Assumptions and Approaches of Linguistics
By Shaozhong Liu
Guangxi Normal University, China
1.2 What is linguistics: The Genesis and division of work
1.2.1 The Genesis
Genesis means “origin”. As the opening book of The Old Testament, it tells about the
creation of the universe, the origin of mankind, the beginning of sin and suffering in
the world, and about God’s way of dealing with mankind.
It contains 50 chapters. Chapters 1-11 are about the creation of the world and the early
history of the human race, including accounts of Adam and Eve, Cain and Abel, Noah
and the flood, and the Tower of Babylon. Then chapters 12-25 relate the history of the
early ancestors of the Israelites: Abraham, the notable man for his faith and obedience
to God; his son Isaac, grandson Jacob (also called Israel), and great-grandsons, 12 of
them, who were founders of the 12 tribes of Israel. More focus was given to one the
12 great-grandsons, Joseph. The chapters end with the events that brought Jacob and
his others sons with their families to live in Egypt (the movie Prince of Egypt).
While this book Genesis basically tells stories about people, it is first and foremost an
account of what God has done. It begins with the affirmation that God created the
universe, and it ends with a promise that God will continue to show his concern for
his people. Throughout the book, the main character is God, who judges and punishes
those who do wrong, leads and helps his people, and shapes their history. As a whole,
this ancient book was written to record the story, or perhaps better still, an explanation,
of a people’s faith and belief of how this world was constructed and maintained and to
help keep that faith.
According to The Story of Creation, the initial chapter of Genesis of the Old
Testament, God creates the world after His will like this:
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He first made the universe: the earth being only a member, the other orbiting
planets within it being, in sequence to their positions and distances from the sun
太阳(the star round which the earth orbits and from which it receives light and
warmth), Mercury 水星(the planet nearest to the sun; in Roman mythology,
messenger of all gods and himself god of traders), Venus 金星(the planet second
from the sun in the solar system; in Roman mythology, goddess of love), Earth 地
球(the planet orbiting about the sun between Venus and Mars; the planet where
we live, hence in religion, the present abode of humankind, as distinct form
heaven and hell), Mars 火星(reddish planet, 4th in order of distance from the sun
and next beyond earth; in Roman mythology, god of war; mar = impair the
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perfect of or spoil; hinder), Jupiter 木星(the largest planet of the solar system,
orbiting the sun between Mars and Saturn; etymologically, jovis pater, Jove father,
hence in Roman mythology, king of the gods), Saturn 土星(the 6th planet from the
sun, circled by a system of broad flat rings, and the most distant of the 5 planets
known in the ancient world; etym from Latin Saturnus, name of the Roman god
of agriculture), Uranus 天王星(a planet discovered by William Herschel in 1781,
the outermost of the solar system except Neptune and Pluto; etym from Greek
Ouranos, heaven Uranus, hence in Greek mythology, son of Gaea (=Earth) and
father of Kronos (Saturn), the Titans, etc.), Neptune 海王星(a distant planet of the
solar system, 8th from the sun, discovered in 1846 by Johnn G. Galle, from
mathematical computations; etymologically from French Neptune or Latin
Neptunus, the god of the sea), and Pluto 冥王星(a small planet, for most of its
orbit the outermost planet of solar system; etymologically from Greek Plouton,
god of the underworld).
---*Notice that the sun is only one of the stars in the universe; but it is the largest one
according to our current knowledge. Other stars may or may not have planets orbiting
them.
---*Notice that all planets are referred to in capital letters or big-size letters, this is
helpful for recognition; in grammar, this means the only and unique entities; however
epistemologically, this may imply unknown objects that call for special attention.
---*Please also notice that the Chinese, and probably other languages as well,
translations have tried hard to capture and retain the original meanings and
connotations of the names of the planets. Why Mercury is translated as 水星? And in
other names, what do the Chinese characters 水木火土金 etc find their places?
