Chapter 1 Invitations to Linguisticsnguage is a system of arbitrary vocal symbols used for human communication. To give the barest definition language is a means of verbal communication. It is instrumental social and conventional. Linguistics is usually defined as the science of language or alternatively as the scientific study of language. It concerns with the systematic study of language or a discipline that describes all aspects of language and formulates theories as to how language works.2.Design features refers to the defining properties of human language that distinguish it from any animal system of communication. They are arbitrariness, duality, creativity, displacement etc.Arbitrariness refers to forms of linguistic signs bear no natural relationship to their meaning Language is arbitrary. There is no logical connection between meanings and sounds even with onomatopoeic words.Duality refers to the property of having two levels of structure. The units of the primary level are composed of elements of the secondary level and each of the two levels has its own principles of organization.☺the lower or the basic level---- the sound units or phonemes which are meaningless, but can be grouped and regrouped into words.☺the higher level ----morphemes and words which are meaningfulCreativity refers to Words can be used in new ways to mean new things and can be instantly understood by people who have never come across that usage before.Displacement refers to the fact that 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 faraway places. It means that human languages enable their users to symbolize objects events and concepts which are not present in time and space at the moment of communication3. Jakobson’s classification of functions of language.Jakobson : In his article Linguistics and Poetics (1960) defined six primary factors of any speech event: speaker, addressee, context,message, code, contact.1).Referential function 所指功能2).Poetic function诗学功能3).Emotive function感情功能4).Conative function意动功能5).Phatic function交感功能6).Metalingual元语言功能Hu Zhuanglin’ classification of functions of language and use some examples to illustrate them.1).Informative function 信息功能2).Interpersonal function 人际功能3).Performative function 施为功能4).Emotive function 感情功能5).Phatic communion 交感性谈话6).Recreational function 娱乐性功能7).Metalingual function 元语言功能4. What are the major differences between Saussure’s distinction between langue and parole and Chomsky’s distinction between competence and performance?According to Saussure,(1) Langue is abstract, parole is specific to the speaking situation;(2) Langue is not actually spoken by an individual , parole is always a naturally occurring event;(3) Langue is relatively stable and systematic, parole is a mass of confused facts, thus not suitable for systematic investigation.According to N. Chomsky,Competence enables a speaker to produce and understand an indefinite number of sentences and to recognize grammatical mistakes and ambiguities; A speaker’s competence is stable while his performance is often influenced by psychological and social factors. So a speaker's performance does not always match or equal his supposed competence; Chomsky believes that linguists ought to study competence, rather than performance. In other words, they should discover what an ideal speaker knows of his native language.Chapter 2 Speech Sounds1.Phonetics studies how speech sounds are produced, transmitted and received. It is concerned with the actual physical articulation, transmission and perception of speech sounds.Phonology is essentially the description of the systems and patterns of speech sounds. It isconcerned with the abstract and mental aspect of the sounds in language.Phonology aims to discover how speech sounds in a language form patterns and how these sounds are used to convey meaning in linguistic communication1. Lips2. Teeth3. Teeth ridge (alveolar)齿龈4. Hard palate 硬腭5. Soft palate (velum) 软腭6. Uvula 小舌7. Tip of tongue8. Blade of tongue 舌面9. Back of tongue10. V ocal cords 声带11. Pharyngeal cavity 咽腔 12. Nasal cavity 鼻腔2.Phone （音素): the smallest perceptible discreet segment of sound in a stream of speech. (in the mouth)Phoneme （音位）：A sound which is capable of distinguishing one word or one shape of a word from another in a given language is a phoneme. (in the mind)allophone (音位变体) : phonic variants of a phoneme are called allophone of the same phoneme. / / = phoneme [ ] = phone { } = set of allophonesIPA:the abbreviation of International Phonetic Alphabet .Minimal pairs 最小对立体Three requirements for identifying minimal pairs:1) different in meaning; 2) only one phoneme different;3) the different phonemes occur in the same phonetic environment.e.g. a minimal pair: pat -fat; lit-lip; phone-toneminimal set:pat, mat, bat, fat, cat, hat, etcplementary distribution 互补分布Phonetically similar sounds might be related in two ways.If they are two distinctive phonemes, they might form a contrast; e.g. /p/and /b/ in [pit] and [bit];If they are allophones of the same phoneme, then they don’t distinguish meaning, but complement each other in distribution, i.e. they occur in different phonetic contextSuprasegmental features 超音段特征—features that involve more than single sound segment, such as stress （重音），length（音程）, rhythm （节奏），tone（音调），intonation（语调）及juncture（音渡）．