Chapter 5 Semantics 语义学
1.What is semantics？什么是语义学？
Semantics can be simply defined as the study of meaning in language.
2.Some views concerning the study of meaning
语义研究的几种主要理论
1)The naming theory 命名论
It was proposed by the ancient Greek scholar Plato. According to this theory, the linguistic forms or symbols, in other words, the words used in a language are taken to be labels of the objects they stand for. So words are just names or labels for things.
2)The conceptualist view 意念论
The conceptualist view holds that there is no direct link between a linguistic form and what it refers to; rather, in the interpretation of meaning they are linked through the mediation of concepts in the mind.
3)Contextualism 语境论
Contextualism is based on the presumption that one can derive meaning from or reduce meaning to observable contexts. Two kinds of context are recognized: the situational context and the linguistic context.
4)Behaviorism 行为主义论
Behaviorists attempted to define the meaning of a language form as the “sit uation in which the speaker utters it and the response it calls forth in the hearer.” This theory, somewhat close to contextualism, is linked with psychological interest.
3.Sense and reference 意义和所指
They are two related but different aspects of meaning.
1)Sense is concerned with the inherent meaning of the linguistic form. It is the collection of all
the features of the linguistic form; it is abstract and de-contextualized. It is the aspect of meaning dictionary compliers are interested in.
2)Reference means what a linguistic form refers to in the real, physical world; it deals with the
relationship between the linguistic element and non-linguistic world of experience.
4.Major sense relations 主要意义关系
1）Synonymy 同义关系
Synonymy refers to the sameness or close similarity of meaning. Words that are close in meaning are called synonyms.
According to the way they differ, synonyms can be divided into the following groups:
a)Dialectal synonyms – synonyms used in different regional dialects.
British English and American English are the two major geographical varieties of the English language.
英国英语美国英语
Autumn fall
Lift elevator
Flat department
Windscreen windshield
Torch flashlight
b)Stylistic synonyms – synonyms differing in style.
Words having the same meaning may differ in style, or degree of formality. In other words, some words tend to be more formal, others casual, and still others neutral in style.
Old man, daddy, dad, father, male parent
Start, begin, commence
Kid, child, offspring
c)Synonyms that differ in their emotive or evaluative meaning
There are words that bear the same meaning but express different emotions of the user, indicating the attitude or bias of the user toward what he is talking about.
Collaborator 合作者/ Accomplice 同谋者，帮凶
Like, love, admire, adore, worship
Economical, frugal, thrifty, mean, miserly, stingy
d)Collocational synonyms – synonyms differing in their collocation.
Some synonyms differ in their collocation, i.e., in the words they go together with. This is a matter of usage.
示例：
Accuse…of charge…with rebuke…for
e)Semantically different synonyms –synonyms that differ slightly in what they mean.
示例：
Amaze 暗示困惑和迷惑astound 暗示难以置信
Escape 意味逃离不愉快或者危险的事flee 意味匆匆离开
2）Polysemy 多义关系
The same one word may have more than one meaning. This is what we call polysemy, and such a word is called a polysemic word. The fact is the more commonly used a word is, the more likely it has acquired more than one meaning.
3）Homonymy 同音/同形异义关系
Homonymy refers to the phenomenon that word having different meaning have the same form, i.e., different words are identical in sound or spelling, or in both.
When two words are identical in sound, they are homophones.
When two words are identical in spelling, they are homographs.
When two words are identical in both sound and spelling, they are complete homonyms.
示例：
同音异义词：rain/ reign; night/ knight; piece/ peace
同形异义词：bow v./ bow n.; tear v./ tear n.; lead v./ lead n.
完全同形异义词：fast adj./ fast v.; scale n./ scale v.
4）Hyponymy 上下义关系
Hyponymy refers to the sense relation between a more general more inclusive word and a more specific word. The word which is more general in meaning is called the super-ordinate, and the more specific words are called its hyponyms. Hyponyms of the same super-ordinate are co-hyponyms to each other.
示例：
上义词：flower
下义词：rose（玫瑰花）, tulip（郁金香）, carnation（康乃馨）, lily（百合花）, morning glory （牵牛花）
上义词：animal
下义词：dog, cat, tiger, lion, wolf, elephant, fax, bear
5）Antonymy 反义关系
The term antonymy is used for oppositeness of meaning, words that are opposite in meaning are antonyms.
反义关系用以指意义的相反。意义上相反的词叫反义词。
a)Gradable antonyms 分级反义词
Some antonyms are gradable because there are often intermediate forms between the two members of a pair. So it is a matter of degree.
示例：
Old 和young 是反义词，但它们代表两个极端，中间还存在着代表年老和年轻的不同程度的其它语言形式，如middle-aged, mature, elderly.
b)Complementary antonyms 互补反义词
A pair of complementary antonyms is characterized by the feature that the denial of one member of the pair implies the assertion of the other.
Male/ female alive/dead
c)Relational opposites 关系反义词
Pairs of words that exhibit the reversal of a relationship between the two items are called relational opposites.
在意义上现实出逆向关系的一对词语叫关系反义词。
示例：
Wife/ husband father/ son teacher/ pupil doctor/ patient buy/ sell above/ below
5.Sense relations between sentences
句子间的意义关系
1)X is synonymous with Y.
X和Y 是同义关系
示例：
X: He is a bachelor all his life.
Y: He never married all his life.
如果X是真的，Y也是真的，如果X是假的，Y也是假的。
2)X is inconsistent with Y.
X和Y是前后矛盾关系
示例：
X: John is married.
Y: John is a bachelor.
