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1、A Course on Linguistics for Students of English -Zhou Yongping School of Foreign Studies, JXUFE,The Requirements for this course,Class attendance Classroom discussion Fulfillment of the assignment Examination,Questions for discussion,1. Do you like Chinese? Do you like English? Do you like language?
2、 2. Do you know why there are so many different languages in the world? (Origin of language) 3. Imagine, if you can not speak any language, what would happen to you? If all the people can not speak any language, what would happen to the world? 4. Do you want to learn language? Do you want to study l
3、anguage? What is language?( How would you define language by a sentence?),The Goals for this Course (why study language?),To get a scientific view on language; To understand some basic theories on linguistics; To understand the applications of the linguistic theories, especially in the fields of lan
4、guage teaching To prepare for the future research work.,Reference Books,戴炜栋，何兆熊，(2002)，新编简明英语语言学教程，上海外语教育出版社。 胡壮麟，(2001)，语言学教程，北京大学出版社。 刘润清，(1995)，西方语言学流派，外语教学与研究出版社。,Chapter 1. Introduction,1. What is language?,Language can mean,what a person says (e.g. bad language, expressions) the way of speakin
5、g or writing (e.g. Shakespeares language, Luxuns language) a particular variety or level of speech or writing (e.g. language for special purpose, colloquial language) the abstract system underlying the totality of the speech/writing behavior of a community (e.g. Chinese language, first language) the
6、 common features of all human languages (e.g. He studies language) a tool for human communication. (social function) a set of rules. (rule-governed),Sapirs definition (1921),“Language is a purely human and non-instinctive method of communicating ideas, emotions and desires by means of voluntarily pr
7、oduced symbols.”,Halls definition (1968),Language is “the institution whereby humans communicate and interact with each other by means of habitually used oral-auditory arbitrary symbols.”,Chomskys definition (1957),“From now on I will consider language to be a set of (finite or infinite) sentences,
8、each finite in length and constructed out of a finite set of elements.”,Language can be generally defined as,a system of arbitrary vocal symbols used for human communication.,Language is a system,Systematic- rule-governed, elements in it are arranged according to certain rules; cant be combined at w
9、ill. e.g. *bkli, *I apple eat.,Language is arbitrary,Arbitrary- no intrinsic connection between the word and the thing it denotes, e.g. “pen” by any other name is the thing we use to write with.,Language is symbolic in nature,Symbolic- words are associated with objects, actions ideas by convention.
10、“A rose by any other name would smell as sweet”-Shakespeare,Language is primarily vocal,Vocal- the primary medium is sound for all languages; writing system came much later than spoken form.,Language is human-specific,Human-specific- different from the communication systems other forms of life posse
11、ss, e.g. bird songs, bee dance, animal cries.,2. The design/defining features of human language (Charles Hockett),Arbitrariness Productivity/Creativity Duality Displacement Cultural transmission,Arbitrariness,-No logical (motivated or intrinsic) connection between sounds and meanings. Onomatopoeic w
12、ords (which imitate natural sounds) are somewhat motivated ( English: rumble, crackle, bang, . Chinese: putong, shasha, dingdang ) Some compound words are not entirely arbitrary, e.g. type-writer, shoe-maker, air-conditioner, photocopy,Productivity/creativity,-Peculiar to human languages，users of la
13、nguage can understand and produce sentences they have never heard before, e.g. we can understand sentence like “ A red-eyed elephant is dancing on the hotel bed”, though it does not describe a common happening in the world. A gibbon call system is not productive for gibbon draw all their calls from
14、a fixed repertoire which is rapidly exhausted, making any novelty impossible. The bee dance does have a limited productivity, as it is used to communicate about food sources in any direction. But food sources are the only kind of messages that can be sent through the bee dance; bees do not “talk” ab
15、out themselves, the hives, or wind, let alone about people, animals, hopes or desires,Duality (double articulation),Lower level-sounds (meaningless) Higher level-meaning (larger units of meaning) A communication system with duality is considered more flexible than one without it, for a far greater n
16、umber of messages can be sent. A small number of sounds can be grouped and regrouped into a large number of units of meaning (words), and the units of meaning can be arranged and rearranged into an infinite number of sentences. (we make dictionary of a language, but we cannot make a dictionary of se
17、ntences of that language.,Displacement,-Language can be used to refer to things, which are not present: real or imagined matters in the past, present or future, or in far-away places. A gibbon never utters a call about something he ate last year There is something special about the bee dance though.
