简明语言学教程a

1、Week 7-19 (no class in Week 8)12 weeks, 12 lecturesFinal examination (70%)Homework and attendance (30%)Unit 1 Language: a preview (two lectures)Unit 2 Morphology (two lectures)Unit 3 Syntax (two lectures)Unit 4 Phonetics (two lecturesUnit 5 Phonology (two lectures)Unit 6 Semantics (one lectures)Unit

2、 7 First and second language acquisitionUnit 1 Language: a preview(two lectures)Teaching Objects: Make the students understand the properties of language. Make the students interested in linguistics.Difficulty: the creativity of languageUniversal grammar the biological property of language1. A creat

3、ive system What is linguistics?Linguistics: the discipline that studies language. What is language?(ask the students to find out some answers to this questions?) A system of communication? A medium for thought? A vehicle for literary expression? A matter for political controversy? A catalyst for nat

4、ion building? Is there language in other animals than human beings?Can other animals than human beings can create tools?u Language is a creative system: language can enable us to produce and understand new words, phrases, and sentences as the need arises. Examples of creativity of language:1) to cre

5、ate verbs from nounse.g.:(1) Julia summered in Paris.(2) Harry wintered in Mexico.(3) Harry and Julia honeymooned in Hawaii.Limitation: (4) *Jerome midnighted in the streets. (5) *Andrea nooned at the restaurant. The examples show that when a verb is created from a time expression, it must be given

6、a very specific interpretation-roughly paraphrasable as “to be somewhere for the period of time X”. Thus, “to summer in Paris” is “to be in Paris for the summer”. Since “noon” and “midnight” express points in time rather than extended periods of time, they cannot be used to create new verbs of this

7、type.2) Ask the students to find another example to show the creativity of languages. (hint: embedding)2. Grammar: Why is language a creative system?What are characteristics of Grammar? Grammar and Linguistic competence Speaker of a language are able to produce and understand an unlimited number of

8、utterances, including many that are novel and unfamiliar (creativity). This ability, which is often called linguistic competence, constitutes the central subject matter of linguistics. In investigating linguistic competence, linguists focus on the mental system that allows human beings to form and i

9、nterpret the words and sentences of their language. This system is called a grammar. The grammar can be divided into the following components:Component DomainPhonetics the articulation and perception of speech soundsPhonology the patterning of speech soundsMorphology word formationSyntax sentence fo

10、rmationSemantics the interpretation of words and sentences2.1 Generality: all languages have a grammar If a language is spoken, it must have a phonetic and phonological system; since it has words and sentences, it must also have a morphology and a syntax; and since these words and sentences have sys

11、tematic meanings, there must obviously be semantic principles as well. Syntactic examples: (6) The two dogs now see several kangaroos. (7) Dogs two now see kangaroos several. (8) See now kangaroos several dogs two. (9) Kangaroos several now dogs two see. (10) Kangaroos several now see dogs two. (6)

12、could be translated by the equivalent of any of sentences in (7-10).Phonological examples: Ask the students to give an example to show the grammar of English sounds (hint: spr-)2.2 Equality: all grammars are equal From the point of view of modern linguistics, it makes no more sense to say that one v

13、ariety of English is better than another than it does to say that the grammar of English is better (or worse) than the grammar of Thai. Why? All languages and all varieties of a particular language have grammars that enable their speakers to express any proposition that the human mind can produce. A

14、ll varieties of langue are absolutely equal as instruments of communication and thought. Linguistics is descriptive, not prescriptive. This means that linguists seek to describe human linguistic ability and knowledge, not to prescribe one way of speaking in preference to another. The way to determin

15、e whether a construction is “grammatical” is to find people who speak the language and ask them. 2.2 Changeabiligy: Grammars change over time The grammars of languages are constantly changing. Some of them are relatively minor and occur quickly (e.g., the addition of new words: Internet, e-mailto th

16、e English vocabulary) Other changes have a more dramatic effect on the overall form of the language and typically take place over a long period of time. E.g., the formation of negative structures in English has undergone this type of change. By 1400 or thereabouts, not or nawt typically occurred by

17、itself after the verb.(11) a. I seye not the wordes. b. We saw nawt the knyghtes.It was not until several centuries later that English adopted its current practice of allowing not to occur after only certain types of verbs (such as do, have, will, and so on). (12) a. I will not say the words.(versus

18、 *I will say not the words.) b. He didnt not see the knights. (versus * He saw not the knights.)These modifications illustrate the extent to which grammars can change over time. The structures exemplified in 11) are archaic by today's standards. Through the centuries, individuals and organizatio