Chapter 3 Lexicon/Morphology1. Word1.1 Three senses of “word”(1) A physically definable unit: a cluster of sound segments or letters between two pause orblank.(2) Word both as a general term and as a specific term.(3) A grammatical unit1.2 Identification of wordsSome factors can help us identify words:(1) Stability(2) Relative uninterruptibility(3) A minimum free form1.3 The classification of wordWords can be classified in terms of:(1) Variable vs. invariable words (可变词/不可变词)(2) Grammatical words vs. lexical words (语法词/词汇词)(3) Closed-class words vs. open-class words (封闭词/开放词)(4) word class(词类)(1) Variable vs. invariable words (可变词/不可变词)the former refers to words having inflective changes（屈折变化）while the latter refers to words having no such endings.Variable words: follow; follows; following; followedInvariable words: since; when; seldom; through; hello(2) Grammatical words vs. lexical words (function words and content words.语法词/词汇词)The former refers to those words expressing grammatical meanings, such as conjunctions(连词), prepositions（介词）, articles(冠词), and pronouns（代词）;the latter refers to words having lexical meanings, those which refer to substance, action etc. such as n., v., adj., and adv..(3) Closed-class words vs. open-class words (封闭词/开放词)the former refers to words whose membership is fixed or limited; e.g. pron., prep., conj., article. the latter of which the membership is infinite or unlimited. e.g.: n., v., adj., adv.(4) word class (词类)The traditionally recognized word classes are: noun, pronoun, adjective, verb, adverb, preposition, conjunction, interjection, article, etc. More word classes have been introduced into grammar: particles 小品词/语助词(go by, look for, come up);auxiliaries 助词(can, be, will);pro-form 替代词(do, so);determiners 前置词/ 限定词(all, every, few, plenty of, this).2. The formation of word2.1 Morphology 形态学Definition：Morphology is a branch of linguistics, which studies the internal structure of words and the rules by which words are formed.The two fields (p64)Inflectional morphology: the study of inflectionsDerivational morphology: the study of word-formation3. Lexical change3.1 Lexical change proper（词本身的变化）Invention 新造词Blending混合词Abbreviation 缩合词Acronym首字母缩略词back-formation 逆构词analogical creation 类比造词Borrowing 借词、外来词definition:1) Morphology:Morphology is a branch of linguistics, which studies the internal structure of words and the rules by which words are formed.2) Terminology 术语解释Morpheme: The smallest unit of meaning, which can not be divided into further smaller units without destroying or drastically altering the meaning, whether it is lexical or grammatical.Free morphemes: morphemes which may constitute words by themselves．Bound morphemes:morphemes which can not be used by themselves, but must be combined with other morphemes to form wordsInflectional morpheme: a kind of bound morphemes which manifest various grammatical relations or grammatical categories such as number, tense, degree and case.Derivational morpheme: a kind of bound morphemes, added to existing forms to create new words. There are three kinds according to position: prefix, suffix and infix.Chapter 4 Syntax From Word to TextSyntax is the study of the rules governing the ways different constituents are combined to form sentences in a language, or the study of the interrelationships between elements in sentence structures.Endocentric Constructions:is one whose distribution is functionally equivalent to that of one or more of its constituents, i.e., a word or a group of words, which serves as a definable centre or head.Exocentric Constructions:refers to a group of syntactically related words where none of the words is functionally equivalent to the group as a whole, that is, there is no definable “Centre” or “Head” inside the group Category: refers to the defining properties of these general units:Categories of the noun: number, gender, case and countabilityCategories of the verb: tense, aspect, voicethree kinds of syntactic relations:relations of position位置关系Positional relation, or WORD ORDER, refers to the sequential arrangement of words in a language.relations of substitutability 可替代性关系The Relation of Substitutability refers to classes or sets of words