如果X是真的，Y就是假的，如果X是假的，Y就是真的。
3)X entails Y (Y is an entailment of X)
X蕴涵Y (Y是X的蕴涵)
示例：
X: John married a blond heiress (女继承人).
Y: John married a blond.
蕴涵是一种包含关系。如果X蕴涵Y，X的意义就为Y所包含。
4)X presupposes Y. (Y is a prerequisite of X)
X预示Y (Y是X的先决条件)
示例：
X: John’s bike needs repairing.
Y: John has a bike.
5)X is a contradiction.
X是个矛盾句
示例：
X: My unmarried sister is married to bachelor.
X句子本身自相矛盾，它永远是假的。
6)X is semantically anomalous.
句子X在语义上反常
示例：
X: The table has bad intentions.
X 在语义上反常，它就是荒唐的。
6.Analysis of meaning
1)Componential analysis – a way to analyze lexical meaning
语义成分分析法－一种词义分析法
The approach is based upon the belief that the meaning of a word can be dissected into meaning components, called semantic features. Plus and minus signs are used to indicate whether a certain semantic feature is present or absent in the meaning of a word, and these feature symbols are usually written in capitalized letters.
One advantage of componential analysis is that by specifying the semantic features of certain words, it will be possible to show how these words are related in meaning.
成分分析的一个好处是，通过列出某些单词的语义特征，就可能显示这些单词在意义上有什么联系。
示例：
Man 和woman 这两个单词有＋HUMAN, + ADULT, + ANIMATE这些共同的特征，但在MALE这一特征上不同。
Man 和boy这两个单词有＋HUMAN, +ANIMATE, +MALE这些共同的特征，但在ADULT 这一特征上不同。
2)Predication analysis – a way to analyze sentence meaning
述谓结构分析－一种句义分析法
Linguists have proposed different ways to analyze the meaning of sentences. They might differ in their framework of analysis, but they share the aim to abstract the meaning of sentences. What we are going to introduce briefly is the predication analysis proposed by the linguist G Leech.
In grammatical analysis, the sentence is taken to be the basic unit, and it is analyzed into such grammatical components as subject, predicate, and attribute.
对句子进行语法分析时，句子被视为基本单位，它被分析谓诸如主谓语和定语这样的语法成分。
In semantic analysis of a sentence, the basic unit is called predication, which is the abstraction of the meaning of a sentence. This applies to all forms of sentence, including statements, imperative and interrogative forms.
A predication consists of argument(s) and predicate.
An argument is a logical participant in a predication, largely identical with the nominal element(s) in a sentence.
A predicate is something said about an argument or it states the logical relation linking the arguments n a sentence.
Tom smokes.
Tom is smoking.
Tom has been smoking.
Tom, smoke!
Does Tom smoke?
According to the number of arguments contained in a predication, we classify the predications into two-place predication (containing two arguments), one-place predication (containing one argument), and no-place predication (containing no argument).
示例：
The building is next to the library. (Two-place predication)
He is snoring. (One-place predication)
It is late. (No-place predication)
Chapter 6 Pragmatics 语用学
1.What is pragmatics?
什么是语用学？
Pragmatics can be defined as the study of how speakers of a language use sentences to effect successful communication.
As the process of communication is essentially a process of conveying meaning in a certain context, pragmatics can also be regarded as a kind of meaning study. It places the study of meaning in the context in which language is used.
语用学研究的是说某种语言的人怎样用句子去实现成功的交际。
由于交际的过程从本质来说是在一定的语境中表达意义的过程，因而语用学的本质是一种意义研究。它是一种将语言置于使用的语境中去的意义研究。
2.Pragmatics and semantics 语用学和语义学
Pragmatics and semantics are both linguistic studies of meaning, but they are different. What essentially distinguishes semantics and pragmatics is whether in the study of meaning, the context of use is considered. If it is not considered, the study is restricted to the area of traditional semantics; if it is considered, the study is being carried out in the area of pragmatics.
3.Context 语境
Context is essential to the pragmatic study of language. It is generally considered as constituted by the knowledge shared by the speaker and the hearer.
语境是语言的语用研究中不可缺少的概念。它一般被理解为说话者和听话者所共有的知识。
The shared knowledge is of two types: the knowledge of the language they use, and the knowledge about the world, including the general knowledge about the world and the specific knowledge about the situation in which linguistic communication is taking place.
4.Sentence meaning and utterance meaning 句子意义和话语意义The meaning of a sentence is abstract, and de-contextualized, while utterance meaning is concrete, and context-dependent. Utterance is based on sentence meaning; it is the realization of the abstract meaning of a sentence in a real situation of communication, or simply in a context.
5.Speech act theory 言语行为理论
Speech act theory is an important theory in the pragmatic study of language. It was originated with the British philosopher John Austin in the late 50’s of the 20th century.
According to speech act theory, we are performing actions when we are speaking.
According to speech act theory, a speaker might be performing three acts simultaneously when speaking: locutionary act, illocutionary act, and perlocutionary act.
a) A locutionary act is the act of uttering words, phrases, clauses. It is the act of conveying literal
meaning by means of syntax lexicon and phonology.
b)An illocutionary act is the act of expressing the speaker’s intention; it is the act performed in
saying something.
c) A perlocutionary act is the act performed by or resulting from saying something; it is the
consequence of, or the change brought about the utterance; it is the act performed by saying something.
