《英语语言学》重、难点提示

1、英语语言学重、难点提示1. What is language?“Language is system of arbitrary(随意的 vocal (发音的, 口头的 symbols used for human communication. It is a system, since linguistic elements are arranged systematically, rather than randomly. Arbitrary , in the sense that there is usually no intrinsic (固有的,内在的,本质的 connection b

2、etween a work (like “book” and the object it refers to. This explains and is explained by the fact that different languages have different “books”: “book” in English, “livre” in French, “shu” in Chinese. It i s symbolic, because words are associated with objects, actions, ideas etc. by nothing but c

3、onvention. Namely, people use the sounds or vocal forms to symbolize what they wish to refer to. It is vocal, because sound or speech is the primary medium for all human languages. Writing systems came much later than the spoken forms. The fact that small children learn and can only learn to speak (

4、and listen before they write (and read also indicates that language is primarily vocal, rather than written. The term “human” in the definition is meant to specify that language is human specific.2. What are design features of language?“Design features” here refer to the defining properties of human

5、 language that tell the difference between human language and any system of animal communication. They are arbitrariness, duality(二元性 , productivity, displacement, cultural transmission (文化传播 and interchangeability(可交换性3. What is arbitrariness?By “arbitrariness”, we mean there is no logical connecti

6、on between meanings and sounds. A dog might be a pig if only the first person or group of persons had used it for a pig. Language is therefore largely arbitrary. But language is not absolutely seem to be some sound-meaning association, if we think of echo words, like “bang”, “crash”, “roar”, which a

7、re motivated in a certain sense. Secon dly, some compounds (words compounded to be one word are not entirely arbitrary either. “Type” and “write” are opaque (不透明的,难理解的,晦涩的 or unmotivated words, while “type -writer” is less so, or more transparent or motivated than the words that make it. So we can s

8、ay “arbitrariness” is a matter of degree.4. What is duality?Linguists refer “duality” (of structure to the fac t that in all languages so far investigated, one finds two levels of structure or patterning. At the first, higher level, language is analyzed in terms of combinations of meaningful units (

9、such as morphemes, words etc.; at the second, lower level, it is seen as a sequence of segments which lack any meaning in themselves, but which combine to form units of meaning. According to Hu Zhanglin et al., language is a system of two sets of structures, one of sounds and the other of meaning. T

10、his is important for the workings of language. A small number of semantic units (words and these units of meaning can be arranged and rearranged into an infinite number of sentences (note that we have dictionaries of words, but no dictionary of sentences!. Duality makes it possible for a person to t

11、alk about anything within his knowledge. No animal communication system enjoys this duality.5. What is productivity?Productivity refers to the ability to the ability to construct and understand an indefinitely large number of sent ences in ones native language, including those that has never heard b

12、efore, but that are appropriate to the speaking situation. No one has ever said or heard “A red -eyed elephant is dancing on the small hotel bed with an African gibbon”, but he can say it when necessary and he can understand it in right register. Different from artistic creativity, though, productiv

13、ity never goes outside the language, thus also called “rule -bound creativity” (by N.Chomsky.6. What is displacement?“Displacement”, as one of the design features of the human language, refers to the fact that one can talk about things that are not present, as easily as he does things present. In ot

14、her words, one can refer to real and unreal things, things of the past, of the present, of the future. Language itself can be talked about too. When a man, for example, is crying to a woman, about something, it might be something that had occurred, or something that is occurring, or something that i

15、s to occur. When a dog is barking, however, you can decide it is barking for something or at someone that exists now and there. It couldnt be bow -wowing sorrowfully for a bone to be lost. The bees system, nonetheless, has a small share of “displacement”, but it is an unspeakable tiny share.7.What i

16、s cultural transmission?This means that language is not biologically transmitted from generation to generation, but that the details of the linguistic system must be learned anew by each speaker. It is true that the capacity for language in human beings (N. Chomsky called it “language acquisition de

17、vice”, or LAD has a genetic basis, but the particular language a person learns to speak is a cultural one other than a genetic one like the dogs barking system. If a human being is brought up in isolation he cannot acquire language. The Wolf Child reared by the pack of wolves turned out to speak the

18、 wolfs roaring “tongue” when he was saved. He learned thereafter, with no small difficulty, the ABC of a certain human language.8. What is interchangeability?Interchangeability means that any human being can be both a producer and a receiver of messages. Though some people suggest that there is sex

19、differentiation in the actual language use, in other words, men and women may say different things, yet in principle there is no sound, or word or sentence that a man can utter and a woman cannot, or vice versa. On the other hand, a person can be the speaker while the other person is the listener an