18、 Bees communicate with other bees about the food sources they have found when they are no longer in the presence of the food. In this sense, the bee dance has a component of displacement. But this component is very insignificant. For the bees must communicate about the food immediately on returning
19、to the hive. They do not dance about the food they discovered last month nor do they speculate about future discoveries.,Cultural transmission,-Language is culturally transmitted (through teaching and learning; rather than by instinct). Animal call systems are genetically transmitted. All cats, gibb
20、ons and bees have systems which are almost identical to those of all other cats, gibbons and bees. A Chinese speaker and an English speaker are not mutually intelligible. This shows that language is culturally transmitted. That is, it is pass on from one generation to the next by teaching and learni
21、ng, rather than by instinct. The story of a wolf child shows that a human being brought up in isolation simply does not acquire human language.,3. Functions of language,Phatic: establishing an atmosphere or maintaining social contact. Directive: get the hearer to do something. Informative: give info
22、rmation about facts. Interrogative: get information from others. Expressive: express feelings and attitudes of the speaker. Evocative: create certain feelings in the hearer (amuse, startle, soothe, worry or please) Performative: language is used to do things, to perform actions.,4. The origin of lan
23、guage,1) The divine-origin theory- Language is a gift of God to mankind.,The Tower of Babel 巴比塔 Noah had three sons-Shen, Ham and japeth, who had many children, and these children had children, for God commanded them to multiply. They all lived together, and the whole earth spoke one language. They
24、lived in one area, and started to build a city with a tower.,“with its top in the heavens.lest we be scattered abroad upon the face of the Earth.“ They could reach heaven, they could understand all the secrets of the world. God came down to see what they did and said: “They are one people and have o
25、ne language, and nothing will be withholden from them which they purpose to do.“ So God said, “Come, let us go down and confound their speech.“ And so God scattered them upon the face of the Earth, and confused their languages, and they left off building the city, which was called Babel “because God
26、 there confounded the language of all the Earth.“(Genesis 11:5-8). The story of the tower of Babel explains the origins of the multiplicity of languages Read more: http:/ The invention theory: A. imitative, cries of nature, imitating the sounds of the animal calls. Eg. onomatopoeic words B. the rhyt
27、hmic grunts of men working together C. instinctive sounds of pain, anger and joy, interjections, eg. Oh, aiyo, outch 3) The evolutionary theory- the result of physical and psychological development. 直立行走-发音器官-大脑发育,许国璋先生认为把语言定义成交际工具不够科学,至少不够严谨.他对语言的定义做了如下概括:语言是一种符号系统.,当它作用于人与人之间的关系的时候,它是表达相互反应的中介; 当它
28、作用于人与客观世界的关系的时候,它是认知事物的工具; 当它作用于文化的时候,它是文化的载体.,5. What is linguistics?,-Linguistics is the scientific study of language. -A person who studies linguistics is known as a linguist.,6. Four principles of linguistic studies,Exhaustiveness/adequacy Consistency Economy Objectivity,7. The scope or major br
29、anches of linguistics,Theoretical linguistics Phonetics Phonology Morphology Syntax Semantics Use of linguistics Applied linguistics Sociolinguistics Psycholinguistics ,Theoretical linguistics,Phonetics-speech sound (description, classification, transcription): articulatory phonetics, acoustic phone
30、tics, auditory phonetics. Phonology-sound patterns of languages Morphology-the form of words Syntax-the rules governing the combination of words into sentence. Semantics-the meaning of language (when the meaning of language is conducted in the context of language use-Pragmatics),Use of linguistics,A
31、pplied linguistics-linguistics and language teaching Sociolinguistics- social factors (e.g. class, education) affect language use Psycholinguistics-linguistic behavior and psychological process Stylistics-linguistic and literature,Some other applications,Anthropological linguistics Neurolinguistics
32、Computational linguistics (e.g. machine translation),8. Some important distinctions in linguistics,Descriptive vs prescriptive,Descriptive - describe/analyze linguistic facts observed or language people actually use (modern linguistic) Prescriptive -lay down rules for “correct” linguistic behavior i
33、n using language (traditional grammar),Synchronic vs diachronic,Synchronic study- description of a language at some point of time (modern linguistics) Diachronic study- description of a language through time (historical development of language over a period of time),Speech vs writing,Speech - primar
