新编简明英语语言学教程笔记.doc

新编简明英语语言学教程笔记
Chapter one Introduction
一、定义
1.语言学Linguistics
Linguistics is generally defined as the scientific study of language.
2.普通语言学General Linguistics
The study of language as a whole is often called General linguistics.
3.语言language
Language is a system of arbitrary vocal symbols used for human communication.
语言是人类用来交际的任意性的有声符号体系。
4.识别特征Design Features
It refers to the defining poperties of human language that distinguish it from any animal system of communication.
Arbitrariness任意性 Productivity多产性 Duality双重性 Displacement移位性 Cultural transmission文化传递
⑴arbitrariness
There is no logical connection between meanings and sounds.
P.S the arbitrary nature of language is a sign of sophistication and it makes it possible for language to have an unlimited source of expressions
⑵Productivity
Animals are quite limited in the messages they are able to send.
⑶Duality
Language is a system, which consists of two sets of structures ,or two levels.
⑷Displacement
Language can be used to refer to contexts removed from the immediate situations of the speaker.
⑸Cultural transmission
Human capacity for language has a genetic basis, but we have to be taught and learned the details of any language system. this showed that language is culturally transmitted. not by instinct. animals are born with the capacity to produce the set of calls peculiar to their species.
二、知识点
1.language is not an isolated phenomenon, it’s a social activity carried out in a certain social environment by human beings.
语言不是一种孤立的现象，而是人类在一定的社会环境下进行的一种社会活动。
⑶曾经对语言概念下过定义的语言学家
Sapir---language is a purely human and non-instinctive method of communication ideas, emotions and desires by means of voluntarily produced symbols.
Hall----language is the institution whereby humans communicate and interact with each other by means of habitually used oral-auditory arbitrary symbols.
Chomsky---from now on I will consider language to be a set of sentences, each finite in length and constructed out of a finite set of elements.
⑷U.S.A Linguist Charles Hockett美国语言学家Charles Hockett
提出了语言的识别特征design features
3.the word ’language’ preceded by the zero-article ,it implies that linguistics studies not any particular language.
Language一词前不加冠词说明语言学家不只研究一种特定的语言。
4.in order to discover the nature of the underlying language system ,what the linguists has to do first if to study language facts.
5.language is a complicated entity with multiple layers and facts, so it's hardly possible for the linguistics to deal with it all at once.
6.Frist drew the attention of the linguists were the sounds used in languages.最先引起语言学家注意的是语言的发音。
三、问答题
1.what are major branches of linguistics? what does each study?
Phonetics----it’s defined as the study of the phonic medium of language, it’s concerned with all the sounds that occur in the world’s languages.
Phonology---the study of sounds systems—the inventory of distinctive sounds that occur in a language and the patterns into which they fall.
Morphology---It’s a branch of a grammar which studies the internal structure of words and the rules by which words are formed.
Syntax-------it's a subfield of linguistics that studies the sentence structure of a language.
Semantics---It’s simply defined as the study of meaning in abstraction.
Pragmatics---the study of meaning in context of words.
Sociolinguistics—the study of language with reference to society.
Psycholinguistics---the study of language with reference to the working of the mind.
Applied linguistics---the application of linguistic principles and theories to language teaching and learning.
2.why do we say language is arbitrary?
Language is arbitrary in the sense that there is no intrinsic connection between the sounds that people use and the objects to which these sounds refer.
The fact that different languages have different words for the same object is a good illustration of the arbitrary nature of language, it’s only our tacit agreement of utterance and concept at work and not any innate relationship bound up in the utterance.
A typical example to illustrate the ‘arbitrariness’ of language is ‘a rose by any other name would smell as sweet’.
3. what makes modern linguistics different from traditional grammar?
Modern linguistics is descriptive, its investigations are based on authentic and mainly spoken language date.现代语言学是描述性的，其研究以确实可靠的、主要以口语形式的资料为基础。
traditional grammar is prescriptive. it is based on’ high’ written language.
传统语法是规定性的，研究‘高级’书面语。
4.Is modern linguistics mainly synchronic or diachronic? why
Modern linguistics is mainly synchronic, focusing on the present-day language. unless the various states of a language are successfully studied, it will not be possible to describe language from a diachronic point of view.
现代语言学主要是共时性的，重点研究现代语言。除非对语言的各种状态都进行成功的研究，否则很难从历时性角度对语言进行描述。
5.which enjoys priority in modern linguistics, speech or writings?
Speech enjoys for the following reasons:
⑴Speech precedes writing in terms of evolution.
⑵A large amount of communication is carried out in speech than in writing.
⑶speech is the form in which infants acquire their native language.
6.how is Saussure’s distinction between langue and parole similar to Chomsky’s ?
Both Saussure and Chomsky make the distinction between the abstract language system and the actual use of language. their purpose is to single out the language system for serious study
Two linguists idea differ in that Saussure took a sociological view of language, Chomsky looks at language from a psychological point of view, competence is a property of the mind of each individual.