substitutable for each other grammatically in sentences with the same structure.relations of co-occurrence 同现关系It means that words of different sets of clauses may permit, or require, the occurrence of a word of another set or class to form a sentence or a particular part of a sentence.Immediate Constituent Analysis (IC Analysis)Immediate constituent analysis is a form of linguistic review that breaks down longer phrases or sentences into their constituent parts, usually into single words. This kind of analysis is sometimes abbreviated as IC analysis,and gets used extensively by a wide range of language experts.Endocentric constructions fall into two main types, depending on the relation between constituents: Coordination and subordinationCoordination is a common syntactic pattern in English and other languages formed by grouping together two or more categories of the same type with the help of a conjunction such as and, but and or .Subordination refers to the process or result of linking linguistic units so that they have different syntactic status, one being dependent upon the other, and usually a constituent of the other.Characteristics of subjectsA) Word order: Subject ordinarily precedes the verb in the statementB) Pro-forms(代词形式) : The first and third person pronouns in English appear in a special form when the pronoun is a subjectC) Agreement with the verb: In the simple present tense, an -s is added to the verb when a third person subject is singular, but the number and person of the object or any other element in the sentence have no effect at all on the form of the verbD) Content questions (实意问句): If the subject is replaced by a question word (who or what), the rest of the sentence remains unchangedE) Tag question (反意问句): A tag question is used to seek confirmation of a statement. It always contains a pronoun which refers back to the subject, and never to any other element in the sentence.Explain the difference between sense and reference from the following four aspects:1) A word having reference must have sense;2) A word having sense might not have reference;3) A certain sense can be realized by more than one reference; 4) A certain reference can beexpressed by more than one senseThe distinction between “sense” and “reference” is com parable to that between “connotation” and “denotation”. The former refers to some abstract properties, while the latter refers to some concrete entities.Firstly, to some extent, we can say that every word has a sense, i.e., some conceptual content; otherwise we would not be able to use it or understand it. Secondly, but not every word has a reference. There are linguistic expressions which can never be used to refer to anything, for example, the words so, very, maybe, if, not, and all. These words do of course contribute meaning to the sentences in which they occur and thus help sentences denote, but they themselves do not identify entities in the world. They are intrinsically non-referring terms. And words like ghost and dragon refer to imaginary things, which do not exist in reality. Thirdly, some expressions will have the same reference across a range of utterances, e.g., the Eiffel Tower or the Pacific Ocean. Such expressions are sometimes described as having constant reference. Others have their references totally dependent on context. Expressions like I, you, she, etc. are said to have variable references. Lastly, sometimes a reference may be expressed by more than one sense. For instance, both ‘evening star’ and ‘morning star’(晚星，启明星), though they differ in sense, refer to Venus.Chapter 6 Language and cognition1.What is Cognition?In psychology it is used to refer to the mental processes of an individual with particular relation to a view that argues that the ming has internal mental states and can be understood in terms of information processing.Another denefition is mental process or faculty of knowing, including awareness, perception, reasoning, and judgment.2.Cognitive LinguisticsCognitive linguistics is the scientific study of the relation between the way we communicate and the way we think.It is an approach to language that is based on our experience of the world and the way we perceive and conceptualize it.3.What are the differences between metaphor & metonymy? Give some examples. Metaphor is a conceptual mapping（概念映射）, not a linguistic one, from one domain to another （从一个语域到另一个语域）, not from a word to another.Metonymy is a cognitive process in which one conceptual entity, the vehicle（源域）, provides mental access to another conceptual entity, the target（目标域）, within the same domain. The reference point activates the target.1.Metaphor is used for substitution, while metonymy is used for association.2. Metaphor can mean condensation and metonymy can mean displacement.3. A metonymy acts by combining ideas while metaphor acts by suppressing ideas.4. In a metaphor, the comparison is based on the similarities, while in metonymy thecomparison is based on contiguity.