2、se).,Such expressions are specific to Chinese.That is why in English we cannot say“*Come in quickly”,“*Sit down quickly”,or“*Walk slowly.”Grammatical rulesIn English,for example,“I”is followed by“am”,and“you”by“are”,and“he”by“is”.Now try to answer the following questions:1)Are the rules in language
3、formed gradually through everyday use or prescribed by linguists?,2)People speak their mother tongue correctly,fluently and appropriately.An illiterate woman in Guangzhou,for example,speaks Cantonese correctly,fluently and appropriately.Do you think she knows Cantonese grammar?Why or why not?How do
4、you explain this phenomenon?3)Is there anything wrong with the sentence“My father is a worker”?Why?4)Is there anything wrong with the sentence“Lets go to eat rice”?Why?,1.Linguistics,1.1 DefinitionYou may find it hard to answer people who ask you,What exactly is linguistics,and what do linguists do?
5、They might assume that it means that you are multilingual.And you may,in fact,be a polyglot,but thats not what linguistics major is about.Linguistics is the scientific or systemic study of language(p.1).,At the heart of linguistics is the search for the unconscious knowledge that humans have about l
6、anguage(s),an understanding of the structure of language,and knowledge about how languages differ from each other.What exactly do we mean by this?When you were born,you were not able to communicate with the adults around you using their language.But by the time you were five or six,you were able to
7、produce sentences,understand jokes,make rhymes,and so on.,In short,you became a fluent native speaker.All of this happened before you entered first grade!(If you studied a foreign language in high school,you know that learning a language later in life did not go nearly as smoothly or as quickly.)Dur
8、ing those first few years of your life,you accumulated a wide range of knowledge about language.Majoring in linguistics means that you will learn about many aspects of human language,including the physical properties and structure of sounds(phonetics and phonology),words(morphology),sentences(syntax
9、),and meaning(semantics).,It can involve looking at how languages change over time(historical linguistics);how they vary from situation to situation,group to group,and place to place(sociolinguistics and dialectology);how people use language in context(pragmatics);or how people acquire or learn lang
10、uage(language acquisition).Faculty members in linguistics programs are experts in at least one(if not several)of these subfields.,Many linguists,in fact,have expertise in multiple subfields and enjoy collaborating with other linguists with different backgrounds in order to further scientific knowled
11、ge.Linguistics programs may be organized around different aspects of linguistics.For example,a program might focus on the linguistics of a particular group of languages(like Slavic linguistics);how language is acquired and processed(psycholinguistics);how language relates to social and cultural issu
12、es,including language learning and teaching(applied linguistics);or the connections between linguistics and cognitive science.,All of these programs share an interest in the unconscious knowledge that humans have about the language(s)that they know and what is possible or impossible in language.1)Th
13、e three canons of linguistics(p.1)Since linguistics is a science,it is guided by the same three principles as in other sciences.a.exhaustiveness,The linguist should gather all the materials relevant to his investigation and give them an adequate explanation.b.consistency There should be no contradic
14、tion between different parts of the total statement c.economy The best statements are the shortest possible ones which can account most fully for all facts.,2)Two purposes(p.2)a.Linguistics studies the nature of language in order to establish a theory of language and describes languages in the light
15、 of the theory established.b.Linguistics examines all the forms of language in general and seeks a scientific understanding of the ways in which it is organized to fulfill the needs it serves and the functions it performs in human life.,1.2 The difference between linguistics and traditional grammar
16、Traditional grammar,as a pre-20th century language description and pre-linguistic product of research,was based upon earlier grammars of Latin or Greek(e.g.English had six cases because Latin had six cases),and laid emphasis on correctness,literary excellence,the use of Latin models,and the priority
17、 of written language.,1.2.1 Three sources of prescriptive grammar The three sources from which the rules of prescriptive grammar come from:1)Latin and Greekunchanging form of these languages(because they are dead languages,they do not change)high prestige in European educationbrilliance of classical
