Chapter 9 Language and Culture 1．General Introduction
1.1 The Relationship between Language and Culture
●Relevant Language Use Observations and Questions to Ponder over
1) In the following two conversations, the second speaker responded
differently towards the same question. And what do you think a
Chinese speaker will answer the same question?
Conversation 1: between English speakers
A: I like your sweater!
B: Thank you!
Conversation 2: between an English speaker and a French
speaker.
A: I like your sweater!
B: Ah bon? Mais c’est très vieux ! (Oh, really? It’s very old!)
2) Look at the following English words. Is there some connection between these words?
bash, mash, smash, crash, dash, lash, clash, trash, splash, flash
? /?/: this sound suggests a sudden, violent movement/action for
an English speaker
3) The following lines are taken from a Singapore film I Not Stupid. Can you draw a conclusion from what you have read about Singlish?
? Singlish/Singaporean: an English variety popular in Singapore
Mom: Selina, where is all the ang pow that you got for your
birthday?
Selina（Daughter）: That’s my money. Why I must give it to you
every time?
Terry（Son）: Yeah, lah. 为什么都要给你？
Mom: 我知道这是你们的钱，but I will help you save, invest, hah. Don’t worry. I will give it back to you when you are old enough.
Selina: When can you give it back to us?
Terry: I know. 55岁。
Mom: Terry，you think you very funny, is it? Stop talking nonsense. Ai, girl, do you really think it that ai suitable for your room, huh? Don’t you think that this is much nicer? See, ai, make of cane, na.
Selina: Mom, I thought you see that I can decorate my own room in any way I want? I want to try this one. I don’t like that one, that’s old-fashioned.
Mom: Yes, yes.
Selina: So can I do it in my own way, please?
Mom: I know. Whatever I say you won’t like it. But one day you will appreciate it. This is for your own good. Trust me, hah!
●Summaries to Make and Linguistic Viewpoints to Learn
Every language is inseparable from a culture; it has to serve and reflect cultural needs. People from different cultural background find themselves with different customs, such as the different responses to the same compliment in the above observation. Culture, on the other hand, is constantly conditioning language with time, take the Singaporean for example, they have covered a long way to shape in form their own language; and it is too rash for us to take it for granted that their language is simply a variety of the English language. Language expresses, embodies and symbolizes cultural reality (Claire Kramsch: 2000), which we can find good illustration in onomatopoeias. Can you find other examples to demonstrate the relationship between culture and language?
The word “culture”, in its origin, means to cultivate, which can be taken to refer to any human knowledge. Any language will be unintelligible once it is taken out of the appropriate cultural context. The following quote, from the linguist F. de Saussure’s book Course in General Linguistics, is an explanation of the relationship between culture and language.
F. de Saussure (1857-1913)—It is the social part of the language, external to the individual, who by himself is powerless either to create it or to modify it. It exists only in virtue of a kind of contract agreed between the members of a community.
●Definitions to Clarify
Speech community: That is composed of people who use the
same linguistic code;
Discourse communities: The common ways in which members of a social group use language to meet their social needs.
1.2 The Sapir-Whorf Hypothesis
● Relevant Language Use Observations and Questions to Ponder over
1) While Whorf was working as a fire
insurance risk assessor, he noticed that the way
people behaved toward things was often
dangerously correlated to the way these things
were called. For example, the sight of the sign
“EMPTY”on empty gasoline drums would
prompt passersby to toss cigarette butts into these drums, not
realizing that the remaining gasoline fumes would be likely to
cause an explosion. In this case, the English sign “EMPTY” evoked a neutral space, free of danger.
2) As Chinese speakers learning English as a foreign language, it is not rare for the
teacher to catch them misusing “he” and “she” in oral English practice. In comparison, French speakers are used to attaching gender to most of the objects in their lives. For example, le chocolat (chocolat), la lettre (letter), le téléphone (telephone), la radio (radio).
What do you think is the possible reason for this phenomenon?
● Summaries to Make and Linguistic Viewpoints to Learn
In their study of American Indian languages, the American linguist Edward Sapir and his pupil Benjamin Lee Whorf had hypothesized that language has a relatively strong impact on its speakers’ mode of thought. The strong version of
their hypothesis is named linguistic determinism. It posits that
language determines the way we think, or in other words, we actually
live in language instead of other way round. Today, it is generally
believed that the strong version denies our activity in learning to
understand people from different speech communities. For instance,
though it is true that the Chinese language doesn’t attach gender to its characters, it is definitely false to assume that Chinese-users are unable to adopt the French vocabulary with the correct gender attached to it. What’s more, most of the linguists refuted the strong version by claiming that if Sapir were right with his theory, then how could he successfully understand the native languages spoken by American
Indians？
The weak version that is generally accepted nowadays proposed that there are cultural differences in the semantic associations evoked by seemingly common concepts. For instance, a Chinese professor, in his speech on Chinese characters, once suggested that the character “笑” is related to a smiling face immediately while other foreign words, say, smile, sourire, わらう, can not. In Professor Claire Kramsch’s book, he noticed a German woman farmer who believed that the German language is
a much more natural and correct expression of one’s emotions or thoughts.