American philosopher-linguist John Searle classified illocutionary acts into five general types. Each type has a common, general purpose.
a)representatives: stating or describing, saying what the speaker believes to be true
示例：
I have never seen the man before. / the earth is globe.
b)directives: trying to get the hearer to do something
示例：
Open the window! / Would you like to go to the picnic with us?
c)commissives: committing the speaker himself to some future course of action
示例：
I promise to come. / I will bring you the book tomorrow without fail.
d)expressives: expressing feelings or attitude towards an existing state
示例：
I’m sorry for the mess I have made. / It’s really kind of you to have thought of me.
e)declarations: bringing about immediate changes by saying something
示例：
I now declare the meeting open. / I fire you.
Important remark:
All the acts that belong to the same category share the same purpose or the same illocutionary point, but they differ in their strength or forth.
6.Principle of conversation 会话原则
American philosopher Paul Grice concluded that natural language had its own logic. His idea is that in making conversation, the participants must first of all be willing to cooperate. This general principle is called the Cooperative Principle (CP).
To be more specific, there are four maxims under this general principle:
a)The maxim of quantity 数量准则
●Make your contribution as informative as required (for the current purpose of the exchange).
●Do not make your contribution more informative than is required.
b)The maxim of quality
●Do not say what you believe to be false.
●Do not say that for which you lack adequate evidence. The maxim of relation 关联准则
●Be relevant. The maxim of manner
●Avoid obscurity of expression.
●Avoid ambiguity.
●Be brief (avoid unnecessary prolixity).
●Be orderly.。
It is interesting and important to note that while conversation participants nearly always observe the CP, they do not always observe these maxims strictly. For various reasons these maxims are often violated, or “flouted”. Most of these violations give rise to what Grice calls “conversational implicature”. In other word, when we violate any of these maxims, our language becomes indirect.示例1：
Do you know where Mr. X lives?
Somewhere in the southern suburbs of the city.
示例2：
Would you like to come to our party tonight?
I’m afraid I’m not feeling so well today.
示例3：
The hostess is an awful bore. Don’t you think?
The roses in the garden are beautifu l, aren’t they?
示例4：
Shall we get something for the kids?
Yes. But I veto I-C-E-C-R-E-A-M.
Chapter 7 Historical Linguistics 历史语言学
1.The purpose and significance of the historical study of language
研究语言变化的目的和意义
The historical study of language is of great importance to our understanding of human languages and human linguistic competence.
Researches in historical linguistics shed light on prehistoric development in the evolution of language and the connections of earlier and later variants of the same language, and provide valuable insights into the kinship patterns of different languages.
The historical study of language also enables us to determine how non-linguistic factors, such as social, cultural and psychological factors, interact over time to trigger linguistic change.
2.The nature of language change
语言变化的本质
All living languages change with time. Unless a language is no longer spoken by the general public of a society, such as Latin, its change is inevitable. As a general rule, language change is
universal, continuous and, to a considerable degree, regular and systematic. Language change is extensive, taking place in virtually all aspects of the grammar.
Although language change is universal, inevitable, and in some cases, vigorous, it is never an overnight occurrence.
Language development may be regarded as linguistic evolution from one stage to another.
3.Major periods in the history of English
英语历史发展的主要阶段
a)Old English (450-1100) 古英语阶段
b)Middle English (1100-1500) 中古英语阶段
c)Modern English (1500-今) 现代英语阶段
Most Modern English speakers find Middle English only partially comprehensible, and Old English simply unintelligible, just like a foreign language hardly recognizable as the native language they speak.
Old English dates back to the mid-fifth century when Anglo-Saxons invaded the British Isles from northern Europe.
Middle English began with the arrival of the Norman French invaders in England. Middle English had been deeply influenced by Norman French in vocabulary and grammar.
Modern English is separated with Middle English with European renaissance movement.
As British influence reached other continents, the “British Empire” established English-speaking colonies in many parts of the world. English is now the native language in the United States, Canada, Australia and New Zealand.
4.Linguistic change in English
英语语言系统的变化
Language change is essentially a matter of change in the grammar. We refer to the change in the grammar of a language as linguistic change. Linguistic change occurs in all components of the grammar, including changes in the sound, morphological, syntactic, lexical and semantic systems.
a)sound change 语音变化
●V owel sound change 元音变化
The change occurred at the end of the Middle English period, approximately 1400-1600. These changes led to one of the major discrepancies between the phonemic representations of words and morphemes, that is, between the pronunciation and the spelling system of Modern English. Known as the Great Vowel Shift in the history of English, these changes involve seven long, or tense, vowels. Refer to P132 of the test book for examples.
●Sound loss 语音消失
Not only did types of vowel sounds change, but some sounds simply disappeared from the general pronunciation of English.
实例：
1》古英语中/x/ 在现代英语中已不存在。
如：古英语nicht (night) 读做/nixt/，而现代英语读做/nait/
2》古英语和中古英语中有/kn/，都发音，在现代英语中/k/不发音了。
如：knight/knee 在古英语中字母k是发音的，而在现代英语中不发音
3》古英语中有一类名词的复数形式不是在词尾加/s/音，而是加/i/这个音，现在没有了。如：goose的复数形式在古英语中的发音是/go:si/
4》现代英语中出现了位于词尾的元音音段的省略现象，称为词尾音脱落。
如：name/love在古英语中发音为/na:ma:/和/lufu/，在中古英语中发音为/na:m?/和/luv?/，而在现代英语中的发音为/neim/和/lΛv/
5》词尾音脱落还影响了某些词的拼写。
如：古英语单词helpe随着词尾音的消失，在中古英语和现代英语中拼写成了help
●Sound addition 语音增加
While some sounds were lost in the course of the historical development of English, other sounds were added. Sound addition includes the gain or insertion of a sound. A change that involves the insertion of a consonant or vowel sound to the middle of a word is known as epenthesis. Refer to P134 of the text book for examples.