34、y medium of language Writing - later developed,Langue vs parole (F. de Saussure),Langue - the abstract linguistic system shared by all members of the speech community. Parole - the realization of langue in actual use. Saussure takes a sociological view of language and his notion of langue is a matte
35、r of social conventions.,Competence and performance (Chomsky),Competence - the ideal users knowledge of the rules of his language Performance - the actual realization of this knowledge in linguistic communication Chomsky looks at language from a psychological point of view and to him competence is a
36、 property of the mind of each individual.,Traditional grammar vs modern linguistics,Traditional grammar - prescriptive, written, Latin-based framework Modern linguistics - descriptive, spoken, not necessarily Latin-based framework,Chapter 2 Phonology,Language is primarily vocal. The primary medium o
37、f human language is sound. Linguists are not interested in all sounds, but in speech sounds-sounds that convey meaning in human communication.,Phonetics,-A branch of linguistics which studies the characteristics of speech sounds and provides methods for their description, classification and transcri
38、ption, e.g. p bilabial, stop.,Three branches of phonetics,Articulatory phonetics-from the speakers point of view, “how speakers produce speech sounds” Auditory phonetics-from the hearers point of view, “how sounds are perceived” Acoustic phonetics-from the physical way or means by which sounds are t
39、ransmitted from one to another.,Articulatory phonetics,Speech organs: three important areas,Pharyngeal cavity - the throat; The oral cavity - the mouth; Nasal cavity - the nose.,The diagram of speech organs,Lips Teeth Teeth ridge (alveolar) Hard palate Soft palate (velum) Uvula Tip of tongue Blade o
40、f tongue Back of tongue Vocal cords Pharyngeal cavity Nasal cavity,Orthographic representation of speech sounds,- A standardized and internationally accepted system of phonetic transcription is the International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA). The basic principle of the IPA is using one letter to represent
41、 one speech sound. Broad transcription - used in dictionary and textbook for general purpose, without diacritics, e.g. clear l , pit Narrow transcription - used by phonetician for careful study, with diacritics, e.g. dark l , aspirated p ,Some major articulatory variables,- dimensions on which speec
42、h sounds may vary: Voicing- voiced & voiceless Nasality - nasal & non-nasal Aspiration - aspirated & unaspirated,Classification of English speech sounds,- English speech sounds are generally classified into two large categories: Vowels Consonants Note: The essential difference between these two clas
43、ses is that in the production of the former the airstream meets with no obstruction of any kind in the throat, the nose or the mouth, while in that of the latter it is somehow obstructed.,Classification of consonants,- English consonants may be classified according to two dimensions: The manner of a
44、rticulation The place of articulation,The manner of articulation,stops/plosives: p, b, t, d, k, g; fricatives: f, v, s, z, W, T, F, V, h; affricates: tF, dV; liquids: l(lateral), r; nasals: m, n, N; glides/semivowels: w, j.,The place of articulation,bilabial: p, b, m, w; labiodental: f , v; dental:
45、W, T; alveolar: t, d, s, z, n, l, r; palatal: F, V, tF, dV, j ; velar: k, g, N; glottal: h.,The place of articulation,Bilabial; Labiodental; Dental or interdental; Alveolar; Palatoalveolar; Palatal; Velar; Uvular; Glottal.,The description of English consonants,Classification of vowels,- English vowe
46、ls can be divided into two large categories: Monophthongs or pure/single vowels Diphthongs or gliding vowels,Monophthongs or pure/single vowels,-According to which part of the tongue is held highest in the process of production, the vowels can be distinguished as: front vowels: I:, I, e, Z, A, B; ce
47、ntral vowels: E:, E, Q; back vowels: u:, u, C:, C, B:.,According to the openness of the mouth,Close: I:, I, u:, u. Semi-close: e, E:; Semi-open: E, C; Open: A, B, C, B:, Q;,The diagram of single vowel classification by applying the two criteria so far mentioned:,According to the shape of the lips or
48、 the degree of lip rounding,rounded: u:, u, C:, C; unrounded: I:, I, e, Z, A, B, E:, E, Q, B:.,According to the length of the vowels,long: I:, E:, u:, C:, B: short: I, e, Z, A, E, Q, B, u, C.,Diphthongs/gliding vowels,ei, ai, aU, EU, Ri, iE, ZE, UE.,Exercises: underline the words that begin with a sound as required.,A bilabial consonant: mad sad bad cad pad had lad A velar consonant: nod