19、ns who believe that certain varieties of language are better than others have frequently expressed concern over what they perceive to be the deterioration of English. In 1710, for example, the writer Jonathan Swift (author of Gulliver's Travels) lamented "the continual Corruption of our Eng

20、lish Tongue." Among the corruptions to which Swift objected were contractions such as he's for he is, although he had no objection to Tis for It is. In the nineteenth century, Edward S. Gould, a columnist for the New York Evening Post, published a book entitled Good English; or, Popular Err

21、ors in Language, in which he accused newspaper writers and authors of "sensation novels" of ruining the language by introducing "spurious words" like jeopardize and underhanded. Linguists reject the view that languages attain a state of perfection at some point in their history a

22、nd that subsequent changes lead to deterioration and corruption. As noted above, there are simply no grounds for claiming that one way of speaking is somehow superior to another. There is therefore no reason to think that language change can or will undermine the adequacy of English (or any other la

23、nguage) as a medium of communication.2.4 University: grammars are alike in basic ways There are many differences among languages, as even a superficial examination of their sound patterns, vocabularies, and word order reveals. But this does not mean that there are no limits on the type of grammars t

24、hat human beings can acquire and use. Quite to the contrary, current research suggests that there are important grammatical principles and tendencies shared by all human languages. (Noam Chomskys famous Universal Grammar) One such universal principle involves the manner in which sentences are negate

25、d. With unlimited variation, one would expect 'negators' (the equivalent of English not) to occur in different positions within the sentence in different languages. Thus, we might predict that each of the following possibilities should occur with roughly equal frequency.13)a.Not Pat is here.

26、b.Pat not is here.c.Pat is not here.d.Pat is here not.As it happens, the first and fourth patterns are very rare. In virtually all languages, negative elements such as not either immediately precede or immediately follow the verb. The relative ordering of other elements is also subject to constraint

27、s. To see this, we need only consider the six logically possible orders for a simple three-word statement such as Canadians like hockey.14)a.Canadians like hockey.b.Canadians hockey like.c.Like Canadians hockey.d.Like hockey Canadians.e.Hockey like Canadians.f.Hockey Canadians like.Interestingly, mo

28、re than 95 percent of the world's languages adopt one of the first three orders for basic statements. Only a handful of languages use any of the last three orders as basic. This once again reflects the existence of constraints and preferences that limit variation among languages. These are not i

29、solated examples. As later chapters will show, some grammatical categories and principles are universal. And where there is variation (as in the case of word order), there is typically a very limited set of options. Contrary to first appearances, the set of grammars learned and used by human beings

30、is limited in significant ways.2.5 Tacitness: Grammatical knowledge is subconscious Ask the students to say out the difference between the following two expressions:*人来了。 有人来了。 *一个人来了。 Because the use of language to communicate presupposes a grammar, it follows that all speakers of a language must h

31、ave knowledge of its grammar. However, this knowledge differs from knowledge of arithmetic, traffic rules, and other subjects that are taught at home or in school. Unlike these other types of knowledge, grammatical knowledge is acquired without the help of instruction when one is still a child and i

32、t remains largely subconscious throughout life. As another example of this, consider your pronunciation of the past tense ending written as ed in the following words.15)a.huntedb.slippedc.buzzedNotice that whereas you say id in hunted, you say t in slipped and d in buzzed. Moreover, if you heard the

33、 new verb flib, you would form the past tense as flibbed and pronounce the ending as d. Although it is unlikely that you were aware of this phenomenon until riow, you make these distinctions automatically if you are a native speaker of English. This is because you acquired the grammatical subsystem

34、regulating this aspect of speech when you were a child and it now exists subconsciously in your mind. Even more subtle phonological patterning can occur, as the following contrasts help illustrate.16)pint*paynkfiend*fiemplocked*lockfwronged*wrongvnext*nexkglimpse*glimpkThe words in the left-hand col

35、umn obey an obscure constraint on the selection of consonant sequences in word-final position: when a vowel is long and followed by two consonants (pint) or when a vowel is short and followed by three consonant sounds (next, pronounced 'nekst'), the final consonant must always be one made wi

36、th the tongue tip raised. (The consonants t, d, s, and z are made in this manner, but consonants such as p, f, v, and k are not.) Words that do not adhere to this phonological constraint (the right-hand column) are unacceptable to speakers of English. Linguists have to dig deeply to uncover such pat

37、terning, but in everyday language use, we routinely make decisions about the acceptability of forms based on subconscious knowledge of such constraints. Consider one final example. Speakers of English know that there are certain structures in which the word he can refer to each member of a group or

38、to a single individual outside that group.17)Each boy who submitted an essay thinks that he is a genius.Sentence 17) can mean either that each boy in the group that submitted essays thinks that he himself is a genius or that each boy thinks that a particular person not mentioned in the sentence (say

