英语语言学概论笔记.docx

英语语言学概论笔记.docx

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英语语言学概论笔记

《英语语言学概论》重、难点提示

Questions&AnswersonKeyPointsofLinguistics

《英语语言学概论》重、难点问与答

1.1.    Whatislanguage?

“Languageissystemofarbitraryvocalsymbolsusedforhumancommunication.Itisasystem,sincelinguisticelementsarearrangedsystematically,ratherthanrandomly.Arbitrary,inthesensethatthereisusuallynointrinsicconnectionbetweenawork（like“book”）andtheobjectitrefersto.Thisexplainsandisexplainedbythefactthatdifferentlanguageshavedifferent“books”:

“book”inEnglish,“livre”inFrench,inJapanese,inChinese,“check”inKorean.Itissymbolic,becausewordsareassociatedwithobjects,actions,ideasetc.bynothingbutconvention.Namely,peopleusethesoundsorvocalformstosymbolizewhattheywishtoreferto.Itisvocal,becausesoundorspeechistheprimarymediumforallhumanlanguages,developedor“new”.Writingsystemscamemuchlaterthanthespokenforms.Thefactthatsmallchildrenlearnandcanonlylearntospeak（andlisten）beforetheywrite（andread）alsoindicatesthatlanguageisprimarilyvocal,ratherthanwritten.Theterm“human”inthedefinitionismeanttospecifythatlanguageishumanspecific.

1.2.    Whataredesignfeaturesoflanguage?

“Designfeatures”hererefertothedefiningpropertiesofhumanlanguagethattellthedifferencebetweenhumanlanguageandanysystemofanimalcommunication.Theyarearbitrariness,duality,productivity,displacement,culturaltransmissionandinterchangeability

1.3.    Whatisarbitrariness?

By“arbitrariness”,wemeanthereisnologicalconnectionbetweenmeaningsandsounds（seeI.1）.Adogmightbeapigifonlythefirstpersonorgroupofpersonshaduseditforapig.Languageisthereforelargelyarbitrary.Butlanguageisnotabsolutelyseemtobesomesound-meaningassociation,ifwethinkofechowords,like“bang”,“crash”,“roar”,whicharemotivatedinacertainsense.Secondly,somecompounds（wordscompoundedtobeoneword）arenotentirelyarbitraryeither.“Type”and“write”areopaqueorunmotivatedwords,while“type-writer”islessso,ormoretransparentormotivatedthanthewordsthatmakeit.Sowecansay“arbitrariness”isamatterofdegree.

1.4.Whatisduality?

Linguistsrefer“duality”（ofstructure）tothefactthatinalllanguagessofarinvestigated,onefindstwolevelsofstructureorpatterning.Atthefirst,higherlevel,languageisanalyzedintermsofcombinationsofmeaningfulunits（suchasmorphemes,wordsetc.）;atthesecond,lowerlevel,itisseenasasequenceofsegmentswhichlackanymeaninginthemselves,butwhichcombinetoformunitsofmeaning.AccordingtoHuZhanglinetal.（p.6）,languageisasystemoftwosetsofstructures,oneofsoundsandtheotherofmeaning.Thisisimportantfortheworkingsoflanguage.Asmallnumberofsemanticunits（words）,andtheseunitsofmeaningcanbearrangedandrearrangedintoaninfinitenumberofsentences（notethatwehavedictionariesofwords,butnodictionaryofsentences!

）.Dualitymakesitpossibleforapersontotalkaboutanythingwithinhisknowledge.Noanimalcommunicationsystemenjoysthisduality,orevenapproachesthishonor.

1.5.Whatisproductivity?

Productivityreferstotheabilitytotheabilitytoconstructandunderstandanindefinitelylargenumberofsentencesinone’snativelanguage,includingthosethathasneverheardbefore,butthatareappropriatetothespeakingsituation.Noonehaseversaidorheard“Ared-eyedelephantisdancingonthesmallhotelbedwithanAfricangibbon”,buthecansayitwhennecessary,andhecanunderstanditinrightregister.Differentfromartisticcreativity,though,productivitynevergoesoutsidethelanguage,thusalsocalled“rule-boundcreativity”（byN.Chomsky）.

1.6.Whatisdisplacement?

“Displacement”,asoneofthedesignfeaturesofthehumanlanguage,referstothefactthatonecantalkaboutthingsthatarenotpresent,aseasilyashedoesthingspresent.Inotherwords,onecanrefertorealandunrealthings,thingsofthepast,ofthepresent,ofthefuture.Languageitselfcanbetalkedabouttoo.Whenaman,forexample,iscryingtoawoman,aboutsomething,itmightbesomethingthathadoccurred,orsomethingthatisoccurring,orsomethingthatistooccur.Whenadogisbarking,however,youcandecideitisbarkingforsomethingoratsomeonethatexistsnowandthere.Itcouldn’tbebowwowingsorrowfullyfordomelostloveorabonetobelost.Thebee’ssystem,nonetheless,hasasmallshareof“displacement”,butitisanunspeakabletinyshare.

1.7.Whatisculturaltransmission?

