英语语言学讲义25页.docx

英语语言学讲义25页.docx

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英语语言学讲义25页

●Finalexamination（60%）

Homework（viaemail）andattendance（40%）

●36classes,9weeks,9Sundaymornings,basically4classeseverytwoweeks,8weeksforclasses,1weekforquestion-discussion,16lectures

●Syllabus:

Unit1Language:

apreview（1lectures）

Unit2Syntax（4lectures）

Unit3Phonetics（3lectures）

Unit4Phonology（3lectures）

Unit5Morphology（1lectures）

Unit6Semantics（2lecture）

Unit7Firstandsecondlanguageacquisition（2lectures）

Unit1Language:

apreview

•TeachingObjects:

Makethestudentsunderstandthepropertiesoflanguage.

Makethestudentsinterestedinlinguistics.

•Difficulty:

thecreativityoflanguage

Universalgrammar

thebiologicalpropertyoflanguage

•Whatislinguistics?

thedisciplinethatstudies（thenatureanduse）oflanguage.

•Whatislanguage?

（askthestudentstofindoutsomeanswerstothisquestions）

Asystemofcommunication?

Amediumforthought?

Avehicleforliteraryexpression?

Amatterforpoliticalcontroversy?

Acatalystfornationbuilding?

•Istherelanguageinotheranimalsthanhumanbeings?

Canotheranimalsthanhumanbeingscancreatetools?

◆Languageisacreativesystem:

languagecanenableustoproduceandunderstandnewwords,phrases,andsentencesastheneedarises.

•Examples:

（p.2）

1）tocreateverbsfromnouns,e.g.:

（1）JuliasummeredinParis.

（2）HarrywinteredinMexico.

（3）HarryandJuliahoneymoonedinHawaii.

constraint:

（4）*Jeromemidnightedinthestreets.

（5）*Andreanoonedattherestaurant.

•Theexamplesshowthatwhenaverbiscreatedfromatimeexpression,itmustbegivenaveryspecificinterpretation----roughlyparaphrasableas“tobesomewherefortheperiodoftimeX”.Thus,“tosummerinParis”is“tobeinParisforthesummer”.Since“noon”and“midnight”expresspointsintimeratherthanextendedperiodsoftime,theycannotbeusedtocreatenewverbsofthistype.

2）Askthestudentstofindanotherexampletoshowthecreativityoflanguages.（hint:

embedding）

1.Grammar:

Whyislanguageacreativesystem?

WhatarecharacteristicsofGrammar?

•GrammarandLinguisticcompetence

•Speakerofalanguageareabletoproduceandunderstandanunlimitednumberofutterances,includingmanythatarenovelandunfamiliar（creativity）.Thisability,whichisoftencalledlinguisticcompetence,constitutesthecentralsubjectmatteroflinguistics.

•Ininvestigatinglinguisticcompetence,linguistsfocusonthementalsystemthatallowshumanbeingstoformandinterpretthewordsandsentencesoftheirlanguage.Thissystemiscalledagrammar.

•Thegrammarcanbedividedintothefollowingcomponents:

ComponentDomain

Phoneticsthearticulationandperceptionofspeechsounds

Phonologythepatterningofspeechsounds

Morphologywordformation

Syntaxsentenceformation

Semanticstheinterpretationofwordsandsentences

1.1Generality:

alllanguageshaveagrammar

•Ifalanguageisspoken,itmusthaveaphoneticandphonologicalsystem;sinceithaswordsandsentences,itmustalsohaveamorphologyandasyntax;andsincethesewordsandsentenceshavesystematicmeanings,theremustobviouslybesemanticprinciplesaswell.

Syntacticexamples:

（6）Thetwodogsnowseeseveralkangaroos.

（7）Dogstwonowseekangaroosseveral.

（8）Seenowkangaroosseveraldogstwo.

（9）Kangaroosseveralnowdogstwosee.

（10）Kangaroosseveralnowseedogstwo.

（6）couldbetranslatedbytheequivalentofanyofsentencesin（（7-10））.

Phonologicalexamples:

•AskthestudentstogiveanexampletoshowthegrammarofEnglishsounds（hint:

spr-）

2.2Equality:

allgrammarsareequal

•Fromthepointofviewofmodernlinguistics,itmakesnomoresensetosaythatonevarietyofEnglishisbetterthananotherthanitdoestosaythatthegrammarofEnglishisbetter（orworse）thanthegrammarofThai.

•

Why?

•Alllanguagesandallvarietiesofaparticularlanguagehavegrammarsthatenabletheirspeakerstoexpressanypropositionthatthehumanmindcanproduce.Allvarietiesoflangueareabsolutelyequalasinstrumentsofcommunicationandthought.

•Linguisticsisdescriptive,notprescriptive.Thismeansthatlinguistsseektodescribehumanlinguisticabilityandknowledge,nottoprescribeonewayofspeakinginpreferencetoanother.

•Thewaytodeterminewhetheraconstructionis“grammatical”istofindpeoplewhospeakthelanguageandaskthem.

1.2Changeabiligy:

Grammarschangeovertime

•Thegrammarsoflanguagesareconstantlychanging.

•Someofthemarerelativelyminorandoccurquickly（e.g.,theadditionofnewwords:

Internet,e-mail…totheEnglishvocabulary）

•Otherchangeshaveamoredramaticeffectontheoverallformofthelanguageandtypicallytakeplaceoveralongperiodoftime.E.g.,theformationofnegativestructuresinEnglishhasundergonethistypeofchange.

