and theories to language teaching and learning, especially the teaching of foreign and second languages. In a broad sense, it refers to the application of linguistic findings to the solution of practical problems such as the recovery of speech ability.
used in Shakespeare’s time is a synchronic study.
historical study, which studies the historical development of language over a period of time. e.g. a study of the changes English has undergone since Shakespeare’s time is a diachronic study.
deal user’s knowledge of the rules of his language. A transformational-generative grammar（转化生成语法）is a model of language competence.
performance is the actual realization of the ideal language user’s knowledge of the rules in linguistic communication.
by all the members of a speech community; Langue is the set of conventions and rules which language users all have to follow; Langue is relatively stable, it does not change frequently.
and the application of the rules; parole varies from person to person, and from situation to situation.
11).Arbitrariness: It is one of the design features of language. It means that there is no logical connection between meanings and sounds. A good example is the fact that different sounds are used to refer to the same object in different languages.
of new signals by its users.
lower or basic level, and the other of meanings at the higher level.
language can be used to refer to things which are present or not present, real or imagined matters in the past, present, or future, or in far-away places. In other words, language can be used to refer to contexts removed from the immediate situations of the speaker.
are not genetically transmitted, but instead have to be taught and learned.
system of communication
Linguistics investigates not any particular language, but languages in general.
Linguistic study is scientific because it is based on the systematic investigation of authentic(可靠的，真实的) language data. No serious linguistic conclusion is reached until after the linguist has done the following three things: observing the way language is actually used, formulating some hypotheses, and testing these hypotheses against linguistic facts to prove their validity.
Linguistics mainly involves the following branches:
1)General linguistics, which is the study of language as a whole and which deals with the basic concepts, theories, descriptions, models and methods applicable in any linguistic study
2)Phonetics, which studies the sounds that are used in linguistic communication
3)Phonology, which studies how sounds are put together and used to convey meaning in communication
4)Morphology, which studies the way in which morphemes are arranged to form words
5)Syntax, which studies how morphemes and words are combined to form sentences
6)Semantics, which is the study of meaning in lan?guage.
7)Pragmatics, which is the study of meaning not in isolation, but in the context of use
8)Sociolinguistics, which is the study of language with reference to society
9)Psycholinguistics, which is the study of language with reference to the workings of mind.
10)Applied linguistics, which is concerned about the application of linguistic findings in linguistic studies; in
a nar?row sense, applied linguistics refers to the application of linguistic principles and theories to language teaching, especially the teaching of foreign and second languages.
11)Other related branches are anthropological linguistics(人类语言学), neurological linguistics（神经语言学）, mathematical linguistics（数学语言学）, and computational linguistics（计算机语言学）.
Traditional grammar is prescriptive（规定性）; it is based on "high "(religious, literary) written language. It sets models for language users to follow. But Modern linguistics is descriptive（描述性）; its investigations are based on authentic and mainly spoken language data. It is supposed to be scientific and objective and the task of linguists is supposed to describe the language people actually use, whether it is "correct" or not.
(The description of language at some point in time is a synchronic study; the description of a language as it changes through time is a diachronic study.)
Modern linguistics is mainly synchronic, focusing on the present-day language. Unless the various states of a language are successfully studied, it will not be possible to describe language from a diachronic point of view.
Modern linguistics gives priority to the spoken language for the following reasons:
First, speech precedes writing. The writing system is always a later invention used to record the speech. There are still some languages that only have the spoken form.
Then, a larger amount of communication is carried out in speech than in writing.
Third, speech is the form in which infants acquire their native language.
(The distinction between langue and parole was made by the famous Swiss linguist Ferdinand de Saussure early this century. Langue and parole are French words.)
Langue refers to the abstract linguistic system shared by all the members of a speech community, and parole refers to the realization of langue in actual use. Langue is the set of conventions and rules which language users all have to follow while parole is the concrete use of the conventions and the application of the rules. Langue is abstract; it is not the language people actually use, but parole is concrete; it refers to the naturally occurring language events. Langue is relatively stable, it does not change frequently; while parole varies from person to person, and from situation to situation.
