Transcript 英语语言学第一章引论 - 【创思英语

Chapter I Introduction
Why study language?
What is language?
What is linguistics?
Chapter I Introduction
1.
Why study language
2.
Language
2.1 Definition
2.2 Origin
2.3 Design features
3.
Linguistics
2.4 Functions
3.1 Definition
2.5 Typology
3.2 Scope
3.3 Important distinctions
1. Why study language

Language is an integral part of our life and humanity.

Yet we know little or even have wrong ideas about it.
 Where
does
from? How?
The
subject
of language
languagecome
is intriguing
andWhen?
useful.

Why is language
human-specific?
Language
can be used
as a way of finding out:
Why the
canbrain
a child
learn his/her mother tongue so easily?
 How
works.
 How children
can we say
learn
onelanguage.
thing but mean another?
 Why
people
use
different varieties
of language.
Language
has
a form-meaning
correspondence.

the roleofoflanguage
languageisistoinexchange
different information.
cultures, etc.
 What
The function

2. Language
2.1 Definition


Different senses
 Bad language
 Shakespeare’s language
 Business language
 The English language
 A student of language





Expressions
Idiolect
Variety
Abstract system
Universal properties
Definition of language as a research subject
Language is a system of arbitrary vocal symbols
used for human communication.
2. Language
Language is a system of arbitrary vocal symbols
used for human communication.
语言是人类用于交际的任意有声符号系统。
a.
Language is systematic.

b.
Elements are combined according to rules.
Language is arbitrary.

A rose by any other name would smell as sweet.
2. Language
Language is a system of arbitrary vocal symbols
used for human communication.
c.
d.
e.
f.
Language is basically vocal.
 The primary medium is sound for all languages.
Language is symbolic.
 It is meaningless by itself.
Language is human-specific.
 Bird songs and bee dances
Language is communicative.
 That is its major function.
2. Language
2.2 Origin (of speech)
 The divine theory
 endowed by God (The Tower of Babel)
 The bow-wow theory
 imitative of animal calls (mew, hiss)
 The pooh-pooh theory
 instinctive cries out of emotions (interjections)
 The ding-dong theory
 natural resonance when struck (ding-dong, bang)
2. Language
2.2 Origin (of speech)
 The yo-he-ho theory
 rhythmic grunts when working (heave, haul)
 Summary
 Language originated from our experience of the external and
internal world, and our contact with others. It evolves
within specific historical, social and cultural contexts.
 Questions for discussion:
Will the day come when all languages become one?
What is possibly the first language?
Where do you think language came from?
2. Language
2.3 Design features
Design features refer to the defining properties of language that
distinguish it from any animal system of communication.
 Arbitrariness 任意性
 no natural relationship between meaning and form
 A rose by any other name would smell as sweet.
 Duality 二层性
 two hierarchical structures of sounds and words
 Sounds meaningless; words meaningful
2. Language
2.3 Design features
 Creativity 创造性
 productivity, infinite use of finite means
 understand/produce sentences never heard before.
 Displacement 移位性
 stimulus free (genereralization and abstraction)
 free from barriers by separation in time and space.
MORE ?
 Cultural transmission: more cultural than genetic
 Interchangeability: both a producer and a receiver
2.4 Functions
1. Hello!
Phatic
2. Get out of my way!
Directive
3. The earth revolves around the sun.
Informative
4. Do you know his hobby?
Interrogative
5. I hate her.
Expressive
6. How do you like Jack?
Evocative
7. I hereby declare the meeting open.
Performative
8. Tommy, Dear Friend
Interpersonal
9. Humor; chanting; puns
Recreational
10. What I mean is; in other words
Metalinguistic
2.4 Functions
 Linguists talk about the FUNCTIONS of language in
an abstract sense. They summarize practical functions
and attempt some broad classifications.
 Jakobson (1960): referential (context), emotive
(addresser), poetic (message), conative (addressee),
phatic (contact), meta-lingual (code)
 Halliday early: instrumental, regulatory, representational,
interactional, personal, heuristic and imaginative.
 Halliday (1994): ideational (logical), interpersonal (social)
and textual (relevant)
2. Language
2.4 Functions
 Informative (ideational): to express the speaker’s
experience of the external and internal world
 Interpersonal: to establish and maintain social rules
① Performative: to perform actions (directive)
② Emotive (expressive) : overlapped with expression of
the inner experience
③ Phatic: purely social/interpersonal
 Recreational: to recreate/play with words
Textual
 Metalingual: to describe language itself
3. Linguistics
3.1 Definition
Linguistics is generally defined as the scientific study
of language. As a science, it now has its own set of
established theories, methods and sub-branches.
The flow of
linguistics
study
data
theory
hypot
hesis
general
ization
3. Linguistics
3.2 Scope
3. Linguistics
3.3 Important distinctions
 Descriptive vs. prescriptive: be/should be
 This distinction lies in prescribing how things
ought to be and describing how things are.
 Synchronic vs. diachronic: usually current/historical
 The former takes a fixed instant, usually the present,
as its point of observation; the latter studies a language
through the course of its history.
3. Linguistics
3.3 Important distinctions
 Speech vs. writing: spoken/written language
 Speech is primary over writing, which in turn gives
language new scope and uses.
 Langue vs. parole: abstract rules/concrete use
 Saussure distinguished the linguistic competence of
the speaker and the actual phenomena or data of
linguistics (utterances) as langue and parole.
3. Linguistics
3.3 Important distinctions
 Competence vs. performance: ideal knowledge /actual use
 A language user’s underlying knowledge about the
system of rules is called his linguistic competence. And
performance refers to the actual use of language in
concrete situations (Chomsky)
 Traditional grammar vs. modern linguistics
approach: Prescriptive vs. descriptive
emphasis: Writing vs. speech
framework: start with / work for a universal framework