2023年外国语言学及应用语言学考点总结.doc

1. Langue and Parole
Langue is the system of a language, the language as a system of forms,whereas parole is actual speech, the speech acts that are made possible by the system of the language. That`s is to say,langue is the social product whose existence permits the individual to exercise his linguistic faculty; parole, on the other hand, is the “executive side of language”.
2. Comparative Linguistics
A branch of linguistics which studies two or more languages in order to compare their structures and to show whether they are similar or different. Comparative linguistics is used in the study of languages types and in comparative historical linguistics. It is also used by some applied linguists for establishing differences between the learner’s native language and the target language in the areas of syntax, vocabulary, and sound systems.
3.Empiricism（经验主义）
An approach to psychology which states that the development of theory must be related to observable facts and experiments, or which states that all human knowledge comes from experience.
4.Rationalism （理性主义）
It is an approach to philosophy proposed by Chomsky in the 1960s, which states that the knowledge is based on reasoning rather than on experience of senses. In this sense, it is opposed to empiricism.
5.Behaviorism （行为主义）
A theory of psychology which states that human and animal behavior can be studied only in terms of physical processes, without reference to mind. It led to theories of learning which explained how an external event (a stimulus) caused a change in the behavior of an individual (a response), based on a history of reinforcement.
6.Positivism (实证主义)
a philosophical movement that began in the early 19th century, characterized by an emphasis on the scientific method as the only source of knowledge and a desire to rebuild society on the basis of “positive” knowledge.

.7Mentalism（心智主义）
It is the theory that a human being possesses a mind which has consciousness, ideas, etc., and that the mind can influence the behavior of the body.
8.Morpheme (语素)
It refers to the smallest meaningful unit in a language. A morpheme cannot be divided without altering or destroying its meaning.
9.Deduction and induction (演绎和归纳)
Reasoning by deduction proceeds from a generalization to particular facts which support it, whereas reasoning by induction involves moving from particular facts to generalizations about them.
10.Linguistic relativity （语言相对论）
Whorf believed that speakers of different languages perceive and experience the world differently, relative to their linguistic background, hence the notion of linguistic relativity.
11.Linguistic determinism（语言决定论）
A theory put forward by the American anthropological linguists Sapir and Whorf, which states that the way people view the world is determined by the structure of their native language.
12.Discourse analysis (话语分析)
The study of how sentences in spoken and written language form larger meaningful units such as paragraphs, conversations, interviews, etc.
13.Semiology/Semiotics （符号学）
1) the theory of signs. 2) the analysis of systems using signs or signals for the purpose of communication. The most important semiotic system is human language, but there are other systems, e.g. sign language, traffic signals.
14.Descriptive linguistics （描写语言学）
Descriptive linguistics describes how a language is actually spoken and/or written, and does not state or prescribe how it ought to be spoken or written.
15.Synchronic and diachronic linguistics （共时和历史措施）
Diachronic linguistics is an approach to linguistics which studies how a language changes over a period of time, for example the change in the sound system of English from Early English to Modern English.
Diachronic linguistics has been contrasted with synchronic linguistics which is the study of a language system at one particular point in time, for example the sound system of Modern British English.
16. Synchronic and diachronic linguistics
Diachronic linguistics is an approach to linguistics which studies how a language changes over a period of time, for exmple the change in the sound system of English from Early English to Modern English.

Diachronic linguistics has been contrasted with synchronic linguistics which is the study of a language system at one particular point in time, for example the sound system of Modern British English.
The need for diachronic and synchronic descriptions to be kept apart was emphasized by the swiss linguist Saussure.
17. Speech act
An utterance as a functional unit in communication. In speech act theory, utterances have two kinds of meaning:
1) propositional meaning (also known as locutionary meaning). This is the basic literal meaning of the utterance which is conveyed by the particular words and structures which the utterance contains.
2) Illocutionary meaning (also known as illocutionary force). This is the effect the utterance or written text has on the reader or listener. For example, in “I am thirsty” the propositional meaning is what the utterance says about the speaker’s physical state. The illocutionary force is the effect the speaker wants the utterance to have on the listener. It may be intended as a request for something to drink.
A speech act is a sentence or utterance which has both propositional meaning and illocutionary force..
There are many different kinds of speech acts, such as requests, orders, commands, complaints, promises.
A speech act which is performed indirectly is sometimes known as an indirect speech act, such as the speech act of requesting above. Indirect speech acts are often felt to be more polite ways of performing certain kinds of speech act, such as requests and refusals.
18.Positivism
a philosophical movement that began in the early 19th century, characterized by an emphasis on the scientific method as the only source of knowledge and a desire to rebuild society on the basis of “positive” knowledge. As a variation of empiricism, among the basic ideas of positivism are the idea that the world is orderly, that all natural phenomena have natural causes, and that nothing is self-evident, but the laws of nature can be discovered through experimentation. Although few people nowadays subscribe to all of these beliefs, some degree of positivism characterizes most “scientific” approaches to understanding all phenomena, including language learning. Logical positivism is a specific type of positivism that rejects as meaningless all statements that cannot be empirically verified.
19.Tagmemics
(tagmemics) the basic unit of grammatical analysis. A tagmeme is a unit in which there is a relationship between the grammatical function, for instance the function of Subject, Object or Predicate, and a class of fillers.
For example, in the sentence: The baby bit Anthea.
The subject tagmeme is filled by the Noun Phrase (the baby), the predicate tagmeme is filled by the Transitive Verb (bit) in its past tense form, and the object tagmeme is filled by the proper noun (Anthea).