●Sound movement 语音移位
Sound change as a result of sound movement, known as metathesis, involves a reversal in position of two adjoining sound segments.
实例：
古英语中bridd/hros 在现代英语中变成了bird/horse
b)Morphological change 形态变化
●Affix loss 词缀消失
消失了的词缀包括：
-baere（
-bora
-yan（
注：现代英语中的-en不再具有产出性技能，因而我们不能派生出诸如以下的一些单词Green-en / blue-en / asleep-en
●Affix addition 词缀增加
增加了的词缀包括：
-able（动词转化为形容词的词缀）
-ment（动词转化为名词的词缀）
-ze （名词或形容词转化为动词的词缀）
c)Syntactic change 句法变化
●Rule loss 规则消失
消失的规则包括：
1》Morphosyntactic rule of adjective agreement. The rule stipulated that the endings of adjectives must agree with the head noun in case, number, and gender.
2》Old English syntax contained a double-negation rule, which would negate a sentence with both negators of “ne” (“not”) and “n?fre”(“never”).
●Rule addition 规则增加
1》Particle movement rule.
实例：
John threw out the ball through the window. 其中throw out 中的小品词out 可以移位
John threw the ball out through the window.
2》Another syntactic rule gain in English concerns the distinction between auxiliary verbs and main verbs. In modern English the syntactic behavior of auxiliary verbs differs from that of main verbs in that only auxiliary verbs can be fronted in interrogative sentences.
●Rule change
发生变化的规则有：
1》A negative sentence could be formed by merely adding “not’ at the end of an affirmative sentence prior to Shakespeare’s time.
在莎士比亚时代之前，英语仅在一个肯定句的句尾加not就可以使它变为否定句。
2》Languages vary in the order of the subject, the verb and the object.
d)Lexical change 词汇变化
●Lexical loss 词汇消失
实例见书本141页。
●Lexical addition 词汇增加
The history of English lexical expansion is one that is characterized with heavy borrowing and word formation.
Although English has borrowed most heavily from French, other languages as Latin and Greek have also made their contributions.
In addition to borrowing, new words have made their entry into English via word formation rules such as compounding, derivation, acronym formation, blending, abbreviation, clipping, back-formation, and coinage.
e)Semantic change
●Semantic broadening
●Semantic narrowing
●Semantic shift
https://www.doczj.com/doc/5118090480.html,nguage Family 语系
Language family is a group of historically (or genetically) related languages that have developed from a common ancestral language. For example, most of the languages of Europe, Persia, and the north part of India belong to the Indo-European language family, and they have the same origin known as Proto-Indo-European.
6.Classifying genetically related languages
It is estimated that over five thousand languages are spoken in the world today. There are about 30 language families with four main ones: the Indo-European Family, the Sino-Tibetan Family, the Austronesian Family, and the Afroasiatic Family.
The Indo-European family has a membership of about 150 languages. The Sino-Tibetan family consists of about 300 East Asian languages. The Austronesian Family comprises up to 1000 different languages scattered over one third of the Southern Hemisphere. The Afroasiatic Family is made up of about 250 languages spread across the northern part of Africa and western Asia. English is belonged to the Indo-European Family.
Many seemingly different languages are actually genetically related as sisters or cousins of a big language family and have developed from a common, possibly “dead”, ancestral language. Historical linguists have to identify and classify families of related languages in a genealogical family tree, and to reconstruct the protolanguage.
A language family is established by the use of a method known as comparative reconstruction. By identifying and comparing similar linguistic forms with similar meanings across related languages,, historical linguists reconstruct the proto form in the common ancestral language.
Work on the systematic form-meaning resemblance in cognates, words that have descended from a common source, lies at the core of comparative reconstruction.
7.The Indo-European language family
The Indo-European language family is the first and most widely investigated language family of the world. The discovery of Indo-European began with the work of British scholar Sir William Jones. In 1822, the German scholar Jacob Grimm specified in his treatise the regular sound correspondences among Sanskrit, Greek, Latin, and the Germanic languages. Grimm’s major contribution to historical linguistics is his explanation of the relationships among cognates in terms of a sound shift, the systematic modification of a series of phonemes. Because these sound changes were so strikingly regular and law-like, they became collectively as Grimm’s Law.
8.The causes of language change 语音变化的原因
a)Sound assimilation 语音的同化
Sound assimilation refers to the physiological effect of one sound on another. Assimilation processes are phonological changes due to physiological mechanisms.
In an assimilative process, successive sound is made identical, or more similar, to one another in terms of place or manner of articulation, or of haplology- the loss of one of two phonetically similar syllables in sequence.
Another example of sound assimilation involves vowel nasalization.
Another example of sound assimilation that results in morpho-logical and lexical changes is the /k/ sound as in the word “key”.
b)Rule simplification and regularization 规则的简化与统一
Rule simplification and regularization involves exceptional plural forms of nouns.
c)Internal borrowing 内部借用
Another kind of change that is motivated by the need to lessen the burden on memory is called internal borrowing.
d)Elaboration 规则的细化
Rule elaboration occurs when there is a need to reduce ambiguity and increase communicative clarity or expressiveness. Language seems to maintain a balance in expressiveness and grammatical elaboration over time. If a particular grammatical feature is lost as a result of, say, a change in the phonological system, some other feature may be added in another component of the grammar, such as in the syntax.
e)Sociological triggers Linguistics have become increasingly aware of sociological triggers
for language change. Radical socio-political changes such as wars, invasions, occupation, colonialization, and language planning and standardization policies lead to vigorous language changes.
f)Cultural transmission
Although a new generation has to find a way of using the language of the previous generation, it has to find expressions that can best communicate the views and concepts of the time and the changed and ever-changing social life, and re-create the languages of the community. Many young speakers have the desire to sound different from the older generation.
g)Children’s approximation toward the adult grammar
Children acquire their native language not through formal instruction of grammatical rules. Children usually construct their personal grammars by themselves and generalize rules fro the linguistic information they hear. They are exposed to diverse linguistic information. Children have a strong desire to simplify and regularize grammatical rules, particularly when they see adults use certain rules optionally. In such cases, a change in the grammar occurs.
