A Course on Linguistics for
Students of English
主讲教师：杨朝军
The Goals for this Course
• 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
language teaching & learning (SLA or TEFL),
cross-cultural communication……;
• To prepare for the future research work.
The Requirements for this
course
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Class attendance
Classroom discussion
Fulfillment of the assignment
Examination
Levels
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remembering
understanding
appreciating
creative
A list of reference books
1.《语言学教程》 (英语版), 胡壮麟, 北京大学出版社。
2.《语言学概论》 王德春， 上海外语教育出版社。
3.《现代英语语言学概论（英语版）戴炜栋, 上海外语教育
出版社。
4.《现代语言学》何兆熊 梅德明，外语教学与研究出版社
5.《简明英语语言学教程》（英语版）戴炜栋等， 上海外
语教育出版社
6.《语言学和语言的应用》 王宗炎，上海外语教育出版社
7.《语言学》 H.G.Widdowson， 上海外语教育出版社
8.《语言学入门》（英语版） Stuart C. Poole 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 speaking or writing (e.g. Shakespeare’s
language, Luxun’s 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 common features of all human languages (e.g. He
studies language)
• a tool for human communication. (social function)
• a set of rules. (rule-governed)
Sapir’s definition (1921)
• “Language is a purely human and noninstinctive method of communicating ideas,
emotions and desires by means of voluntarily
produced symbols.”
Hall’s definition (1968)
• Language is “the institution whereby
humans communicate and interact with
each other by means of habitually used
oral-auditory arbitrary symbols.”
Chomsky’s definition (1957)
• “From now on I will consider language to be
a set of (finite or infinite) sentences, 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; can’t be
combined at will. e.g. *bkli, *I apple eat.
language is arbitrary
①language is naturally arbitrary. signifier→signified
②arbitrary is primary, motivation is secondary.
a. Pictograph or onomatopoeia is a rarity in language.
b. They are also arbitrary for
i.
Unless we’ve learned we cannot identify the relations.
ii. Different languages have different forms for the same signification.
iii. Even the same language has different forms for the same referent.
③arbitrariness keeps language productive.
④ arbitrariness resides in every level of the language.
⑤structure, as a sign, is also arbitrary.一锅饭吃了十个人。
⑥language at the syntactic level is relatively motivated.庭には木があります。
⑦arbitrariness and conventionalism: prison-house
Language is symbolic in
nature
• Symbolic---- words are associated with objects,
actions ideas by convention. “A rose by any
other name would smell as sweet”---Shakespeare
• Icon; index; symbol
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
possess, e.g. bird songs, bee dance,
animal cries.
The design/defining features of human
language
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Arbitrariness
recursiveness
Productivity/Creativity
Duality
Displacement
interchangeability
Cultural transmission
language is for human communication
①communication makes human human.
②communication is the basis for human
development.
③communication is acculturation.
④communication makes the world more of a global
village.
Arbitrariness
----No logical (motivated or intrinsic) connection
between sounds and meanings.
•
Onomatopoeic words (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 language 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 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” about 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
number 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
sentences 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. 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 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,
gibbons 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 learning, rather than by instinct.
• The story of a wolf child, a pig child shows that a human being
brought up in isolation simply does not acquire human
language.
Functions of language
Addresser
EMOTIVE
Context
REFERENTIAL
message
POETIC
Contact
PHATIC
Code
METALINGUAL
addressee
CONATIVE
Functions of language
• Phatic: establishing an atmosphere or maintaining
social contact.
• Directive: get the hearer to do something.
• Informative: give information 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.
Halliday’s Functions
• Ideational
• Textual
• interpersonal
The origin of language
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The divine source
Bow-wow theory
Ding-dong theory
Pooh-pooph theory
Yo-he-ho theory
Sing-song theory
Ta-ta theory
The evolutionary theory---- the result of physical
and psychological development
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.
2. What is linguistics?
----Linguistics is the scientific study of
language.
----A person who studies linguistics is known
as a linguist.
2. Linguistics is scientific
Data-collection
Methodology
Observation
generalization
Hypothesis
Testing
Modification
conclusion
Four principles of linguistic
studies
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Exhaustiveness/adequacy
Consistency
Economy
Objectivity
• (i) Adequacy of observation
(ii) Adequacy of description
(iii) Adequacy of explanation
•
Use of linguistics
• Why should we call the thing we sit on chair? Can’t we call
chair table and table chair?
• How is it that children don’t seem to make a big effort in
learning their first language while we adults have to work very
hard to learn a second language?
• Why can we talk about yesterday and last year while cats and
dogs never seem to make noises about their past experience?
• Do you think we can think as clearly without language as with
language?
• Does language determine what we think or thought determines
what we say?
• For a language student
• For a teacher of foreign languages
•
For a researcher
The scope or major branches of
linguistics
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1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
•
1.
2.
3.
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
phonetics, 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
• Applied 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
• Computational linguistics (e.g. machine
translation)
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 in 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)
Syntagmatic and paradigmatic
• horizontal
• vertical
Speech vs writing
• Speech ---- primary 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 matter of social conventions.
Competence and performance
(Chomsky)
• Competence ---- the ideal user’s 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 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
Discussion
1.The following two sentences are said to be ambiguous in meaning. How many
interpretations could you give to either of them? What can you do to resolve such
ambiguity/
a) He turned in his bed.
b) They gave preference to young men and women.
2. Identify the units that have reference and the units that indicate structure.
I saw Mary when I went to the library.
3. How would you judge the following four sentences? Are they good or bad sentences?
a) The moon is made of brown eggs.
b) Moon brown the is of made egges.
c) 慢走，您。
d) 为了安全，给您。
4. How would you classify the following signs? What do these signs mean to you and
how do you come to know their meenings/
5. If you saw smoke coming out of a house, what conclusion would you draw and how
do you come to such a conclusion?
6. What does a flushed complexion signify for the physician or a lover?
7. Onomatopoetic words are said to be iconic by some people. For the cuckoo, the
sequence of English sounds is [ku:ku:], and the sequence of Chinese sounds is “bugu”.
Do you think both words are onomatopoetic?
8. A Chinese father names his son XiaoLong (little dragon). How would you use the
concept of arbitrariness to account for this?
9. If you have developed a new shampoo and wanted to put it into the market, would
you name it “Pig Hair Shampoo”? Why?
10. Discuss the relation of arbitrariness and rules.
11. When you go shopping in a supermarket, which do you prefer to use, spoken
language or written? Why?
12. In foreign language learning, which one do you think should come first,
listening and speaking, or reading and writing? Why?
13. Some people say that humans and dogs can communicate with each other. Do
you agree?
14. You can tell your cat to lie down. What do you think has happened?
15. Please explain the primacy of human language over animal communication?
16. Please explain the roles of technology in human communication.
17. Sometimes communication may break down. What do you think are the causes
for such breakdowns?
18. What do you think we should pay attention to in intercultural communication.
THANK YOU