1--Design-features-of-language.doc

1 Design features of language
The features that define our human languages can be called design features which can distinguish human language from any animal system of communication.
Arbitrariness
Arbitrariness refers to the fact that the forms of linguistic signs bear no natural relationship to their meanings.
Duality
Duality refers to 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.
Creativity
Creativity means that language is resourceful because of its duality and its recursiveness. Recursiveness refers to the rule which can be applied repeatedly without any definite limit. The recursive nature of language provides a theoretical basis for the possibility of creating endless sentences.
Displacement
Displacement means that human languages enable their users to symbolize objects, events and concepts which are not present (in time and space) at the moment of conversation.

Main branches of linguistics
Phonetics
Phonetics is the study of speech sounds, it includes three main areas: articulatory phonetics, acoustic phonetics, and auditory phonetics.
Phonology
Phonology studies the rules governing the structure, distribution, and sequencing of speech sounds and the shape of syllables.
Morphology
Morphology studies the minimal units of meaning – morphemes and word-formation processes.
Syntax
Syntax refers to the rules governing the way words are combined to form sentences in a language, or simply, the study of the formation of sentences.
Semantics
Semantics examines how meaning is encoded in a language.
Pragmatics
Pragmatics is the study of meaning in context.
言语行为理论Speech act theory
It’s an important theory in the pragmatic study of language. it’s a philosophical explanation of the nature of linguistic communication. it aims to answer the question ”what do we do when using language?”
The concept of causatives performatives, the locutionary act, the illocutionary act, the perlocutionary act and the5categories of illocutionary act suggested and formulated by J.R.Searle constitute the speech act theory.

.言内行为Locutionary Act
A locutionary act is the act of uttering words, phrases ,clauses. it’s the act of conveying literal meaning by means of syntax, lexicon and phonology.
言外行为Illcotionary Act
An illocutionary act is the act of expressing the speaker’s intention it’s the act performed in saying something.
言后行为 Perlocutionary Act
Perlocuationary Act is the act performed by or resulting from saying something. it’s the consequence of ,or the change brought about by the utterance.

The cooperative principle
. The cooperative principle (CP)
Cooperative principle refers to the “co-operation” between speakers in using the maxims during the conversation. There are four conversational maxims:
(1) The maxim of quantity:
a. Make your contribution as informative as required.
b. Don’t make your contribution more informative than is required.
(2) The maxim of quality: Try to make your contribution one that is true.
a. Don’t say what you believe to be false.
b. Don’t say that for which you lack adequate evidence.
(3) The maxim of relation: Say things that are relevant.
(4) The maxim of manner: Be perspicuous.
a. Avoid obscurity of expression.
b. Avoid ambiguity.
c. Be brief.
d. Be orderly.
心理语言学Psycholinguistics :It investigates the interrelation of language and mind, in processing and producing utterance and in language acquisition for example. In the psycholinguistic study of grammar, the psycholinguistic constraints on the form of grammar are examined. It also studies language development in the child, such as the theories of language acquisition; biological foundation of language; and the relationship between language and cognition.
习得acquisition: Acquisition is a process similar to the way children acquire their first language. It is a subconscious process without minute learning of grammatical rules. Learners are hardly aware of their learning but they are using language to communicate. It is also called implicit learning, informal learning or natural learning.
语言习得阶段1，holophrastic stage 2,two word stage 3,three word utterances 4,fluent grammatical
. 第二语言习得second language acquisition: It refers to the systematic study of how one person acquires a second language subsequent to his native language
认知学cognition ,the term is used in several different loosely related ways, in psychology it refers to the mental process of an individual, with particular relation to a view that argues that the mind has internal mental states such as beliefs, desires, and intentions and can be understood in terms of information processing, especially when a lot of abstraction or concretization is involved or processes such as involving knowledge, expertise or learning for example are at work. Another definition is the mental process or faculty of knowing, including aspect such as awareness, perception, reasoning, and judgment.

.Sapir-Whorf hypothesis
他的假设证明了语言决定思想
Sapir-Whorf hypothesis proposes that the language we speak determines the way we perceive the world and so the nature of thought
.爆破音stops
When a obstruction created by the speech organs is total or complete, the speech sound produced with the obstruction released and the air passing out again is called a stop or a plosive.
they are[b] [p] [t] [d] [k] [g]
同义词Synonymy 多义词Polysemy .
同音(形)异义Homonymy
It refers to the phenomenon that words have different meanings have the same form, i.e, different words are identical in sound or spelling, or in both.
10.同音异义Homophones
It refers to two words are identical in sound. e.g. rain/reign.
11.同形异义Homographs
It refers to two words are identical in form .e.g. tear v./tear n.
12.上下义关系Hyponymy
It refers to the sense relation between a more general, more inclusive word and a more specific word. the word which is more general in meaning is called superordinate, and the more specific words are called its hyponyms.
13.反义词Antonymy
It’s the term used for oppositeness of meaning on different dimension
(1)Gradable antonyms分级反义词(a matter of degree)
例子 Old—middle-aged—young; hot-warm-cold
Antonym (2) Complementary antonyms互补反义词a matter of degree between
分类 two extremes例子 Alive—dead; male—female;
(3) Relational opposites关系反义词(中间可以加成分，如上、中、下)
father-son; teacher-pupil; doctor-patient; buy-sell; above-below

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爆破音那以后是可能会出的选择题