Chapter 8 Socio-linguistics 社会语言学
1.What is socio-linguistics? 什么是社会语言学？
Sociolinguistics is the sub-discipline of linguistics that studies language in social contexts.
社会语言学是语言学的一个分支，它研究社会环境中的语言。
https://www.doczj.com/doc/5118090480.html,nguage variation 语言变异
a)Speech community 言语社区
In sociolinguistic studies, speakers are treated as members of social groups. The social group isolated for any given study is called speech community. A speech community thus defined as a group of people who form a community (which may have as few members as a family or as many member as a country), and share the same language or a particular variety of language. The important characteristic of a speech community is that the members of the group must, in some reasonable way, interact linguistically with other members of the community. They may share closely related language varieties, as well as attitudes toward linguistic norms.
b)Speech variety 言语变体
Speech variety refers to any distinguishable form of speech used by a speaker or group of speakers.
A speech variety may be lexical, phonological, morphological, syntactic, or a combination of linguistic features. Considered a more neutral term, speech variety is sometimes used instead of standard language, vernacular language, dialect, pidgin, creole, etc. Speech variation moves on a scale of the national language, dialect, and individual ways of communication.
Sociolinguists are particularly interested in there types of speech variety, or dialects, namely, regional dialects, sociolects or social dialects, and functional speech varieties known as registers. The term dialect, as a technical term in linguistics, carries no value judgment and simply refers to a distinct form of language.
c)Regional variation 地域变异
Regional variation is speech variation according to the particular area where a speaker comes from. Regional variation of language is the most discernible and definable.
The most distinguishable linguistic feature of a regional dialect is its accent. Often speakers of the same language but of different regional dialects of the language have a very difficult time communicating. One way out of the communication dilemma is language standardization known as language planning.
d)Social variation 社会变异
Social variation gives rise to sociolects which are subdivisible into smaller speech categories which reflect their socioeconomic, educational, occupational and ethnic background, as well as their sex and age.
e)Stylistic variation 文体变异
There are differences associated with the speech situation: who is speaking to whom about under what circumstances for what purpose.
Stylistic variation in a person’s speech, or writing, usually ranges on continuum from casual or colloquial to formal or polite according to the type of communicative situation. Style can also refer to a particular person’s use of speech or writing at all times, or to a way of speaking or writing at a particular period of time, e.g., Dickens’ style, Hemingway’s style.
f)Idiolectal variation 个人言语变异
When an individual speaks, what is actually produced is a unique language system of the speaker, expressed within the overall system of a particular language. Such a personal dialect is referred to as idiolect.
Idiolect is, thus, a personal dialect of an individual speaker that combines aspects of all the elements regarding regional, social, and stylistic variation, in one form or another. In a narrower sense, what makes up one’s idiolect includes also such factors as voice quality, pitch and speech rhythm, which all contribute to the identifying features in an individual’s speech.
3.Standard and nonstandard language
The standard language is a superposed, socially prestigious dialect of a language. It is the language employed by the government and the judiciary system, used by the mass media, and taught in educational institutions, including school settings where the language is taught as a foreign or second language.
The standard language of many countries is also designated as the national or official language. Language varieties other than the standard are called nonstandard, or vernacular, languages.
All dialects of a language are equally effective in expressing ideas.
4.Diglossia and bilingualism 双言与双语现象
a)Diglossia 双言现象
Diglossia describes a situation in which two very different varieties of language co-exist in a speech community, each with a distinct range of purely social function and appropriate for certain situations. Usually, one is more standard variety called the high variety, or H-variety, which is used for more formal or serious matter, such as speeches made in government, the media, school, or church. And the other is a non-prestige variety called the low variety, or L-variety, which is used in colloquial and other informal situations, such as conversations with family or friends, or instructions given to servants, waiters, or workmen. Often the high variety is regarded as a literary standard called a classical language, whereas the low variety remains a local vernacular.
b)Bilingualism 双语现象
Bilingualism refers to a linguistic situation in which two standard languages are used either by an individual or by a group of speakers. A typical example of a bilingual community is an ethnic ghetto where most, if not all, of its inhabitants are either immigrants or children of immigrants. Bilingualism also occurs to countries which have designated two official languages for nation or regional use. Perfect bilingualism, however is uncommon. A bilingual speaker often uses two languages alternatively during a conversation with another bilingual speaker.
5.Ethnic dialect 少数民族方言
a)Black English 黑人英语――少数民族方言个案研究
Black English is an ethnic variety of the English language. It is spoken mostly by a large section of non-middle-class American Blacks. Black English is stigmatized as “bad English”, a purely social attitude that has no linguistic basis. Like other varieties, Black English has some vocabulary
of its own. It has a number of distinctive features in its phonological, morphological and syntactic systems which are rule-governed and systematic.