2. Cross-Cultural Communication
2.1 Meaning as Sign
●Relevant Language Use Observations and Questions to Ponder over
1) Please compare the following two groups of words:
A: laugh, smile, grin, giggle, beam
B: 大笑、微笑、咧开嘴笑、咯咯地笑、眉开眼笑
It is obvious that the Chinese language encodes the physical facial
expression through one sign—“笑”, but the English language adopts a richer vocabulary for the same expression. Different signs denote reality by cutting it up in different ways.
2) A: What is the Chinese equivalent for the English word “hell”?
B: 地狱，I think.
Question: Do you think that “hell” and “地狱”evoke the same associations in your mind? Do you think they share the same connotation?
3) Do you notice different onomatopoeias in different languages? What are the echoic words used in English and Chinese to refer to a loud sound made by a rooster?
4) Although it is believed that different languages predispose their speakers to view
reality in different ways through the different metaphors they use, more similarities can be found cross different languages.
a. ARGUMENT IS WAR.
b. 唇枪舌剑；舌战群儒
a. To think out of box.
b. 不落窠臼
a. A man never goes back upon his own word.
b. 大丈夫一言既出，驷马难追。
Question: Can you work out the similarity between the two expressions in the last example?
● Summaries to Make and Linguistic Viewpoints to Learn
Signs established between words and things various semantic relations of denotation, connotation, or iconicity that give general meaning to the world.
When a male chicken makes a loud sound, in English, it looks like this: cock-a-doodle-doo; in Chinese, it goes like this: 喔喔喔；
Words can be images (or icons) of the objects in nature. The interesting phenomenon is that although it is claimed that “a rose by any other names is also a rose,” the sound in nature is not represented by the same onomatopoeia through different languages.
It is obvious that in the above two examples, both the English and Chinese language share the same metaphorical mode of thought when referring to argument. Argument is, therefore, easily attached to the concept of war.
The linguists Lakoff and Johnson suggest that if we can imagine a culture in which arguments are not compared to war, but to dance, what will be the difference in their attitudes towards argument? Does this suggest that members of this fictitious culture never argue?
In the last metaphor about keeping one’s word, it is interesting for us to observe that both the English language and Chinese language suggest that once a promise is made, it will keep a distance from its maker.
Primarily on the basis of linguistic evidence, we have found that most of our ordinary conceptual system is metaphorical in nature.
● Definitions to Clarify
icon: image, picture or representation.
Sign: a linguistic unit; it unites a concept and a sound-image.
Metaphor: a device for seeing something in terms of something else.
2.2 Cultural Clash
● Relevant Language Use Observations and Questions to Ponder over
1) After the translation of the book of Mr. Shen Xiaolong (申小龙)—
《差异与视角：“西有汉无”与“西死汉活”》，the translator had asked
for comment from the American scholar Eugene A. Nida on the
English version. The following are some examples from their
correspondence.
A.
Original：人类各种语言都是以形式和意义相结合的方式来表达思想的。English Version：Every human language expresses ideas by combining form and meaning.
Nida’s Comment：Why would a writer want to specify “human” with language? There are no other verbal languages except those produced by people.
B.
Original：这样照搬西方语言学来作汉语的形式分析，其结果就是貌合神离，也就是我们语法学所说的汉语语法之貌（形式），不合于汉语语法之神
（意义）。
English Version：If we analyze Chinese with grammatical theory indiscriminately copied from Western linguistics, it is apparently in harmony but actually
at variance. That is, the appearance of Chinese grammatical theories
presented by modern Chinese linguists (form) does not accord with the
spirit of Chinese sentence structure (meaning).
Nida’s Comment: It would be important to indicate “variance with what”. The statement “does not accord with the spirit of Chinese sentence structure
(meaning)” is very confusing and no doubt so in the original. Question: Despite the rather “fierce” response from Nida, Can you understand these Chinese sentences? Are they really so high-flown and philosophical as Nida put it? Or is it simply an illustration of cultural clash?
2) There are two groups of students in this linguistic experiment: one from China and the other from Latin America. They are competent in using daily English. This is a charade game, and there are two totally different communicating strategies involved by different groups.
Target word：Drink (Chinese students)
Sender: It’s a verb. You put down water into your mouth.