--For example, the sentence ‘he is a tiger in class’ is a metaphor. Her e the word tiger is used in substitution for displaying an attribute of character of the person. The sentence ‘the tiger called his students to the meeting room’ is a metonymy. Here there is no substitution; instead the person is associated with a tiger for his nature..Metaphor is actually a cognitive tool that helps us structure our thoughts and experiences in the world around us..Metaphor is a conceptual mapping（概念映射）, not a linguistic one, from one domain to another（从一个语域到另一个语域）, not from a word to another.Metonymy（换喻，转喻）.It is a cognitive process in which one conceptual entity, the vehicle（源域）, provides mental access to another conceptual entity, the target（目标域）, within the same domain.2.Psycholinguistics is the study of psychological aspects of language; it usually studies the psychological states and mental activity with the use of language.Language acquisition (1) Holophrastic stage（单词句阶段）–Language’s sound patterns–Phonetic distinctions in parents’ language.–One-word stage: objects, actions, motions, routines.2) Two-word stage: around 18m3) Three-word-utterance stage4) Fluent grammatical conversation stageChapter 7 Language, culture and society1.the relationship between language and thought?Generally, the relation of L to C is that of part to whole, for L is part of C.The knowledge and beliefs that constitute a people’s culture are habitually encoded and transmitted in L.There exists a close relationship between language and culture. This is evidenced by the findings of anthropologists such as Malinowski, Firth, Baos, Sapir and Whorf. The study of the relation between language and the context in which it is used is the cultural study of language.2.What’s Sapir-Whorf Hypothesis? Give your comment on it.Edward Sapir (1884 - 1939) and Benjamin Lee Whorf (1897-1941)Our language helps mould our way of thinking and, consequently, different languages may probably express speakers’unique ways of understanding the world.Linguistic determinism: L may determine our thinking patterns.Linguistic relativity: a. Similarity between language is relative; b. the greater their structural differentiation is, the diverse their conceptualization of the world will be.Chapter 8 Language in usePragmatics: The study of language in use and the study of meaning in context, as well as the study of speakers’ meaning, utterance meaning& contextual meaning..What’s your understanding of conversational implicature? Use one or two examples to discuss the violation of its maxims.People do not usually say things directly but tend to imply them. CP is meant to describe whatactually happens in conversation. People tend to be cooperative and obey CP in communication. Since CP is regulative, CP can be violated. Violation of CP and its maxims leads to conversational implicature.1.What are the main differences between pragmatics and semantics?Semantics and pragmatics are both linguistic studies of meaning. The essential difference lies in whether in the study of meaning the context of use is considered. If it is not, the study is restricted to the area of traditional semantics; if it is, the study is carried out in the area of pragmatics.Semantics studies sentences as units of the abstract linguistic system while pragmatics studies utterances as instances of the system.The former stops at the sentence level; the latter looks at bigger chunks of conversation. The former regards sentences as stable products; the latter treats utterances as dynamic processes. The former analyses sentences in isolation; The latter analyses utterances in close connection with their contexts of situation.2. What does pragmatics study? How does it differ from traditional semantics?答： Generally speaking, pragmatics is the study of meaning in the context. It studies meaning in a dynamic way and as a process. In order to have a successful communication, the speaker and he arer must take the context into their consideration so as to affect the right meaning and intention. T he development and establishment pragmatics in 1960s and 1970s resulted mainly from the expan sion of the study semantics. However, it is different from the traditional semantics. The major diff erence between them lies in that pragmatics studies meaning in a dynamic way, while semantics st udies meaning in a static way. Pragmatics takes context into consideration while semantics does n ot. Pragmatics takes care of the aspect of meaning that is not accounted for by semantics.3. What are the four maxims of the CP? Try to give your own examples to show how flouting these maxims give rise to conversational implicature?