林星小雨的現(xiàn)代語言學(xué)筆記（LATEST）

1、A Detailed Note for Modern LinguisticsChapter 1: Introduction1. Define the following terms:1). Linguistics: It is generally defined as the scientific study of language. 2). General linguistics: The study of language as a whole is called general linguistics.3). Applied linguistics: In a narrow sense,

2、 applied linguistics refers to the application of linguistic principles 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 rec

3、overy of speech ability.4). Synchronic study: The study of a language at some point in time. e.g. A study of the features of the English used in Shakespeares time is a synchronic study.5). Diachronic study: The study of a language as it changes through time. A diachronic study of language is a histo

4、rical study, which studies the historical development of language over a period of time. e.g. a study of the changes English has undergone since Shakespeares time is a diachronic study.6). Language competence: The ideal users knowledge of the rules of his language. A transformational-generative gram

5、mar（轉(zhuǎn)化生成語法）is a model of language competence.7). Language performance: performance is the actual realization of the ideal language users knowledge of the rules in linguistic communication. 8). Langue : Langue refers to the abstract linguistic system shared by all the members of a speech community; L

6、angue is the set of conventions and rules which language users all have to follow; Langue is relatively stable, it does not change frequently.9). Parole: Parole refers to the realization of langue in actual use; parole is the concrete use of the conventions and the application of the rules; parole v

7、aries from person to person, and from situation to situation.10). Language: Language is a system of arbitrary vocal symbols used for human communication.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

8、example is the fact that different sounds are used to refer to the same object in different languages.12). Productivity: Language is productive or creative in that it makes possible the construction and interpretation of new signals by its users.13). Duality: Language is a system, which consists of

9、two sets of structure, or two levels, one of sounds at the lower or basic level, and the other of meanings at the higher level.14). Displacement: 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.

10、 In other words, language can be used to refer to contexts removed from the immediate situations of the speaker.15). Cultural transmission: 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.1

11、6). Design features: It refers to the defining properties of human language that distinguish it from any animal system of communication2. Explain the following definition of linguistics: Linguistics is the scientific study of language. Linguistics investigates not any particular language, but langua

12、ges in general. Linguistic study is scientific because it is based on the systematic investigation of authentic(可靠的，真實的) 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 s

13、ome hypotheses, and testing these hypotheses against linguistic facts to prove their validity.3. What are the branches of linguistics? What does each of them study? (語言學(xué)的主要分支是什么。每個分支的研究對象是什么？)Linguistics mainly involves the following branches: 1) General linguistics, which is the study of language a

14、s 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 comm

15、unication 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 language. 7) Pragmatics, which is the study of meaning not in isolation, but in

16、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

17、; in a narrow 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(人類語言學(xué)), neurological linguistics（神經(jīng)語言學(xué)）, mathematical lin

18、guistics（數(shù)學(xué)語言學(xué)）, and computational linguistics（計算機語言學(xué)）. 4. What makes modern linguistics different from traditional grammar? (現(xiàn)代語言學(xué)與傳統(tǒng)語法有什么區(qū)別？) Traditional grammar is prescriptive（規(guī)定性）; it is based on high (religious, literary) written language. It sets models for language users to follow. But Moder

19、n 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. 5. Is modern linguistics mainl

20、y synchronic or diachronic? Why? （共時性）（歷時性） (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 stat

21、es of a language are successfully studied, it will not be possible to describe language from a diachronic point of view.6. Which enjoys priority in modern linguistics, speech or writing? Why? Modern linguistics gives priority to the spoken language for the following reasons: First, speech precedes w

22、riting. 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.7

23、. Saussure langue parole? Saussure 是如何區(qū)分語言和言語的？(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 communit

24、y, 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, bu

25、t 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.8. Chomsky competence performance? Chomsky的語言能力和語言使用各指什么？(American linguist N. Chomsky in

26、 the late 1950s proposed the distinction between competence and performance.) Chomsky defines competence as the ideal users 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

27、 sentences that are ungrammatical and ambiguous. According to Chomsky,performance is the actual realization of this knowledge in linguistic communication. Although the speakers knowledge of his mother tongue is perfect, his performances may have mistakes because of social and psychological factors s

28、uch 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).9. How is Saussures distinction between langue and parole similar to Chomskys distinction between competence and performance?

