An Introduction to Linguistics «?????» by Hu Yining

1
An Introduction
to Linguistics
????? by Hu
Yining
2

• About the course
• Linguistics is a university course for English
  majors in their 3rd or 4th year and it involves
  many fields of research (e.g. psychology,
  sociology, philosophy), so its not surprising if
  you find it difficult at the beginning.
• Its a must for language students to learn
  something about linguistics and very important
  for those who want to do further study after
  graduation.
• The course will be given mainly in English, but
  in Chinese when necessary.

3

• A few requests
• Attend the course regularly since its a
  compulsory course .
• Not an optional one. No absence from class
  without reasonable reasons.
• Take notes, remember the terminal words and
  facts, and do the revision.
• Continuous assessment will be given for the
  course, so fulfill all the assignments
  satisfactorily including the Further Reading
  part at the back of the textbook (P.275-298).

4

• A list of reference books
• 1.????? (???), ???, ????????
• 2.????? ???, ??????????
• 3.?????????(???)???, ??????????
• 4.???????? ???,??????????
• 5.?????????(???)????, ?????????
• 6.????????? ???,?????????
• 7.??? H.G.Widdowson, ?????????
• 8.?????(???) Stuart C. Poole ????? ?????

5

• Chapter 1
• Language and Linguistics
• The Nature of Language (P.1P.13)
• What is language?
• As human beings, we can feel the existence of
  language everywhere. However, very few of us know
  the true nature of language. There is remarkable
  uncertainty as how language really functions in
  human communication. Great efforts have been made
  to define the nature of language from different
  points of view (See the 4 ones on P.1).

6

• Some additional ones
• Language is the most frequently used and most
  highly developed form of human communication we
  possess.
• -- David
  Crystal
• ????????????????,?????????,????????,?????????????
• 
  -- ???

7

• Unfortunately, a perfect and satisfactory
  definition has yet to come.
• Despite the differences in their views, many
  linguists have agreed to accept the view that
  Language is, in essence, a system of symbols
  designed for the purpose of human communication.
  
• (??????,?????????????????????).
• They have come to a general agreement about the
  following important features that are typical of
  the nature of human languages.

8

• The defining properties of human language
  (?????)
• Design features(????) The possession of
  language most clearly distinguishes man from
  other animals.
• Human language has five features
• 1. Creativity(???)-We all have the ability to
  
• construct and understand an indefinitely
  large number of sentences in our native
  languages. (????????????,?????????????????????????
  )

9

• 2. Arbitrariness(???)-- Except the
• very few onomatopoeic words (e.g.
• cuckoo, mew, bang, ding-dong, ping-pang),
• there is no necessary relationship
• between the sign/sound and what the
• sign/sound means (e.g. a dog, un chien,
• ? )(??????????,?????
• ??????????????????
• ??????????????????.)

10

• 3. Duality of structure (or double
  articulation)(??????)
• This property is usually claimed to be unique to
  humans. Each human language is organized into two
  basic systems a system of sounds and a system of
  meanings
• Higher level - Language is a combination of
  meaningful units (such as morphemes, words).
• Lower level -- Language is a sequence of segments
  which lack any meaning in themselves, but which
  combine to form units of meaning (such as
  letters, phonetic symbols.)

11

• ( Why is duality regarded as an important
  feature of human language?
• Because i. A far greater number of messages
• can be sent
• ii. No animal communication
  possesses it. )
• 4. Displacement(???????) -- Human language can
  cope with any subject what ever, and it does not
  matter how far away the topic is in time and
  space. (???????????????????????????????).

12

• 5.Cultural transmission (??????/???????)
• -- The details of the linguistic system must
• be learned anew from the beginning by each
• speaker. Without the environment of language
• and communication, language cant be acquired
  .
• (???????,??????? ??????
• ??,??????,????????).

13

• 1.1.1 Language Is Systematic (P.2)
• --- This property is usually claimed to be unique
  to humans. Each human language is organized into
  two basic systems a system of sounds and a
  system of meanings. This is called the duality of
  language.
• --- Human language operated on two levels of
  structure. At one level, elements have no meaning
  themselves. They have meaning when combined to
  form units at another level.
• --- In the meaning system, these units of meaning
  can be arranged in an infinitive number of ways
  to express both simple and complicated ideas.

14

• A language offers its speaker the opportunity to
  talk about anything. The number of words in a
  language is relatively finite but their possible
  combination can be infinite.
• The syntax of a language may deal with the
  ordering of words, which actually is the rules
  for the formation of sentences and parts of
  sentences such as phrases and clauses.
• (Have a look at the exercises at the back of this
  part on P. 3.)

15

• 1.1.2 Language Is Symbolic (P.3-5)
• People use signs to communicate, which means
  that language involves signs.
• The way in which people communicate through signs
  and images, or the study of it is referred to as
  semiology or semiotics.
• Roland Barthes and others extend semiology to
  include complex cultural forms of communication
  such as painting, music, films, theatre, dance,
  clothing, advertising, architecture, literature,
  and even food.

16

• Traditionally, signs are divided into natural
  signs and conventional signs. According to
  Traugott Pratt, signs can be categorized into 3
  major types
• (1) Icon (????)---When an object and its sign are
  related by a physical resemblance, we say the
  sign is an icon (???,????,????).
• (2) Index(????)---When an object and its sign are
  associated to each other by physical proximity,
  we call the sign an index (?????????,????????).
• (3) Symbol (????)---When a sign and the object it
  signifies are associated by social convention,
  the sign is called a symbol (????,????,??,??,????
  ?,?????????,????,?????)?