By1400orthereabouts,notornawttypicallyoccurredbyitselfaftertheverb.

（11）a.Iseyenotthewordes.

b.Wesawnawttheknyghtes.

ItwasnotuntilseveralcenturieslaterthatEnglishadopteditscurrentpracticeofallowingnottooccurafteronlycertaintypesofverbs（suchasdo,have,will,andsoon）.

（12）a.Iwillnotsaythewords.

（versus*Iwillsaynotthewords.）

b.Hedidn’tnotseetheknights.

（versus*Hesawnottheknights.）

Thesemodificationsillustratetheextenttowhichgrammarscanchangeovertime.Thestructuresexemplifiedin11）arearchaicbytoday'sstandards.

•Throughthecenturies,individualsandorganizationswhobelievethatcertainvarietiesoflanguagearebetterthanothershavefrequentlyexpressedconcernoverwhattheyperceivetobethedeteriorationofEnglish.In1710,forexample,thewriterJonathanSwift（authorofGulliver'sTravels）lamented"thecontinualCorruptionofourEnglishTongue."AmongthecorruptionstowhichSwiftobjectedwerecontractionssuchashe'sforheis,althoughhehadnoobjectiontoTisforItis.

•Inthenineteenthcentury,EdwardS.Gould,acolumnistfortheNewYorkEveningPost,publishedabookentitledGoodEnglish;or,PopularErrorsinLanguage,inwhichheaccusednewspaperwritersandauthorsof"sensationnovels"ofruiningthelanguagebyintroducing"spuriouswords"likejeopardizeandunderhanded.

•Linguistsrejecttheviewthatlanguagesattainastateofperfectionatsomepointintheirhistoryandthatsubsequentchangesleadtodeteriorationandcorruption.Asnotedabove,therearesimplynogroundsforclaimingthatonewayofspeakingissomehowsuperiortoanother.ThereisthereforenoreasontothinkthatlanguagechangecanorwillunderminetheadequacyofEnglish（oranyotherlanguage）asamediumofcommunication.

2.4University:

grammarsarealikeinbasicways

•Therearemanydifferencesamonglanguages,asevenasuperficialexaminationoftheirsoundpatterns,vocabularies,andwordorderreveals.Butthisdoesnotmeanthattherearenolimitsonthetypeofgrammarsthathumanbeingscanacquireanduse.Quitetothecontrary,currentresearchsuggeststhatthereareimportantgrammaticalprinciplesandtendenciessharedbyallhumanlanguages.

•（NoamChomsky’sfamousUniversalGrammar）

•Onesuchuniversalprincipleinvolvesthemannerinwhichsentencesarenegated.Withunlimitedvariation,onewouldexpect'negators'（theequivalentofEnglishnot）tooccurindifferentpositionswithinthesentenceindifferentlanguages.Thus,wemightpredictthateachofthefollowingpossibilitiesshouldoccurwithroughlyequalfrequency.

13）

a.NotPatishere.

b.Patnotishere.

c.Patisnothere.

d.Patisherenot.

Asithappens,thefirstandfourthpatternsareveryrare.Invirtuallyalllanguages,negativeelementssuchasnoteitherimmediatelyprecedeorimmediatelyfollowtheverb.

•Therelativeorderingofotherelementsisalsosubjecttoconstraints.Toseethis,weneedonlyconsiderthesixlogicallypossibleordersforasimplethree-wordstatementsuchasCanadianslikehockey.

14）

a.Canadianslikehockey.

b.Canadianshockeylike.

c.LikeCanadianshockey.

d.LikehockeyCanadians.

e.HockeylikeCanadians.

f.HockeyCanadianslike.

Interestingly,morethan95percentoftheworld'slanguagesadoptoneofthefirstthreeordersforbasicstatements.Onlyahandfuloflanguagesuseanyofthelastthreeordersasbasic.Thisonceagainreflectstheexistenceofconstraintsandpreferencesthatlimitvariationamonglanguages.

•Thesearenotisolatedexamples.Aslaterchapterswillshow,somegrammaticalcategoriesandprinciplesareuniversal.Andwherethereisvariation（asinthecaseofwordorder）,thereistypicallyaverylimitedsetofoptions.Contrarytofirstappearances,thesetofgrammarslearnedandusedbyhumanbeingsislimitedinsignificantways.

2.5Tacitness:

Grammaticalknowledgeissubconscious

•Askthestudentstosayoutthedifferencebetweenthefollowingtwoexpressions:

*人来了。

有人来了。

*一个人来了。

•Becausetheuseoflanguagetocommunicatepresupposesagrammar,itfollowsthatallspeakersofalanguagemusthaveknowledgeofitsgrammar.However,thisknowledgediffersfromknowledgeofarithmetic,trafficrules,andothersubjectsthataretaughtathomeorinschool.Unliketheseothertypesofknowledge,grammaticalknowledgeisacquiredwithoutthehelpofinstructionwhenoneisstillachildanditremainslargelysubconsciousthroughoutlife.

•Asanotherexampleofthis,consideryourpronunciationofthepasttenseendingwrittenasedinthefollowingwords.

15）

a.hunted

b.slipped

c.buzzed

Noticethatwhereasyousayidinhunted,yousaytinslippedanddinbuzzed.Moreover,ifyouheardthenewverbflib,youwouldformthepastten