18、 literaturee.g.“It is I”and not“It is me”,2)the written languageespecially the works of great writers.People are told to speak as they would write.e.g.Whom did you speak to?3)LogicGrammar should be judged insofar as it follows the principles of logic.e.g.You shouldnt say“I havent done nothing”,1.2.2
19、 Difference between linguistics and traditional grammarLinguistics differs from traditional grammar in the following three ways:1)It just describes languages,instead of laying down rules of correctness.2)It regards the spoken language as primary,not the written language.3)It describes each language
20、on its own merits instead of imposing Latin models on it.,1.3 Use of studying linguistics(pp.3-4)1)To have an overview of human language;2)To understand that human languages have important features in common though they differ greatly in many details;3)To go along the path leading to the final profe
21、ssion either as a teacher of foreign languages or as a researcher of linguistics or translation(p.4),1.4 Scope of linguistics(pp.4-8)1)microlinguistics VS macrolinguisticsMicrolinguistics:Phonetics,Phonology,Morphology,Syntax,Semantics,Pragmatics.These branches are at the very center of linguistic s
22、cope.Macrolinguistics:Sociolinguistics(it studies the relations between language and society),Psycholinguistics(it studies language and mind),Neurolinguistics(or:Neurological linguistics,it studies language processing and language representation in the brain),Stylistics(it studies how literacy effec
23、ts can be related to linguistic features),Discourse analysis(Text linguistics,it studies the relationship between language and the contexts in which language is used),Computational linguistics(it employs mathematical techniques,often with the help of a computer),Cognitive linguistics(it analyzes nat
24、ural language that focuses on language as an instrument for organizing,processing,and conveying information).These branches are related to something that is not at the center of linguistic scope.,2)Linguistics classified from different perspectivesfunctional linguistics VS formal linguisticsthe form
25、er stresses the function of language and the latter stresses the form of languagetheoretical linguistics VS applied linguisticsthe former studies the“pure”theory in language and the latter studies how to apply the theory corpus linguisticslinguistic description based on the extensive accumulation of
26、 naturally occurring language data and its analysis by computers,forensic linguisticsthe examination of linguistic evidence for legal purposes mathematical linguisticsthe study of the mathematical properties of languageanthropological linguisticsthe study of language in cross-cultural settings3)Rece
27、nt developments of linguistics:Corpus linguistics,Discourse Analysis,Cognitive linguistics,Computational linguistics,Mathematical linguistics,2.Language,2.1 What is language?During the long history of language study,many linguists or scholars have tried to define what language is.For example,linguis
28、ts,such as Sapir,Block,Hall,Robins,Crystal,Chomsky,tried to explain what language is.And each of their definitions has its strong points as well as its weak points,yet none of the definitions are satisfactory;for it is really very difficult to give a comprehensive definition of language.,At the pres
29、ent,most linguists are in broad agreement about the following definition given by Wardhaugh in his Introduction to Linguistics(1972):Language is a system of arbitrary vocal symbols used for human communication.Short as it is,this definition has captured the main features of language.,First of all,la
30、nguage is a system,that is,elements of language are combined according to rules,for example,iblk is not a possible sound combination in English,and Been he has here is not an acceptable sentence in English,either.If language were not constructed according to certain rules,it could not be learned and
31、 used consistently.Second,language is arbitrary.There is no direct connection between the linguistic form and the thing it refers to.,Third,language is vocal.The primary medium of language is sound(speech).As we know,language is abstract and it is realized in two forms:speech and writing.Among the t
32、wo media of language,speech is primary for the following reasons:1)Speech has a history of about 100,000 years while writing has only a history of several thousands.2)There are still some communities that have speech without writing system.3)Speech is learned before writing.,4)Most of the human comm
33、unication is done by speech.5)Written language can,to a large extent,be converted into speech without loss,but the converse is not true.Fourth,language is used for human communication and language is human-specific.That is,language is only possessed by human beings,and it makes it possible for its u
34、sers to talk to each other and fulfill their communicative needs.,2.2 Origin of language(pp.9-10)Because no one can say how and when language originated,there are some speculations about it.1)Plato:There was a“perfect”language;2)Socrates:Imitation of natural sounds was the basis for the origin of la