17

• One has to learn symbolic signs as part of the
  culture. Accordingly, language belongs to this
  type of signs. Language is mainly symbolic.
• Words are associated with objects, actions, and
  ideas by social convention.
• The symbolic nature of language is more important
  and complicated than any other types of signs,
  and more embracing and representative of all the
  features of all signs.
• Without the symbolic signs of language, we can
  not talk about anything as we like.

18

• In todays multimedia world, there are many
  instances of meaning being expressed by different
  types of signs working together. Typical examples
  can be found in commercial advertisements on TV
  (?????,???,???)?
• (Have a look at the exercises at the back of this
  part on P. 5.)

19

• 1.1.3 Language Is Arbitrary (P. 6-7)
• The forms of linguistic signs bear no natural
  resemblance to their meaning. The link between
  them is a matter of convention, and conventions
  differ radically across languages.
• Arbitrariness does not imply that the choice of
  the signifier is left entirely to the speaker.
  The individual does not have the power to change
  a sign in any way once it has become established
  in the linguistic community.

20

• The understanding of arbitrariness is not easy.
  Words are arbitrary in form, but they are not
  random in their use. One thing we should note
  that although the link between form and meaning
  is arbitrary, there exists certain relationship
  between them.
• (Have a look at the exercises at the back of
  this part on
• P. 7.)

21

• 1.1.4 Language Is Primarily Vocal (P. 7)
• The relationship between writing and speaking
• 1. The primary medium of language is sound.
  No matter how well developed are their writing
  systems, all languages use sounds.
• 2. Writing is based on speaking. Writing
  systems are attempts to capture sounds and
  meanings on paper. Writing can influence speaking

22

• Why do we say that language is primarily
  vocal?
• Because
• 1) Children learn to speak before they learn to
  read and write
• 2) Children automatically learn a language as
  they grow up. There is normally no tutoring, but
  with writing, the learning process is different.
  The development of reading proficiency depends to
  a great degree upon the pedagogical skills or
  teachers.
• 3) The spoken form came earlier than the written
  in
• human history. The written form of any
  language
• is always much more recent than the spoken.

23

• 4) Writing is based on speech. Writing system
  represents some levels of the spoken language,
  such as distinct words, syllables, or sounds.
• 5) People use spoken language more often than
  writing. People use the spoken form more
  frequently than writing as a basic form of
  verbal communication.
• (Have a look at the exercises at the back of this
  part on P. 10.)

24

• 1.1.5 Language Is Human Specific (P. 10.)
• There are certain characteristics of human
  language that are not found in the communication
  system of any other species.
• Attempts to teach animals more complicated
  systems have ended in failure.
• Human children can acquire language with ease,
  and without intensive and directed instruction.
  Yet, animals lack the capacity to learn. They do
  not have the mental capacity to be
  communicatively creative.

25

• The differences between human language and animal
  communication
• Language has the ability to refer to things far
  removed in time and space.
• Humans have the ability to produce and understand
  an indefinite number of novel utterances
  (creativity/openness/productivity). No animal can
  communicate creatively with another animal.
• Learning is much more important as a factor in
  human language than in animal communication.
  Human languages have very much in common, but
  they differ from one another on many specific
  points

26

• Language is complex in its structure. Human
  language structure and language use are vastly
  more complex than any known animal communication
  system.
• Animal communication systems are closed, whereas
  human languages are open-ended. People can talk
  about anything they can observe or imagine.
• Humans can perform acts with language just as
  they can with objects of different kinds.
• (Have a look at the exercises at the back of this
  part on P. 12.)

27

• 1.1.6. Language Is Used for Communication
• Language is used for communication. Language is
  the result of our communication needs. Its
  attractiveness comes from its social utility.
• Human beings communicate in ways different from
  those used by any species. Through language we
  can do things animals can not do.
• It is by the use of language that we can transmit
  our social heritage from one generation to the
  next.

28

• Two-way communication occurs frequently when the
  sending and receiving functions are performed
  with equal frequency by two or more persons.
• With the growth in foreign travel, the migration
  of people to other countries, and expansion of
  international trade, there has been an increase
  in intercultural communication across national
  and ethnic borders.
• (Discuss the exercises at the back of this part
  on P. 13.)

29

• 1.2 The Functions of Language (P.1420)
• The term communication can be used to cover most
  of the function of language. But the function of
  language is varied, in terms of using the
  language to chat, to think, to buy and sell, to
  read and write, to greet people, etc.
• Language functions in our society as a principal
  means of communication. It also functions as
  social control. It is not only a psychological
  phenomenon, but also a social fact.

30

• Language is not a self-contained system, but
  entirely dependent on the society in which it is
  used. We must study meaning with reference to an
  analysis of the functions of language in any
  given culture.
• Malinowski distinguishes three major functions of
• language
• the pragmatic(???,???) function language as a
  form of action
• the magical function language as a means of
  control over environment

31

• the phatic(???,???) functionlanguage as a means
  to help establish and maintain social relations.
• We can categorize the functions of language into
  general functions and metafunctions (???,????).
  General functions refer to the particular
  individual uses of language while metafunctions
  refer to the larger, more general purposes
  underlying language use.

32

• 1.2.1 General Functions of Language
• Language enables humans to do many things, thus
  serving different functions in the society.
• Finch lists the following 7 general functions of
  language
• 1.2.1.1 Physiological Function (????-???????)
• Language can help get rid of nervous or physical
  energy. This function is also known as the
  emotive or expressive function of language.

33

• There are many emotive utterances in our daily
  life which serve no communicative purpose but
  allow us to release inner feelings (e.g. Shoot!
  ??!??!).
• A great deal of what we say when angry is simply
  to relieve our physical and nervous energy caused
  by emotional distress (e.g. bad language, swear
  words, obscenities, and taboos).