黑人英语与标准英语的区别的具体内容见课本182－184页。
b)The social environment of Black English 黑人英语的社会环境
The assumption that Black English is “genetically inferior”, “deficient”, and “incomplete”, is simply ungrounded. The distinctive features of Black English persist not for racial reasons, but for social, educational, and economic reasons. Racial discrimination, accompanied by social isolation, intensified some dialectal differences between Black English and Standard English.
6.Social dialect 社会方言
a)Education varieties 教育变体
Social dialects, or sociolects, are varieties of language used by people belonging to particular social classes. The speakers of a social dialect usually share a similar social background.
Many differences in languages use persist for educational reasons. It is, therefore, important to know, for example, whether a group of speakers share similar educational backgrounds.
b)Age varieties 年龄变体
The way language is used correlates with the age of individual speakers. The importance of age as a social factor in language variation is strikingly demonstrated by children’s language as it develops with age. While some differences in pronunciation are found to correlate with different generation of speakers, the most striking differences are lexical.
c)Gender varieties 性别变体
Variation in language use is also associated with the sex of individual speakers. Sex-preferential differentiation in terms of speech varieties of males and females exists in all natural language across the word. In particular, the intentional or unintentional use of sexist language in speech or writing reflects gender-biased cultural traditions in many societies.
d)Register varieties 语域变体
Registers are language varieties appropriate for use in particular speech situations, for that reason, registers are also known as situational dialects.
A formal situation may condition a formal register, characterized by formal, standard lexical items and grammatical rules, and speech patterns; while an informal setting may be reflected in a less formal register that exhibits more causal vocabulary, nonstandard grammatical features, and stigmatized speech patterns.
e)Address terms 称谓语
One specific aspect of situational use of language is that of address term usage. An address term, or address form, refers to the word or words used to address somebody in speech or writing. It is apparent that the way in which people address one another usually depends on their age, sex, social group, and personal relationship. The English system of frequently used address terms includes first name, last name, title + last name, title alone, and kin term.
f)Slang 俚语
Slang is a casual use of language that consists of expressive but nonstandard vocabulary, typically of arbitrary, flashy and often ephemeral coinages and figures of speech characterized by spontaneity and sometime by raciness. The central characteristic of slang comes from the motive for its use: a desire for novelty, for vivid emphasis, for membership in a particular group or class
of people, or for being up with the times or a little ahead.
Although slang is often very vivid and expressive, the term slang has traditionally carried a negative connotation: it is deemed to be undesirable in formal style of language. Most slang terms come and go like fads and fashion, only few remain and become acceptable language by the whole society.
g)Linguistic taboo 禁忌语
A linguistic taboo refers to a word or expression that is prohibited by the “polite” society from general use.
In sociolinguistics, taboo, or rather linguistic taboo, denotes any prohibition on the use of particular lexical items to refer to objects or acts. As language use is contextualized in particular social settings, linguistic taboo originates from social taboo. When an act is taboo, reference to this act may also become taboo. Taboo words and expressions reflect the particular social customs and views of a particular culture.
h)Euphemism 委婉语
Euphemism comes from the Greek word euphemismos, meaning “to speak with good words.” A euphemism, then, is a mild, indirect or less offensive word or expression substituted when the speaker or writer fears more direct wording might be harsh, unpleasantly direct, or offensive. Chapter 9 Psycholinguistics 心理语言学
1.The biological foundations of language 语言的生理基础
a)The case of Phineas Gage 盖奇案例
One afternoon in September 1848, a tragedy happed to Gage. A huge metal rod had gone through the front part o f Gage’s brain, but his language abilities were unaffected.
The point of this amazing case is that, if our language ability is located in the brain, it is clear that it is not situated right at the front.
b)The human brain 人的大脑
The human brain is the most complicated organ of the body. Lying under the skull, the human brain contains an average of ten billion nerve cells called neurons.
The most important part of the brain is the outside surface of the brain, called the cerebral cortex. The cortex is the decision-making organ of the body, receiving messages from all the sensory organs and initiating all voluntary action. Many of the cognitive abilities that distinguish humans from other mammals, such as sophisticated reasoning, linguistic skills, and musical ability, are believed to reside in the cortex.
The brain is divided into two roughly symmetrical halves, called hemispheres, one on the right and one on the left. These hemispheres are connected like twins right down the middle by a number of interconnecting nerve pathways.
In general, the right hemisphere controls voluntary movement of, and responds to signals from, the left side of the body, whereas the left hemisphere controls voluntary movement of, and responds to signals from, the right side of the body.
。
c)Brain lateralization 大脑的侧化
The left hemisphere has primary responsibility for language, while the right hemisphere controls
and spatial skills as well as the perception of nonlinguistic sounds and musical melodies. The localization of the cognitive and perceptual functions in a particular hemisphere of the brain is called lateralization.
Because each cerebral hemisphere has unique functional superiority, it is more accurate to conceive of the hemispheres as complementarily specialized.
The process of lateralization is believed to be maturational. That is, brain lateralization is genetically programmed, but takes time to develop.
2.Linguistic lateralization 语言侧化
a)Left hemispheric dominance for language 左半球的语言优势
Linguistic lateralization in terms of left hemispheric dominance for language is found to exist in an overwhelming majority of human beings.
Although both right and left hemispheres are lateralized complementarily in many aspects of human cognitive and perceptual activities, language functions are believed to be lateralized primarily in the left hemisphere of the brain. Research has shown that different aspects of language processing appear to be more characteristic of the left hemisphere than the other.
b)Dichotic listening research 两耳分听实验
Evidence in supporting of lateralization for language in the left hemisphere comes from researches in dichotic listening tasks. Dichotic listening research makes use of the generally established fact that anything experienced on the right-hand side of the body is processed in the left hemisphere of the brain, and vice versa. A basic assumption, thus, would be that a signal coming in the right ear will go to the left hemisphere and a signal coming in the left ear will go to the right hemisphere. By means of dichotic listening task, we can analyze the characteristics of incoming stimuli processed by the individual hemisphere.
