语言学概论重难点

语言学概论》重、难点提示

Questions & Answers on Key Points of Linguistics

《英语语言学概论》重、难点问与答

1.1. What is language?

“Language is system of arbitrary vocal symbols used for human communication. It is a system, since linguistic elements are arranged systematically, rather than randomly. Arbitrary, in the sense that there is usually no intrinsic connection between a work (like “book”) and the object it refers to. This explains and is explained by the fact that different languages have different “books”: “book” in English, “livre” in French, in Japanese, in Chinese, “check” in Korean. It is symbolic, because words are associated with objects, actions, ideas etc. by nothing but convention. Namely, people use the sounds or vocal forms to symbolize what they wish to refer to. It is vocal, because sound or speech is the primary medium for all human languages, developed or “new”. Writing systems came much later than the spoken forms. The fact that small children learn and can only learn to speak (and listen) before they write (and read) also indicates that language is primarily vocal, rather than written. The term “human” in the definition is meant to specify that language is human specific.

1.2. What are design features of language?

“Design features” here refer to the defin ing properties of human language that tell the difference between human language and any system of animal communication. They are arbitrariness, duality, productivity, displacement, cultural transmission and interchangeability

1.3. What is arbitrariness?

By “arbitrariness”, we mean there is no logical connection between meanings and sounds (see I .1).

A dog might be a pig if only the first person or group of persons had used it for a pig. Language is therefore largely arbitrary. But language is not absolutely seem to be some sound-meaning association, if we think of echo words, like “bang”, “crash”, “roar”, which are motivated in a certain sense. Secondly, some compounds (words compounded to be one word) are not entirely arbitrary either. “Type” and “write” are opaque or unmotivated words, while “type-writer” is less so, or more transparent or motivated than the words that make it. So we can say “arbitrariness” is a matter of degree.

1.4.What is duality?

Linguists refer “duality” (of structure) to the fac t that in all languages so far investigated, one finds two levels of structure or patterning. At the first, higher level, language is analyzed in terms of combinations of meaningful units (such as morphemes, words etc.); at the second, lower level, it is seen as a sequence of segments which lack any meaning in themselves, but which combine to form units of meaning. According to Hu Zhanglin et al. (p.6), language is a system of two sets of structures, one of sounds and the other of meaning. This is important for the workings of language.

A small number of semantic units (words), and these units of meaning can be arranged and rearranged into an infinite number of sentences (note that we have dictionaries of words, but no dictionary of sentences!). Duality makes it possible for a person to talk about anything within his knowledge. No animal communication system enjoys this duality, or even approaches this honor.

1.5.What is productivity?

Productivity refers to the ability to the ability to construct and understand an indefinitely large number of sentences in one?s native language, including those that has never heard before, but that are appropriate to the speaking situation. No one has ever said or heard “A red-eyed elephant is dancing on the small hotel bed wi th an African gibbon”, but he can say it when necessary, and he can understand it in right register. Different from artistic creativity, though, productivity never goes outside the language, thus also called “rule-bound creativity” (by N.Chomsky).

1.6.What is displacement?

“Displacement”, as one of the design features of the human language, refers to the fact that one can talk about things that are not present, as easily as he does things present. In other words, one can refer to real and unreal things, things of the past, of the present, of the future. Language itself can be talked about too. When a man, for example, is crying to a woman, about something, it might be something that had occurred, or something that is occurring, or something that is to occur. When a dog is barking, however, you can decide it is barking for something or at someone that exists now and there. It couldn?t be bow wowing sorrowfully for dome lost love or a bone to be lost. The bee?s system, nonetheless, has a small share of “displacement”, but it is an unspeakable tiny share.

1.7.What is cultural transmission?

This means that language is not biologically transmitted from generation to generation, but that the details of the linguistic system must be learned anew by each speaker. It is true that the capacity for language in human beings (N. Chomsky called it “language acquisition device”, or LAD) has a genetic basis, but the particular language a person learns to speak is a cultural one other than a genetic one like the dog?s barking system. If a human being is brought up in isolation he cannot acquire language. The Wolf Child reared by the pack of wolves turned out to speak the wolf?s roaring “tongue” when he was saved. He learned thereafter, with no small difficulty, the ABC of a certain human language.