34

• 1.2.1.2 Phatic Function (????,????)
• Language can serve the function of creating or
  
• maintaining social relationship between
  speakers.
• We often use language simply to express our
• willingness to be sociable. No factual content
  is
• involved (Different ways of greetings in
  different
• countries). They are just conversation-fillers.

35

• In this sense, language can act as a form of
  social bonding that links people together.
  Failure to observe these social courtesies can
  cause considerable embarrassment and even bad
  feelings.
• Cultures vary greatly in the topics which they
  permit as phatic communication (e.g. Lovely day,
  isnt it? ?????)
• The phatic use of language is mainly spoken but
  there are some written equivalents (e.g. Dear
  Sir/Madam, Yours faithfully) .

36

• 1.2.1.3 Recording Function (????-???????)
• Language allows us to record things we wish to
  remember. It might be a short-term shopping list
  or a long-term diary or history of some kind.
• This function of language is represented by all
  kinds of record-keeping, such as historical
  records, geographical surveys, business accounts,
  and data banks.

37

• Without language, it would be impossible for us
  to trace the history of humans and modern
  commercial life would be impossible.
• This function is the most important function
  behind the development of language from being an
  oral medium to becoming a written one.

38

• 1.2.1.4 Identifying Function (????--???? ??)
• Language also allows us to identify, with
  considerable precise, an enormous array of
  objects and events.
• Without language, it would be very difficult to
  make sense of the world around us. Because we
  know the names of things, we can refer to them
  quickly and accurately in good order.

39

• Names are made up and essentially arbitrary. To
  call a table a chair would not change the reality
  of the thing.
• Words do not exist in isolation but are part of
  the social network.
• 1.2.1.5 Reasoning Function (???????)
• Much of our thinking is done with words or, to be
  more exact, in words. So, language is commonly
  regarded as a tool of thoughts.

40

• When we have ideas forming in our minds, we need
  to find the appropriate words to express these
  ideas.
• Our ideas are coded in language. Although the
  relationship between language and the mind is
  complicated, speaking and writing are forms of
  thoughts. This is why most people feel that they
  have not really understood something until they
  have been able to express it in language. (How
  about ????,?????)

41

• A problem is that the meaning of many words are
  not stable and as a consequence it is difficult
  to think with any precision. Words mean different
  things to different people and may have different
  connotations (e.g. Monday morning, ???,???).
• In recent years, however, a number of studies
  have shown that not everything in our mental life
  depends on language.

42

• 1.2.1.6 Communicating Function (????)
• As we have seen in the previous section, language
  is a means of communicating ideas and facts.
• In human society, people need to understand and
  be understood, to have their feelings and ideas
  recognized and acknowledged.

43

• We use language to express ourselves to others.
  We also need language in order to understand what
  others are communicating to us.
• We use language for requesting, ordering,
  promising, asking for permission, and so on (e.g.
  All the Dialogue 2. parts in A New English
  Coursefunctional English).

44

• All human achievements are closely related to
  successful acts of communication. Language is the
  most developed and most subtle way to perform
  communication acts, and it is the natural
  inheritance of humans.

45

• 1.2.1.7. Pleasure Function (????)
• Language allows us to derive pleasure from it. A
  large part of the pleasure we derive from
  language comes from the successful exploitation
  of linguistic novelty at different levels of the
  language.
• Advertisers (cross-talking) exploit this capacity
  just as much as poets and novelists.

46

• At the simplest level there is the enjoyment of
  sound itself and the melody of certain
  combination of sounds (e.g. No Sun, no fun!
  ?????? ?!??????????).
• Most poetry exploit this function (onomatopoeia,
  alliteration??, and assonance??).

47

• Examples
• Onomatopoeia
• The stream is murmuring through the
  woods.
• Jane started giggling.
• The door crashed open.
• Heavy rain drops began pitter-pattering
  on
• the tent.
• I eat what I can, I can what I cant.
• Alliteration Promise, Problem, and Provision.
• Presentation, Practice and
  Production.
• World-wide web.

48

• Assonance fair and square near and dear
• The rain in Spain stays mainly in plains.
• At the syntactical level, we can gain pleasure
  from rearrangement by inversion or ellipsis of
  normal phrases or clauses order and from the
  conversion of words from one class to another.
  These changes play against our normal expectation
  from language and create a sense of novelty.

49

• Examples
• Inversion Up goes the prices of daily
  necessities, and down come the living conditions
  of people.
• Ellipsis Got troubles?
• I came, I saw, I conqured.

50

• At the level of meaning, most creative uses of
  language provide considerable pleasure through
  the generation of puns(??), paradoxes(?????,??),
  ambiguities(????,??), and metaphors. With these
  the oddness is not necessarily syntactic but lies
  in the capacity of the language to generate a
  plurality(???????) of possible meanings.

51

• Examples
• Pun
• No sun, no fun!
• Try our sweet corn and youll smile from ear
• to ear.
• ---Fourth floor! shouted a passenger in the
  lift.
• ---Hear you are, son.
• ---How dare you call me son ?
• ---Sir, I called, or whatever. Ive brought you
  
• up, anyway.

52

• Paradox More haste, less speed.
• Its a paradox that in such a
  rich country
• there can be so much poverty.
• ?????,?????
• ???????,???????
• ?,?????
• ??????!
• Ambiguity ????,????
• ???,????
• ?????

53

• Metaphor
• The sunshine of her smile wormed everybody
  present.
• Its been a hard few months, but were finally
  beginning to see the light at the end of the
  tunnel.
• ?????
• ????????
• ????????
• ?????

54

• This is not an exhaustive list and we may well
  have thought of other functions.
• It is important to bear in mind that a specific
  use of language may fulfill more than one
  function.
• The more functions something fulfills, the more
  complex it usually is.
• (Have a look at the exercises on P. 18.)
• Look at the following examples of metaphor.