39、, Albert Einstein) is a genius. However, only one of these interpretations is possible in the following sentence.18)The woman who read each boy's essay thinks that he is a genius.In 18), he can refer only to someone not mentioned in the sentence. In contrast with what happens in sentence 17), he

40、 cannot refer to each individual in the group designated by the expression each boy. Since speakers are able to make this contrast, they must have knowledge of the relevant grammatical principle even though they are not consciously aware of it.2.6 Conclusion In sum, linguists use the term grammar to

41、 refer to a subconscious linguistic system of a particular type. Consisting of several components (phonetics, phonology, morphology, syntax, and semantics), a grammar makes possible the production and comprehension of a potentially unlimited number of utterances. Because no language can exist withou

42、t a grammar and no one can use a language without knowledge of its grammar, the study of grammatical systems has come to be the focus of contemporary linguistic analysis. As noted above, the grammatical knowledge needed to use and understand language is acquired without the benefit of instruction an

43、d is for the most part subconscious. Since we therefore cannot investigate grammar by simply recalling prior training or by self-consultation, the study of human linguistic systems requires considerable effort and ingenuity. As is the case in all science, information about facts that can be observed

44、 (the pronunciation of words, the interpretation of sentences, and so on) must be used to draw inferences about the sometimes invisible mechanisms that are ultimately responsible for these phenomena. A good deal of this book is concerned with the findings of this research and with what they tell us

45、about the nature and use of human language.3. Biological specialization for language Why does an apple in the tree fall down to the ground instead of flying up into the sky? The Law of Gravity Isaac Newton Why a child can learn/acquire a native language in at most three or four years even if you don

46、t teach him? Why a dog or a gorilla can not learn/acquire a native language even if you spend many years in teaching them? As far as can be determined, the languages spoken in the world today cannot be traced to a common source. Rather, they seem to belong to a number of distinct families whose hist

47、ories can be traced back no more than a few thousand years. Although language existed prior to that time for at least 100,000 years, virtually nothing is known about this period of linguistic prehistory or about how language originated in the first place.Nonetheless, there is every reason to believe

48、 that humans have a special capacity for language that is not shared by other creatures. The evolutionary adaptation of certain physiological mechanisms for linguistic ends has occurred only in humans. The so-called speech organs (the lungs, larynx, tongue, teeth, lips, soft palate, and nasal passag

49、es) wereand still aredirectly concerned with ensuring the survival of the organism. However, these organs have all become highly specialized for linguistic ends. The vocal folds, for example, are more muscular and less fatty in humans than in non-human primates such as chimpanzees and gorillas. Beca

50、use of a very highly developed network of neural pathways, they also respond more precisely to commands from the brain. The same extensive set of neural pathways allows a high degree of control over other speech organs, such as the tongue, palate, and lips. Such control exceeds anything found in eve

51、n our closest primate relatives. Table 1.3 compares the linguistic uses of the major speech organs with their primary survival functions in humans and other mammals.Table 1.3 Dual functions of the speech organsOrganSurvival functionSpeech functionLungsto exchange CO-, oxygento supply air for speechV

52、ocal foldsto create seal over passageto produce voice for speechto lungssoundsTongueto move food to teeth andto articulate vowels andback to throatconsonantsTeethto break up foodto provide place of articulationfor consonantsLipsto seal oral cavityto articulate vowels andconsonantsNasal cavitiesbreat

53、hingto provide nasal resonanceThere are additional indications of the evolution of linguistic vocalization. Unlike the breathing of survival respiration, speech breathing shows higher lung pressure and a longer exhalation time than respiration. Abdominal muscles that are not normally employed for re

54、spiration are brought into play in a systematic and refined manner in order to maintain the air pressure needed for speech. Again, a specialized, extensive set of neurological controls exclusive to humans makes this type of breathing possible.There is also evidence that humans are specialized for th

55、e perception of speech. It has been suggested, for example, that we have special neural mechanisms that enable us to perceive distinctions among vowels and that these mechanisms are not found in other mammals.We know considerably less about the evolutionary specialization for non-vocal and non-audit

56、ory aspects of language such as word formation, sentence formation, and the interpretation of meaning since the relevant grammatical mechanisms cannot be observed directly. Nonetheless, it is clear that some sort of evolutionary specialization must have occurred, since particular parts of the brain

57、are associated with specific types of morphological, syntactic, and semantic phenomena (see Chapter 11 for discussion). This suggests that the human brain is specially structured for language, and that species with different types of brains will not be able to acquire or use the types of grammars associated with human language. We will return to this point in Chapter 16, "Animal Communication."4. Summing upHuman language is characterized by creativity. Speakers of a la