1.8.What is interchangeability?

(1) Interchangeability means that any human being can be both a producer and a receiver of messages. We can say, and on other occasions can receive and understand, for example, “Please do something to make me happy.” Though some people (including me) suggest that there is sex differentiation in the actual language use, in other words, men and women may say different things, yet in principle there is no sound, or word or sentence that a man can utter and a woman cannot, or vice versa. On the other hand, a person can be the speaker while the other person is the listener and as the turn moves on to the listener, he can be the speaker and the first speaker is to listen. It is turn-taking that makes social communication possible and acceptable.

(2) Some male birds, however, utter some calls, which females do not (or cannot?), and certain kinds of fish have similar haps mentionable. When a dog barks, all the neighboring dogs bark. Then people around can h ardly tell which dog (dogs) is (are0 “speaking” and which listening.

1.9.Why do linguists say language is human specific?

First of all, human language has six “design features” which animal communication systems do

not have, at least not in the true sense of them (see I .2-8). Let?s borrow C. F. Hocket?s Chart that compares human language with some animals? systems, from Wang Gang (1998,p.8). Secondly, linguists have done a lot trying to teach animals such as chimpanzees to speak a human language but have achieved nothing inspiring. Beatnice and Alan Gardner brought up Washoe, a female chimpanzee, like a human child. She was taught “American sign Language”, and learned a little that made the teachers happy but did mot make the linguistics circle happy, for few believed in teaching chimpanzees.

Thirdly, a human child reared among animals cannot speak a human language, not even when he is taken back and taught to lo to so (see the “Wolf Child”in I.7)

1.10.What functions does language have?

Language has at least seven functions: phatic, directive, Informative, interrogative, expressive, evocative and per formative. According to Wang Gang (1988,p.11), language has three main functions: a tool of communication, a tool whereby people learn about the world, and a tool by which people learn about the world, and a tool by which people create art. M .A. K.Halliday, representative of the London school, recognizes three “Macro-Functions”: ideational, interpersonal and textual (see! 11-17;see HU Zhuanglin et al., pp10-13, pp394-396).

1. 11What is the phatic function?

The “phatic function” refers to language being used for setting up a certain atmosphere or maintaining social contacts (rather than for exchanging information or ideas). Greetings, farewells, and comments on the weather in English and on clothing in Chinese all serve this function. Much of the phatic language (e.g. “How are you?” “Fine, thanks.”) Is insincere if taken literally, but it is important. If you don't say “Hello” to a friend you meet, or if you don?t answer his “Hi”, you ruin your friendship.

1.1

2. What is the directive function?

The “directive function” means that language may be used to get the hearer to do something. Most imperative sentences perform this function, e.g., “Tell me the result when you finish.” Other syntactic structures or sentences of other sorts can, according to J.Austin and J.Searle?s “indirect speech act theory”(see Hu Zhuanglin et al., pp271-278) at least, serve the purpose of direction too, e.g., “If I were you, I would have blushed to the bottom of my ears!”

1.13.What is the informative function?

Language serves an “informational function” when used to tell something, characterized by the use of declarative sentences. Informative statements are often labeled as true (truth) or false (falsehood). According to P.Grice?s “Cooperative Principle”(see Hu Zhuanglin et al., pp282-283), one ought not to violate the “Maxim of Quality”, when he is informing at all.

1.14.What is the interrogative function?

When language is use d to obtain information, it serves an “interrogative function”. This includes all questions that expect replies, statements, imperatives etc., according to the “indirect speech act theory”, may have this function as well, e.g., “I?d like to know you better.” This may bring forth a lot of personal information. Note that rhetorical questions make an exception, since they demand

no answer, at least not the reader?s/listener?s answer.

1.15.What is the expressive function?

The “expressive function” is the use o f language to reveal something about the feelings or attitudes of the speaker. Subconscious emotional ejaculations are good examples, like “Good heavens!” “My God!” Sentences like “I?m sorry about the delay” can serve as good examples too, though in a subtle way. While language is used for the informative function to pass judgment on the truth or falsehood of statements, language used for the expressive function evaluates, appraises or asserts the speaker?s own attitudes.

1.16.What is the evocative function?