Thismeansthatlanguageisnotbiologicallytransmittedfromgenerationtogeneration,butthatthedetailsofthelinguisticsystemmustbelearnedanewbyeachspeaker.Itistruethatthecapacityforlanguageinhumanbeings（N.Chomskycalledit“languageacquisitiondevice”,orLAD）hasageneticbasis,buttheparticularlanguageapersonlearnstospeakisaculturaloneotherthanageneticonelikethedog’sbarkingsystem.Ifahumanbeingisbroughtupinisolationhecannotacquirelanguage.TheWolfChildrearedbythepackofwolvesturnedouttospeakthewolf’sroaring“tongue”whenhewassaved.Helearnedthereafter,withnosmalldifficulty,theABCofacertainhumanlanguage.

1.8.Whatisinterchangeability?

（1）    Interchangeabilitymeansthatanyhumanbeingcanbebothaproducerandareceiverofmessages.Wecansay,andonotheroccasionscanreceiveandunderstand,forexample,“Pleasedosomethingtomakemehappy.”Thoughsomepeople（includingme）suggestthatthereissexdifferentiationintheactuallanguageuse,inotherwords,menandwomenmaysaydifferentthings,yetinprinciplethereisnosound,orwordorsentencethatamancanutterandawomancannot,orviceversa.Ontheotherhand,apersoncanbethespeakerwhiletheotherpersonisthelistenerandastheturnmovesontothelistener,hecanbethespeakerandthefirstspeakeristolisten.Itisturn-takingthatmakessocialcommunicationpossibleandacceptable.

（2）    Somemalebirds,however,uttersomecalls,whichfemalesdonot（orcannot?

）,andcertainkindsoffishhavesimilarhapsmentionable.Whenadogbarks,alltheneighboringdogsbark.Thenpeoplearoundcanhardlytellwhichdog（dogs）is（are0“speaking”andwhichlistening.

1.9.Whydolinguistssaylanguageishumanspecific?

Firstofall,humanlanguagehassix“designfeatures”whichanimalcommunicationsystemsdonothave,atleastnotinthetruesenseofthem（seeI.2-8）.Let’sborrowC.F.Hocket’sChartthatcompareshumanlanguagewithsomeanimals’systems,fromWangGang（1998,p.8）.

Secondly,linguistshavedonealottryingtoteachanimalssuchaschimpanzeestospeakahumanlanguagebuthaveachievednothinginspiring.BeatniceandAlanGardnerbroughtupWashoe,afemalechimpanzee,likeahumanchild.Shewastaught“AmericansignLanguage”,andlearnedalittlethatmadetheteachershappybutdidmotmakethelinguisticscirclehappy,forfewbelievedinteachingchimpanzees.

Thirdly,ahumanchildrearedamonganimalscannotspeakahumanlanguage,notevenwhenheistakenbackandtaughttolotoso（seethe“WolfChild”inI.7）

1.10.Whatfunctionsdoeslanguagehave?

Languagehasatleastsevenfunctions:

phatic,directive,Informative,interrogative,expressive,evocativeandperformative.AccordingtoWangGang（1988,p.11）,languagehasthreemainfunctions:

atoolofcommunication,atoolwherebypeoplelearnabouttheworld,andatoolbywhichpeoplelearnabouttheworld,andatoolbywhichpeoplecreateart.M.A.K.Halliday,representativeoftheLondonschool,recognizesthree“Macro-Functions”:

ideational,interpersonalandtextual（see!

11-17;seeHUZhuanglinetal.,pp10-13,pp394-396）.

1.    11Whatisthephaticfunction?

The“phaticfunction”referstolanguagebeingusedforsettingupacertainatmosphereormaintainingsocialcontacts（ratherthanforexchanginginformationorideas）.Greetings,farewells,andcommentsontheweatherinEnglishandonclothinginChineseallservethisfunction.Muchofthephaticlanguage（e.g.“Howareyou?

”“Fine,thanks.”）Isinsincereiftakenliterally,butitisimportant.Ifyoudon'tsay“Hello”toafriendyoumeet,orifyoudon’tanswerhis“Hi”,youruinyourfriendship.

1.12.    Whatisthedirectivefunction?

The“directivefunction”meansthatlanguagemaybeusedtogetthehearertodosomething.Mostimperativesentencesperformthisfunction,e.g.,“Tellmetheresultwhenyoufinish.”Othersyntacticstructuresorsentencesofothersortscan,accordingtoJ.AustinandJ.Searle’s“indirectspeechacttheory”（seeHuZhuanglinetal.,pp271-278）atleast,servethepurposeofdirectiontoo,e.g.,“IfIwereyou,Iwouldhaveblushedtothebottomofmyears!

”

1.13.Whatistheinformativefunction?

Languageservesan“informationalfunction”whenusedtotellsomething,characterizedbytheuseofdeclarativesentences.Informativestatementsareoftenlabeledastrue（truth）orfalse（falsehood）.AccordingtoP.Grice’s“CooperativePrinciple”（seeHuZhuanglinetal.,pp282-283）,oneoughtnottoviolatethe“MaximofQuality”,whenheisinformingatall.

1.14.Whatistheinterrogativefunction?

Whenlanguageisusedtoobtaininformation,itservesan“interrogativefunction”.Thisincludesallquestionsthatexpectreplies,statements,imperativesetc.,accordingtothe“indirectspeechacttheory”,mayhavethisfunctionaswell,e.g.,“I’dliketoknowyoubetter.”Thismaybringforthalotofpersonalinformation.Notethatrhetoricalquestionsmakeanexception,sincetheydemandnoanswer,atleastnotthereader’s/listener’sanswer.

1.15