1、英語語言學概論重、難點提示第一章  語言的性質(zhì)語言的定義：語言的基本特征（任意性、二重性、多產(chǎn)性、移位、文化傳遞和互換性）；語言的功能（寒暄、指令、提供信息、詢問、表達主觀感情、喚起對方的感情和言語行為）；語言的起源（神授說，人造說，進化說）等。第二章 語言學語言學定義；研究語言的四大原則（窮盡、一致、簡潔、客觀）；語言學的基本概念（口語與書面語、共時與歷時、語言與言學、語言能力與言行運用、語言潛勢與語言行為）；普通語言學的分支（語音、音位、語法、句法、語義）；語言學的應用（語言學與語言教學、語言與社會、語言與文字、語言與心理學、人類語言學、神經(jīng)語言學、數(shù)理語言學、計算語言

2、學）等。第三章 語音學發(fā)音器官的英文名稱；英語輔音的發(fā)音部位和發(fā)音方法；語音學的定義；發(fā)音語音學；聽覺語音學；聲學語音學；元音及輔音的分類；嚴式與寬式標音等。第四章音位學音位理論；最小對立體；自由變異；互補分布；語音的相似性；區(qū)別性特征；超語段音位學；音節(jié)；重音（詞重音、句子重音、音高和語調(diào)）等。第五章    詞法學詞法的定義；曲折詞與派生詞；構(gòu)詞法（合成與派生）；詞素的定義；詞素變體；自由詞素；粘著詞素（詞根，詞綴和詞干）等。第六章    詞匯學詞的定義；語法詞與詞匯詞；變詞與不變詞；封閉詞與開放詞；詞的辨認；習語與搭配。第七章  

3、句法句法的定義；句法關(guān)系；結(jié)構(gòu)；成分；直接成分分析法；并列結(jié)構(gòu)與從屬結(jié)構(gòu)；句子成分；范疇（性，數(shù)，格）；一致；短語，從句，句子擴展等。第八章   語義學語義的定義；語義的有關(guān)理論；意義種類（傳統(tǒng)、功能、語用）；里奇的語義分類；詞匯意義關(guān)系（同義、反義、下義）；句子語義關(guān)系。第九章   語言變化語言的發(fā)展變化（詞匯變化、語音書寫文字、語法變化、語義變化）； 第十章  語言、思維與文化語言與文化的定義；薩丕爾-沃夫假說；語言與思維的關(guān)系；語言與文化的關(guān)系；中西文化的異同。第十一章  語用學 語用學的定義；語義學與語用學

4、的區(qū)別；語境與意義；言語行為理論（言內(nèi)行為、言外行為和言后行為）；合作原則；UID1 帖子4551 精華7 積分4841 閱讀權(quán)限200 在線時間767 小時 注冊時間2008-8-29 最后登錄2010-5-8 查看個人網(wǎng)站查看詳細資料 Questions & Answers on Key Points of Linguistics1.1. What is language?“Language is system of arbitrary vocal symbols used for human comm

5、unication. It is a system, since linguistic elements are arranged systematically, rather than randomly. Arbitrary, in the sense that there is usually no intrinsic connection between a work (like “book”) and the object it refers to. This explains and is explained by the fact that different languages

6、have different “books”: “book” in English, “l(fā)ivre” in French, in Japanese, in Chinese, “check” in Korean. It is symbolic, because words are associated with objects, actions, ideas etc. by nothing but convention. Namely, people use the sounds or vocal forms to symbolize what they wish to refer to. It

7、 is vocal, because sound or speech is the primary medium for all human languages, developed or “new”. Writing systems came much later than the spoken forms. The fact that small children learn and can only learn to speak (and listen) before they write (and read) also indicates that language is primar

8、ily vocal, rather than written. The term “human” in the definition is meant to specify that language is human specific.1.2. What are design features of language?“Design features” here refer to the defining properties of human language that tell the difference between human language and any system of

9、 animal communication. They are arbitrariness, duality, productivity, displacement, cultural transmission and interchangeability1.3. What is arbitrariness?By “arbitrariness”, we mean there is no logical connection between meanings and sounds (see I .1). A dog might be a pig if only the first person

