英語語言學(xué)期末復(fù)習(xí)寶典

1、Linguisticsl Chapter 1 Language and Linguistics Language is a system of arbitrary vocal symbols used for human communication.Features of language: displacement, arbitrariness, productivity/creativity, cultural transmission, duality, discreteness不連續(xù)性1.1 The nature of language: 考論述language is systemat

2、ic. In natural verbal communication, people can learn and use a language consistently. This shows that language is systematic. This property is usually claimed to be unique to humans.language is symbolic. As we know, people use signs to communicate, which means that language involves signs. The conc

3、eption of sign through has evolved through a long history of philosophical discussions, dating to the Middle Age.language is arbitrary. (convention) Arbitrariness does not mean that everything about language is unpredictable. The forms of linguistic signs bear no natural resemblance to their meaning

4、.language is primarily vocal. All languages use sounds. Children learn to speak before they learn to read and write; children automatically learn a language as they grow up; the spoken form came earlier than the written in human history; writing is based on speech; people use spoken language more of

5、ten than writinglanguage is human specific. There are certain characteristics of human language that are not found in the communication systems of any other species. Although most animals are assumed to communicate in some way, they convey limited information and only express emotions such as fear a

6、nd warnings.language is used for communication. Language is the result of our communicative needs. Its attractiveness comes from its social utility. Language enables us to communicate our general attitudes toward life and others.1) language is systematicEach human language is organized into two basi

7、c systems, a system of sounds and a system of meanings. This is called the duality of language. Linguistics is concerned not only with characteristics of the two systems but also with their relationship.Sounds are units which combine to make words or parts of words, different sequences of sounds hav

8、e difference in meaning. Elements have no meaning themselves. The number of words in a language is relatively finite but their possible combination can be infinite.In a language we can find agreed-upon sound-meaning relations and agreed-upon sequences. These principles can be called rules. These rul

9、es make up the syntax of the language.2) language is symbolicLanguage involves signs whose conception can be date back to the Middle Ages. There has been a discipline to study the working of signs, Sassure calls it “semiology”, and Peirce terms it “semiotics”. Charles Peirce views semiotics as a bra

10、nch of logic and philosophy. Signs are divided into natural signs and conventional signs. Signs are ubiquitous in human society and can be categorized into three major types: icon象征符, index標(biāo)記符 and symbol代碼符.3) language is arbitraryAccording to Saussure, the linguistic signs unites, not a thing and a

11、 name, but a concept and a sound-image. The sound-image is not the material sound but the psychological imprint of the sound, the impression it makes on our senses.考判斷Arbitrary does not mean that everything about language is unpredictable but that human languages use neutral symbols. Concept and sou

12、nd-image are replaced by signified所指and signifier能指respectively. The most arbitrary level of language is that of the distinctive units of sound. It is because sound units are distinctive. Syntax句法 is less arbitrary than words. Words are arbitrary in form, but they are not random in their use.4) lang

13、uage is primarily vocalVerbal communication can involve various forms. Speech and writing are the most common. The primary medium of language is sound. Writing is based on speaking and can influence speaking. Writing systems represent some levels of the spoken language, such as distinct words, sylla

14、bles, or sounds.5) language is human specific (purely human)Human language is generally said to be different from animal communication in the following aspects:1. Language has the ability to refer to things far removed in time and space.2. Humans have the ability to produce and understand an indefin

15、ite無限期的，不明確的 number of novel utterance.（openness or productivity）3. Learning is much more important as a factor in human language than in animal communication.4. Language is complex in its structure.5. Animal communication systems are closed, whereas human languages are open-ended.6. According to sp

16、eech act theory, humans can perform acts with language just as they can with objects of different kinds.6) language is used for communicationA conversation s assumed to be a pattern of two-way communication.1.2 The functions of language: general functions of language; metafunctions of language元功能.1)

17、 General functions of languagePhysiological function（or emotive/expressive function）, phatic function交際功能（creating or maintaining social relationship between speakers）, recording function, identifying function, reasoning function(as a tool of thought), communication function, pleasure function(or re

18、creational function)Informative function, performative function施為功能（ppt補充）2) Metafunctions of languageIdeational function 概念功能: Divide into experimental function and logical function; as a symbolic code to represent the world around us Interpersonal function 人際功能: The participatory function of langu

19、age/enable the speakers (writers) and the listeners (readers) maintain interactions and thus enact a social and intersubjective relationship Textual function 語篇功能: represent the speakers text-forming potential. Relates our abilities to construct texts out of our utterances and writings.1.3 The origi

20、n and classification of language1) The origin of language(divine source, the natural-sound source, evolutionary source)The belief that all languages originated from a single source is found in Genesis. Many scientists today believe that man arose in many different places of the world.Three broad cat

21、egories of the origin of language: creation, evolution and invention.Creation/Divine Origin: almost every religion has stories about how man received language from God. But it is impossible for man to name things without acquiring languageEvolution：Man evolved from lower forms of life. Language evol

