Book report
冯晶
There are three parts in my book report. The first part is introduction of the general
idea of this book. In the second part the author talks about the whole pictures of
linguistics. In the last part I will concentrate on my own opinions about this book.
Introduction
In the early period of last century, Sassure’s language system was fundamental to
the modern linguistics. From then on, many scholars researched into different
language aspects and language levels.
General linguistics was written by Robert Henry Robins at the University of
London in 1960s. This is the fourth edition. It deals with the introduction of the
general linguistics. R. H. Robins is a famous linguist and this book is affected by
London School a lot, especially the theory of Firth’s, because he is one of Firth’s
students. Through this book, we can see that he also follows his teacher’s step.
Summary
General linguistics is the study of language as a whole. This includes the basic
concept, theories, descriptions and methods in the analysis of language. There are
nine chapters in this book, and each chapter deals with different aspect of linguistics,
such as the scope of linguistics, phonology, grammar and linguistics comparison and
so on. However, the main branches of this book deal with descriptive linguistics,
historical linguistics and comparative linguistics.
I really want to introduce the differences between languages and linguistics before
we talk about it in detail, for sometimes people are always confused with the meaning
of language and linguistics. Now we look at the differences between language and
linguistics.
Language, in a broad sense, may refer to the language of mankind which is a
system of arbitrary and vocal symbols used for human communication. The word
“human” in definition is meant to specify that language is human-specific, so there are
some features and functions that only language possesses. That also means language
has its own functions, such as ①Informative ②Interpersonal ③Performative ④
Emotive ⑤Phatic and ⑥Recreational.
Linguistics is a branch of science study concerning language. It can be defined as
the scientific study of language, which involves the investigation into all human
language. It studies the structure of language in general, and structure of specific
language. The word “science” having been used to describe linguistics, according to
our book, can be understood in two ways: In the widest term, it refers to the fact that
the study of language in general and in particular. In more specific and particular
terms, it indicates the attitude taken by linguists today towards this subject. And
perhaps it marks a definite characteristic of the twentieth-century linguistics. It is also
guided by three canons of science: ① Exhaustiveness ② Consistency and ③
Economy.
After we distinguished the differences between language and linguistics, now let’s
look into the important parts of general linguistics ----descriptive linguistics, historical
linguistics and comparative linguistics respectively.
Descriptive linguistics, as its name suggests, is concerned with the description and
analysis of the ways in which a language operates and used by a set of speakers at a
given time. It also depends all the time on the minute and careful observation and
recording of the ways in which each language is constructed and used, in phonetics,
grammar, and the expression of meanings. It has been a weakness of many earlier and
some modern grammars of less known languages rather than unimaginatively trying
to portray them in terms taken directly from existing grammars of familiar and
prestigious languages such as English and Latin.
Descriptive linguistics is often regarded as the major part of general linguistics. Be
that as it may, it is certainly the fundamental aspect of the study of language.
Historical linguistics is the study of development in languages in the course of time,
of the ways in which languages change from period to period, and of the causes and
results of such changes, both outside the languages and within them. The terms
synchronic and diachronic are in general used to distinguish respectively linguistic
statements describing a stage of a language as a self-contained means of
communication.
Comparative linguistics always concerns with comparison between one or more
points of view in two or more different languages, and more generally, with the theory
and techniques applicable to such comparisons. In historical linguistics, the
comparison is limited to languages which may be regarded as successive stages of the
speech of a continuing speech community differing from one period to another as the
result of the cumulative effects of gradual changes, for the most part imperceptible
within a single generation.
There are several main components of general linguistics. We mentioned that
linguistics can be defined as scientific study of language. This also includes the basic
concepts, theories, models and methods in the analysis of language. The basic concept
includes phonetics, phonology, morphology, syntax, and semantics, etc---.
Phonetics is the branch of linguistics which studies the characteristics of speech
sounds and provides methods for their description, classification, and transcription.
Phonology studies the sound patterns of language. Morphology studies the form of
words, for instance, noun compounds “day + break --- daybreak”, blending “transfer +
resister --- transistor”. Syntax studies the rules governing the combination of words
into sentences. It identifies permissible sequences in a language and the relationships
between elements in sentence structure. Semantics studies the meaning of a language.
Pragmatics studies how context influences the interpretation of meaning. For instance,
(the door is open) A: It is very cold here. B: Ok, I will close the door for you. From
this context, we can see that speaker doesn’t mean very cold here, but also has some
underlined meaning. Historical linguistics is the study of the development of language
and languages over time. It mainly deals with the genealogical classification and
typological classification. Genealogical classification is known as the determination
of language families. Such as French, Italian and Spanish are members of one
language family. Typological classification of language is done through comparison of
any significant general feature of form, structure or meaning shared by a language or
a group of languages.
All of these elements consist of linguistics. And the author uses simple and basic
way to explain the theory of the linguistics .After I finished reading this book, I also
can get some information about the development of the linguistics. From the
macrostructure to microstructure, the author considers linguistics as an
interdisciplinary study, such as psycholinguistics and sociolinguistics. From the static
to the dynamics, such as pragmatics and sociolinguistics, they all change from one
situation to another. I am sure that future belonging to linguistics’ perspective will
come to us and we will learn more new theories of linguistics. I am sure this book will
pave way for my further study of linguistics.