10、or group of persons had used it for a pig. Language is therefore largely arbitrary. But language is not absolutely seem to be some sound-meaning association, if we think of echo words, like “bang”, “crash”, “roar”, which are motivated in a certain sense. Secondly, some compounds (words compounded to

11、 be one word ) are not entirely arbitrary either. “Type” and “write” are opaque or unmotivated words, while “type-writer” is less so, or more transparent or motivated than the words that make it. So we can say “arbitrariness” is a matter of degree.1.4.What is duality?Linguists refer “duality” (of st

12、ructure) to the fact that in all languages so far investigated, one finds two levels of structure or patterning. At the first, higher level, language is analyzed in terms of combinations of meaningful units (such as morphemes, words etc.) ; at the second, lower level, it is seen as a sequence of seg

13、ments which lack any meaning in themselves, but which combine to form units of meaning. According to Hu Zhanglin et al. (p.6) , language is a system of two sets of structures, one of sounds and the other of meaning. This is important for the workings of language. A small number of semantic units (wo

14、rds), and these units of meaning can be arranged and rearranged into an infinite number of sentences (note that we have dictionaries of words, but no dictionary of sentences!). Duality makes it possible for a person to talk about anything within his knowledge. No animal communication system enjoys t

15、his duality, or even approaches this honour.1.5.What is productivity?Productivity refers to the ability to the ability to construct and understand an indefinitely large number of sentences in ones native language, including those that has never heard before, but that are appropriate to the speaking

16、situation. No one has ever said or heard “A red-eyed elephant is dancing on the small hotel bed with an African gibbon”, but he can say it when necessary, and he can understand it in right register. Different from artistic creativity, though, productivity never goes outside the language, thus also c

17、alled “rule-bound creativity” (by N.Chomsky).1.6.What is displacement?“Displacement”, as one of the design features of the human language, refers to the fact that one can talk about things that are not present, as easily as he does things present. In other words, one can refer to real and unreal thi

18、ngs, things of the past, of the present, of the future. Language itself can be talked about too. When a man, for example, is crying to a woman, about something, it might be something that had occurred, or something that is occurring, or something that is to occur. When a dog is barking, however, you

19、 can decide it is barking for something or at someone that exists now and there. It couldnt be bow-wowing sorrowfully for dome lost love or a bone to be lost. The bees system, nonetheless, has a small share of “displacement”, but it is an unspeakable tiny share.1.7.What is cultural transmission?This

20、 means that language is not biologically transmitted from generation to generation, but that the details of the linguistic system must be learned anew by each speaker. It is true that the capacity for language in human beings(N. Chomsky called it “l(fā)anguage acquisition device”, or LAD) has a genetic

21、basis, but the particular language a person learns to speak is a cultural one other than a genetic one like the dogs barking system. If a human being is brought up in isolation he cannot acquire language. The Wolf Child reared by the pack of wolves turned out to speak the wolfs roaring “tongue” when

22、 he was saved. He learned thereafter, with no small difficulty, the ABC of a certain human language.1.8.What is interchangeability?(1)Interchangeability means that any human being can be both a producer and a receiver of messages. We can say, and on other occasions can receive and understand, for ex

23、ample, “Please do something to make me happy.” Though some people (including me) suggest that there is sex differentiation in the actual language use, in other words, men and women may say different things, yet in principle there is no sound, or word or sentence that a man can utter and a woman cann

24、ot, or vice versa. On the other hand, a person can be the speaker while the other person is the listener and as the turn moves on to the listener, he can be the speaker and the first speaker is to listen. It is turn-taking that makes social communication possible and acceptable.(2)Some male birds, h

25、owever, utter some calls which females do not (or cannot?) , and certain kinds of fish have similar haps mentionable. When a dog barks, all the neighbouring dogs bark. Then people around can hardly tell which dog (dogs) is (are0 “speaking” and which listening.1.9.Why do linguists say language is hum

26、an specific?First of all, human language has six “design features” which animal communication systems do not have, at least not in the true sense of them(see I .2-8). Lets borrow C. F. Hockets Chart that compares human language with some animals systems, from Wang Gang(1998,p.8).Secondly, linguists

