胡壮麟第四版语言学教程第一章大题总结

1、胡壮麟第四版语言学教程第一章大题总结Chapter1 Invitation to Linguistics1. Why study language?2. What is language? Explain it in details.3. What makes language unique to human beings?4. What are the design features of language? List out at least three of them.5. In what sense we say linguistic is a science?6. Explain t

2、he different levels of the arbitrariness.7. What is the function of language?8. Do you understand the distinction between the langue and parole introduced by Saussure?9. Descriptive vs. Prescriptive10. Synchronic vs. Diachronic11. Competence vs. Performance1. Why study language?First, language is su

3、ch an integral part of our life and humanity that too muchabout it has been taken for granted. For some people, language may not even be considered a worthy job for academic study. They take it as a tool for access to other fields of knowledge rather than as a subject in and of itself. However, it i

4、s indeed necessary to reconsider how much we really the nature of language and its role in our life. And you may be surprised to realize that some of our most damaging racial, ethnic, and socio-economic prejudices are based on our linguistic ignorance and wrong ideas about language.Second, for a stu

5、dent learning language, some knowledge of language is of both interest and important. To know the general properties of language can help the student have an overview of its. No necessary question to ask for human language, they can understand the details of its different features thereof. Third, le

6、t us mention the broader educational concerns. We can note that language plans a central role in our lives as individuals and social beings. If we are not fully aware of the nature and mechanism of our language, we will be ignorant of what constitutes our essential humanity. The understanding of lan

7、guage should not be confined to linguistics, as language is a vital human resource that of us share.2. What is language? Explain it in details.Language is a means of verbal communication. It is a system of arbitrary vocal symbols used for human communication.Language is a system of arbitrary vocal s

8、ymbols used for human communication.This definition has captured the main features of language, i.e. systematic, arbitrary, vocal, symbolic, human-specific.It is system, since linguistic elements are arranged systematically, rather than randomly.Arbitrary, in the sense(从某种意义上说) that there is usually

9、 no intrinsic connection between a word and the object it refers to. This explains and explained by the fact that different language have different “books” : “book” in English, 书in Chinese, “check” in Korean.It is symbolic,because words are associated with objects, actions, ideas etc. Namely, people

10、 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 language, developed or “new”.The term” human” in the definition is meant to specify that language is human specific.6. Explain the different levels of the a

11、rbitrarinessArbitrarinessis the core feature of language. Saussure holds the idea that the forms of linguistics signs bear no natural relationship to their meaning.There seems to be different levels of arbitrariness:1) Arbitrary relationship between the sound of a morpheme and its means. You may obj

12、ectto this when you think of words with different degrees of onomatopoeia, namely, words that sound like the sounds they describe. e. g. in Chinese 叮咚,轰隆,叽里咕噜. These linguistic forms seem to have a natural basis. But in English, totally different words are used to be describe the sound. For example,

13、 the dog barks bowwow in English but汪汪 in Chinese. But there are some misunderstandings about the onomatopoeia effect. As a matter of fact, arbitrariness and onomatopoeia effect may work at the same time.2) Arbitrariness at the syntactic levelBy syntax we refer to the ways that sentences are constru

14、ctedaccording to the grammar of arrangement. As we know, the order of elements in a sentence follows certain rules, and there is a certain degree of correspondence between the sequence clauses and the rule happenings. In other words, syntax is less arbitrary than words, especially in so far as in th

15、is kind of order is concerned. Compared:a) He came in and set down.b) He set down and came in.c) He set down after he came in.Sentence (a) means the man came in first and then set down, but (b) means the opposite perhaps he got into his wheelchair and propelled(推进去) himself into the room. In (c), wi

16、th the word “after” help, we can reverse the order of the clauses. 3) Arbitrariness and conventionIn fact, the link between a linguistic sign and its meaning is a matter of convention. Here we have to look at the other side of arbitrariness, namely, conventionality. Arbitrariness of language makes i

17、t potentially creative, and conventionality of language makes learning a language laborious. For learners of foreign language, it is conventionality of language that is more worth noticing than its arbitrariness. That may be why when we are burying ourselves memorizing idioms, we feel nothing of the

18、 arbitrariness of the language but are somewhat tortured (折磨) by its conventionality.8-12important distinctions in linguistics8. Descriptive vs. prescriptiveTo say that linguistics is a descriptive science is to say thatthe linguist tries to discover and record the rules to whichthe members of a lan