The “evocative function” is the use of language to create certain feelings in the hearer. Its aim is, for example, to amuse, startle, antagonize, soothe, worry or please. Jokes (not practical jokes, though) are supposed to amuse or entertain the listener; advertising to urge customers to purchase certain commodities; propaganda to influence public opinion. Obviously, the expressive and the evocative functions often go together, i.e., you may express, for example, your personal feelings about a political issue but end up by evoking the same feeling in, or imposing it on, your listener. That?s also the case with the other way round.

1.17.What is the per formative function?

This means people speak to “do things” or perform actions. On certain occasions the utterance itself as an action is more important than what words or sounds constitute the uttered sentence. When asked if a third Y angtze Bridge ought to be built in Wuhan, the mayor may say, “OK”, which means more than speech, and more than an average social individual may do for the construction. The judge?s imprisonment sentence, the president?s war or independence declaration, etc., are per formatives as well (see J.Austin?s speech Act Theory, Hu Zhuanglin, ecal.pp271-278).

1.18.What is linguistics?

“Linguistics” is the scientific study of language. It studies not just one language of any one society, but also the language of all human beings. A linguist, though, does not have to know and use a large number of languages, but to investigate how each language is constructed. He is also concerned with how a language varies from dialect to dialect, from class to class, how it changes from century to century, how children acquire their mother tongue, and perhaps how a person learns or should learn a foreign language. In short, linguistics studies the general principles whereupon all human languages are constructed and operate as systems of communication in their societies or communities (see Hu Zhuanglin et al., pp20-22)

1.19.What makes linguistics a science?

Since linguistics is the scientific study of language, it ought to base itself upon the systematic, investigation of language data, which aims at discovering the true nature of language and its underlying system. To make sense of the data, a linguist usually has conceived some hypotheses about the language structure, to be checked against the observed or observable facts. In order to make his analysis scientific, a linguist is usually guided by four principles: exhaustiveness, consistency, and objectivity. Exhaustiveness means he should gather all the materials relevant to

the study and give them an adequate explanation, in spite of the complicatedness. He is to leave no linguistic “stone” unturned. Consistency means there should be no contradiction between different parts of the total statement. Economy means a linguist should pursue brevity in the analysis when it is possible. Objectivity implies that since some people may be subjective in the study, a linguist should be (or sound at least) objective, matter-of-face, faithful to reality, so that his work constitutes part of the linguistics research.

1.20.What are the major branches of linguistics?

The study of language as a whole is often called general linguistics (e.g.Hu Zhuanglin et al., 1988;Wang Gang, 1988). But a linguist sometimes is able to deal with only one aspect of language at a time, thus the arise of various branches: phonetics, phonology, morphology, syntax, semantics, sociolinguistics, applied linguistics, pragmatics, psycholinguistics, lexic ology, lexicography, etymology, etc.

1.21.What are synchronic and diachronic studies?

The des cription of a language at some point of time (as if it stopped developing) is a synchrony study (synchrony). The des cription of a language as it changes through time is a diachronic study (diachronic). An essay entitled “On the Use of THE”, for example, may be synchronic, if the author does not recall the past of THE, and it may also be diachronic if he claims to cover a large range or period of time wherein THE has undergone tremendous alteration (see Hu Zhuanglin et al., pp25-27).

1.2

2.What is speech and what is writing?

(1) No one needs the repetition of the general principle of linguistic analysis, namely, the primacy of speech over writing. Speech is primary; because it existed long long before writing systems came into being. Genetically children learn to speak before learning to write. Secondly, written forms just represent in this way or that the speech sounds: individual sounds, as in English and French as in Japanese.

(2) In contrast to speech, spoken form of language, writing as written codes, gives language new scope and use that speech does not have. Firstly, messages can be carried through space so that people can write to each other. Secondly, messages can be carried through time thereby, so that people of our time can be carried through time thereby, so that people of our time can read Beowulf, Samuel Johnson, and Edgar A. Poe. Thirdly, oral messages are readily subject to distortion, either intentional or unintentional (causing misunderstanding or malentendu), while written messages allow and encourage repeated unalterable reading.

(3) Most modern linguistic analysis is focused on speech, different from grammarians of the last century and theretofore.