Research shows that the left hemisphere is not superior for processing all sounds, but only for those that are linguistic in nature, thus providing evidence in support of the view that the left side of the brain is specialized for language and that it is where language centers reside.
3.The language centers 语言中枢
a)Broca’s area 布罗卡区
In 1861, a Frenchman named Paul Broca found the damage to a specific area of the brain results in speech production deficit. This area was now known as Broca’s area. Language disorder resulting from a damage to Broca’s area in the brain reveals word-finding difficulties and problems with syntax.
b)Wernicke’s are a 韦尼克区
In 1874, a young German Carl Wernicke found another different area of the left hemisphere now known as Wernicke’s area. The damage to Wernick’s area will result in speech comprehension deficit.
c)The angular gyrus 角形脑回
Angular gyrus lies behind Wer nicke’s area. It is the language center responsible for converting a visual stimulus into an auditory form and vice versa. This area is crucial for the matching of a spoken form with a perceived object, for the naming of objects, and for the comprehension of written language, all of which require connections between visual and speech regions.
d)Language perception, comprehension and production 语言的感知、理解与表达
The brain activity involved in hearing, understanding and then saying a word would follow a definite pa ttern. When we listen, the word is heard and comprehended via Wernicke’s area. This signal then transferred to Broca’s area where preparations are made to produce it. A signal is then sent to the motor area controlling the vocal tract to physically articulate the word. When we speak, words are drawn from Wernicke’s area and sent to Broca’s area, which determines the details of their form and pronunciation. The appropriate instructions are then sent to the motor area.
4.The critical period for language acquisition 语言习得关键期
a)The critical period hypothesis 关键期假设
The critical period hypothesis refers to a period in one’s life extending from about age two to puberty, during which the human brain is most ready to acquire a particular language and language learning can proceed easily, swiftly, and without explicit instruction.
It is generally thought that the development of lateralization in the brain may be connected to the language learning abilities of children in that critical age fro the acquisition of the first language coincides with the period of brain lateralization.
It is believed that language acquisition begins at about the same time as lateralization does and is normally complete, as far as the essentials are connected, by the time that the process of lateralization comes to an end. It becomes progressively more difficult to acquire language after the age at which lateralization is complete.
b)The case of Genie and the degeneration of language faculty with age
吉妮案例与语言机制的退化
The case of Genie confirms the critical period hypothesis.
A safe conclusion that we can draw from Genie’s case for the moment is that the language faculty of an average human degenerates after the critical period and consequently, most linguistic skills cannot develop.
https://www.doczj.com/doc/5118090480.html,nguage and thought 语言与思维
a)Early views on language and thought 有关语言与思维关系的一些早期观点
Early views on language and thought include two contrasting views: mentalist and empiricist. Mentalist stated that language and thought were the same thing. Thinking involved the same motor acti vities used in speaking. That is, when we “think aloud”, it is called speech; when we “speak covertly”, it is called thinking.
Empiricist argued that mankind could not have the same languages and that languages were but signs of psychological experience.
b)The Sapir-Whorf hypothesis 萨丕尔－沃尔夫假设
The American anthropologist-linguist Edward Sapir and his student Benjamin Lee Whorf proposed a sweeping, two-pronged hypothesis concerning language and thought.
Whorf proposed first that all higher levels of thinking are dependent on language. Or put it more bluntly, language determines thought, hence the strong notion of linguistic determinism. Because languages differ in many ways, Whorf also believed that speakers of different languages perceive and experience the world differently, that is, relative to their linguistic background, hence the notion of linguistic relativism.
If follows from this strong version of the hypothesis that there is no real translation and that it is impossible to learn the language of a different culture unless the learner abandons his or here own mode of thinking and acquires the thought patterns of the native speakers of the target language.
c)Arguments against the Sapir-Whorf hypothesis 对萨丕尔－沃尔夫假设的批判
●Words and meaning. It is widely accepted that the vocabulary of a language consists of
nothing more than meaningless labels which are manipulated by language users to elicit emotional reactions or behavioral responses, to impart information or to direct the listener’s attention. The meaning of a word or phrase depends largely on the communicative context.
As the context of a word or sentence changes, its effect and meaning also change.
●Grammatical structure. The syntactic system of a language and the perceptual system of the
speakers of that language do not have the kind of interdependent relationship that the Sapir-Whorf hypothesis claimed to have. Many grammatical features of a language are purely superficial aspects of linguistic structure.
●Translation. Another major argument against the hypothesis comes from the fact that
successful translation between languages can be made. The translation argument is supported by the very fact that conceptual uniqueness of a language such as Hopi can nonetheless be explained in English.
●Second language acquisition. If languages have different conceptual systems, then someone
who speaks one language will be unable to learn the other language because he lacks the right conceptual system. However, since people can learn radically different languages, those languages couldn’t have different conceptual systems.
●Language and world views. The language system does not necessarily provide specifics of
one’s world views. On the one hand, people speaking the same language may have different world views, including political, social, religious, scientific and philosophical views. On the other hand, people speaking different languages may share similar political, social, religious, scientific or philosophical views. Moreover, one language can describe many different world views, as is evident in the case of successful translation.
d)Understanding the relation of language and thought 对语言与思维关系的再认识
●Major functions of language 语言的主要功能
Language provides a means for the expression or communication of thought and in particular, as serving two major functions, namely, interpersonal communication and intrapersonal communication.