---*In addition, please observe the number (why 9 in stead of 8? Can you use Chinese
Yi Ching, The Book of Changes, to explain this? A metaphor: My Very Educated
Mother Just Sent Us Nine Pizzas), sizes (in order of seize: Jupitor, Saturn, Uranus,
Neptune, Earth, Venus, Mars, Mercury, and Pluto; not bigger or smaller, in relation to
their rotation speed) and axes (not erect, slanting, vertical or horizontal, etc.) of the
planets in relation to the sun. This may help to explain why the creator made them this
way.
---*Two subclasses: Inner planets (Mercury, Venus, Earth, Mars) and Outer planets
(Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, Neptune, Pluto)
---*Axes of the planets: Mercury (near 0o), Venus (178 o), Earth (23 1/2o), Mars (24 o),
Jupiter (3 o), Saturn (27 o), Uranus (98 o), Neptune (29 o), Pluto (99 o).
 The earth was then formless and desolate. The raging ocean that covered
everything (on or of the earth) was engulfed in total darkness, and the power of
God was moving over the water. Then God commanded, “Let there be light”, and
light appeared. (Speech act 1) God was pleased with what he saw. Then he
separated light from darkness, and he named the light “Day” and the darkness
“Night”. That was Day One (Sunday, day of the sun, from Latin dies solis).
 Day Two (Monday, from OE monandaeg, day of the moon, Latin lunae dies):
God commanded, “Let there be a dome to divide the water and to keep it in two
separate places”, and it was done. So God made a dome, and it separated the
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water under it from the water above it. He named the dome “Sky”. Evening
passed and morning came, that was the second day.
Day Three (Tuesday, from OE Tiwesdaeg from Tiw, the Germaic god identified
with Roma Mars): God commanded, “Let the water below the sky come together
in one place, so that the land will appear, and it was done. He named the land
“Earth”, and the water which had come together he named “Sea”. And God was
pleased with what he saw. Then he commanded, “Let the earth produce all kinds
of plants, those that bear grain and those that bear fruit”, and it was done. So the
earth produced all kinds of plants, and God was pleased with what he saw.
Evening passed and morning came. That was the third day.
Day Four (Wednesday, from Middle English wednesdei, and OE wodnesdaeg,
day of the god of Odin): God commanded, “Let lights appear in the sky to
separate day from night and to show the time when days, years, and religious
festivals begin; they will shine in the sky to give light to the earth”, and it was
done. So God made the two larger lights, the sun to rule over the day and the moo
to rule over the night; he also made the stars. He placed the lights in the sky to
shine on the earth, to rule over the day and the night, and to separate light from
darkness. And God was pleased with what he saw. Everything passed and
morning came. That was the fourth day.
Day Five (Thursday, fro OE thundersdaeg, day of thunder, Latin Jovis dies, day
of Jupiter, Jupiter being associated with thunder): God commanded, “Let the
water be filled with many kinds of living beings, and let the air be filled with
birds.” So God created the great sea-monsters, all kinds of creatures that live in
the water, and all kinds of birds. Ad God was pleased with what he saw. He
blessed them all and told the creatures that live in the water to reproduce, and to
fill the sea, and he told the birds to increase in number. Evening passed and
morning came. That was the fifth day.
Day Six (Friday, from OE frigedaeg, named after Frigg, wife of Odin): God
commanded, “Let the earth produce all kinds of animal life: domestic and wild,
large and small”, and it was done. So God made them all, and he was pleased
with what he saw. Then God said, “And now we will make human beings; they
will be like us and resemble us. They will have power over the fish, the birds, and
all animals, domestic and wild, large and small.” So God created human beings,
making them to be like himself. He created them male and female, blessed them,
and said, “Have many children, so that your descendants will live all over the
earth and bring it under their control. I am putting you in charge of the fish, the
birds, and all the wild animals. I have provided all kinds of grain and all kinds of
fruit for you to eat; but for all the wild animals and for all the birds I have
provided grass and leafy plants for food”, and it was done. God looked at
everything he had made, and he was very pleased. Evening passed and morning
came. That was the sixth day.