1.23.What are the differences between the des criptive and the pres criptive approaches?

A linguistic study is “des criptive” if it only describes and analyses the facts of language, and “pres criptive” if it tries to lay down rules for “correct” language behavior. Linguistic studies before this century were largely pres criptive because many early grammars were largely pres criptive because many early grammars were based on “high” (literary or religious) written records. Modern linguistics is mostly des criptive, however. It (the latter) believes that whatever occurs in

natural speech (hesitation, incomplete utterance, misunderstanding, etc.) should be described in the analysis, and not be marked as incorrect, abnormal, corrupt, or lousy. These, with changes in vocabulary and structures, need to be explained also.

1.24.What is the difference between langue and parole?

F. De Saussure refers “langue”to the abstract linguistic system shared by all the members of a speech community and refers “parole” to the actual or actualized language, or the realization of langue. Langue is abstract, parole specific to the speaking situation; langue not actually spoken by an individual, parole always a naturally occurring event; langue relatively stable and systematic, parole is a mass of confused facts, thus not suitable for systematic investigation. What a linguist ought to do, according to Saussure, is to abstract langue from instances of parole, I. e. to discover the regularities governing all instances of parole and make than the subject of linguistics. The langue-parole distinction is of great importance, which casts great influence on later linguists.

1.25.What is the difference between competence and performance?

(1) According to N. Chomsky, “competence” is the ideal language user?s knowledge of the rules of his language, and “performance” is the actual realization of this knowledge in utterances. The former enables a speaker to produce and understand an indefinite number of sentences and to recognize gr ammatical 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.

(2) 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.

(3) Chomsky?s competence-performance distinction is not exactly the same as, though similar to, F. de Saussure?s langue-parole distinction. Langue is a social product, and a set of conventions for a community, while competence is deemed as a property of the mind of each individual. Sussure looks at language more from a sociological or sociolinguistic point of view than N. Chomsky since the latter deals with his issues psychologically or psycholinguistically.

1.26.What is linguistic potential? What is actual linguistic behavior?

M. A. K. Halliday made these two terms, or the potential-behavior distinction, in the 1960s, from a functional point of view. There is a wide range of things a speaker can do in his culture, and similarly there are many things he can say, for example, to many people, on many topics. What he actually says (i.e. his “actual linguistic behavior”) on a certain occasion to a certain person is what he has chosen from many possible injustice items, each of which he could have said (linguistic potential).

1.27.In what way do language, competence and linguistic potential agree? In what way do they differ? And their counterparts?

Langue, competence and linguistic potential have some similar features, but they are innately different (see 1.25). Langue is a social product, and a set of speaking conventions; competence is a property or attribu te of each ideal speaker?s mind; linguistic potential is all the linguistic corpus or repertoire available from which the speaker chooses items for the actual utterance situation. In other words, langue is invisible but reliable abstract system. Competence means “knowing”, and

linguistic potential a set of possibilities for “doing” or “performing actions”. They are similar in that they all refer to the constant underlying the utterances that constitute what Saussure, Chomsky and Halliday respectively called parole, performance and actual linguistic behavior. Paole, performance and actual linguistic behavior enjoy more similarities than differences.

1.28.What is phonetics?

“Phonetics” is the science which studies the characteristics of human sound-making, especially those sounds used in speech, and provides methods for their des cription, classification and trans cription (see Hu Zhuanglin et al., pp39-40), speech sounds may be studied in different ways, thus by three different branches of phonetics. (1) Articulatory phonetics; the branch of phonetics that examines the way in which a speech sound is produced to discover which vocal organs are involved and how they coordinate in the process. (2) Auditory phonetics, the branch of phonetic research from the heare r?s point of view, looking into the impression which a speech sound makes on the hearer as mediated by the ear, the auditory nerve and the brain. (3) Acoustic phonetics: the study of the physical properties of speech sounds, as transmitted between mouth and ear.

Most phoneticians, however, are interested in articulator phonetics.

1.29.How are the vocal organs formed?

The vocal organs (see Figure1, Hu Zhuanglin et al., p41), or speech organs, are organs of the human body whose secondary use is in the production of speech sounds. The vocal organs can be considered as consisting of three parts; the initiator of the air-stream, the producer of voice and the resonating cavities.