(American linguist N. Chomsky in the late 1950’s propose d the distinction between competence and performance.) Chomsky defines competence as the ideal user’s knowledge of the rules of his language. This internalized set of rules enables the language user to produce and understand an infinitely large number of sentences and recognize sentences that are ungrammatical and ambiguous. According to Chomsky, performance is the actual realization of this knowledge in linguistic communication. Although the speaker’s knowledge of his mother tongue is perfect, his perform ances may have mistakes because of social and psychological factors such as stress, embarrassment, etc… Chomsky believes that what linguists should study is the competence, which is systematic, not the performance, which is too haphazard (偶然的).
Both Saussure and Chomsky make the distinction between the abstract language system and the actual use of language. Their purpose is to single out one aspect of language for serious study.
They differ in that Saussure takes a sociological view of language and his notion of langue is a matter of social conventions, and Chomsky looks at language from a psychological point of view and to him competence is a property of the mind of each individual.
Language is a system of arbitrary vocal symbols used for human communication.
First of all, language is a system, i.e. elements of language are combined according to rules.
Second, language is arbitrary in the sense that there is no intrinsic connection between the word and the thing it refers to.
Third, language is vocal because the primary medium is sound for all languages.
The term “human” is meant to specify that language is human-specific.
1.Arbitrariness（任意性）: (课本答案：a sign of sophistication only humans are capable of) It means that there is no logical connection between meanings and sounds. Although language is arbitrary by nature, it is not entirely arbitrary. Non-arbitrary words make up only a small percentage of the total number. The arbitrary nature of language is a sign of sophistication and it makes it possible for language to have an unlimited source of expressions.
2.Productivity（创造性）: （课本答案：creativity: animals are quite limited in the messages they are able to send）Language is productive or creative in that it makes possible the con?struction and interpretation of an infinitely large number of sentences, including those they have never said or heard before.
3.Duality（二重性）: （课本答案：a feature totally lacking in any animal communication）It means that language is
a system, which consists of two sets of structure, or two levels, one of sounds at the lower level and the other of meanings at the higher level. At the lower or the basic level, there is the structure of individual and meaningless sounds, which can be grouped into meaningful units at the higher level. This duality of structure or dou?ble articulation of language enables its users to talk about anything within their knowledge.
4.Displacement（移位性）: （课本答案：no animal can “talk” about things removed from the immediate situation）Language can be used to refer to things which are present or not present, real or imagined matters in the past, present, or future, or far-away places. In other words, language can be used to refer to contexts removed from the immediate situations of the speaker.
5. Cultural transmission（文化传递性）：（课本答案：details of human language system are taught and learned while animals are born with the capacity to send out certain signals as a means of limited communication）While we are born with the ability to acquire language, the details of any language are not genetically transmitted, but instead have to be taught and learned.
Language is arbitrary in nature, it is not entirely arbitrary, because there are a limited number of words whose connections between forms and meanings can be logically explained to a certain extent, for example, the onomatopoeia, words which are coined on the basis of imitation of sounds by sounds such as bang, crash, etc.. Take compounds for another example. The two elements “photo” and “copy” in “photocopy” are non-motivated, but the compound is not arbitrary.
Chapter 2: Phonology
Phonetics is defined as the study of the phonic medium of language; it is concerned with all the sounds that occur in the world’ s languages
ech sounds from the hearer’s point of view. It studies how the sounds are perceived by the hearer.
3).acoustic phonetics: It studies the speech sounds by looking at the sound waves. It studies the physical means by which speech sounds are transmitted through the air from one person to another.
transcription.
the transcription normally used in dictionaries and teaching textbooks.
is the transcription with letter-symbols together with the diacritics. This is the transcription used by the phoneticians in their study of speech sounds.
letters alone make possible.
: when the vocal cords are drawn wide apart, letting air go through without causing vibration, the sounds produced in such a condition are called voiceless sounds.
（浊音）: Sounds produced while the vocal cords are vibrating are called voiced sounds.
through the vocal tract without obstruction are called vowels.
the vocal tract are called consonants.
Phonology studies the system of sounds of a particular language; it aims to discover how speech sounds in a language form patterns and how these sounds are used to convey meaning in linguistic communication.
unit or segment. It does not necessarily distinguish meaning.
a collection of abstract phonetic features, it is a basic unit in phonology. It is represented or realized as a certain phone by a certain phonetic context.
the allophones of that phoneme. For example [l] and [l]
in the same environment and distinguish meaning, they are in phonemic contrast.
phoneme, and they occur in different environments.
in the same place in the strings, the two words are said to form a minimal pair. For example: bin and pin.
the phonemic features that occur above the level of the segments are called suprasegmental features. The main suprasegmental features include stress, tone and intonation.