Receiver: Drink
（Latin American students）
Sender: It’s something every house uses in the morning.
Receiver: Clean the house?
S: No.
R: Make breakfast?
S: No. In America, all house use in the morning.
R: Tea?
S: …
R: Go to the bathroom?
S: No. O.K., every people use in the morning.
R: Use in the morning?
What is the difference that you observe in the example?
(Note: The above quotations are exactly the record of the utterance, so are the grammatical errors in them.)
● Summaries to Make and Linguistic Viewpoints to Learn
The ability to adopt a language is one to signal one’s membership in a socially meaningful discourse community. Linguist James Gee prefers “Discourse” with a capital “D”. “discourse” (for connect ed stretches of language that make sense, like conversations, stories, reports, argume nts, essays) is part of “Dis course” (which is always more than just language).
To an outsider of a discourse community, however, an utterance is not a mere statement of fact. In order to understand the full meaning of an utterance, a profound knowledge of both situational and cultural context should be informed or acquired. That is why Nida, an expertise translator, failed to read sense into the English version (This version is translated by professors from the Beijing Foreign Studies University.) of Shen Xiaolong’s work.
From the observation of the charade game, it is concluded that the Chinese group relies more on linguistic descriptions to explain a word to each other while the Latin American group adopts non-linguistic descriptions with a higher frequency. Another example is that during an English writing test in a high-school in USA, a student from China successfully avoided major grammatical errors in his writing but failed to score higher than another student from Mexico, whose composition is full of grammatical errors but better in telling his personal story; and the most satirical part is that the Mexican student had succeeded finding a job because of the composition but the Chinese had great difficulty landing himself a position in USA.
There may be no right or wrong in describing different communicative strategies, but they can be termed effective or ineffective, especially when cross-cultural communication or cultural clash is unavoidable.
The following question is for you to ponder over: How to define the term “cultural clash”? Do you have any example to prove that cultural clash is happening every day?
● Definitions to Clarify
Discourse: This term, with a capital D, coined by linguist James Gee, refers to ways of speaking, reading and writing, but also of behaving, interacting, thinking, valuing, that are characteristic of specific discourse communities.
discourse: The process of language use, whether it be spoken, written or printed, that includes writers, texts, and readers within a sociocultural context of meaning production and reception.
Charades：Charades is a fun game to play with your friends and family at home, at parties or on camping trips! Charades are basically words or phrases that are acted out in pantomime (without saying any words or making any sounds). Charades can also have subjects like the title of a book, movie or show that is acted out. Charades are usually played with two teams. Each team draws cards that have the word or phrase they are going to act out. The other team tries to guess what is being acted out.
2.3 Stereotype
● Relevant Language Use Observations and Questions to Ponder over
1) In the year of 1933, 1951 and 1967, the students of Princeton
University, USA, had taken a series of linguistic experiments to
determine their impressions on certain cultural groups, and the
following form is the result of these experiments.
2) Le Page and Tabouret-Keller recount the case of a man in Singapore who claimed that he would never have any difficulty in telling the difference between an Indian and a Chinese.
But how would he instantly know that the dark-skinned non-Malay person he saw on the street was an Indian (and not, say, a Pakistani), and that the light-skinned non-European was a Chinese (and not, say, a Korean), unless he differentiated the two accordi ng to the official Singaporean “ethnic”categories: Chinese, Malay, Indian, others?
In another context with different racial classifications he might have interpreted differently the visual clues presented to him by people on the street. His impression was focused by the classificatory concepts prevalent in his society, a behavior that Benjamin Whorf would have predicted.
In turn this focus may prompt him, by a phenomenon of diffusion, to identify all other “Chinese”along the same ethnic categorie s, according to the stereotype “All Chinese look alike to me” (Claire Kramsch: 2000:68).
● Summaries to Make and Linguistic Viewpoints to Learn
Coined in 1922 by the American journalist, Walter Lippmann, the word “stereotype” is the shortcut for us to get the first brief of a foreign nation or ethnic, but is also, the most convenient dead end for us to obtain a comprehensive understanding of the nation or ethnic. A quick judgment, no matter how important the source is, is never the correct means to be acquainted with a knowledge concerning a culture. Think about this: in China, how many of us still greet each other “吃过饭了吗？” every day on the street? Especially among the youngsters born after the year of 1980? Another question is: Do every Chinese citizen know how to play Chinese Kongfu despite the so-called Kongfu Heat along with the Hong Kong action movies?
The first observation in this section focuses on a questionnaire survey in USA, and the second example is a quote from a common Singaporean, from both of which it is quite obvious that no one of us can easily and safely escape the trap of stereotype towards other nations or races, and the real question is: have you ever found yourself in the same trap when you are facing certain people from a different cultural background?