55
Every pawn (soldier) has its uses, but without
the chess board, it can only be a pawn.
56
I may not be a trump card, but Im definitely a
good card.
57
I am this bowl of tea (big-bowl tea). Which
looks plain but has a long lasting taste. I am
the pure bred (the hidden talent) are you the
one to discover me?
58
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• 1.2.2 Metafunctions of Language
• (??????/?? ??) (P.1820)
• A metafunction is one which is capable of
  describing one or more other functions.
• People do different things with language. They
  intend to achieve different aims and different
  purposes by talking, writing, listening and
  reading.

66

• Language is a system of signs developed to
  express social meanings. Function can be regarded
  as the use of language and be interpreted as a
  fundamental property of language.
• According to Halliday, language has to have an
  ideational function, an interpersonal function,
  and a textual function.

67

• 1.2.2.1 Ideational Function (????)
• We are using language as a symbolic code to
  represent the world around us. The ideational
  function, then, is the content of language and
  allows us to conceptualize the world for our own
  benefit and that of others.
• Through this function, the language encodes the
  cultural experience and the speaker encodes his
  or her own individual experience of the things of
  the world and his or her own consciousness.

68

• The ideational function is divided into
  experiential function and logical function. In a
  sense we bring the world into being
  linguistically.
• 1.2.2.2 Interpersonal Function (????)
• According to Halliday, the interpersonal
  component represents the speakers meaning
  potential as an intruder.

69

• It is through language that the speaker intrudes
  himself or herself into the context of situation.
  He or she expresses his or her own attitudes and
  judgments and seeks to influence the attitudes
  and behavior of others.
• The interpersonal function expresses the role
  relationships associated with the situation.

70

• We gain much of our sense of identity, of who and
  what we are, from our relationships both with
  animate and inanimate things, and language is an
  essential part of that personalizing process.
• 1.2.2.3 Textual Function (????)
• Language has the function which enables the other
  two functions to operate, namely, the function
  which represents the speakers text-forming
  potential.

71

• This function relates our abilities to construct
  texts out of our utterances and writings.
  Halliday calls it the textual function. We can
  see it as using language to bring texts into
  being.
• This function expresses the relation of language
  to the verbal and nonverbal situational
  environment.

72

• These terms are interpreted as functional
  components of the semantics system. They are
  present in every use of language in every social
  context. A text is a product of all three. The
  three metafunctions of language are closely
  related to context and realized in the
  lexico-grammar of language.

73

• They are interwoven in discourse. According to
  Halliday, every sentence in a context is
  multifunctional and has three metafunctions
  simultaneously. This is the essential nature of a
  functional theory.
• (A quick look at the 2 questions on P. 20.)

74

• Assignment
• Collect and write down as many as possible the
  following
• 1. The 3 kinds of signs icon, index, symbol.
• 2. The pleasure function of language at the three
  levels sound, syntax, and meaning.

75

• 1.3 The Origin and Classification of Language
• Mans interest in his own origin and his own
  nature has resulted in many theories on the
  origin of language.
• A study of the history of languages show that
  many languages develop from a single one.

76

• Many scientists today believe that man arose in
  many different places of the world. If this is
  the case, there were many proto-languages (????),
  from which the modern language families
  developed.
• 1.3.1 The Origin of Language
• Biologists, anthropologists (????),
  psychologists, neurologists(????), and linguists
  have done a wide range of studies in the origin
  of language.

77

• Some have looked at the problem of whether
  primitive man had the physiological(????)
  capacity to speak.
• The reports show that the human vocal tract (??)
  evolved from a non-human primate form to
  facilitate efficient communication.

78

• Some hold that learning to use tools and learning
  language are interrelated skills.
• With the development of the human society, man
  learned to use tools by hand and tools promoted
  the development of speech, because learning
  involved language.

79

• 1.3.2 Language Families
• The role of intercultural contact is a real
  problem in studying many language families.
• Both types of classification ignore the relevance
  of cultural links between languages.
• With the passage of time and the development of
  intercultural communication, languages influence
  each other by contact and may borrow words from
  each other.

80

• Sometimes languages that have no
  historical relationship can converge so that they
  seem to be members of the same family.
• Thus, it is often very difficult to decide
  whether two languages look similar because they
  share a common origin, or because they have
  borrowed from each other.

81

• However, many achievements have been made in the
  classification of languages.
• According to Crystal (1987), there are at
• least 29 languages families in the world.

82

• 1.4 What is Linguistics?
• Linguistics is the science of language and is
  usually defined as the systematic study of
  language or, as a discipline that describes all
  aspects of language and formulate theories as to
  how language works.
• Linguistics is the study of language as a system
  of human communication.
• Linguistics is principally concerned with the
  universals of the human mind.

83

• For many scholars, the main purpose of
  linguistics is to develop a general theory of
  language and theories on aspects of language.
• The primary goal of linguistics is to explain not
  only how meanings are construed but also how they
  maintain a systematic relation to the already
  linguistically construed socially defined world.

84

• 1.4.1.1 Tasks of Linguistics
• As a science, linguistics demands a rational and
  scientific outlook on language. It takes an
  objective view of language and all linguistic
  phenomena.
• Linguists study language and reflect on it in a
  detached and unbiased way. They make no value
  judgments about languages.

85

• Linguistics formulates explanations of the
  phenomena of language, and also observes and
  analyses data found in natural language according
  to the general principles of empirical
  (????)research procedures.
• Linguistics will find out the common features of
  all languages, the range of variations among
  languages, the difference of human languages
  from animal communication.