1/ What is linguistics?
什么是语言学？
Linguistics is generally defined as the scientific study of language. It studies not any particular language, but languages in general.

2/ The scope of linguistics
语言学的研究范畴
The study of language as a whole is often called general linguistics. (普通语言学)
The study of sounds, which are used in linguistic communication, is called phonetics.（语音学）
The study of how sounds are put together and used in communication is called phonology. （音系学）
The study of the way in which morphemes are arranged to form words are called morphology. （形态学）
The study of how morphemes and words are combined to form sentences is called syntax（句法学）
The study of meaning in language is called semantics. （语义学）
The study of meaning in context of use is called pragmatics. （语用学）
The study of language with reference to society is called socio-linguistics.（社会语言学）
The study of language with reference to the working of mind is called psycho-linguistics. （心理语言学）
The study of applications (as the recovery of speech ability) is generally known as applied linguistics. （应用语言学） But in a narrow sense, applied linguistics refers to the application of linguistic principles and theories to language teaching and learning, especially the teaching of foreign and second language.
Other related branches include anthropological linguistics, （人类语言学） neurological linguistics, （神经语言学） mathematical linguistics, （数字语言学）and computational linguistics. （计算机语言学）
Chapter Two Phonology
一、定义
.元音Vowel
The sounds in the production of which no articulators come very close together and the air stream passes through the vocal tract without obstruction are called vowels.
.辅音Consonants
The sounds in the production of which there is an obstruction of the air stream at some point of the vocal tract are called consonants.
.最小对立对Minimal pair
When two different forms are identical in every way except for one sound segment which occurs in the same place in the strings, the two words are said to form a minimal pair.
超切分特征Suprasegmental
The phonemic features that occur above the level of the segment are called suprasegmental features. the main suprasegmental features include stress ,intonation and tone.
.互补分布complementary distribution
Two allophones of the same phoneme are said to be in complementary distribution.
13.语言的语音媒介Phonic medium of language
The limited range of sounds which are meaningful in human communication and are of interest to linguistic studies are the phonic medium of language.
14.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]
二、知识点
1.statistics resulting from careful investigations show that there have been over5,000languages in the world, about two thirds of which have not had written form.
2. of the two media of language,speech is more basic than writing.
3.Phonetic 组成
⑴Articulatory phonetics 发音语音学longest established, mostly developed
⑵Auditory phonetics 听觉语音学
⑶Acoustic phonetics 声学语音学
6.Obstruction between the back of the tongue and the velar area results in the pronunciation of[k] and[g],the narrowing of space between the hard palate and the front of the tongue leads to the sound[j];the obstruction created between the tip of the tongue and the alveolar ridge results in the sounds[t]and[d].
三、问答题
1.what are the three branches of phonetics? how do they contribute to the study of speech sound?
Articulatory —describes the way our speech organs work to produce the speech sounds and how they differ.
Auditory-–studies the physical properties of speech sounds, reaches the important conclusion that phonetic identity is only a theoretical ideal.
Acoustic-–studies the physical properties of speech sounds ,the way sound travel from the speaker to the hearer.
2.how are the English consonants classified?
By place of articulation and By manner of articulation
3.how do phonetics and phonology differ in their focus of study? who do you think will be more interested in the different between say[i]and[i],[p] and[ph],a phonetician or a philologist? why?
Phonetics —description of all speech sounds and their find differences.
Phonology —description of sound systems of particular languages and how sounds function to distinguish meaning.
A phonetician would be more interested in such differences cos such differences will not cos differences in meaning.
5.what is a minimal pair and a minimal set? why is it important to identify the minimal set in a language?为什么区分最小对立组在一种语言中非常重要?
Minimal pair—two sound combinations identical in every way except in one sound element that occurs in the same position.
Minimal set—a group of sound combinations with the above feature.
By identifying the minimal pair or the minimal set of a language, a philologist can identify its phonemes.
6.Explain with examples how broad transcription and narrow one transcription differ?
Broad transcription—one letter symbol for one sound.
Narrow transcription—diacritics are added to the one-letter symbols to show the finer differences between sounds.