It’s time for us to ponder over the issue of stereotype: Is this concept a positive or negative, or rather, a neutral term? What is the use of this concept, if there is any? Why do linguists describe this term as a dilemma that no any study of culture can get out of it? Is it true that every one of us have to base our first impression of people from different cultural background on certain stereotypes?
● Definitions to Clarify:
Stereotype: Conventionalized ways of talking and thinking about other people and cultures.
Exercises
1.Define or explain the following terms:
1)culture
2)linguistic determinism
3)denotation
4)connotation
5)iconicity
6)cultural clash
2.Draw on your own knowledge of both the English and Chinese language and try
to pin down some metaphors that either share the same metaphorical mode of thought, or differentiate from each other sharply.
3.Explain the Sapir-Whorf hypothesis in your own words and give your comments
and your own observations.
4.Try to compare the two terms: linguistic determinism and cultural determinism.
5.If you have noticed the phenomenon that more and more “neutral”terms have
entered the English vocabulary, such as “spokesperson”, “chairperson”, or that sentences like “Everyone has to do their job properly”have become more and more common, can you explain this in your own words, referring to the relationship between culture and language?
Further Readings
Kramsch, Claire. Language and Culture. 上海: 上海外语教育出版社. 2000.
胡文仲. 跨文化交际面面观. 北京:外语教学与研究出版社. 1999.
现代语言学 一绪论 1. Linguistics: Linguistics is generally defined as the scientific study of language 2 Phonetics: The study of sounds which are used in linguistics communication is called phonetics. For example, vowels and consonants. 3 Phonology: The study of how sounds are put together and used in communication is called phonology.For example,phone,phoneme,and allophone. 4 Morphology :The study of the way in which morphemes are arranged to form words is called morphology.For example,boy and “ish”---boyish,teach---teacher. 5 Syntax : The study of how morphemes and words are combined to form sentences is called syntax.For esample,”John like linguistics.” 6 Semantics: The study of meaning in language is called semantics. For example,:The seal could not be found.The zoo keeper became worried.” The seal could not be found,The king became worried.” Here the word seal means different things. 7 Pragmatics: The study of meaning in context of use is called pragmatics.For example, “I do” The word do means different context. 8 Sociolinguistics: The study of language with reference to society is called sociolinguistics.For example,regional dialects,social variation in language. 9Psycholinguistics: The study of language with reference to workings of mind is called psycholinguistics. 二音系学 1 Phonetics: The study of sounds that are used in linguistic communication is called phonetics. 2 Phonology: The study of how sounds are put together and used in communication is called phonology. 3 Phone: Phone can be simply defined as the speech sounds we use when speaking a language. A phone is a phonetic unit or segement. It does not necessarily distinguish meaning; some do,some don’t. 4 Phoneme: Phonology is concerned with the speech sounds which distinguish meaning. The basic unit in phonology is called phoneme;it is a unit that is of distinctive value. 5 allophone: The different phones which can represent a phoneme in different phonetic environment are called the allophones of that phoneme. 6 Complementary distribution: These two allophones of the same phoneme are said to be in complementary distribution. 7 Minimal pair: When two different forms are identical in every way except for one sound segement which occurs in the same place in the stings, the two words are said to form a minimal pair. 8 Stress: When a certain syllable of a word is stressed, it means that the syllable is prounced with great force than the other or others. 9 tones: Tones are pitch variation, which are caused by the different rates of vibration of the vocal cords. Pitch variations can distinguish meaning just like phoneme; therefore, the tone is a suprasegemental feature. 10 intonation: When pitch, stress and sound length are tied to the sentence rather than the word in isolation, they are collectively known as intonation. Intonation plays an important role in conveying meaning in almost every language,especially in a language like English{$isbest} 三形态学 1 morphology: Morphology is a branch of grammer which studies the internal structure of words and the rules by which words are formed. 2 inflectional morphology: Inflectional morphology studies the inflections of word-formation.