19、guage-community actually conform and does not seek to impose upon them other rules, or norms, of correctness.Prescriptive linguistics aims to lay down rules forthe correct use of language and settle the disputes over usage once andfor all.For example, “Dont say X.” is a prescriptive command; “People

20、 dont say X.” is a descriptive statement. The distinction lies in prescribing how things ought to be and describing how things are. In the 18th century, all the main European languages were studied prescriptively. However, modern linguistics is mostly descriptive becausethe nature of linguistics as

21、a science determines its preoccupation with description instead of prescription.9. Synchronic vs. diachronicA synchronic study takes a fixed instant (usually at present) as its point of observation. Saussures diachronic description is the study of a language through the course of its history. E.g. a

22、 study ofthe features oftheEnglish used in Shakespeares time would be synchronic, and a study ofthe changes English has undergone since then would be a diachronic study. In modern linguistics, synchronic study seems to enjoy priority over diachronic study. The reason is thatunlessthe various state o

23、f a language is successfully studied it would be difficult to describe the changes that have taken place in its historical development.10. Langue & paroleSaussure distinguished the linguistic competence ofthe speaker andthe actual phenomena or data of linguistics as langue and parole. Langue is rela

24、tive stable and systematic, parole is subject to personal and situational constraints; langue is not spoken by an individual, parole is always a naturally occurring event. What a linguist should do, according to Saussure, is to draw rules from a mass ofconfused facts, i.e. to discover theregularitie

25、s governing all instances of parole and make themthe subject of linguistics.11. Competence and performanceAccording to Chomsky, a language users underlying knowledge about the system of rules is called the linguistic competence, andthe actual use of language in concrete situations is called performa

26、nce. Competence enables a speaker to produce and understand and indefinite number of sentences and to recognize grammatical mistakes and ambiguities. A speakers competence is stable while his performance is often influenced by psychologicaland social factors. So a speakers performance does not alway

27、s match his supposed competence. Chomskybelievesthat linguists ought to study competence, rather than performance. Chomskys competence-performance distinction is not exactly the same as, though similar to, Saussures langue-parole distinction. Langue is a social product and a set of conventions of a

28、community, while competence is deemed as a property of mind of each individual. Saussure looks at language more from a sociological or sociolinguistic point of view than Chomsky since the latter deals with his issues psychologically or psycholinguistically.12. Etic vs. emicBeing etic means researche

29、rs making far too many, as well as behaviorally and inconsequential, differentiations, just as often the case with phonetics vs. phonemics analysis in linguistics proper.An emic set of speech acts and events must be one that is validated as meaningful via final resource to the native members of a sp

30、eech community rather than via appeal to the investigators ingenuity or intuition alone.Following the suffix formations of (phon)eticsvs (phon)emics, these terms were introduced into the social sciences by Kenneth Pike (1967) to denote the distinction betweenthe material and functional study of lang

31、uage: phonetics studies the acoustically measurable andarticulatorily definable immediate sound utterances, whereas phonemics analyzes the specific selection each language makes from that universal catalogue from a functional aspect.13. Traditional grammar vs. modern linguistics14. What are the diff

32、erences between traditional grammar and modern linguistics?Illustrate with your own understanding.As we all know, linguistic is concerned with observing facts about language, setting up hypotheses, testing their validity and accepting or rejecting them accordingly. To avoid biases of the kinds menti

33、oned above, modern linguists differ from traditional grammarians in adopting empirical rather than speculative or intuitive approaches in their study. Here are some differences I can find according the text books and my understanding.The first difference: modern linguistics is descriptive rather tha

34、n prescriptive. That is linguists try to make statements which are testable, and take language as it is rather than say how it should be.The second difference: modern linguistics regards spoken rather than written language as primary. Traditional grammar tends to emphasize the importance of written

35、language and the writings. The third difference: modern linguistics does not force languages into a Latin-based framework. In the past, Latin was considered the language that provided a universal grammar for all languages.Here is a form I found from the internet and it can show the differences betwe

36、en traditional grammar and modern linguistics simply.Traditional grammarModern linguisticsPrescriptiveDescriptiveOver-emphasize written wordsSpoken language is primaryForce languages into a Latin-based frameworkDo not judge one language by standards of anotherAt last, we should know when criticizing

37、 traditional grammar for being unscientific, modern linguistics do not deny altogether the contributions of traditional grammar to the development of modern linguistics. A balance view on traditional grammar is needed in order to track down the continuity of Western linguistic theories from the earliest times to the present day.15. Illustrate the difference between langue and parole with examples you can find.F. De Saussure refers “langue” to the abstract linguistic system shared by a