Chapter Three Morphology
一、定义
1.词素Morpheme
The basic unit in the study of morphology and the smallest meaningful unit of language.
6.曲折词缀inflectional affixes
The manifestation of grammatical relationships through the addition of inflectional affixes, such as number, tense, degree and case.
7.派生词缀Derivational affixes
The manifestation of relation between stems and affixes through the addition of derivational affixes.

Chapter Four Syntax
一、定义
.表层结构S-structure
A level of syntactic representation after the operation of necessary syntactic movement.
.深层结构D-structure
A level of syntactic representation before the operation of necessary syntactic movement.
二、知识点
2.我们把syntax的学习看作 a system of rules that govern the formation of grammatical sentence.
3.A major goal of linguistics is to show with a consistent and explicit grammatical theory how syntactic rules account for this grammatical knowledge.
12.短语类型
Noun Phrase NP
Verb Phrase VP
Preposition Phrase PP
Adjective Phrase AP

Chapter 5 Semantics
一、定义
1.命名论The naming theory
The naming theory, one of the oldest notions concerning meaning, and also a very primitive one was proposed by the ancient Greek scholar Plato. According to this theory, the linguistic forms or symbols, in other words,the words used in a language are taken to be labels of the objects they stand for, so words are just names or labels for things.
2.意念论The conceptualist view
It holds that there is no direct link between a linguistic form and what it refers to; rather ,in the interpretation of meaning they are linked through the mediation of concepts in the mind.
3.语境论Conceptualism
It’s based on the presumption that one can derive meaning from or reduce meaning to observable contexts. her are two kinds of context: the situational and the linguistic context.
4.行为主义论Behaviorism
It refers to the attempted to define the meaning of a language form as the” situation in which the speaker utters it and the response it calls forth in the hearer”. this theory somewhat close to conceptualism emphasizes on the psychological response.
5.意义Sense
It’s concerned with the inherent meaning of the linguistic form. It’s the collection of all the features of the linguistic form, it’s abstract and de-contextualized.
6.所指意义Reference
It means what a linguistic form refers to in the real, physical world, it deals with the relationship between the linguistic element and the non-linguistic world of experience.
7.同义词Synonymy
It refers to the sameness or close similarity of meaning or we can say that words are close in meaning are called synonyms.
8.多义词Polysemy
It refers to different words may have the same or similar meaning, the same one word may have more than one meaning.
9.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.
二、知识点
1.Major views of meaning study:
The naming Theory-----希腊Scholar Plato
The conceptualism-----观点代表人是John Firth,但Bloomfield阐述更有说服力
The Conceptualist view----Ogden和Richards用classic semantic triangle of
significance
The Behaviorism-----英国Bloomfield提出，使用了Jack和 Jill故事阐明
The naming theory的局限性:
⑴It’s only applicable to Nouns only.
⑵Within the category of nouns, there are nouns which denote things that don’t exist in the real wor