Day Seven (Saturday, from Latin Saturni dies, day of Saturn): By the seventh day,
the universe was completed; God finished what he had been doing and he stopped
working. He blessed the seventh day and set it apart as a special day, because by
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that day he had completed his creation and stopped working.
In Chapter 6, entitled “The Wickedness of Mankind”, it says that after mankind
had spread all over the world, and girls were being born, some of the supernatural
beings saw that these girls were beautiful, so they took the ones they liked. Then
the Lord said, “I will not allow people to live for ever; they are mortal. From now
on, they will live no longer than a hundred and twenty years.” (In those days there
were giants on the earth who were descendants of human women and
supernatural beings. They were the great heroes and famous men.) Then God saw
how wicked everyone on earth was and how evil their thoughts were all the time.
He was sorry that he had them and put them on the earth. He was so filled with
regret that he said, “ I will wipe out these people I have created, and also the
animals and the birds, because I am sorry that I made any of them.” (But there
was an exception: God was pleased with Noah who survived the flood.)
In Chapter 11, named “The Tower of Babylon”, it says that at first the people of
the whole world had only one language and used the same words. As they
wandered about in the East, they came to a plain in Babylonian and settled there.
They said to one another, “Come on! Let’s make bricks and bake them hard.” So
they had bricks to build with and tar to hold them together. But later on they said,
“Now let’s build a city with a tower that reaches the sky, so that we can make a
name for ourselves and not be scattered all over the earth.” (This apparently is a
deed to challenge the original will of God.) Then “the Lord came over down to
see the city and the tower which those men had built, and he said, “Now then,
these are all one people and they speak one language; this is just the beginning of
what they are going to do. Soon they will be able to do anything they want! Let
us go down and mix up their language so that they will not understand one
another.” So the Lord scattered them all over the earth, and they stopped building
the city. The city was called Babylon, because there the Lord mixed up the
language of all the people, and from there he scattered them all over the earth.
(God does not wish to see metropolitans! He does not wish to see people
speaking together in one single language! He fears that people might fight against
Him once they understand how they were made and put. Can we say that He
misinterpreted the human deeds? When we think of this Babylonian story, it
might be a good idea to keep the ecosystem, stay where we were ecologically and
we may retain a best balance.)
1.2.2 The Division of Work
Now with things were made and arranged what they were, human beings were placed
to different posts (professions) to care for each other’s business (perhaps that was the
idea of God, too). But as human beings began to produce more material wealth, they
had time to sit down and reflect on some of the things that God made. For instance,
they were interested in finding out what are there beyond the earth? What the other
people are doing in the other parts of the globe, since they were scattered from the
very beginning and due to malcommunication, become strange to one another? What
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other lives that cohabitate the earth how they survive? What human beings can benefit
form the other lives?
The curiosity in other planets, for instance attracted people like Galileo. And in the
1600s the German astronomer Johnannes Kepler and developed three observed laws
about the movements of the planets (The World Book Encyclopedia (Vol 15), pp.509.
The magazine Discover by the Disney Company (Chinese version at
www.beiyngeav.com), is a good example showcasing the division of work in human
efforts for discovering things that we are curious of. More often than not, we resort to
scientific endeavors and means in unveiling the mysteries about the world far ad wide,
ancient and today (though we now realize that even science becomes too weak in
front of God). Here’re its columns:
---Cover Story
---Discover Features
---Future Tech
---Works in Progress
---Focusing on Health
---Discovery and Exploration
---Human and Nature
---Vital Signs
---Sky Lights（快看！8 月 27 日火星来啦；晚安，月亮）
---Geographical Landscape
---Science Reviews
---The Original (2003/9: 1) Ancient America’s Culture of War; 2) Where do we really
come from?)
The columns actually contain reports of diverse scientific disciplines such as physics,
chemistry, mathematics, history, anthropology, geography, biology, linguistics, etc.
These are but different aspects of science and scientific perspectives into the things
around us, and even things about us and inside us. Indeed scientific stories are stories
about the others as well as about us.