86

• Linguistics will also find out the evolution of
  language, the analysis of unwritten languages,
  the change of languages, the relation of
  language to the society.
• Linguistics starts from such simple concepts such
  as speech sound, word, sentence, meaning, and
  text. These features each correspond roughly to
  the major areas of linguistic investigation and
  each is presented in one or the other of the
  branches of linguistics.

87

• 1.4.2 Some Important Distinctions in
• Linguistics
• 1.4.2.1 Langue and Parole (?????)
• Langue the linguistic system itself the
  abstract system something which differs human
  beings from animals. (???????????????)
• Parole the particular actualities of individual
  utterances the use of the language in
  utterances. (????????????????????)

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• ????????,???????,???????????????????,?????
• You language is dirty. ???? Your parole is
  dirty.
• ??,?????I hate English. Its a racialist
  language. ???????????????,??????????(parole)
  ???????????
• Language is systematic, but parole is not.
  ???50????????(langue) ???????,??????????
  (parole)???

89

• e.g. Tom, donkey! ?????????????????????????
• Tom, ?????!
• Tom, ???????!
• Tom, ????!
• 1.4.2.2 Prescriptive and Descriptive
• (?????????)
• Prescriptive
• Prescribes rules of what is correct
• The duty of grammarians, schoolmasters, and
  dictionary makers is to maintain some absolute
  standards of correctness

90

• Any deviations from the rules are said to be
  incorrect or nonstandard
• So, the prescriptive approach relies heavily on
  rules of grammar.
• Descriptive
• Claims that the linguists first task is to
  describe the way people actually speak and write
  their language, not to prescribe how they ought
  to speak or write

91

• Describes data observed. They are interested in
  what is said, not what they think ought to be
  said.
• They are observers and recorders, not judges.
• The job of the linguist is to observe what
  language is and to explain why it is so. It is
  not his function to improve the language

92

• From the linguists point of view, a language is
  what the speakers do and not what someone thinks
  they ought to do.
• In distinguishing description and prescription,
  the linguist is not saying that there is no place
  for prescriptive studies of language. The
  linguist is merely asserting that language is
  used for many purposes.

93

• 1.4.2.3 Synchronic and Diachronic (?????)
• In linguistic study, we can either look at a
  grammar at one particular point of time or study
  its development over a number of years.
• Synchronic linguistics
• The synchronic study of language referring to
  the description of a language at a single point
  of time.

94

• The analysis of language at a single point in
  time and the knowledge of how a system works at
  any one time .
• The priority of synchronic description is a
  characteristic of most the 20th century
  linguistic theories.

95

• We rarely know very much about the historical
  development of our language. Yet, when children
  are learning the language, they come to speak it
  according to certain systematic rules.
• It is necessary for the synchronic description to
  find out these systematic rules as they operate
  in a language at a particular time.

96

• Diachronic linguistics
• The diachronic study of language refers to the
  description of the historical development of a
  language.
• A diachronic study of the Chinese language might
  look at its development from the time of our
  earliest records to the present day.

97

• Linguistic study in the 19th century was
  primarily concerned with diachronic description.
  The dominant approach to any scientific study of
  language was historical.
• 1.4.2.4 Speech and Writing
• Modern linguists regard the spoken language as
  primary, not the written.

98

• In the past, because it was difficult to cope
  with fleeting utterances before the sound
  recording, grammarians and the traditional
  classical education overstressed the importance
  of the written word.
• The belief in the superiority of the written
  word has continued for over two millennia.
• It was assumed that spoken language was inferior
  to and in some sense dependent upon the standard
  written language.

99

• Modern linguistics look first at the spoken word
  and regard spoken and written forms as belongings
  to different, though overlapping systems, which
  must be analyzed separately the spoken first,
  then the written.
• Written language has a life of its own. Speech
  has the restriction of both time and space.

100

• Writing overcomes this drawback of speech. People
  can send words to a remote place or keep the
  necessary records of a long time by using written
  language, which broadens the communication effect
  to a large extent in our social life.
• Without writing, human progress would be
  extremely slow. There would be no efficient
  medium for spreading the knowledge.

101

• According to Halliday (1985), the spoken language
  is no less structured and highly organized than
  the written.
• The spoken medium displays certain properties of
  organization and is appropriate to certain
  functions.
• Speech can be produced very quickly, make rapid
  adjustments in the light of the changing context,
  and express subtle nuances (????)of interpersonal
  meaning.

102

• 1.4.2.5 Syntagmatic and Paradigmatic
• (?????????)
• (?)
• 1.4.2.6 Competence and Performance
• (?????????/??)
• Similar to Saussures distinction between langue
  and parole is the distinction between competence
  and performance, which was proposed by the
  American linguist N. Chomsky in the late 1950s.

103

• The ability of human beings to produce and
  comprehend an indefinite number of novel
  utterances.
• Anyone who knows a language has internalized a
  set of rules about the sequences permitted in his
  language. This internalized set of rules are
  termed as a persons competence by Chomsky.
• Competence 1. What people should know about the
  language 2. Their ability to form new sentences
  3. their ability to tell grammatical sentences
  from ungrammatical ones.

104

• Competence refers to the knowledge that native
  speakers have of their language as system of
  abstract formal relations, or, in another word,
  the rules of his language.
• ??????????????????????????????????

105

• Performance refers to what we do when we speak or
  listen, that is, the infinite varied individual
  acts of verbal behavior with their
  irregularities, inconsistencies, and errors (the
  actual realization of his knowledge of the
  language in linguistic communication).
• Any actual utterances a speaker makes in a
  particular situation.
• ???????????????????--??????

106

• Chomsky sees the linguists task as primarily
  describing competence, the knowledge of language,
  or the underlying system of rules that has been
  mastered by the speaker-hearer because
  performance is impossible without competence.
• According to Chomsky, a speaker has internalized
  a set of rules about his language, this enables
  him to produce and understand an infinite large
  number of sentences and recognize sentences that
  are ungrammatical and ambiguous.

