戴炜栋《简明语言学教程》配套笔记

戴炜栋《简明语言学教程》配套笔记

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Chapter 1 What is language?

[A] The origins of Ianguage

Some speculations of the origins of Ianguage:

① The divine source

The basic hypothesis: if infants were allowed to grow up without hearing any Ianguage, the n

they would spontan eously beg in using the orig inal god-give n Ian guage.

Actually, children living without access to human speech in their early years grow up with no

Ianguage at all.

② The natural-sound source

The bow-wow theory: the suggestion is that primitive words could have been imitations of the

natural sounds which early men and women heard around them.

The — Yeheave-ho theory: the sounds produced by humans when exerting physical effort,

especially when co-operating with other humans, may be the origins of speech sounds.

Ono matopoeic sounds

③ The oral-gesture source

It is claimed that originally a set of physical gestures was developed as a means of

com muni cati on.

The patter ns of moveme nt in articulati on would be the same as gestural moveme nt; he

nee waving tongue would develop from waving hand.

④ Glossogenetic（言语遗传学）

This focuses mainly on the biological basis of the formation and development o f

human Ianguage.

Physiological adaptati on develop naming ability in teract ions and tran sacti ons

Physical adaptati on:

Human teeth are upright and roughly even in height.

Human lips have intricate muscle interlacing, thus making them very flexible. The

human mouth is small and contains a very flexible tongue. 戴炜栋《简明语言学教程》配套笔记

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The huma n lary nx is lowered, creati ng a Ion ger cavity called the phary nx, and making it

easier for the human to choke on the pieces of food, but making the sound speech pos sible.

The human brain is lateralized. Those analytic functions (tool-using and Ianguage) are l

argely confined to the left hemisphere of the brain for most humans.

Two major functions of language:

In teract ion al: a social fun cti on of Ian guage.

Tran sacti on al: a fun cti on inv olvi ng the com muni cati on of kno wledge and in

forma tio n

[B] The properties of Ianguage

Lan guage is a system of arbitrary vocal symbols used for huma n com muni catio n.

a) System: combined together according to rules

b) Arbitrary: no intrinsic connection between the word ——pen and the thing in the worl d

which it refers to

c) Vocal: the primary medium is sound for all Ianguages

d) Human: Ianguage is human-specific (交际性与信息性)

Communicative vs. Informative:

Communi cative: inten ti on ally using Ian guage to com muni cate somethi ng

In formative: through/via a nu mber of sig nals that are not inten ti on ally sent

Design features (unique properties): the defining properties of human Ianguage that disti n

guish it from any ani mal system of com muni catio n

① Displacement (跨时空性，移位性)

Lan guage can be used to refer to con texts removed from the immediate situatio ns of t he

speaker (refer to past and future time and to other locations)

② Arbitrariness (任意性)

There is no logical or natural connection between a linguistic form (either sound or w ord) and

its meaning.

While Ianguage is arbitrary by nature, it is not entirely arbitrary.

a) echo of the sounds of objects or activities: onomatopoeic words

b) some compo und words 戴炜栋《简明语言学教程》配套笔记

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③ Productivity （能产性，创造性）

Language is productive in that it makes possible the construction and interpretation of new

signals by its users. （Creativity or open-endedness）

④ Cultural transition （文化传递性）

While human capacity for Ianguage has a genetic basis （everyone was born with the a bility

to acquire a Ianguage）, the details of any Ianguage system are not genetically transmit ted, but in

stead have to be taught and lear nt.

⑤ Discreteness（可分离性）

Each sound in the Ian guage is treated as discrete.

⑥ Duality （双重结构性，两重性或二元性）

Language is organized at two levels or layers simultaneously. The lower or basic level is a

structure of sounds which are meaningless. The higher level is morpheme or word （d ouble articulati

on）

The above six properties may be taken as the core features of human Ianguage.

Vocal-auditory channel, reciprocity, specialization, non-directionality, or rapid fade, these

properties are best treated as ways of describing human Ianguage, but not as a means of dist in

guish ing it from other systems of com muni cati on.

[C] The development of written Ianguage

① pictograms & ideograms （象形文字和表意文字）

Pictogram: when some of the pictures came to represent particular images in a consiste nt

way, we can beg in to describe the product as a form of picture-writi ng, or pictograms.

Ideogram: the picture developed as more abstract and used other than its entity is cons idered