35、nguage;3)Mans instinctive response to certain external stimuli was the basis for the origin of language;4)Ding-Dong Theory:Human speech developed from primitive man giving vocal expression to the objects he encountered;,5)Sing-Song Theory:Language developed from primitive ritual songs of praise;6)“P
36、oor-Pooh(Exclamation or Interjectional)Theory”stresses the speakers emotion;7)“Yo-He-Ho Theory”:cries uttered during strain of work;8)“Ta-Ta Theory”:Language came from the combination of certain gestures and tongue movement;,9)“Bow-Wow Theory”:imitation of animal cries and other sounds heard in natu
37、re.Conclusion:Language originates,grows and develops in society.2.3 Design features of language Design features are those ones which are thought to distinguish human language from animal cry system.The American linguist Charles Hockett specified the following 7 design features of language.,1)Arbitra
38、rinessThere is no logical(intrinsic or direct)connection between sounds and meanings,or the linguistic forms bear no natural relationship to their meaning.A dog might be a pig if only the first person or group of persons had used it for a pig.However,language is not entirely arbitrary;there are case
39、s where there seems to be some association between sounds and meaning.,That is,such cases are not arbitrary,but motivated.e.g.a.Onomatopoetic words:p.10;A cat mews,A pigeon coos,A dog barks,A cow bellows,A duck quacks,etc.b.Some compound words:tractor driver,shoe-makerc.Syntax is less arbitrary than
40、 words,especially in so far as word order is concerned.d.The connection between sounds and their meanings is made by convention,e.g.A pair of trousers一条裤子 A pair of shirts两件衬衣,2)Dualitythe property of language with two levels of structure,one of sounds(lower level)and the other of meaning(higher lev
41、el).At the lower level there is a structure of sounds,which are meaningless(e.g./p/,/,/t/)and which can be grouped and regrouped into a large number of units of meaning such as morphemes and words(e.g./pt/).At the higher level,the units of meaning can be grouped and regrouped into an infinite number
42、 of sentences.Phonememorphemewordphraseclausesentence,3)Productivity/creativityLanguage users can utilize limited linguistic rules to produce or understand infinite meaningful linguistic forms,including those they have never heard before.e.g.A beautifully-dressed dog is dancing on the hotel bed.他一边脱
43、衣服，一边穿裤子。（小学生的造句练习）,4)Interchangeability/reciprocity This refers to the fact that any speaker/sender of a linguistic signal can also be a listener/receiver.5)DisplacementLanguage can be used to refer to things which are present or not present,real or imagined matters in the past,present or future,or
44、 in far-away places,here and now.,6)SpecializationLinguistic signals do not normally serve any other type of purpose,such as breathing or feeding.7)Cultural TransmissionA language system is not genetically transmitted,but culturally transmitted.That is,a language system is passed on from one generat
45、ion to another by teaching and learning rather than by instinct or birth.,2.4 Functions of language1)Different classifications of the functions of language:a.R.Jakobsonsix functionsb.M.A.K.Hallidaythree functionsc.J.Lyonsthree main functions2)According to the popular view,language has at least seven
46、 basic functions that serve peoples daily communication:,1)PhaticPhatic function is the function to establish communion with others.Language is used for establishing an atmosphere or maintaining social contact between the speakers rather than for exchanging information or ideas,e.g.greetings,farewel
47、ls,small talk.For example,when a person asks“How are you today?”,he is not really interested in the hearers state of health,but is expressing good will.,Give examples of phatic communication from Chinese and indicate which of these would be acceptable and which would cause offence if literally trans
48、lated into English.2)Directive Language is used to get the hearer to do something,e.g.Close the window,please.You should leave right now.If I were you,I would take it.,3)InformativeLanguage is used to tell the facts,to give information about something,to describe the material world,or to reason thin
49、gs out.e.g.Water boils at 100 degrees centigrade.4)InterrogativeLanguage is used to inquire information.5)Expressive Language is used to reveal something about the feelings and attitudes of the speaker.e.g.My God!,Im very sorry about it.,6)EvocativeLanguage is used to create certain feelings in the
50、hearer,e.g.to amuse,to anger,to worry or to please the hearer.(jokes are designed to amuse the audience;advertising is devised to urge customers to buy the mentioned goods;public speech aims to influence people in a certain line.),7)PerformativeLanguage is used to do things or to perform actions.On