27、have done a lot trying to teach animals such as chimpanzees to speak a human language but have achieved nothing inspiring. Washoe, a female chimpanzee, was brought up like a human child by Beatnice and Alan Gardner. She was taught “American sign Language”, and learned a little that made the teachers

28、 happy but did mot make the linguistics circle happy, for few believed in teaching chimpanzees.Thirdly, a human child reared among animals cannot speak a human language, not even when he is taken back and taught to lo to so (see the “Wolf Child”in I.7)1.10.What functions does language have?Language

29、has at least seven functions: phatic, directive, Informative, interrogative, expressive, evocative and performative. According to Wang Gang (1988,p.11), language has three main functions: a tool of communication, a tool whereby people learn about the world, and a tool by which people learn about the

30、 world, and a tool by which people create art . M .A. K.Halliday, representative of the London school, recognizes three “Macro-Functions”: ideational, interpersonal and textual(see !.11-17;see HU Zhuanglin et al.,pp10-13,pp394-396).1.  11What is the phatic function?The “phatic function” re

31、fers to language being used for setting up a certain atmosphere or maintaining social contacts(rather than for exchanging information or ideas). Greetings, farewells, and comments on the weather in English and on clothing in Chinese all serve this function. Much of the phatic language (e.g. “How are

32、 you?” “Fine, thanks.”) is insincere if taken literally, but it is important. If you don't say “Hello” to a friend you meet, or if you dont answer his “Hi”, you ruin your friendship.1.12. What is the directive function?The “directive function” means that language may be used to get the hearer to

33、 do something. Most imperative sentences perform this function, e. g., “Tell me the result when you finish.” Other syntactic structures or sentences of other sorts can, according to J.Austin and J.Searles “indrect speech act theory”(see Hu Zhuanglin et al.,pp271-278) at least, serve the purpose of d

34、irection too, e.g., “If I were you, I would have blushed to the bottom of my ears!”1.13.What is the informative function?Language serves an “informational function” when used to tell something, characterized by the use of declarative sentences. Informative statements are often labelled as true(truth

35、) or false(falsehood). According to P.Grices “Cooperative Principle”(see Hu Zhuanglin et al., pp282-283), one ought not to violate the “Maxim of Quality”, when he is informing at all.1.14.What is the interrogative function?When language is used to obtain information, it serves an “interrogative func

36、tion”. This includes all questions that expect replies, statements, imperatives etc., according to the “indirect speech act theory”, may have this function as well, e.g., “Id like to know you better.” This may bring forth a lot of personal information. Note that rhetorical questions make an exceptio

37、n, since they demand no answer, at least not the readers/listeners answer.1.15.What is the expressive function?The “expressive function” is the use of language to reveal something about the feelings or attitudes of the speaker. Subconscious emotional ejaculations are good examples, like “Good heaven

38、s!” “My God!” Sentences like “Im sorry about the delay” can serve as good examples too, though in a subtle way. While language is used for the informative function to pass judgement on the truth or falsehood of statements, language used for the expressive function evaluates, appraises or asserts the

39、 speakers own attitudes.1.16.What is the evocative function?The “evocative function” is the use of language to create certain feelings in the hearer. Its aim is , for example, to amuse, startle, antagonize, soothe, worry or please. Jokes(not practical jokes, though) are supposed to amuse or entertai

40、n the listener; advertising to urge customers to purchase certain commodities; propaganda to influence public opinion. Obviously, the expressive and the evocative functions often go together, i.e., you may express, for example, your personal feelings about a political issue but end up by evoking the

41、 same feeling in, or imposing it on, your listener. Thats also the case with the other way round.1.17.What is the performative function?This means people speak to “do things” or perform actions. On certain occasions the utterance itself as an action is more important than what words or sounds consti

42、tute the uttered sentence. When asked if a third Yangtze bridge ought to be built in Wuhan, the mayor may say “OK”, which means more than speech, and more than an average social individual may do for the construction. The judges imprisonment sentence, the presidents war or independence declaration,

43、etc., are performatives as well(see J.Austins speech Act Theory, Hu Zhuanglin, ecal.,pp271-278).1.18.What is linguistics?“Linguistics” is the scientific study of language. It studies not just one language of any one society, but the language of all human beings. A linguist, though, does not have to