Tones are pitch variations, which are caused by the differing rates of vibration of the vocal cords. Pitch variation can distinguish meaning just like phonemes. The meaning-distinctive function of the tone is especially important in tone languages, for example, in Chinese.
they are collectively known as intonation. For example, English has four basic types of intonation: the falling tone, the rising tone, the fall-rise tone and the rise-fall tone.
Speech and writing are the major media of communication. Speech is considered primary over writing. The reasons are: speech is prior to writing in language evolution, speech plays a greater role in daily communications, and speech is the way in which people acquire their native language.
1)Articulatory phonetics describes the way our speech organs work to produce the speech sounds and how they differ.
2)Auditory phonetics studies the physical properties of the speech sounds, and reaches important conclusion that phonetic identity is only a theoretical ideal.
3)Acoustic phonetics studies the physical properties of the speech sounds, the way sounds travel from the speaker to the hearer; it deals with the sound waves through the use of such machines as a spectrograph（声谱仪）.
Pharyngeal cavity, oral cavity and nasal cavity.
Voicing is the result of the vibration of the vocal cords. When the vocal cords are drawn wide apart, letting air go through without causing vibration, the sounds produced in such a way are voiceless. When vocal cords are held together tautly so that the air stream vibrates them, the sounds produced in this way are voiced.
The function of nasal cavity is to nasalize the sounds that are produced. It does this by closing the air passage connecting the oral and nasal cavities so that the air stream can only go through the nasal cavity.
The various pats of the tongue: the tip, the front, the blade, and the back; the uvula; the soft palate; the hard palate; the teeth ridge (alveolar); the upper and lower teeth; the lips.
The broad transcription is the transcription of sounds by using one letter to represent one sound.
The narrow transcription is the transcription with diacritics （变音符号） to show detailed articulatory features of sounds.
In broad transcription, the symbol [l] in used for the sound [l] in words like leaf [li:f], feel [fi:l], build [bild], and health [helθ]. The sound [l] in all these words is differ slightly. The [l] in [li:f], occurring before a vowel, is called a clear [l], and no diacritic is needed to indicate it; the [l] in [fi:l] and [bild], occurring before another con sonant, is called dark [l], indicated in narrow transcription as [l]. Then in [helθ], the sound [l] is followed by the dental sound [θ], it is thus called a dental [l], and transcribed as [helθ]（注：l下有一个向下的框，无法打印） in narrow transcription.
9.How are the English consonants classified? 英语的辅音是如何分类的？
1)by manner of articulation.
a.stops（plosive爆破音）: [p],[b],[t],[d],[k],[g]
b.fricatives（磨擦音）: [f],[v],[s],[z],[ θ],[e], [∫ ], [?], [h]
c.affricates（破擦音）: [ t∫], [d?]
d.liquids（lateral边音，流音）: [l], [r]
e.nasals（鼻音）: [m],[ n],[?]
f.glides （semivowels半元音）: [w], [ j]
2)by place of articulation :
a.bilabial（双唇音）: [p],[b],[m],[w]
https://www.doczj.com/doc/fa4204528.html,biodental（唇齿音）: [f],[v]
c.dental（舌齿音）: [θ],[e]
d.alveolar（齿龈音）: [t],[d],[s],[z],[n],[l],[r]
e.palatal（腭音）: [∫], [?],[ t∫ ], [d?], [j]
f.velar（软腭音）: [k], [g], [? ]
g.glottal（喉音，声门单）: [h]
10.What criteria are used to classify the English vowels? 英语的元音是如何分类的？
1) According to the position of the tongue, vowels may be distinguished as front vowels such as [i:] [i] [e] [?]
[a], central vowels such as [?:] [?] [?], and back vowels such as [u:] [? ] [?:] [? ] [ɑ:]
2) According to the openness of the mouth, we classify the vowels into four groups: close vowels such as [i:] [i] [u:] [? ], semi-close vowels such as [e] [?:], semi-open vowels such as [?] [?:], and open vowels such as [?]
[a] [? ] [? ] and [ɑ:].