22、ved as an adjunct to early communicationInvention: believe that there is natural connection between the forms of language and the essence of things. (onomatopoetic words)2) Language families語系Two main ways of classifying languages: genetic classification and typological classification (group languag

23、e into structural types, on the basis of phonology, grammar, or vocabulary-isolating, infecting屈折語, agglutinating 黏著語language) 1.4 What is linguistic ( Phonetics. Phonology. Morphology. Semantics. Pragmatics. Syntax)1) definition of linguistics Linguistics has something to do with sounds, vocabulary

24、, grammar, meaning and historical development of language.The main purpose of linguistics is to develop a general theory of language and theories on aspects of language.2) some important distinctions in linguistics考概念langue and parole: Langue語言 is the abstract system shared by all members of a commu

25、nity of speakers.(social, conventional side of language, collective body of knowledge, abstract knowledge)Parole言語 is the particular realization of language. (individualized speech, the use of language in utterance, concrete)Prescriptive陳述的 and descriptive 描述的：Linguistics is descriptive, not prescri

26、ptive.Prescriptivism describe what should be in language, but descriptivism describes the way people actually speak and write their language.-what is in the language.synchronic 共時and diachronic歷時:Synchronic study refers to the description of a particular state of a language at a single point of time

27、.Diachronic study refers to the description of the historical development of a language. (two or more than two states of language over decades or centuries)speech and writing:language is primarily vocal. No community has a written form only. Linguistics has stressed the priority of speech-the spoken

28、 first, then the writtenSpeech has the restriction of both time and space. Without writing, human progress would be extremely slow. With modern technology, the distinction between speech and writing is being blurred.syntagmatic and paradigmatic:Syntagmatic relation refers to the relations between un

29、its which combine to form sequences.(re+write)Paradigmatic relation refers to oppositions which produce distinct and alternative terms (foot-feet)competence and performance:Competence refers to the knowledge that native speakers have of their language as system of abstract formal relations.Performan

30、ce refers to the infinite varied individual acts of verbal behavior with their irregularities, inconsistencies and errors.Chomsky sees the linguists task as primarily describing competence because performance is impossible without competence.functionalism and formalism.For Chomsky, competence is not

31、 a social but a psychological phenomenon, not a shared generality but a genetic endowment in each individual.1.5 The scope of linguistics1) Use of linguisticsPragmatics, anthropological linguistics, psycholinguistics, sociolinguistics, neurolinguistics 神經(jīng)語言學(xué), applied linguistics, computational lingu

32、istics.2) Recent developments考小題Corpus linguistics, discourse analysis, cognitive linguistics, systemic functional grammar.l Chapter 2 phonetics and phonology1.1 production of sounds1) scope of phoneticsMaking sounds consists three stages: the production of the message, the transmission of the messa

33、ge, and the reception of the message.Phonetics is composed of three separate fields: articulatory phonetics, acousctic phonetics, auditory phonetics.2) articulation of sounds發(fā)音Voice: sound may be either voiced or voiceless.Two perspectives to examine how sounds are articulated: manner of articulatio

34、n & place of articulationManner of articulation: plosives and nasal stops; fricatives; affricates; approximants; trills and tapsPlace of articulation: bilabial; dental; post-alveolar; retroflex; uvular; glottal; labiodental; alveolar; palatal; velar; pharyngealVowels:The primary criteria for the

35、 classification of vowels are: 1) the distance between the top of the tongue and the roof of the mouth 2) the retraction and extension of the tongue. A secondary criterion is the rounding of the lips. the height of the tongue raising-high, mid, lowthe position of the highest part of the tongue-front

36、, central, backthe length or tenseness of the vowel-lax or tensethe shape of the lips -rounded, unrounded3) characteristics of English speech sounds English vowels: There are 7 short vowels, 5 long vowels, 8 diphthongs雙元音, and 5 trip thongs 三元音.P5 monophthongs單元音English consonants: consonants are us

37、ually classified according to their place of articulation and manner of articulation. English is said to have 24 consonants: 6 plosive consonants,9 fricatives 摩擦音, 2 affricates塞擦音, 3 nasals 鼻音, 3 approximants and 1 lateral consonant. P534) the transcription of soundsA phonetic alphabet can represent

38、 speech in the form of segments, or individual speech sounds. A phonetic transcription is an economical means for capturing sounds on paper. The best-known system, the International Phonetic Alphebet (IPA), has been developing since 1888. This system of transcription attempts to represent each sound

39、 of human speech with a single symbol. There are two kinds of transcription: narrow transcription and broad transcription.1.2 Phonemes 音位Phonology is the study of sound patterns in human language. Phonology is also called phonemics which studies the distinctive sound units of a language and their re

40、lationship. 1) definition of phonemesThe segments of an underlying representation are called phonemes. Phonemes equal distinctive sounds. Phoneme is the minimum phonetic unit that is not further analyzable into smaller units. Human languages use a large number of orally transmitted units called phon