一、课程性质及其设置目的与要求 （一）课程性质和特点 《英语语言学概论》课程是我省高等教育自学考试英语专业（本科段）的一门重要的专业理论课程，其任务是培养应考者系统地学习英语语言学的基本知识，掌握语言系统内部语言学各分支之间的关系和各分支的重要概念和基本理论，了解语言学在其它学科领域的应用，熟悉现代语言学重要的流派及其代表人物；通过该课程的学习，考生可以从不同的角度了解语言（的性质），了解语言学习和语言教学，为日后进一步学习语言学、从事语言教学实践和语言学研究打下扎实基础。本课程的特点是：专业术语多，概念多，内容抽象，所以，考生最好在学习本课程之前先学习提高语言读写能力的课程，如高级英语、泛读（三）、写作等，这样可以减少语言障碍，有利于学好语言学的理论知识。 （二）本课程的基本要求 本课程共分为本书共分四编，计十三章。第一编（一至二章）介绍了语言和语言学；第二编（三至八章）介绍了语言学的主要分支—语音学、音位学、形态学、句法学、语义学和语用学；第三编（九至十二章）为跨学科领域与应用—话语分析、社会语言学、心理语言学，以及语言学理论与外语教学；第四编（十三章）介绍了现代语言学流派。通过对本书的学习，要求应考者对英语语言学有一个全面和正确的了解。具体应达到以下要求： 1、掌握语言的性质、功能，以及语言学的研究范围、语言学的分支和重要的语言学概念； 2、掌握语言系统内部语言学各分支之间的关系和各分支的重要概念和基本理论； 3、了解语言学在其它学科领域的应用； 4、熟悉现代语言学重要的流派及其代表人物。 （三）本课程与相关课程的联系 英语语言学概论是一门基础理论课程，其含盖范围很广，既涉及语言系统内部的语音学、音位学、形态学、句法学、语义学和语用学，又涉及许多交叉学科，如话语分析、社会语言学、心理语言学、应用语用学（包括语言学理论与外语教学），以及本教程未涉及的神经认知语言学、计算机语言学、人工智能与机器翻译等。语言学的进一步研究甚至会涉及到哲学、逻辑学等领域。 在自考课程中，词汇学与语言学关系最为密切，词汇学的许多概念、理论和研究方法都来源于语言学。高级英语、泛读（三）、写作、翻译等课程则是学好语言学的基础。文学与语言学并非对立的关系，这两个领域的研究方法可以互相补充、互相借鉴，日后无论从事语言学还是文学研究，这两个领域都必须同时涉猎。 二、课程内容与考核目标
Chapter Three Morphology形态学 一、定义 1. Morphology形态学：t he study of the internal structure of words (内部研究), and the rules by which words are formed. 对单词的内部结构和单词构成规则的研究。 2. Morpheme 词素：The smallest unit of language that carries information about meaning or function. 最小的语言单位,携带信息的意义或功能。 二、知识点 3.2 Distinctions between open and close classes word 1. Open class words开放性词类: In English, nouns, verbs, adjectives, and adverbs make up the largest part of vocabulary. They are content words of a language.，which are sometimes called open class words, since new words can be added to these classes regularly. 在英语中，名词、动词、 形容词和副词占词汇的绝大部分。他们是一门语言中的实义词，由于我们经常可以在这类词中加入新词，所以他们有时也称开放性词类。 2. Close classes word封闭性词类：Conjunctions, prepositions, articles and pronouns is small and stable since few new words are added , therefore such words have been referred to as closed class words. 构成连词、介词、冠词和代词的词相对较少，通常不添加新词，所以被称为封闭性词类。
《英语语言学概论》课程教学大纲 一、课程说明: 《语言学概论》课程是英语专业本科阶段的一门必修课。 《语言学概论》研究始于20 世纪初，其目的是揭示人类深层结构，对语言和语言交际作出客观、科学描述。现已形成了语音学、音系学、形态学、句法学、语义学、语用学等一系分支学科。语言学研究社会学等人文学科的结合逐步形成了社会语言学这样的交叉学科。 对于主修语言学的学生来说，了解语言学的知识和语言理论是完全必要和有益的。 本课程的对象是英语专业高年级学生，在本科阶段第6学期和第7 学期开设。其中第一、二、三、四、五、七、八、十一章为必修，其余章节为选修。 二、教学目的及要求: 本课程的具体要求是：比较全面，系统地了解《语言学概论》这一领域的研究成果，以及一些最主要、最有影响的语言理论和原则，从而加深对人类语言这一人类社会普遍现象的理性认识，并具备一定的运用语言学理论解释语言现象、解决具体语言问题的能力。 本课程是一门知识性比较强的课程。在教学过程中，应重点讲授主要理论、原则、和研究方法，使学生着重掌握基本概念和基本理论，在理解消化的基础上记忆。 本课程的对象是英语专业学生，在讲解过程中原则上采用英语范例，但不排除一些有助于学习者理解的、针对性强的汉语例子。应鼓 励学生结合自己的语言实践提供更多的例子来解释相关理论，以达到理论和实践相结合的目的。
三、教学重点与难点: 本课程的教学重点是语言学的基本知识和基本理论，语音学、词汇学、句法学、语义学和语用学这些语言学的核心内容。 本课程的教学难点是音韵学理论、句法结构和各个语言学流派的理论观点及其局限性。 四、与其它课程的关系: 本课程是一门主干性课程。与其相关的课程，如语法学、词汇学和语体学等都是语言学的分支，属于选修课程。 五、学时与学分: 学时：72学时 学分：4学分 六、教学内容： 第一章绪论 本章主要教学内容: 1．语言学习的意义 2．语言的定义。 3．语言的定义特征 4．语言的起源。 5．语言的功能。 6．语言学的定义。 7．语言学的核心内容。 8．宏观语言学的定义及分支。
Chapter 3 Morphology形态学 Nothing is more important to language than words. Words can carry meaning. Words are the fundamental building blocks of a language. So, is word the most basic or the minimal unit of meaning? If not, then what is? How words are formed?---morphology 3.1 what is morphology? Morphology refers to the study of the internal structure of words and the rules by which words are formed. 3.2 Open class and closed class (开放词类和封闭词类) Open class words----content words of a language to which we can regularly add new words, such as nouns, adjectives, verbs and adverbs. Closed class words----grammatical or functional words, such as conjunction, articles, preposition and pronouns. New words can be added to open class words regularly with the development of human civilization. However, the number of closed class words is small and stable since few new words are added. 