1.30.What is place of articulation?

It refers to the place in the mouth where, for example, the obstruction occurs, resulting in the utterance of a consonant. Whatever sound is pronounced, at least some vocal organs will get involved. g. Lips, hard palate etc., so a consonant may be one of the following (1) bilabial: [p, b, m]; (2) labiodental: [f, v]; (3) dental: [,]; (4) alveolar: [t, d, l, n.s, z]; (5) retroflex; (6) palato-alveolar: [,]; (7) palatal: [j]; (8) velar [k, g,]; (9) uvular; (10) glottal: [h].

Some sounds involve the simultaneous use of two places of articulation. For example, the English [w] has both an approximation of the two lips and those two lips and that of the tongue and the soft palate, and may be termed “labial-velar”.

1.31.What is the manner of articulation?

The “manner of articulation” literally means the way a sound is articulated. At a given place of articulation, the airstreams may be obstructed in various ways, resulting in various manners of articulation, are the following: (1) plosive: [p, b, t, d, k, g]; (2) nasal: [m, n,]; (3) trill; (4) tap or flap; (5) lateral: [l]; (6) fricative: [f, v, s, z]; (7) approximant: [w, j]; (8) affricate: [].

1.3

2.How do phoneticians classify vowels?

Phoneticians, in spite of the difficulty, group vowels in 5 types: (1) long and short vowels, e.g.,[i:,];

(4) rounded and unround vowels,e.g.[,i]; (5) pure and gliding vowels, e.g.[I,].

1.33.What is IPA? When did it come into being ?

The IPA, abbreviation of “International Phonetic Alphabet”, is a compromise system making use of symbols of all sources, including diacritics indicating length, stress and intonation, indicating phonetic variation. Ever since it was developed in 1888, IPA has undergone a number of revisions.

1.34.What is narrow trans cription and what is broad trans cription?

In handbook of phonetics, Henry Sweet m ade a distinction between “narrow” and “broad” trans criptions, which he called “Narrow Romic”. The former was meant to symbolize all the possible speech sounds, including even the most minute shades of pronunciation while Broad Romic or trans cription was intended to indicate only those sounds capable of distinguishing one word from another in a given language.

1.35.What is phonology? What is difference between phonetics and phonology?

(1) “Phonology” is the study of sound systems- the invention of distinctive speech sounds that occur in a language and the patterns wherein they fall. Minimal pair, phonemes, allophones, free variation, complementary distribution, etc., are all to be investigated by a phonologist.

(2) Phonetics, as discussed in I.28, is the branch of linguistics studying the characteristics of speech sounds and provides methods for their des cription, classification and trans cription. A phonetist is mainly interested in the physical properties of the speech sounds, whereas a phonologist studies what he believes are meaningful sounds related with their semantic features, morphological features, and the way they are conceived and printed in the depth of the mind phonological knowledge permits a speaker to produce sounds which from meaningful utterances, to recognize a foreign “accent”, to make up new words, to add the appropriate phonetic segments to from plurals and past tenses, to know what is and what is not a sound in one?s language.

1.36.What is a phone? What is a phoneme? What is an allophone?

(1) A “phone” is a phonetic unit or segment. The speech sounds we hear and produce during linguistic communication are all phones. When we hear the following words pronounced:[pit], [tip], [spit], etc., the similar phones we have heard are [p] for one thing, and three different[p]?s, readily making possible the “narrow trans cription or diacritics”. Phones may and may not distinguish meaning. A “phoneme” is a phonological unit; it is a unit that is of distinctive value. As an abstract unit, a phoneme is not any particular sound, but rather it is represented or realized by a certain phone in a certain phonetic context. For example, the phoneme[p] is represented differently in [pit], [tip] and [spit].

(2) The phones representing a phoneme ar e called its “allophones”, i. e., the different (i.e., phones) but do not make one word so phonetically different as to create a new word or a new meaning thereof. So the different[p]?s in the above words are the allophones of the same phoneme[p]. How a phoneme is represented by a phone, or which allophone is to be used, is determined by the phonetic context in which it occurs. But the choice of an allophone is not random. In most cases it is rule-governed; these rules are to be found out by a phonologist.