●The development and blending of language and thought 语言与思维的发展和融合Although language and thought are two different systems that develop along two different routes, part of the language system is actually part of the thought system. The thought and language systems are joined through meaning and ideas.
●Thinking without language 脱离语言的思维
There are occasions when one can think without language, just as one may speak without thinking. People may communicate their feelings or thoughts via nonverbal signals such as facial expressions, gestures.
●Language as a conventional coding system to express thought 语言－表达思维的约定俗成
的编码系统
Recall that in Chapter 1, we defined language as a system of arbitrary codes used for human communication. What that means is that the relationship between the coding system of language on the one hand and the conceptualizing system of thought on the other is conventional rather than genetic.
For some historical reasons that are not completely understood, natural languages have developed into different coding systems, in spite of the fact that all humans share a general conceptualizing capacity. However, a particular coding system comprises a particular set of arbitrary verbal symbols which do not arise from, nor do they give birth to, a particular conceptual system.
The ways in which language affects thought 语言影响思维的方式
Although language is not always a necessary condition for thought, the use of it is indispensable to the content, direction, and elaboration of particular thoughts.
While we reject the strong version of the Sapir-Whorf hypothesis, its weaker version is generally accepted by most scholars. We recognize that language does not so much determine the way we think as it influences the way we perceive the world and recall things, and affects the ease with which we perform mental tasks.
Chapter 10 Language Acquisition 语言习得
1.First language acquisition 第一语言习得
a)The biological basis of language acquisition 语言习得的生物基础
Language acquisition is a genetically determined capacity that all humans are endowed with. Human is biologically programmed to acquire at least one language.
Any child who is capable of acquiring some particular human language is capable of acquiring any human language spontaneously and effortlessly.
b)Language acquisition as the acquisition of grammatical rules 语言习得即语法规则的习得
Language acquisition is primarily the acquisition of the grammatical system of language. It doesn’t mean th at every specific rule allowed by the grammatical system of a language must be acquired. What is actually acquired by young children are some general principle that are fundamental to the grammaticality of speech.
c)The role of input and interaction 语言输入与交流的作用
Although human beings are genetically predetermined to acquire language, this genetic predisposition is not a sufficient condition for language development. For language to be eventually acquired, children must be provided with an appropriate linguistic environment which they have access to language data and opportunities to interact with the input.
d)The role of instruction 语言教学的作用
For the vast majority of children, language development occurs spontaneously and requires little conscious instruction. In fact, parents often fail in their attempt to teach children grammatical rules.
e)The role of correction and reinforcement 纠错与强化的作用
Correction and reinforcement are not key factors in child language development. Reinforcement has been found to occur usuall y in children’s pronunciation or reporting of the truthfulness of utterances, rather than in the grammaticality of sentences.
f)The role of imitation 模仿的作用
Selective imitation suggests that children do not blindly mimic adult speech in a parrot fashion, but rather exploit it in very restricted way to improve their linguistic skills. The point is that imitation plays at best a very minor role in the child’s mastery of language.
2.Stages of first language acquisition 第一语言习得的发展阶段
a)The prelinguistic stage 前语言阶段
The earliest sounds produced by infants cannot be considered early language. The noises such as cries and whimpers of the new born in all language communities sound the same. Such noises are completely stimulus-controlled.
b)The one-word stage 独词句阶段
At some point in the late part of the first year or the early part of the second year, the babbling stage gradually gives way to the earliest recognizable stage of language, often referred to as the one-word stage.
Children’s one-word utterances are also called holophrastic sentences, because they can be used to express a concept or predication that would be associated with an entire sentence in adult speech. One-word utterances sometimes show an overextension or under-extension of reference. Typically, children use the same word for things that have a similar appearance.
c)The two-word stage 双词句阶段
In general, the two-word stage begins roughly in the second half of he child’s second year. At this stage, children are heard uttering two-word expressions in a variety of combinations; express a certain variety of grammatical relations.
In addition, the language at this stage begins to reflect the distinction between sentence types, such as negative sentences, imperative and questions.
d)The multiword stage 多词句阶段
Between two and three years old, children begin to produce longer utterances with more complex grammatical structures. When a child starts stringing more than two words together, the utterances may be two, three, four, or five words or longer, hence the multiword stage.
The early multiword utterances typically lack inflectional morphemes and most minor lexical categories as “to”, “the”, “can”. These multiword utterances are usually the “substantive” or “content” words that carry the main message. Because of th eir resemblance to the style of language found in telegrams, utterances at this acquisition stage are often referred to as telegraphic speech.
Although they lack grammatical morphemes, telegraphic sentences are not simply words that are randomly strung together, but follow the principles of sentence formation.
As this type of telegram-format speech increases, a number of grammatical morphemes begin to appear in children’s speech, such as “-s”, “-ed” and prepositions.
It is normally assumed that by the age of five, with an operating vocabulary of more than 2000 words, children have completed the greater part of the language acquisition process.
3.The development of the grammatical system 语法体系的发展
a)The development of phonology 音系学的发展
It’s suggested that even before children master the phonemic contrasts of their language, they begin to develop the articulatory movements needed to produce these distinctions in speech.
As they develop their native language, children must master a systematic set of patterns and learn how to fit given sounds into those patterns.
Children first acquire the sounds found in all languages of the world, no matter what language they are exposed to, and in later stage acquire the “more difficult” sounds.
It has been noted that certain sounds that occur in babbling are lost when children begin to speak