41、emes. 2) minimal pairs最小語音主力: a pair of phonemes is also known as a minimal pair. When two different forms are identical in every way except for one sound segment that occurs in the same place in the string, the two words are called minimal pairs. For instance, deed and seed. Phonemic distinctions c

42、an occur in any position within a word. The substitution of one feature for another does not result in a change in meaning. Thus, we say that the sounds or features in question are in free variation. Thus, we say that the sounds or features in question are in free variation.3) distinctive features考名

43、詞解釋Distinctive features are often shown in the form of a binary opposition. The features can be shown as either present + or absent -. Most distinctive features are binary, that is, they can have only one of two values-plus or minus. s is -voiced and z is +voiced1.3 sound patternsSound patterns refe

44、r to the set of sounds that occur in a given language, the permissible arrangements of these sounds in words, and the processes for adding, deleting or changing sounds. It is highly unlikely that any two languages have exactly the same sound pattern.1） sequential constraints（語音）序列的限制All languages ha

45、ve constraints on the permitted sequences of phonemes, though different languages have different constraints. The phonological system determines which phonemes can begin a word, end a word, and follow each other.2） complementary distribution互補性分布When two or more sounds never occur in an identical ph

46、onemic context or environment, they are said to be in complementary distribution. The aspirated and the unaspirated phones(pea Ph and speed P; hit and sing hn) are in complementary distribution. According to Wardhaugh, phonetically similar sounds in complementary distribution are allophones音位變體of a

47、single phoneme. 1.4 suprasegmental features 超音段特征 syllable the syllable consists of a center which has little or no obstruction to airflow and which sounds comparatively loud; before and after this center there is greater obstruction to airflow and/or less sound. According to Roach, a minimum syllab

48、le is a single vowel in isolation. Structurally, the syllable may be divided into three parts: the onset, the peak(vowel), and the coda. 首音，音核，音節(jié)尾。A syllable that has no coda is called an unchecked or open syllable; one with a coda is called a checked or closed syllable. The peak and coda of a sylla

49、ble form a unit, the syllable core. Step consists of a single syllable with st as its onset, e as its peak and p as its coda. The first syllable of morale is open and the second, closed.1) Stress: Stress is generally defined as syllable prominence- a syllable that is more prominent than others in a

50、word or phrase is said to be stressed. Languages which have syllables that differ in stress are called stress language. Some words may have a primary stress and one or more than one secondary stress. No word has more than one primary stress. All the other stressed vowels are reduced to secondary str

51、ess.2) Assimilation 同化 Cf: final consonant Ci: initial consonantCf changes to become like Ci-regressive 逆向同化Ci changes to become like Cf-progressive 順向同化 連讀for economy 省力Elision 元音省略Lots of vowels after”p,t,k”-potato loss of final “v”-lots of them3) Pitch: different languages use pitch differently.4

52、) intonation and toneintonation refers to the pitch differences that extend over phonetic units larger than the syllable. By means of intonation, syllables are grouped into phrases, and phrases into sentencesfunctions: 1) grouping of words; 2) emphasizing words; 3) differentiating meanings.Tone refe

53、rs to pitch variations. Tones do not mark the beginning and ending of words, nor do they even indicate to the speaker how many words there are in an utterance, (different from stress)Some functions of English tones:1) falling tone2) rising tone 3) falling-rising tone 4) rising- falling tone 5) level

54、 tonel Chapter 3 morphology and lexicon 形態(tài)&詞匯Morphology形態(tài)學(xué) studies morphemes and their different forms and the way they combine in word formation. Lexicon refers to the set of all the words and idioms of any language. We know the word, by the company it keeps1.1 word and word classes1) word: Blo

55、omfield, defines a word as “ a minimum free form”, that is the smallest form that can occur by itself.Characteristics of word: a word 1) is a sound or combination of sounds; 2) is symbolic; 3) is part of language. 4) helps human beings interact culturally with one another.2) word classes 詞格Closed cl

56、ass: prepositions, pronouns, determiners(that), conjunctions(and), modal verbs(may), primary verbsOpen class: nouns, full verbsLesser categories: numerals (words that denote number or the order.)and interjections(a word or phrase used as a sudden remark usually expressing feelings such as sorrow, su

57、rprise,regret)Open-class words and closed-class wordsPro-formsVariable and invariable wordsLexical words and grammatical words1.2 morpheme1) what is a morphemeA morpheme is the smallest linguistic unit that carries grammatical and/or semantic meaning. It can not be further divided into smaller gramm

58、atical units. For example, unacceptable: un, accept, able.A morpheme may be a complete word (boy, accept) or an affix(-s, un-)The different variants of a morpheme are called allomorphs. e.g: the plural morpheme “s” is pronounced z in dogs, s in pests, and iz in houses.2) types of morphemes1. Free morpheme(a morpheme can constitute a word/free form by itself) and Bound Morpheme(a morpheme has meaning only when connected with at least another morph