1.37.What are minimal pairs?

When two different phonetic forms are identical in every way except for one sound segment which occurs in the same place in the string , the two forms(i. e., word) are supposed to form a “minimal pair”, e.g., “pill” and “bill”, “pill” and “till”, “till” and “dill”, “till” and “kill”, etc. All these words

together constitute a minimal set. They are identical in form except for the initial consonants. There are many minimal pairs in English, which makes it relatively easy to know what are English phonemes. It is of great importance to find the minimal pairs when a phonologist is dealing with the sound system of an unknown language(see Hu Zhuanglin et al., pp65-66).

1.38.What is free variation?

If two sounds occurring in the same environment do not contrast; namely, if the substitution of one for the other does not generate a new word form but merely a different pronunciation of the same word, the two sounds then are said to be in “free variation”. The plosives, for example, may no t be exploded when they occur before another plosive or a nasal (e. g., act, apt, good morning). The minute distinctions may, if necessary, be transcribed in diacritics. These unexploded and exploded plosives are in free variation. Sounds in free variation should be assigned to the same phoneme.

1.39.What is complementary distribution?

When two sounds never occur in the same environment, they are in “complementary distribution”. For example, the aspirated English plosives never occur after[s], and the unsaturated ones never occur initially. Sounds in complementary distribution may be assigned to the same phoneme. The allophones of[l], for example, are also in complementary distribution. The clear[l] occurs only before a vowel, the voiceless equivalent of[l] occurs only after a voiceless consonant, such as in the words “please”, “butler”, “clear”, etc., and the dark[l] occurs only after a vowel or as a syllabic sound after a consonant, such as in the words “feel”, “help”, “middle”, etc.

1.40.What is the assimilation rule? What is the deletion rule?

(1) The “assimilation rule” assimilates one segment to another by “copying” a feature of a sequential phoneme, thus making the two phones more similar. This rule accounts for the raring pronunciation of the nasal[n] that occurs within a word. The rule is that within a word the nasal consonant[n] assumes the same place of articulation as the following consonant. The negative prefix “in-“ serves as a good example. It may be pronounced as [in], or [im] when occurring i n different phonetic contexts: e. g., indiscrete-[ ](alveolar)

inconceivable-[ ](velar)

input-[…imput](bilabial)

The “deletion rule” tells us when a sound is to be deleted although is orthographically represented. While the letter “g” is mute in “sign”, “design” and “paradigm”, it is pronounced in their corresponding derivatives: “signature”, “designation” and “paradigmatic”. The rule then can be stated as: delete a [g] when it occurs before a final nasal consonant. This accounts for some of the seeming irregularities of the English spelling (see Dai Weidong ,pp22-23).

1.41.What is suprasegmental phonology? What are suprasegmental features? “Suprasegmental phonology” refers to the study of phonological properties of linguistic units larger than the segment called phoneme, such as syllable, word and sentence.

Hu Zhuanglin et al.,(p,73) includes stress, length and pitch as what they suppose to be “principal suprasegmental features”, calling the concurrent patterning of three “intonation”. Dai Weidong(pp23-25) lists three also, but they are stress, tone and intonation.

1.4

2.What is morphology?

“Morphology” is the branch of grammar that studies the internal structure of words, and the rules by which words are formed. It is generally divided into two fields: inflectional morphology and lexical/derivational morphology.

1.43.What is inflection/inflexion?

“Inflection” is the manifestation of grammatical relationships through the addition of inflectional affixes, such as number, person, finiteness, aspect, and case, which does not change the grammatical class of the items to which they are attached.

1.44.What is a morpheme? What is an allomorph?

(1) The “morpheme” is the smallest unit in terms of relationship between expression and content, a unit which cannot be divided without destroying or drastically altering the meaning, whether it is lexical or grammatical. The word “boxes”, for example, has two morphemes: “box” and “-es”, neither of which permits further division or analysis if we don?t wish to sacrifice meaning. Therefore a morpheme is considered the minimal unit of meaning.

(2) Allomorphs, like allophones vs. phones, are the alternate shapes (and thus phonetic forms) of the same morphemes. Some morphemes, though, have no more than one invariable form in all contexts, such as “dog”, “cat”, etc. The variants of the plurality “-s” make the allomorphs thereof in the following examples: map-maps, mouse-mice, sheep-sheep etc.

