语言学讲义缩略版.docx

语言学讲义缩略版.docx

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语言学讲义缩略版

Chapter1InvitationstoLinguistics

1.1Whystudylanguage?

（p.1）

Languageisanintegralpartofourlifeandhumanity.Manypeopletakeitforgrantedandtheydon’tthinkitisworthyofstudyandtheyjustthinkitisatoolforaccesstootherfields.

Thereareplentyofacademicandpersonalreasonstostudylanguage.Ontheacademiclevel,thestudyoflanguagecanprovideadeeperunderstandingofthesocialstudiesandhumanities.Knowledgeaboutlanguageisimportanttounderstandsocialstudiesontopicssuchaseducation,intelligence,personality,memory,groupinteraction,andcognition.Languageplaysanimportantroleinstudiesoflogic,composition,literature,history,internationalrelations,religion,andphilosophy.Onapersonallevel,wegrowupinalanguage-richenvironmentthatprovidesabasisforourpsychologicaldevelopmentandculturalawareness.Languageisourtoolforself-awareness,identitydevelopment,socialinteraction,problemsolvingandintellectualandpsychologicalgrowth.

Notmanypeoplewouldstopandthinkwhatmeaningstheordinaryword“language”has.Infact,itinvolvesseveraldifferentsenseswhichweneedtodistinguishinlinguistics.

First,languagecanmeanwhatapersonsaysorsaid,asin“whathesaidsoundsreasonableenough,butheexpressedhimselfinsuchbadlanguagethatmanypeoplemisunderstoodhim”.Inthissense,languagesimplyreferstheconcreteactofspeakingnagivensituation,ortheexpressiononeusesinspeech.

Secondly,apersondoesnotspeakinaparticularwayonlyononeoccasion;heoftenhasaconsistentwayofspeakingorwriting.So“language”issometimesusedtorefertothewholeofaperson’slanguage,asin“Shakespeare’slanguage”,“Luxun’slanguage”.Inthiscase,itisanindividual’spersonaldialectcalled“idiolect”.

Thirdly,“language”alsomeansaparticularvarietyorlevelofspeechorwriting,suchas“scientificlanguage”,or“languageforspecialpurposes”,“tradelanguage”andmanyothers.

Fourthly,whenwespeakof“theEnglishLanguage”,“theChineseLanguage”or“firstlanguage”,weareusing“language”torefertotheabstractsystemunderlyingthetotalityofthespeech/writingbehaviorofacommunity.Itreferstoeverythinginalanguagesystem.Thisiswhatwemeanwhenwesay“DoyouknowFrench?

”

Finally,thereisanevenmoreabstractsenseof“language”,referringtothecommonfeaturesofallhumanlanguages.Itmeansadefiningfeatureofhumanlanguagebehaviorascontrastedwithanimalsystemsofcommunication,oranyotherartificiallanguage.Whenwesay“Hestudieslanguage”,wemeanthathestudiestheuniversalpropertiesofallspeech/writingsystems,notjustoneparticularlanguage.

1.2Whatislanguage?

Thismayatfirstsoundlikeanaïveandsimplequestion.Yettothisextremelyfamiliar,everydayphenomenon,itisdifficulttogiveasatisfactorydefinition.Somepeoplemaysay“languageisatoolforhumancommunication”.Farfromadefinition,thisonlytellsuswhatlanguagedoes,orwhatitisusedfor,i.e.itsfunction.Othersmaysay“languageisasetofrules.”Thenthistellsnothingaboutitsfunctions,andthereareactuallyothersystemsthatarealsorule-governed.

Thefirstthreedefinitionsoflanguageofthefollowingwereproposedbysomemodernlinguists.Eachofthemhasitsownspecialemphasis,andisnottotallyfreefromlimitations.However,therearesomeimportantcharacteristicsofhumanlanguagelinguistshaveagreedon.

1.Languageisapurelyhumanandnon-instinctivemethodofcommunicatingideas,emotionsanddesiresbymeansofvoluntarilyproducedsymbols（Sapir,1921）

Languageistheinstitutionwherebyhumanscommunicateandinteractwitheachotherbymeansofhabituallyusedoral-auditoryarbitrarysymbols.（Hall,1968）

FromnowonIwillconsiderlanguagetobeaset（finiteorinfinite）ofsentences,eachfiniteinlengthandconstructedoutofafinitesetelements.（Chomsky,1957）

languageisasystemofarbitraryvocalsymbolsusedforhumancommunication.

Shortasitis,thefourthdefinitionhascapturedthemainfeaturesoflanguage.First,languagemustbeasystem,sinceelementsinitarearrangedaccordingtocertainrules;theycannotbecombinedatwill.InEnglish,“skde”isnotapossibleword;“tableheiscleaninga”willnotbeanacceptablesentence.Second,languageisarbitraryinthesensethatthereisnointrinsicconnectionbetweenalinguisticsymbolandwhatthesymbolstandsfor.Forexample,thethingwewritewithiscalled“pen”inEnglishand“bi”inChineseand“stylo”inFrench.Thefactthatlanguageshavedifferentwordsforthesameobjectisagoodillustrationofthearbitrarynatureoflanguage.Thisalsoexplainsthesymbolicnatureoflanguage:

wordsarejustsymbols;theyareassociatedwithobjects,actions,ideas,etc.byconvention.ThisconventionalnatureoflanguageiswellillustratedbyafamousquotationfromShakespeare’splayRomeoandJuliet:

“Arosebyanyothernamewouldsmellassweet.”Third,languageisvocalbecausetheprimarymediumforalllanguagesissound.Allevidencepointstothefactthatwritingsystemscameintobeingmuchlaterthanthespokenformsandthattheyareonlyattemptstocapturesoundsandmeaningonpaper.Thefactthatchildrenacquirespokenlanguagefirstbeforetheycanreadorwritealsoindicatesthatlanguageisprimarilyvocal.Fourth,theterm“human”inthedefinitionismeanttospecifythatlanguageishuman-specific,i.e.,itisdifferentfromthecommunicationsystemsotherformsoflifepossess,suchasbirdsongsandbeedances.Thisbringsustoaquestionofgreatinterest:

Inwhatwaysarehumanlanguagesdifferentfromsystemsofnon-humancommunication?

Thisiswhatweconcernaboutinthenextsection.

1.3Designfeaturesoflanguage

Designfeature:

thedefiningpropertiesofhumanlanguagethatdistinguishitfromanyanimalsystemofcommunication.

1.3.1Arbitrariness

Bysayingthat“languageisarbitrary”,wemeanthatthereisnologicalconnectionbetweenmeaningandsound.

（1）Arbitraryrelationshipbetweenthesoundofamorphemeanditsmeaning.

Twopointshavetobeclarified.Ononehand,weshouldbeawarethatwhilelanguageisarbitrarybynature,itisnotentirearbitrary;certainwordsaremotivated.Thebestexamplesaretheonomatopoeicwords,suchasrumble,crash,banginEnglish.Besides,somecompoundwordsarealsonotentirelyarbitrary.Forexamplewhile“photo”and“copy”arebotharbitrary,thecompoundword“photocopy”isnotentirelyarbitrary.Ontheotherhand,agoodexampleisthefactthatdifferentsoundsareusedtorefertothesameobjectindifferentlanguages.

（2）Arbitrarinessatthesyntacticlevel

Syntaxreferstothewaysthatsentencesareconstructedaccordingtothegrammarofarrangement.Accordingly,syntaxisnotsoarbitraryaswords.Thiscanbeshownintheexamplesonpage5.

（3）Arbitrarinessandconvention

Wesaythatlanguageisarbitrary.Butwhydopeoplechoosethiskindoflinguisticsignsinsteadofothers?

Thisisoutofconvention.Itisthearbitrarinessthatmakeslanguagecreativeanditisconventionalitythatmakestheresearchintothelanguagepossible.Aslanguagelearners,wehavetopaymoreattentiontotheconventionalityoflanguages.

1.3.2Duality

Languageisasystem,whichconsistsoftwosetsofstructures,ortwolevels.Atthelowerlevel,thereisastructureofsounds,whicharemeaninglessbythemselves.Butthesoundsoflanguagecanbegroupedandregroupedintoalargernumberofunitsofmeaning,whicharefoundatthehigherlevelofthesystem.Forexample,thegroupingofthethreesound/k/,/a:

/,and/p/canmeaneitherakindoffish（carp）,orapublicplaceforrestandamusement（park）.Thentheunitsatthehigherlevelcanbearrangedandrearrangedintoinfinitenumberofsentences.Thisdualityofstructureordoublearticulationoflanguageenablesitsuserstotalkaboutanythingwithintheirknowledge.Noanimalcommunicationsystemhasdualityorevencomesneartopossessingit.

1.3.3Creativity

Languageiscreativeinthesensethatuserscanunderstandandcreatesentencestheyhaveneverheardbefore.Everydaywesendmessagesthathaveneverbeensentandunderstandnovelmessages.Muchofwhatwesayandhearforthefirsttime,yetthereseemsnoproblemsofunderstanding.Creativityseemspeculiartohumanlanguage.Agibboncallsystem,forexample,isnotcreative,forgibbonsdrawalltheircallsfromafixedrepertoirewhichisrapidlyexhausted,makinganynoveltyimpossible.Thebeedance,however,doeshavealimitedcreativity,asisusedtocommunicateaboutfoodsourcesinanydirection.Butfoodsourcesaretheonlykindofmessagesthatcanbesentthroughthebeedance;beesdonot“talk”aboutthemselves.

Note:

Recursiveness:

accordingtosomelinguistictheories,thecapacitythatenablesthegrammarofalanguagetoproduceaninfinitenumberofsentences.ThisviewofgrammarwasemphasizedinChomsky’earlygrammaticaltheories.Manylinguiststodayarguethatlanguageuseisinfactcharacterizedbytherepeateduseoffixedexpressionandcollocation.

Recursiverule:

arulewhichcanbeappliedrepeatedlywithoutanydefinitelimit.Forexample,arecursiverulefortheadditionofrelativeclausescouldproduce:

Themansawthedogwhichbitthegirlwhowasstrokingthecatwhichhadcaughtthemousewhichhadeatenthecheesewhich…

1.3.4Displacement

Languagecanbeusedtorefertothingswhicharenotpresent:

realorimaginedmattersinthepast,orfutureorinfar-awayplaces.Inotherwords,languagecanrefertocontextsmovedfromtheimmediatesituationsofthespeaker.Thispropertyoflanguageprovidesspeake