20、d as the turn moves on to the listener, he can be the speaker and the first speaker is to listen. It is turn-taking that makes social communication possible and acceptable. Some male birds, however, utter some calls which females do not (or cannot. When a dog barks, all the neighboring dogs bark. Th

21、en people around can hardly tell which dog (dogs is (are “speaking” and which listening.9. Why do linguists say language is human specific?First of all, human language has six “design features” which animal communication systems do not have, at least not in the true sense of them. Secondly, linguist

22、s have done a lot trying to teach animals such as chimpanzees to speak a human language but have achieved nothing inspiring. Washoe, a female chimpanzee, was brought up like a human child by Beatnice and Alan Gardner. She was taught “American sign Language”, and learned a little that made the teache

23、rs happy but did mot make the linguistics circle happy , for few believed in teaching chimpanzees. Thirdly, a human child reared among animals cannot speak a human language, not even when he is taken back and taught todo so.10. What functions does language have?Language has at least seven functions:

24、 phatic, directive, Informative, interrogative, expressive, evocative and performative. According to Wang Gang (1988,p.11, language has three main functions: a tool of communication, a tool whereby people learn about the world, and a tool by which people learn about the world, and a tool by which pe

25、ople create art . M .A. K. Halliday , representative of the London school, recognizes three “Macro -Functions”: ideational, interpersonal and textual.11. What is the phatic function?The “phatic function” refers to language being used for setting up a certain atmosphere or maintaining social contacts

26、(rather than for exchanging information or ideas. Greetings, farewells, and comments on the weather in English and on clothing in Chinese all serve this function. Much of the phatic language (e.g. “How are you?” “Fine, thanks.” is insincere if taken literally, but it is important. If you don't s

27、ay “Hello” to a friend you meet, or if you dont answer his “Hi”, you ruin your friendship.12. What is the directive function?The “directive function” means that language may be used to get the hearer to do something. Most imperative sentences perform this function, e. g., “Te ll me the result when y

28、ou finish.” Other syntactic structures or sentences of other sorts can, according to J. Austin and J. Searles “Indirect speech act theory” at least, serves the purpose of direction too, e.g., “If I were you, I would have blushed to the bottom of my ears!” 13. What is the informative function?Languag

29、e serves an “informational function” when used to tell something, characterized by the use of declarative sentences. Informative statements are often labeled as true (truth or false (falsehood. According to P. Grices “Cooperative Principle”, one ought not to violate the “Maxim of Quality”, when he i

30、s informing at all. 14. What is the interrogative function?When language is used to obtain information, it serves an “interrogative function”. This includes all questions that expect replies, statements, imperatives etc., according to the “indirect speech act theory”, may have this function as well,

31、 e.g., “Id like to know youbetter.” This may bring forth a lot of personal information. Note that rhetorical questions make an exception, since they demand no answer, at least not the readers/listeners answer.15. What is the expressive function?The “expressive function” is the use of language to rev

32、eal something about the feelings or attitudes of the speaker. Subconscious emotional ejaculations are good examples, like “Good heavens!” “My God!” Sentences like “Im sorry about the delay” can serve as good examples too, though in a subtle way . While language is used for the informative function t

33、o pass judgment on the truth or falsehood of statements, language used for the expressive function evaluates, appraises or asserts the speakers own attitudes.16. What is the evocative function?The “evocative function” is the use of language to create certain feelings in the hearer. Its aim is , for

34、example, to amuse, startle, antagonize, soothe, worry or please. Jokes(not practical jokes, though are supposed to amuse or entertain the listener; advertising to urge customers to purchase certain commodities; propaganda to influence public opinion. Obviously, the expressive and the evocative funct

35、ions often go together, i.e., you may express, for example, your personal feelings about a political issue but end up by evoking the same feeling in, or imposing it on, your listener. Thats also the case with the other way round.17. What is the performative function?This means people speak to “do th

36、ings” or perform actions. On certain occasions the utterance itself as an action is more important than what words or sounds constitute the uttered sentence. The judges imprisonment sentence, the presidents war or independence declaration, etc., are performatives.18. What is linguistics?“Linguistics

37、” is the scientific study of language. It studies not just one language of any one society, but the language of all human beings. A linguist, though, does not have to know and use a large number of languages, but to investigate how each language is constructed. He is also concerned with how a langua

38、ge varies from dialect to dialect,from class to class, how it changes from century to century, how children acquire their mother tongue, and perhaps how a person learns or should learn a foreign language. In short, linguistics studies the general principles whereupon all human languages are construc

39、ted and operate as systems of communication in their societies or communities. 19. What makes linguistics a science?Since linguistics is the scientific study of language, it ought to base itself upon the systematic, investigation of language data which aims at discovering the true nature of language