1.45.What is a free morpheme? What is a bound morpheme?

A “free morpheme” is a morpheme that constitutes a word by itself, such as …bed”, “tree” ,etc. A “bound morpheme” is one that appears with at least another morpheme, such as “-s” in “beds” , “-al” in “national” and so on. All monomorphemic words are free morphemes. Those polymorphemic words are either compounds (combination of two or more free morphemes )or derivatives (word derived from free morphemes).

1.46.What is a root ? What is a stem? What is an affix?

A “root” is the base form of a word that cannot be further analyzed withou t total loss of identity. In other words, a “root” is that part of the word left when all the affixes are removed. “Internationalism” is a four-morpheme derivative which keeps its free morpheme “nation” as its root when “ inter-”, “-al” and “-ism” are take n away.

A “stem” is any morpheme or combination of morphemes to which an affix can be added. It may be the same as , and in other cases, different from, a root. For example, in the word “friends” , “friend” is both the root and the stem, but in the word “friendships”, “friendships” is its stem, “friend” is its root. Some words (i. e., compounds ) have more than one root ,e. g., “mailman” , “girlfriend” ,ect.

An “affix” is the collective term for the type of formative that can be used, only when added to another morpheme(the root or stem). Affixes are limited in number in a language, and are generally classified into three subtypes: prefix, suffix and infix, e. g. , “mini-”, “un-”, ect.(prefix); “-ise”, “-tion”, ect.(suffix).

1.47.What are open classes? What are closed classes?

In English, nouns, verbs, adjectives, and adverbs make up the largest part of the vocabulary. They are “open –class words”, since we can regularly add new lexical entries to these classes. The other syntactic categories are, for the most part, closed classes, or closed-class words. The number of them is hardly alterable, if they are changeable at all.

1.48.What is lexicon? What is word? What is lexeme? What is vocabulary? Lexicon? Word? Lexeme? V ocabulary?

“Lexicon”, in its most genera l sense, is synonymous with vocabulary. In its technical sense, however, lexicon deals with the analysis and creation of words, idioms and collocations. “Word” is a unit of expression which has universal intuitive recognition by native-speakers, whether it is expressed in spoken or written form. This definition is perhaps a little vague as there are different criteria with regard to its identification and definition. It seems that it is hard , even impossible, to define “word” linguistically. Nonetheless it is universally agreed that the following three senses are involved in the definition of “word”, none of which, though, is expected to cope with all the situations: (1)a physically definable unit ,e. g.,[it iz …w](phonological), “It is wonder” (orthographic); (2) the common factor underlying a set of forms (see what is the common factor of “checks”, “checked”, “checking ”, etc.); (3) a grammatical unit(look at (1) again; every word plays a grammatical part in the sentence).

According to Leonard Bloomfield, a word is a minimum free form (compare: a sentence is a maximum free form, according to Bloomfield ). There are other factors that may help us identify words: (1) stability (no great change of orthographic features); (2)relative uninterruptibility (we can hardly insert anything between two parts of a word or between the letters). To make the category clearer we can subclassify words into a few types: (1) variable and invariable words(e.

g.,-mats, seldom-?); (2) grammatical and lexical words(e. g. to, in ,etc., and table, chair, ect. By “lexical words” we mean the words that carry a semantic content, e.g., nouns, verbs, adjectives and many adverbs; (3) closed-class and open-class words(see I.47).

In order to reduce the ambiguity of the term “word” ,the term“lexeme” is postulated as the abtract unit which refers to the smallest unit in the meaning system of a language that can be distinguished from other smaller units. A lexeme can occur in many different forms in actual spoken or written texts. For example, “write” is the lexeme of the following words: “write”, “write”, “wrote”, “writing”, and “written.”

“V ocabulary” usually refers to all words or lexical items a person has acquired about technical or/and untechnical things. So we encourage our students to e nlarge their vocabulary. “vocabulary” is also used to mean word list or glossary.

1.49.What is collocation?