44、know and use a large number of languages, but to investigate how each language is constructed. He is also concerned with how a language varies from dialect to dialect, from class to class, how it changes from century to century, how children acquire their mother tongue, and perhaps how a person lear

45、ns or should learn a foreign language. In short, linguistics studies the general principles whereupon all human languages are constructed and operate as systems of communication in their societies or communities (see Hu Zhuanglin et al.,pp20-22)1.19.What makes linguistics a science?Since linguistics

46、 is the scientific study of language, it ought to base itself upon the systematic, investigation of language data which aims at discovering the true nature of language and its underlying system. To make sense of the data, a linguist usually has conceived some hypotheses about the language structure,

47、 to be checked against the observed or observable facts. In order to make his analysis scientific, a linguist is usually guided by four principles: exhaustiveness, consistency, and objectivity. Exhaustiveness means he should gather all the materials relevant to the study and give them an adequate ex

48、planation, in spite of the complicatedness. He is to leave no linguistic “stone” unturned. Consistency means there should be no contradiction between different parts of the total statement. Economy means a linguist should pursue brevity in the analysis when it is possible. Objectivity implies that s

49、ince some people may be subjective in the study, a linguist should be (or sound at least) objective, matter-of-face, faithful to reality, so that his work constitutes part of the linguistics research.1.20.What are the major branches of linguistics?The study of language as a whole is often called gen

50、eral linguistics (e.g.Hu Zhuanglin et al.,1988;Wang Gang,1988).But a linguist sometimes is able to deal with only one aspect of language at a time, thus the arise of various branches : phonetics ,phonology ,morphology, syntax, semantics, sociolinguistics, applied linguistics, pragmatics, psycholingu

51、istics, lexicology, lexicography, etymology, etc.1.21.What are synchronic and diachronic studies?The description of a language at some point of time (as if it stopped developing) is a synchrony study (synchrony). The description of a language as it changes through time is a diachronic study (diachro

52、nic). An essay entitled “On the Use of THE”, for example, may be synchronic, if the author does not recall the past of THE, and it may also be diachronic if he claims to cover a large range or period of time wherein THE has undergone tremendous alteration (see Hu Zhuanglin et al.,pp25-27).1.22.What

53、is speech and what is writing?(1)  No one needs the repetition of the general principle of linguistic analysis, namely, the primacy of speech over writing. Speech is primary, because it existed long long before writing systems came into being. Genetically children learn to speak before lea

54、rning to write. Secondly, written forms just represent in this way or that the speech sounds : individual sounds, as in English and French as in Japanese.(2)  In contrast to speech, spoken form of language, writing as written codes, gives language new scope and use that speech does not hav

55、e. Firstly, messages can be carried through space so that people can write to each other. Secondly, messages can be carried through time thereby, so that people of our time can be carried through time thereby, so that people of our time can read Beowulf, Samuel Johnson, and Edgar A. Poe. Thirdly, or

56、al messages are readily subject to distortion, either intentional or unintentional (causing misunderstanding or malentendu), while written messages allow and encourage repeated unalterable reading.(3)  Most modern linguistic analysis is focused on speech, different from grammarians of the

57、last century and theretofore.1.23.What are the differences between the descriptive and the prescriptive approaches?A linguistic study is “descriptive” if it only describes and analyses the facts of language, and “prescriptive” if it tries to lay down rules for  “correct” language behavior.

58、 Linguistic studies before this century were largely prescriptive because many early grammars were largely prescriptive because many early grammars were based on “high” (literary or religious) written records. Modern linguistics is mostly descriptive, however. It (the latter) believes that whatever

59、occurs in natural speech (hesitation, incomplete utterance, misunderstanding, etc.) should be described in the analysis, and not be marked as incorrect, abnormal, corrupt, or lousy. These, with changes in vocabulary and structures, need to be explained also.1.24.What is the difference between langue and parole?F. de Saussure refers “l(fā)angue”to the abstract linguistic system shared by all the members of a speech community and refers “parole” to the actual or actualized language, or the realization of langue. Langue is abstract, parole specifi