1.2.3 Defining linguistics
And what is linguistics?
A usual way of defining linguistics is to say that it is a scientific study of language
(Hu et al, 1988:20).
Please notice the three key words: language, study and scientific in the definition. Hey
are important because they are chosen with great care to capture the spirit or essence
of the concept.
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Language here is general term. It refers to any human language, Chinese spoken
by the Chinese, English by the English people, German by the Germans, or even
Esperanto, an artificial language. Language here also means the dialects or
variants of a common language such as Cantonese, a variant of Mandarin Chinese,
Liuzhou dialect, the official language of Guangxi area, and pinghua, a variant of
Guilinese.
The word study here does not mean learning, but investigation or examination.
What does the word scientific really mean? It refers to a study that is based on the
systematic investigation of data, which employs certain theory of language
structure. A linguist studies linguistic facts in order to discover the nature of the
underlying language system. And to make sense or meaningful of his data, he has
some assumption or hypothesis about the language structure. Any linguistic
theory formulated must be checked many times against the observed facts before
it is established. Thus, just as in any other field of learning, in linguistics, the data
and theory are in dialectical complementation. To put it another way, a theory
without the support of data is hardly valid, and data without being explained by
some theory remain a muddled mass of things.
In this way, a scientific study of language undergoes the following process:
1) First certain linguistic facts are observed; 2) Second, they (these facts) are
found to display some similarities, so generalizations are made about them. 3)
Then, on the basis of these generalizations, hypotheses are formulated to account
for the facts. 4) These hypotheses are tested by further observations and finally a
theory is constructed about how language works.
However if we consent that there are 360 professions on the earth, then the simple
answer is like this: LINGUISTICS is one of the 360 professions on earth! And as such,
it tries t provide a perspective into language itself and through language a perspective
into the world and other things in relation to language.
Just like stylistics is there because it promises to generate perspectives, grammar is
there because it commits to the game by concentrating on structures… linguistics is
there to complete its called mission.
Here is an example of linguistic research and perspective into the world:
人怎样说话？
Report by Josie Glausiusz; translated by 陶淘
“谢了。
”这是一只澳大利亚美冠鹦鹉在说话，它不仅会说“你好”
“再见”“我爱你”等十
几个人类常用的语句，还可以根据不同的场合选择恰当的语句，表达正确的意思。哈佛大学
的生物学家马克•豪泽认为，人和动物讲话时发声方法不同，讲话是一个能量循环的过程。
因此，人讲话时，可以把单个的词汇结合起来，组成语句，表达不同的意思。
豪泽与麻省理工学院的语言学家诺姆•乔姆斯基、苏格兰安德鲁斯大学的心理学家 W•迪更斯
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•菲奇一起研究人与动物的语言，在研究中，他们发现人和动物的听说能力基本相同。一种
鸟儿可以学会其他鸟的语言，虽然老鼠和鸽子学习语言的速度比较慢，但是它们学习语言的
方法也大体相同。灵长类与人类发音之所以不同，是因为它们讲话时最基本的语音节奏不同。
豪泽还发现，一种欧洲的红鹿的喉部结构竟然与人类完全相同，他认为人与动物之所以有不
同的语言，是因为他们的发音技巧不同。
豪泽推测，人与动物的发声方法存在差异，是因为和其他动物相比，人类的社会生活更为复
杂，因此形成了其独特、复杂的发声方法。豪泽说：
“复杂的社会生活造成的生存压力，迫
使人们改善自己的发声方法。我们可以设想，在原始社会以物易物的过程中，如果你给别人
24 个椰子，而别人还给你 22 个，你会说，这不公平，你还欠我两个椰子。就是在这种人与
人之间的沟通过程中，人类的发声方法发生了彻底的改变，最终形成了现在的语言体系。”
----摘自《发现》2003（9）
：6。
So what is linguistics? The message conveyed inof the Genesis, it is a division of
work between citizens on the Earth and an assignment of work to people who like to
engage themselves in detecting rules, principles, and laws, from linguistic facts.
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