3.3Morphemes--the minimal units of meaning（词素，最小的意义单位） Word is the smallest free from found in language. Word can be further divided into smaller meaningful units---morphemes. So, morpheme is--- the smallest unit of language that carries information about meaning or function. Words are composed of morphemes. Words may consist of one morpheme or more morphemes, e.g. 1-morpheme boy, desire 2-morpheme boyish, desirable 3-morpheme boyishness, desirability 4-morpheme gentlemanliness, undesir(e)abl(e)ity 5-morpheme ungentlemanliness 6-morpheme anti+dis+establish+ment+ari+an+ism Free morpheme & bound morpheme Free morpheme----is one that may constitute a word (free form) by itself, such as bed, tree, sing, dance, etc. Bound morpheme----is one that may appear with at least one other morpheme. They can not stand by themselves, such as ―-s‖ in ―dogs‖, ―al‖ in ―national‖, ―dis-‖ in ―disclose‖, ―ed‖ in ―recorded‖, Allomorph
Chapter 12 : Lan guage And Brain 1. n euroli nguistics: It is the study of relati on ship betwee n brain and Ian guage. It in eludes research into how the structure of the brain in flue nces Ian guage lear ning, how and in which parts of the brain Ian guage is stored, and how damage to the brain affects the ability to use Ian guage. 2. psycholinguistics: ____ t he study of Ian guage process in g. It is concerned with the processes of Ian guage acqisiti on, comprehe nsion and product ion. 3. brain lateralizati on: The localizatio n of cog nitive and perceptive fun cti ons in a particular hemisphere of the brain. 4. dichotic listening: A technique in which stimuli either linguistic or non-linguistic are presented through headphones to the left and right ear to determine the lateralization of cog nitive fun cti on. 5. right ear advantage: ___ The phe nomenon that the right ear shows an adva ntage for the perception of linguistic signals id known as the right ear advantage. 6. split brain studies: The experiments that investigate the effects of surgically severing the corpus callosum on cog niti on are called as split brain studies. 7. aphasia: It refers to a number of acquired Ianguage disorders due to the cerebral lesions caused by a tumor, an accide nt and so on. 8. non- flue nt aphasia: Damageto parts of the brain in front of the cen tral sulcus is called non-flue nt aphasia. 9. flue nt aphasia: Damage to parts of the left cortex beh ind the cen tral sulcus results in a type of aphasia called flue nt aphasia. 10. Acquired dyslexia: Damage in and around the an gular gyrus of the parietal lobe ofte n causes the impairment of reading and writing ability, which is referred to as acquired dyslexia. 11. phono logical dyslexia: ___ it is a type of acquired dyslexia in which the patie nt seems to have lost the ability to use spelli ng-to-so und rules. 12. surface dyslexia: it is a type of acquired dyslexia in which the patie nt seems un able to recog nize words as whole but must process all words through a set of spell in g-to-so und rules. 13. spo on erism: a slip of ton gue in which the positi on of soun ds, syllables, or words is reversed, for example, Let' s have chish and fips instend of Let' s have fish and chips. 14. prim ing: the process that before the participa nts make a decisi on whether the stri ng of letters is a word or not, they are prese nted with an activated word. 15. freque ncy effect: Subjects take less time to make judgeme nt on freque ntly used words tha n to judge less com monly used words . This phe nomenon is called freque ncy effect.