20.Phonetics
the study of speech sounds. There are three main areas of phonetics:
1) Articulatory phonetics deals with the way in which speech sounds are produced. Sounds are usually classified according to the position of the lips and the tongue, how far open the mouth is, whether or not the vocal cords are vibrating, etc.
2) Acoustic phonetics deals with the transmission of speech sounds through the air. When a speech sound is produced it causes minor air disturbances (sound wave). Various instruments are used to measure the characteristics of these sound waves.
3) Auditory phonetics deals with how speech sounds are perceived by the listeners.
21.Phonology
1) another term for phonemics.
2) (for some linguists) a cover term for both phonetics and phonemics.
3) The establishment and description of the distinctive sound units of a language (phonemes) by means of distinctive features
Each phoneme is considered as consisting of a group of these features and differing in at least one feature from the other phonemes.
22.Behaviorism
A theory of psychology which states that human and animal behavior can and should be studied only in terms of physical processes, without reference to mind. It led to theories of learning which explained how an external event (a stimulus) caused a change in the behavior of an individual (a response), based on a history of reinforcement. Behaviorism was used by psychologists like Skinner, Osgood, and Staats to explain first language learning, but these explanations were rejected by adherents of generative grammar and many others.
23.Universal Grammar
A theory which claims to account for the gramatical competence of every adult no matter what language he or she speaks.
It claims that every speaker knows a set of principles which apply to all languages and also a set of parameters that can vary from one language to another, but only within certain limits.
The theory was proposed by Chomsky and has been stated more specifically in his model of Government and Binding Theory.
According to UG theory, acquiring a language means applying the principles of UG grammar to a particular language, e.g. English, French or German, and learning which value is appropriate for each parameter. For example, one of the principles of UG is structure dependency. It means that a knowledge of language relies on knowing structural relationships in a sentence rather than looking at it as a sequence of words.

1. Structuralism/Structural(ist) linguistics
An approach to linguistics which stresses the importance of language as a system and which investigates the place that linguistic units such as sounds, words, sentences have within this system.
Structural linguists, for example, studied the distribution of sounds within the words of a language; that is, whether certain sounds appear only at the beginning of words or also in the middle or at the end. They defined some sounds in a language as distinctive and used in the identification of words (see phoneme), and some as variants (see allophone). Similar studies of distribution and classification were carried out in morphology and syntax.
In its widest sense, the term has been used for various groups of linguists, including those of the Prague School, but most often it is used to refer to a group of American linguists such as Bloomfield and Fries, who published mainly in the 1930s to 1950s The work of these linguists was based on the theory of behavirism and had a considerable influence on some language teaching methods (see Audiolingual method).

2.Innateness hypothesis (天赋假说)
The theory states that human knowledge develops from structures, processes, and “ideas” which are in the mind at birth (i.e. are innate), rather than from the environment, and that there are responsible for the basic structure of language and how it is learned. This hypothesis has been used to explain how children are able to learn language. The innateness hypothesis contrasts with the belief that all human knowledge comes from experience.

3.American Structuralism
American Structuralism is a branch of synchronic linguistics, and the pioneer scholars who took an interest in linguistics in America were anthropologists. It developed in a very different style from that of Europe under the leadership of the anthropologist Franz Boas. Descriptive in language theories is characteristic of America. And another feature of American linguistics is its insistence on being scientific. Firstly, structural grammar describes everything that is found in a language instead of laying down rules. However its aim is confined to the description of languages, without explaining why language operates the way it does. Secondly, structural grammar is empirical, aiming at objectivity in the sense that all definitions and statements should be verifiable or refutable. However, it has produced almost no complete grammars comparable to any comprehensive traditional grammars. Thirdly, structural grammar examines all languages, recognizing and doing justice to the uniqueness of each language. But it does not give an adequate treatment of meaning. Lastly, structural grammar describes even the smallest contrasts that underlie any construction or use of a language, not only those discoverable in some particular use.
The development of American Structuralism can be roughly classified into 3 stages
Boas and Sapir period (1911-1932)
Bloomfieldian period (1933-1950)
Post-Bloomfieldian period (1952-1956)
Boas’s view on language: Boas held that there is no ideal type or form of language. He was strongly opposed to the view that language is the soul of a race, and he proved that the structure and form of a language has noting to do with the evolution of a race and the development of a culture. There are only differences in language structure, while there is no difference between languages in terms of being more or less reasonable or advanced. Boas expounded that what would sound “primitive” of a language is in fact never primitive at all.
Boas’s methodology: Boas noticed that every language has its own system of sounds and he also found that every language has its own grammatical system. Boas said that the important task for linguists is to discover, for each language under study, its own particular grammatical structure & to develop descriptive categories appropriate to it.
Boas’ contribution: Starting from an anthropological view in studying linguistics, Boas regarded linguistics as part of anthropology and failed to establish linguistics as an independent branch of science. But his basic theory, his observation, and his descriptive methods paved the way for American descriptive linguistics and influenced generations of scholars. Although he did not establish a set of descriptive methods, his view on describing alien languages played a very important part in the formation of American descriptive linguistics.
Sapir: (1) He started from an anthropological viewpoint to describe the nature of language, with his main focus on typology. He defines language as “a purely human and non-instinctive method of communicating ideas, emotions and desires by means of a system of voluntarily produced symbols.” (2) In discussing between speech and meaning, Sapir holds that the association of speech and meaning is a relation that may be, but need not be, present. (3) In discussing the relation between language and thought, Sapir holds that they are not to be considered the same. Language is the means, and thought is the end product. Without language, thought is impossible. (4) He also noticed the universal feature of language, he says that all human races and tribes, no matter how barbaric or underdeveloped, have their own languages.
Bloomfield: He was the principle representative of American descriptive linguistics. His main contribution to linguistics is his