107

• Widdowson(1996) Competence is presented as the
  central principle of language itself. To focus on
  competence is to focus on what is essential and
  primary.
• Hymes proposed the idea of communicative
  competence in 1972.
• Hymes argues that the speaker-listener can not
  live in a completely homogeneous speech
  community.

108

• Social life will inevitably impose an influence
  upon both his outward performance and inner
  competence, since speaker-hearer possesses the
  overall underlying knowledge and ability for
  language use.
• Thus, he proposes communicative competence to
  include both linguistic knowledge and ability for
  language use. In other words, he associates his
  communicative competence with both Chomskys
  grammatical competence and performance.

109

• People insisted on following language used by the
  best authors of classical times.
• Spoken language was regarded as formless and
  featureless. The sentences are brief and contain
  many mistakes, hesitations and silences.
• However, as we mentioned previously, language is
  primarily vocal. No community has a written form
  only, though many have a spoken language only.
• Then certain linguists began to doubt the
  priority of writing.

110

• 1.4.2.7 Functionalism and Formalism
• The functional approach centers on linguistic
  explanation based on languages function in a
  larger context.
• The formalist approach insists on a sharp
  division between synchrony and diachrony and
  between competence and performance.
• The two approaches are different and have a
  number of directly conflicting claims, ranging
  from general philosophical and methodological
  principles to the particular analysis of specific
  linguistic phenomena.

111

• 1.5 The Scope of Linguistics
• Linguistics covers a wide range of topics and its
  boundaries are difficult to define. Its scope is
  getting broader and broader.
• In linguistics, both internal and external
  factors related to language are explored, and
  units larger than the sentence are taken into
  account.

112

• Generally speaking, the research of linguistics
• Is like this
• The research scope (range) of linguistics
• 1. phonetics (???) 2. lexicology (???)
• 3. grammar (???) 4. rhetoric (???)
• The research angles of linguistics
• 1.general linguistics (?????)
• 2. historical linguistics (?????)
• 3. sociolinguistics (?????)
• 4. applied linguistics (?????)
• 5. psycholinguistics (?????)

113

• 1.5.1 Use of Linguistics
• Phonetics(???)- the study of human speech
• sound
• Phonology(???)- the study of sound patterns
• Morphology(???)-the study of form of words
• Syntax (???)- the study of sentence structure,
• the arrangements
  of words
• Semantics(???)-the study of meaning (of
• words, of
  sentences).

114

• Psycholinguistics(?????)-Studies the
• relationship between the language and
  
• the mind
• Sociolinguistics(?????)-Studies the relationship
  between the language and the society
• Historical linguistics(?????)- Studies language
  change
• Applied linguistics(?????)- Studies language
• usages.

115

• 1.5.1.1 Pragmatics (???)
• Pragmatics studies how speakers use language in
  ways which can not be predicted from linguistic
  knowledge alone.
• This field of study is related closely with
  semantics and the various branches of linguistics
  which link language with external world.

116

• 1.5.1.2 Anthropological Linguistics
• (?????)
• Anthropological linguistics is the study of
  language variation and use in relation to the
  cultural patterns and beliefs of human race.
• Anthropologists have always considered
  linguistics as an important field of their
  discipline.
• Anthropological linguists associate the ways of
  speaking of definite groups with the
  corresponding cultural factors to get the full
  meaning of the message they convey.

117

• 1.5.1.3 Psycholinguistics
• Psycholinguistics studies how humans learn
  language and the relationship of linguistic
  behavior and the psychological process in
  producing and understanding language.
• It involves the study of speech perception,
  memory, attention, and other processes in
  language use.
• Language is the most interesting topic of
  psychology. If we could explain the linguistic
  patterns of man, we will stand a better chance of
  explaining his behavioral(?????) patterns in
  general.

118

• 1.5.1.4 Sociolinguistics
• Sociolinguistics studies the interaction between
  language and the structure and functioning of
  society.
• The study of the relationship between language
  and society becomes more and more important.
  Sociolinguistics is the major tie between the two
  disciplines.
• Sociolinguistics takes into account such factors
  as the social backgrounds of both the speaker and
  the addressee (i.e. their age, sex, social class,
  ethnic background, degree of integration into
  their neighborhood, etc.), the relationship
  between speaker and addressee, the context, and
  manner of the interaction.

119

• 1.5.1.5 Neurolinguistics (?????)
• Neurolinguistics is the study of the neurological
  basis of language development and use in human
  beings. Specifically, it examines the brains
  control over the processes of speech and
  understanding.
• The direct study of the human brain is difficult.
  We have to rely on less controlled methods of
  investigation, e.g. by studying brain damaged
  patients who suffer from language disorders.
• Different parts of the brain have different
  functions. In other words, it is possible to
  localize different functions in the brain.

120

• 1.5.1.6 Applied Linguistics
• Applied linguistics basically refers to the
  application of linguistic theories, methods, and
  findings to the study of language learning and
  teaching.
• The applied linguistics is concerned with second
  language acquisition, curriculum and syllabus
  design, teaching methodology, communicative
  language teaching, learner and teacher roles,
  textbook writing, language testing, English for
  Specific Purposes, language planning, English as
  a global language, and a wide range of other
  issues.

121

• 1.5.1.7 Computational Linguistics
• ??????????????,???????????????????????????????????
  ????????????????????????,??????????????
• It is the study of language using the techniques
  and concepts of computer science.
• It often refers to the problems in machine
  translation, information retrieval (????),and
  artificial intelligence.