Chapter 4 Phonology(音位学) 4.1 phonetics and phonology:语音学与音位学的区分 Both phonetics and phonology are concerned with speech.语音学和音位学都士对语音的研究。 定义区别 -Phonetics is a study of the production, perception and physical properties of speech sounds. 语音学是研究语音的生产、感知和物理性质的。 -Phonology studies how speech sounds are combined，organized，and convey meanings in particular languages.研究语音如何在在特定的语言中结合、组织和表达含义。 ---Phonology is language-specific.it is the study of how sounds are organized and used in natural languages.音位学是特定于语言的。它的研究对象是自然语言中的声音是如何组织和使用的。 ---Phonetics is a study of speech sounds while phonology is a study of the sound syst em of a language.语音学是一个研究语音的然后音位学是研究一种语言的声音系统的学科。 4.2 Phonemes，phones and allophones 音位、音子、音位变体 Different languages have different phonological systems.不同的语言有不同的语音系统。 定义： ①Phones are the smallest identifiable phonetic unit or segment found in a stream of speech. 音子就是在连续的发音中可辨认的最小语音单位或片段。 ②Allophones are the phones which represent a phoneme in a language and cannot change word meaning by substituting any of the set for another.音位变体是指代表语言中音位的音子，即使以一个取代另一个也不改变词义。 ③Phonemes are the minimal distinctive units in the sound system of a language.音位是语言系统中最小的独特的单位。 Allophones are the realization of a particular phoneme while phones are the realizatio n of phonemes in general.音位变体是一个特定音素的认知而音子则是一般的音素。 4.3Minimal pairs 最小对立体 The phonologist is concerned with what difference are significant or technically speaki ng, distinctive. Minimal pair---a pair of words which differ from each other by one sound. Three conditions（情况）: 1）the two froms are different in meaning意义不同 2）the two forms are different in one sound segment声音片段不同 3）the different sounds occur in the same position of the two words.不同声音发生在两个单词的相同位置 Minimal set: a group of words can satisfy（满足）the three conditions . Minimal pairs help determine phonemes. 最小对立体用来定义音位。 4.4 identifying phonemes 识别音素 4.4.1 contrastive distribution，complementary distribution and free variation 对比分布，互补分布和自由变异 The distribution of a sound refers to the collective environments in which the sound concerned may appear.一个声音的分布是指其有关的声音可能出现的集体环境。 1）contrastive distribution对比分布 If two or more sounds can occur in the same environment and the substitution of on
1. Linguistics: Linguistics is generally defined as the scientific study of language. 2. general linguistics: The study of language as a whole. 3. applied linguistics: the application of linguistic theories and principles to language teaching, especially the teaching of foreign and second languages. 4. prescriptive: If linguistic study aims to lay down rules for “correct and standard” behavior in using language, ,it is said to be prescriptive.( i.e. to tell people what they should and should not say). 5. descriptive: If a linguistic study aims to describe and analyze the language people actually use, it is said to be descriptive.(09C) 6. synchronic study: The description of language at some point of time in history is a synchronic study. (06C/ 04) 7. diachronic study: It’s a historical study of language,it studies the historical development of language over a period of time. (06C) 8. langue: Lange refers to the abstract linguistic system shared by all the members of a speech community. 9. parole :Parole refers to the realization of langue in actual use. 10. competence : The ideal user’s knowledge of the rules of his language.（08F/09C）linguistic competence: universally found in the grammars of all human languages, syntactic rules comprise the system of internalized linguistic knowledge of a language speaker. 11. performance : The actual realization of this knowledge in linguistic communication. 12. language : Language is a system of arbitrary vocal symbols used for human communication. 13. design features : Design features refer to the defining properties of human language that distinguish it from any animal system of communication. 14. arbitrariness: Arbitrariness refers to there is no logical connection between meanings and sounds.(08C) 15. productivity: Language is creative in that it makes possible the construction and interpretation of new signals by it’s users. 16. duality（double articulation）: Language consists of two sets of structure, with lower lever of sound, which is meaningless, and higher lever of meaning.