答： Cooperative Principle, abbreviated as CP. It goes as follows:Make your conversational contribution such as required at the stage at which it occurs by the ac cepted purpose or direction of the talk exchange in which you are engaged.To be more specific, there are four maxims under this general principle:(1) The maxim of quantity① Make your contribution as informative as required (for the current purpose of the exchange) . ② Do not make your contribution more informative than is required.(2) The maxim of quality① Do not say what you believe to be false.② Do not say that for which you lack adequate evidence.(3) The maxim of relation Be relevant.(4) The maxim of manner① Avoid obscurity of expression. ② Avoid ambiguity.③ Be brief (avoid unnecessary prolixity).④ Be orderly.Chapter 9 Language and literature1.What is ‘foregrounding’?In a purely linguistic sense, the term ‘foregrounding’ is used to refer to new information, in contrast to elements in the sentence which form the background against which the new elementsare to be understood by the listener / reader.In the wider sense of stylistics, text linguistics, and literary studies, it is a translation of the Czech aktualisace (actualization), a term common with the Prague Structuralists.The English term ‘foregrounding’has come to mean several things at once:-the (psycholinguistic) processes by which - during the reading act - something may be given special prominence;-specific devices (as produced by the author) located in the text itself. It is also employed to indicate the specific poetic effect on the reader;-an analytic category in order to evaluate literary texts, or to situate them historically, or to explain their importance and cultural significance, or to differentiate literature from other varieties of language use, such as everyday conversations or scientific reports.Literal language and figurative language-A language is called literal when what is meant to be conveyed is same as what the word to word meaning of what is said. In contrast the figurative language, the words are used to imply meaning which is other than their strict dictionary meaning.-Literal language refers to words that do not deviate from their defined meaning. Figurative language refers to words, and groups of words, that exaggerate or alter the usual meanings of the component words. Figurative language may involve analogy to similar concepts or other contexts, and may involve exaggerations. These alterations result in figures of speech.Chapter 11 LinguisticsApplied linguistics: is the study of the relation of linguistics to foreign language teaching, of the ways of applying linguistic theories to the practice of foreign language teaching. Universal Grammar:is a theory in linguistics that suggests that there are properties that all Possible natural human languages have. Usually credited to Noam Chomsky, the theory suggests that some rules of grammar are hard-wired into the brain, and manifest themselves without being taught. There is still much argument whether there is such a thing and what it would be. Syllabus: a syllabus is a specification of what take place in the classroom,which usually contains the aims and contents of teaching and sometimes contains suggestions of methodology. Interlanguage: the type of language constructed by second or foreign language learners who are still in the process of learning a language is often referred to as interlanguage.contrastive analysis: A way of comparing L1 and L2 to determine potential errors for the purpose of isolating what needs to be learned and what not. Its goal is to predict what areas will be easyto learn and what will be difficult. Associated in its early days with behaviorism and structuralism. the Input Hypothesis: according to krashen's input hypothesis, learners acquire language as a result of comprehending input addressed to them.Chapter 12 Theories & schools of modern linguisticsTransformational-Generative GrammarThe five stages of development of TG Grammar:1) The classical theory (1957)2) The standard theory (1965)3) Extended standard theory4) GB/PP theory (1981)5) The Minimalist ProgramInnateness hypothesis: Chomsky believes that language is somewhat innate, and that children are born with what he calls a Language Acquisition Device(LAD), which is a unique kind of knowledge that fits them for language learning.CHOMSKY’S TG GRAMMAR DIFFERS FROM THE STRUCTURAL GRAMMARIN A NUMBER OF WAYS1. Rationalism2. innateness 3 deductive methodology4 emphasis on interpretation 5formalization 6.emphasis on linguistic competence 7. strong generative powers 8.emphasis on linguistic universals11 / 11。