3) According to the shape of the lips, vowels are divided into rounded vowels and unrounded vowels. In English all the front and central vowels are unrounded vowels, all the back vowels, with exception of [ɑ:], are rounded.
4) According to the length of the vowels, the English vowels can also be classified into long vowels and short vowels. The long vowels include [i:] [?:] [?: ] [u:] [ɑ:]，while the rest are short vowels.
11.What is the difference between a monophthong and a diphthong?
A monophthong is one for which the organs of speech remain in a given position for a period of time. A diphthong is a vowel sound consisting of a deliberate glide. The organs of speech starting in the position of one vowel and immediately moving in the direction of another vowel, for example: [i:], [i] are monophthongs, and [a? ], [e? ] are diphthongs.
12.How do phonetics and phonology differ in their focus of study? Who do you think will be more interested in the difference between [l]and [l], [p] and [ph], a phonetician or a phonologist? Why?
Phonetics: description of all speech sounds and their fine differences. It not necessarily distinguish meaning.
Phonology: description of sound systems of particular languages and how sounds function to distinguish meaning. It is realized as certain phone and it distinguish meaning.
A phonetician would be more interested in such differences because such differences will not cause differences in meaning, but can make finer distinctions of the sounds.
Phone: a speech sound, a phonetic unit. （It not necessarily distinguish meaning）
Phoneme: a collection of abstract sound features, a phonological unit. (realized as certain phone, distinguish meaning)
Allophones: actual realization of a phoneme in different phonetic contexts.
Minimal pair: two sound combinations identical in every way except in one sound element that occurs in the same position.
Minimal set: a group of sound combinations with the above feature.
By identifying the minimal pairs or the minimal set of a language, a phonologist can identify its phonemes.
If two phonetically similar sounds can occur in the same environments and they distinguish meaning, they are in phonemic contrast. [p], [b]
If two phonetically similar sounds are two allophones of the same phoneme and they occur in different environments, they are said to be in complementary distribution. [p], [ph].
When two different forms are identical in every way except for one sound segment which occurs in the same place in the strings, the two words are said to form a minimal pair. For example, kill and bill.
Sequential rule: rule governing the combination of sounds in a particular language.
Assimilation rule: rule assimilating one sound similar to the following one by copying one of its phonetic features. Deletion rule: rule governing the deletion of a sound in a certain phonetic context although it is represented in spelling.
Suprasegmental features are phonological features above the sound segment level.
The major suprasegmental features in English are word stress, sentence stress and intonation.
1)The location of stress in English distinguishes meaning, such as `import and im`port. The similar alternation of stress also occurs between a compound noun and a phrase consisting of the same elements. A phonological feature of the English compounds is that the stress of the word always falls on the first element and the second element receives secondary stress, for example: `blackbird is a particular kind of bird, which is not necessarily black, but a black `bird is a bird that is black.
2) Sentence stress refers to the relative force which is given to the words in a sentence. The more important words such as nouns, main verbs, adjectives, adverbs, and demonstrative pronouns, are pronounced with greater force and made more prominent. And the other categories of words (articles, personal pronouns, auxiliary verbs, prepositions, and conjunctions) are usually not stressed. But to give special emphasis to a certain notion, a word in sentence that is usually unstressed can be stressed to achieve different effect. Take the sentence “He is driving my car.” For example, to emphasize the fact that the car he is driving is not his, or yours, but mine, the speaker can stress the possessive pronoun my, which under normal circumstances is not stressed.
3)English has four basic types of intonation, known as the four tones: When spoken in different tones, the same sequence of words may have different meanings. Generally speaking, the falling tone indicates that what is said is a straight-forward, matter-of-fact statement, the rising tone often makes a question of what is said, and the fall-rise tone often indicates that there is an implied message in what is said.
Sentence stress refers to the relative force which is given to the words in a sentence. Some words are more important than others, and the more important words are pronounced with greater force and made more prominent. The more important words in English are nouns, main verbs, adjectives, adverbs, and demonstrative pronouns, and the other categories of words (articles, personal pronouns, auxiliary verbs, prepositions, and conjunctions) are usually not stressed. To give special emphasis to a certain notion, a word in a sentence that is usually unstressed can be stressed. For example: He is driving my car. My may be stressed to emphasize the fact that the car is mine.
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