40、 and its underlying system. To make sense of the data, a linguist usually has conceived some hypotheses about the language structure, to be checked against the observed or observable facts. In order to make his analysis scientific, a linguist is usually guided by four principles: exhaustiveness, con

41、sistency , and objectivity . Exhaustiveness means he should gather all the materials relevant to the study and give them an adequate explanation, in spite of the complicatedness. He is to leave no linguistic “stone” unturned. Consistency means there should be no contradiction between different parts

42、 of the total statement. Economy means a linguist should pursue brevity in the analysis when it is possible. Objectivity implies that since some people may be subjective in the study , a linguist should be (or sound at least objective, matter-of-face, faithful to reality , so that his work constitut

43、es part of the linguistics research.20. What are the major branches of linguistics?The study of language as a whole is often called general linguistics. But a linguist sometimes is able to deal with only one aspect of language at a time, thus the arise of various branches: phonetics, phonology , mor

44、phology , syntax, semantics, pragmatics, sociolinguistics, applied linguistics, psycholinguistics etc.21. What are synchronic and diachronic studies?The description of a language at some point of time (as if it stopped developing is a synchrony study (synchrony. The description of a language as it c

45、hanges through time is a diachronic study (diachronic. An essay entitled “On the Use of THE”, for example, may be synchronic, if the author does not recall the past of THE, and it may also be diachronic if he claims to cover a large range or period of time wherein THE hasundergone tremendous alterat

46、ion.22. What is speech and what is writing?No one needs the repetition of the general principle of linguistic analysis, namely, the primacy of speech over writing. Speech is primary, because it existed long long before writing systems came into being. Genetically children learn to speak before learn

47、ing to write. Secondly , written forms just represent in this way or that the speech sounds: individual sounds, as in English and French as in Japanese. In contrast to speech, spoken form of language, writing as written codes, gives language new scope and use that speech does not have. Firstly, mess

48、ages can be carried through space so that people can write to each other. Secondly, messages can be carried through time thereby, so that people of our time can be carried through time thereby, so that people of our time can read Beowulf, Samuel Johnson, and Edgar A. Poe. Thirdly, oral messages are

49、readily subject to distortion, either intentional or unintentional, while written messages allow and encourage repeated unalterable reading. Most modern linguistic analysis is focused on speech, different from grammarians of the last century and theretofore.23. What are the differences between the d

50、escriptive and the prescriptive approaches?A linguistic study is “descriptive” if it only describes and analyses the facts of language, and “prescriptive” if it tries to lay down rules for “correct” language behavior. Linguistic studies before this century were largely prescriptive because many earl

51、y grammars were largely prescriptive because many early grammars were based on “high” (literary or religious written records. Modern linguistics is mostly descriptive, however. It (the latter believes that whatever occurs in natural speech (hesitation, incomplete utterance, misunderstanding, etc. sh

52、ould be described in the analysis, and not be marked as incorrect, abnormal, corrupt, or lousy . These, with changes in vocabulary and structures, need to be explained also.24. What is the difference between langue and parole?F. de Saussure refers “langue” to the abstract linguistic system shared by

53、 all the members of a speech community and refers “parole” to the actual or actualized language, or the realization of langue. Langue is abstract, parole specific to thespeaking situation; langue not actually spoken by an individual, parole always a naturally occurring event; langue relatively stabl

54、e and systematic, parole is a mass of confused facts, thus not suitable for systematic investigation. What a linguist ought to do, according to Saussure, is to abstract langue from instances of parole, i.e. to discover the regularities governing all instances of parole and make than the subject of l

55、inguistics. The langue-parole distinction is of great importance, which casts great influence on later linguists.25. What is the difference between competence and performance?According to N. Chomsky, “competence” is the ideal language users knowledge of the rules of his language, and “performance” i

56、s the actual realization of this knowledge in utterances. The former enables a speaker to produce and understand an indefinite number of sentences and to recognize grammatical mistakes and ambiguities. A speakers competence is stable while h is performance is often influenced by psychological and so

57、cial factors. So a speakers performance does not always match or equal his supposed competence. Chomsky believes that linguists ought to study competence, rather than performance. In other words, they should discover what an ideal speaker knows of his native language. Chomskys competence -performanc

58、e distinction is not exactly the same as, though similar to, F. de Saussures langue-parole distinction. Langue is a social product, and a set of conventions for a community, while competence is deemed as a property of the mind of each individual. Sussure looks at language more from a sociological or

59、 sociolinguistic point of view than N. Chomsky since the latter deals with his issues psychologically or psycholinguistically.26. What is linguistic potential? What is actual linguistic behaviour?These two terms, or the potential-behavior distinction, were made by M. A. K. Halliday in the 1960s, from a functional point of view. There is a wide range of things a speaker can do in his culture, and similarly there are many things he can say, for example, to many people, on ma