122

• However, machine translation is not yet very
  desirable. Translation done by machines are not
  free from errors and require much post-editing.
• One of the key problems is the lack of a good
  linguistic theory to provide a frame of reference
  for machine translation.
• Language is so complicated and the interests of
  the linguists are extensive that the above is not
  a final list.

123

• These various branches overlap to some extent. It
  is very difficult to define each of them very
  clearly.
• ( Have a good look at the questions in the
  Exercise part on P. 38.)

124

• 1.5.2 Recent Developments
• Several schools of thought have emerged round a
  few prominent linguists such as Firth, Halliday,
  Hjelmslev, and Chomsky.
• Major centers of linguistic study Prague School,
  Geneva School, and Copenhagen School.
• Leading concepts structuralism, functionalism,
  tagmemics(???), systemic functional
  grammar(???????), and transformational generative
  grammar.

125

• Linguistics has been advancing in two main
  directions. One is the detailed study of the
  different branches of specializations. Each of
  the different branches in linguistics has been
  concerned with developing basic concepts and
  theories.
• The other is the study of language as a whole,
  the attempt to discover how language functions in
  social context and how the total language as a
  system of systems can be grasped.

126

• Some linguists argued that language can not be
  studied any more in isolation from the user and
  the context.
• New approaches began to develop which, under
  various labels and with new techniques of
  enquiry, attempted to relate the study of
  language to the external reality and to the
  language users psychological situation.
• Initiated from the mid 1960s, some new fields of
  study were sociolinguistics, pragmatics, the
  ethnography (???)of speaking,systemic functional
  grammar, corpus linguistics(??????), discourse
  analysis (????), and cognitive linguistics(?????).

127

• All of these new studies connect the study of
  language with the speaker-hearer, the context,
  and the topic.
• They are more concerned with the relation between
  language and context and between language and
  language user.

128

• 1.5.2.1 Corpus Linguistics (??????)
• It deals with the principles and practice of
  using corpora in language study.
• The study of language in actual use has required
  a corpus-based research. Scholars need a corpus
  to analyze patterns of use in natural texts.
• A corpus refers to a collection of linguistic
  data, either compiled as written texts or as a
  transcription of recorded speech.

129

• A corpus enables the linguist to verify a
  hypothesis about language, e.g. to determine how
  the usage of a particular sound, word, or
  syntactic construction varies.
• A computer corpus is a large body of
  machine-readable texts. The importance of corpora
  to language study is aligned to the importance
  of empirical (???)data.
• Empirical data enables the linguist to make
  objective statements rather than those based upon
  individuals own subjective perception of
  language. Empirical data also allows us to study
  language varieties. Corpus linguistics should be
  seen as a subsection of the activity within
  empirical and emotional approaches to linguistics.

130

• 1.5.2.2 Discourse Analysis (????)
• Traditional linguistic analysis has concentrated
  on the structure of sentences, but in recent
  years, there has been a growing interest in the
  analysis of units larger than sentences. Thus,
  discourse analysis has emerged.
• The term discourse or text refers to all
  linguistic units with a definable communicative
  function, spoken or written.

131

• It stresses the need to see language as a dynamic
  (???), social, interactive phenomenon.
• Discourse analysts regard discourse as a form of
  language use, a communicative event, and a form
  of verbal interaction.
• Since discourse involves the use of language, the
  communication of meaning, and social context,
  discourse analysis becomes an interdisciplinary
  (?????) enterprise.

132

• So, we need to explore not only the interaction
  of the language function, and the encoding (??)
  and decoding(??) process of the language user,
  but also socio-cultural context and the role of
  cognition.
• Currently, there exists 5 approaches the
  structural approach, the cognitive approach, the
  socio-cultural approach, the critical approach,
  and the synthetic (???) approach.

133

• 1.5.2.3 Cognitive Linguistics
• It is a newly developed branch that studies the
  structural characteristics of natural language
  categorization(??/???), the functional principles
  of linguistic organization, the conceptual
  interface(??) between syntax and semantics, the
  experiential (?????) and pragmatic background of
  language-in-use, and the relationship between
  language and thought.
• Language is an integral part of cognition. It
  reflects the interaction of cultural,
  psychological, communicative, and functional
  considerations.

134

• Language can be understood in the context of a
  realistic view of conceptualization and mental
  processing.
• Language serves as a window of human cognition.
  To deal with issues in cognitive linguistics, we
  need knowledge in different approaches of a
  variety of disciplines, including cognitive
  psychology, linguistics, artificial intelligence,
  neuroscience, philosophy, and anthropology.

135

• 1.5.2.4 Systemic Functional Grammar
• (???????)
• Proposed and suggested by Firth and Halliday.
  Firth argues that language must be studied at all
  levels in its context of situation and with an
  emphasis on meaning.
• The linguist has to study the text in relation to
  surrounding language items, and in relation to
  nonverbal constituents which have bearings on the
  utterances, such as persons, objects, and events.

136

• In Hallidays view, language is a social semiotic
  and text has close relation to context.
• Halliday identifies 3 variables of context field
  (?), tenor (??/??), and mode (??/??).
• Systemic functional grammar, in principle,
  attempts to account for a broader range of
  linguistic phenomena.
• According to Halliday, the description of any
  language requires 4 fundamental theoretical
  categories unit, structure, class, and system.

137

• The concepts subsumed under the 4 universal
  categories can in all languages be arranged in a
  rank order from lowest to highest.
• Its emphasis on meaning at all levels of
  linguistic analysis anticipates recent
  developments in linguistics.
• ( Have a look at the questions at the end of this
  chapter on P. 41)

138

• Chapter 2
• Phonetics and Phonology (P.43)
• 2.1 Production of Sounds
• Language is primarily spoken, so language is
  closely related with speech (sound).
• Human language displays a wide variety of sounds,
  but not all the sounds that humans are capable of
  producing occur in speech.
• Any human is able to produce the possible speech
  sounds, regardless of racial or cultural
  background.