《英语语言学概论》复习纲要 1.复习的基本原则：第一，理解和吃透各章的重点内容。第二，以 各章的题目为统领，理解各章节下的具体内容。第三，动手书写和记忆重要内容，部分语言学理论会应用到实际中。 2.各章节复习要点如下 Chapter 1 Invitations to Linguistics Definitions of the following terms: language, linguistics, arbitrariness, duality, creativity, displacement, descriptive VS prescriptive, synchronic VS diachronic, langue VS parole, competence VS performance Study of the origin of language What are the functions of language Which subjects are included in macrolinguistics Chapter 2 Speech Sounds Definitions of the following terms: articulatory phonetics, acoustic phonetics, auditory phonetics, phonetics, phonology, consonants, vowels, allophones, broad transcription VS narrow transcription Analyze the complementary distribution, free variation with examples The classification of English consonants and English vowels and the features involved in the classification Understand some processes of phonology: nasalization, dentalization, velarization
一、绪论 语言学的定义 语言学的研究范畴 几对基本概念 语言的定义 语言的甄别特征 What is linguistics 什么是语言学 Linguistics is generally defined as the scientific study of language. It studies not any particular language, but languages in general. 语言学是对语言科学地进行研究的学科。语言学所要研究的不是某一种特定的语言，而是人类所有语言的特性。 The scope of linguistics 语言学研究的范畴 Phonetics语音学\Phonology音系学\Morphology形态学\Syntax句法学\Semantics语义学 \Pragmatics语用学\Sociolinguistics社会语言学\Psycholinguistics心理语言学\Applied linguistics应用语言学 Prescriptive vs. descriptive 规定性与描述性 Descriptive：a linguistic study describes and analyzes the language people actually use. Prescriptive: it aims lay down rules for "correct" behavior. Modern linguistics is descriptive; its investigations are based on authentic, and mainly spoken data. Traditional grammar is prescriptive; it is based on "high" written language Synchronic vs. diachronic 共时性与历史性 The description of a language at some point in time is a synchronic study The description of a language as it changes through time is a diachronic study In modern linguistics, synchronic study seems to enjoy priority over diachronic study. Speech and writing 口头语与书面语 Speech enjoys priority over writing in modern linguistics study for the following reasons: （1） speech precedes writing in terms of evolution （2） a large amount of communication is carried out in speech tan in writing （3） speech is the form in which infants acquire their native language Language and parole 语言与言语 Language refers to the abstract linguistic system shared by all the members of a speech community Parole refers to the realization of language in actual use Competence and performance 能力与运用 Chomsky defines competence as the ideal users' knowledge of the rules of his language Performance: the actual realization of this knowledge in linguistic communication What is language 什么是语言 Language is a system of arbitrary vocal symbols used for human communication Characteristics of language: 语言的特性 Language is a rule-governed system Language is basically vocal Language is arbitrary （the fact different languages have different words for the same
现代语言学 1 language: language is a system of arbitrary vocal symbols used for human communication. 1 interlanguage:The type of language produced by nonnative speakers in the process of learning a second language or foreign language. 1 Linguistics : Linguistics is generally defined as the scientific study of language 2 Phonetics : The study of sounds which are used in linguistics communication is called phonetics.For example,vowels and consonants 3 Phonology” : The study of how sounds are put together and used in communication is called phonology.For example,phone,phoneme,and allophone. 4 Morphology 形态学:The study of the way in which morphemes are arranged to form words is called morphology.For example,boy and “ish”---boyish,teach---teacher. 5 Syntax 句型: The study of how morphemes and words are combined to form sentences is called syntax.For esample,”John like linguistics.” 6 Semantics语义学: The study of meaning in language is called semantics. For example,:The seal could not be found.The zoo keeper became worr ied.” The seal could not be found,The king became worried.” Here the word seal means different things. 7 Pragmatics语用学: The study of meaning in context of use is called pragmatics.For example, “I do” The word do means different context. 二音系学 1 Phonetics: The study of sounds that are used in linguistic communication is called phonetics. 2 Phonology: The study of how sounds are put together and used in communication is called phonology. 3 Phone: Phone can be simply defined as the speech sounds we use when speaking a language. A phone is a phonetic unit or segement. It does not necessarily distinguish meaning; some do,some don’t. 4 Phoneme音素: Phonology is concerned with the speech sounds which distinguish meaning. The basic unit in phonology is called phoneme;it is a unit that is of distinctive value. 5 allophone同位音: The different phones which can represent a phoneme in different phonetic environment are called the allophones of that phoneme. 6 Complementary distribution: These two allophones of the same phoneme are said to be in complementary distribution. 7 Minimal pair: When two different forms are identical in every way except for one sound segement which occurs in the same place in the stings, the two words are said to form a minimal pair. 10 intonation朗诵: When pitch, stress and sound length are tied to the sentence rather than the word in isolation, they are collectively known as intonation. Intonation plays an important role in conveying meaning in almost every language,especially in a language like English{$isbest} 三形态学 1 morphology: Morphology is a branch of grammer which studies the internal structure of words and the rules by which words are formed. 2 inflectional morphology: Inflectional morphology studies the inflections of word-formation. 3 derivational morphology: Derivational morphology is the study of word-formation. 4 morpheme词素: Morpheme is the smallest meaningful unit of language. 5 free morpheme: Free morpheme are the morphemes which are independent units of meaning and can be used freely all by themselces or in combination with other morphemes. 6 bound morpheme: Bound morphemes are the morphemes which cannot be used independently but have to be combined with other morphemes, either free or bound, to form a word. 7 root: A root is often seen as part of a word; it can never stand by itself although it bears clear,definite meaning; it must be