29、And what is their difference?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

30、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.10. What characteristics of language do you think should be included in a good, comprehensive definition of language? Langu

31、age 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,

32、 language is vocal because the primary medium is sound for all languages. The term “human” is meant to specify that language is human-specific.11. What features of human language have been specified by Charles Hockett to show that it is essentially different from any animal communication system? 人類語

33、言的甄別性特征是什么？ 1. Arbitrariness（任意性）: (課本答案：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 t

34、otal 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（創(chuàng)造性）: （課本答案：creativity: animals are quite limited in the messages they are able to send）Language is productive or creative in tha

35、t it makes possible the construction and interpretation of an infinitely large number of sentences, including those they have never said or heard before. 3. Duality（二重性）: （課本答案：a feature totally lacking in any animal communication）It means that language is a system, which consists of two sets of str

36、ucture, 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 double art

37、iculation of language enables its users to talk about anything within their knowledge. 4. Displacement（移位性）: （課本答案：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, pr

38、esent, 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（文化傳遞性）： （課本答案：details of human language system are taught and learned while animals are born with the capacity to send out ce

39、rtain 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.12. Do you think human language is entirely arbitrary? Why?Language is arbitrary in nature,

40、 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 c

41、ompounds for another example. The two elements “photo” and “copy” in “photocopy” are non-motivated, but the compound is not arbitrary. Chapter 2: Phonology1. Define the terms: 1). phonetics: Phonetics is defined as the study of the phonic medium of language; it is concerned with all the sounds that

42、occur in the world s languages2). auditory phonetics: It studies the speech sounds from the hearers 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

43、sounds are transmitted through the air from one person to another.4). international phonetic alphabet IPA: It is a standardized and internationally accepted system of phonetic transcription.5). Broad transcription: the transcription with letter-symbols only, i.e. one letter-symbol for one sound. Thi

44、s is the transcription normally used in dictionaries and teaching textbooks.6). Narrow transcription: is the transcription with letter-symbols together with the diacritics. This is the transcription used by the phoneticians in their study of speech sounds.7). diacritics: is a set of symbols which ca

45、n be added to the letter-symbols to make finer distinctions than the letters alone make possible.8). Voiceless（清音）: 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.9). Voicing （濁音）: Sound

46、s produced while the vocal cords are vibrating are called voiced sounds.10). Vowel: the sounds in production of which no articulators come very close together and the air stream passes through the vocal tract without obstruction are called vowels.11). Consonants: the sounds in the production of whic

47、h there is an obstruction of the air stream at some point of the vocal tract are called consonants.12). phonology: 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 lin

48、guistic communication.13). phone: Phones can be simply defined as the speech sounds we use when speaking a language. A phone is a phonetic unit or segment. It does not necessarily distinguish meaning.14). phoneme: a collection of abstract phonetic features, it is a basic unit in phonology. It is rep

49、resented or realized as a certain phone by a certain phonetic context.15). allophone: The different phones which can represent a phoneme in different phonetic environments are called the allophones of that phoneme. For example l and l16). phonemic contrast: Phonemic contrast refers to the relation b

50、etween two phonemes. If two phonemes can occur in the same environment and distinguish meaning, they are in phonemic contrast.17). Complementary distribution: refers to the relation between two similar phones which are allophones of the same phoneme, and they occur in different environments.18). min

51、imal pair: 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: bin and pin.19). suprasegmental features: the phonemic features that occur above the level of the seg

52、ments are called suprasegmental features. The main suprasegmental features include stress, tone and intonation.20). tone: 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-disti

53、nctive function of the tone is especially important in tone languages, for example, in Chinese.21). intonation: When pitch, stress and sound length are tied to the sentence rather than the word in isolation, they are collectively known as intonation. For example, English has four basic types of into

54、nation: the falling tone, the rising tone, the fall-rise tone and the rise-fall tone.2. What are the two major media of communication? Of the two, which one is primary and why? 語言交際的兩大媒介是什么？哪一個是基本的交際媒介？為什么？ Speech and writing are the major media of communication. Speech is considered primary over wr

55、iting. 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.3. What are the three branches of phonetics? How do they contribute to the study of speech sounds? 語音學(xué)的三個

56、分支是什么。它們是如何研究語言學(xué)的？ (可參照一下課文原話，可能更容易理解)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 the

57、oretical 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（聲譜儀）. 4. Where are the articulatory apparatus of human being contained? Ph

58、aryngeal cavity, oral cavity and nasal cavity.5. What is voicing and how is it caused? 什么叫濁音化？它是如何形成的？ 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. 6. What is the fu