139

• 2.1.1 Scope of Phonetics
• Phonetics is the scientific study of speech and
  is concerned with defining and classifying speech
  sounds.
• Its the study of the phonic medium of language.
• It has 3 separate fields (branches)
• (1). articulatory phonetics
  (?????)
• (2). acoustic phonetics
  (?????)
• (3). auditory phonetics
  (?????)
• Articulatory phonetics (?????) studies the human
  speech organs, and the way in which the speech
  sounds are produced. It deals with the
  identification and classification of individual
  sounds.

140

• Acoustic phonetics (?????) deals with the
  physical properties of the speech sounds It
  studies the sound waves through the use of such
  machines as a spectrograph.
• Auditory phonetics(?????)is the study of the
  perception of sounds by the human ear.

141

• The 3 branches are closely related to each other.
  Speech sounds can not be divorced from the organs
  that articulate them and a sound wave does not
  exist in isolation from the source that generates
  it.
• All the approaches are indispensable to an
  understanding of phonetics. Phoneticians are
  concerned with an objective description of how
  speech works, measuring speech characteristics as
  accurately as possible, and providing an account
  using agreed and understood terminology.

142

• 2.1.2 Articulation of Sounds
• 2.1.2.1 Voice
• All languages have both voiceless and voiced
  sounds contrasting in their phonological systems.
• In English, all vowels are voiced, as are some
  consonants (e.g. /d, b, g, m,./)
• When describing individual sound segments,
  phoneticians often employ two perspectives to
  examine how sounds are articulated manner of
  articulation and place of articulation.

143

• 2.1.2.2 Manner of Articulation (????)(P.46)
• classification of English consonants (28)
• According to the manner of articulation
• stops (6) (??) /p, b, t, d, k, g/
• fricatives (9)(???) /f, v, s, z, ?, ?, ?, ?, h/
• affricatives (6)(???) / ??, ??, tr, dr, ts, dz/
  
• liquids (2)(??) /l, r/
• nasals (3)(??) /m, n, ? /
• glides (2)(???) /w, j/

144

• 2.1.2.3 Place of Articulation (????)(P.47)
• classification of English consonants (28)
• According to the place of articulation
• bilabial (4)(???) /p, b, m, w/
• dental (2)(???) /?, ?,/
• alveolar (9)(???) /t, d, n, s, z, l, r, ts, dz/
• post-alveolar(2)(???) /tr, dr/
• palatal (5)(???) /?, ?, ??, ??, j/
• velar (3)(???) /k, g, ?/
• glottal (1)(???) /h/
• labiodental (2)(???) /f, v/

145

• 2.1.2.4 Vowels (P. 49)
• Two ways of classification
• According to the position of the tongue (20)
• front vowels (4)(???) /i, i, e, ? /
• back vowels (5)(???) /u, u, ?, ?, ?/
• central vowels (3)(???) / ?, ?, ?/
• ??8????diphthongs /ei, ?u, ai, au, ?i, i?, ??,
  u?/

146

• According to the shape of the lips (20)
• unrounded vowels (8)(????) /i, i, e, ? , ?, ?,
  ?, ?/
• rounded vowels (4) (???)/u, u, ?, ?/
• ??8????diphthongs /ei, ?u, ai, au, ?i, i?, ??,
  u?/

147

• 2.1.3 Characteristics of English Speech Sounds
  (P.51)
• Each language has its own sound patterns. English
  is no exception.
• English has many words with the pattern
  consonant-vowel-consonant, as in the words fit,
  dig, net, sit, and rid, and many others
  containing consonants clusters, as in stream,
  glimps, task, spray, and shred.
• However, no more than three consonants may occur
  at the beginning of a word. If three consonants
  do occur, the first must be /s/.

148

• 2.1.4 The Transcription of Sounds (P.54)
• Narrow and broad transcriptions
• (???????)
• broad transcription -- the system of symbols used
  generally in dictionaries and language books. (
  adequate enough )
• narrow transcription -- the phonetic
  transcription with diacritics (not always
  necessary).

149

• Phonetics and phonology (???????)
• Similarity Both concern the speech sounds.
• Difference Phonetics studies the speech sounds
  
• themselves while phonology
  concerns
• the speech sounds the system,
  the
• function.
• Phonetics Studies speech sounds as they are.
• Provides the means for
  describing
• speech sounds. Its general,
  descriptive,
• and classificatory.

150

• Phonology studies
• 1. the ways in which speech sounds form
• systems and patterns in human languages.
  
• (The phonology of a language is the system
  
• and pattern of the speech sounds used in
  that
• particular language.)
• 2. the functioning of the speech sounds

151

• 2.3 Sound Patterns (P.62) (Some rules of
  phonology)
• 2.3.1 Sequential Constraints/Rules (????)
• -- Rules that govern the combination of sounds in
  a particular language. (???????????????????)
• In English, /l/, /r/ must be followed by a vowel.
• If three consonants cluster together, there are
  three rules
• (1). The first phoneme must be /s/
• (2). The second phoneme must be /p/, /t/,
  /k/
• (3). The third phoneme must be /l/, /r/,
  /w/.
• /? / never begins a word in English.

152

• Assimilation rule (????)
• Rule assimilates one segment to another by
  copying a feature of a sequential phoneme.
  (??????????????????????????????????)
• e.g. input, impossible, important,
• did you, five pence, with thanks, have to.
• 
  
  
  
• /d//j/ /?? / /f/ / ? / /f/
• e.g. bank, trunk, sink, tank, thank, English,
  rank, monkey.

153

• ??,???,???,??