“Collocation” is a term used in lexicology by some linguists to refer to the habitual co-occurrences of individual lexical items. For example, we c an “read” a “book”; “correct” can narrowly occur with “book” which is supposed to have faults, but no one can “read” a “mistake” because with regard to co-occurrence these two words are not collocates.

1.50.What is syntax?

“Syntax” is the study of the rul es governing the ways in which words, word groups and phrases are combined to form sentences in a language, or the study of the interrelationships between

sentential elements.

1.51.What is a sentence?

L. Bloomfield defines “sentence” as an independent ling uistic form not included by some grammatical marks in any other linguistic from, i. e., it is not subordinated to a larger linguistic form, it is a structurally independent linguistic form. It is also called a maximum free form.

1.5

2.What are syntactic relations?

“Syntactic relations” refer to the ways in which words, word groups or phrases form sentences; hence three kinds of syntactic relations: positional relations, relations of substitutability and relations of co-occurrence.

(1) “Positional relation”, or “word order”, refers to the sequential arrangement to words in a language. It is a manifestation of a certain aspect of what F. de Saussure called “syntagmatic relations”, or of what other linguists call “horizontal relations” or “chain relations”.

(2) “Relations of substitutability” refer to classes or sets of words substitutable for each other grammatically in same sentence structures. Saussure called them “associative relations”. Other people call them “paradigmatic/vertical/choice relations”.

(3) By “relations of co-occurrence”, one 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. Thus relations of co-occurrence partly belong to syntagmatic relations and partly to paradigmatic relations.

1.53.What is IC analysis? What are immediate constituents(and ultimate constituents)?

“IC analysis” is a new approach of sentence study that cuts a sentence into two(or more) segments. This kind of pure segmentation is simply dividing a sentence into its constituent elements without even knowing what they really are . What remain of the first cut are called “immediate constituents”, and what are left at the final cut are called “ultimate constituents”. For example, “John left yesterday” can be thus segmented: “John| left | | yesterday”. We get two immediate constituents for the first cut (|), and they are “John” and “left yesterday”.Further split(||) this sentence generates three “ultimate constituents”: “John”, “left ” and “yesterday”.

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1. 在二十世纪，对哲学、人类学、心理学、社会学等学科产生重大影响 的语言学流派是（） A.历史比较语言学 B.心理语言学 C.结构主义语言学 D.社会语言学 2. “人有人言，兽有兽语”中的“言”属于（） A.语言 B.言语 C.言语行为 D.言语作品 3. “我爱家乡”中“爱”和“家乡”（） A.是聚合关系。 B.是组合关系。 C.既是聚合关系又是组合关系。 D. 4. 一种语言中数量最少的是 A.音素 B.音位 C.语素 D.音节 5. 英语的man—→men采用的语法手段是 A. 屈折变化 B.变换重音的位置 C. 变化中缀 D.异根 6. 在汉语普通话中没有意义区别功能的声学特征是（） A.音高 B.音强 C.音长 D.音质 7. [ε]的发音特征是 A.舌面前高不圆唇 B.舌面后高不圆唇 C.舌面前半高不圆唇 D.舌面前半低不圆唇 8. 构成“语言、身体”这两个词的语素的类型（） A.都是成词语素 B.都是不成词语素 C.“语”和“言”是成词语素，“身”和“体”是不成词语素 D.“语”和“言”是不成词语素，“身”和“体” 9. 广义地说，汉语动词词尾“着”、“了”、“过”属于语法范畴中的 （）

27037 本科自考英语语言学概论精心整理 Chapter 4 Phonology

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1.Synchronic vs diachronic Language exists in time and changes through time. The description of a language at some point of time in history is a synchronic study; the description of a language as it changes through time is a diachronic study. A diachronic study of language is a historical study; it studies the historical development of language over a period of time. 2. Langue and parole 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 abide by, and 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. 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. 3. Competence and performance Chomsky defines competence as the ideal user’s knowledge of the rules of his language, and performance the actual realization of this knowledge in linguistic communication. According to Chomsky, a speaker has internalized a set of rules about his language, which enables him to produce and understand an infinitely large number of sentences and recognize sentences that are ungrammatical and ambiguous. 4. Arbitrariness As mentioned earlier, language is arbitrary. This 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 language. On the other hand, we should be aware that while language is arbitrary by nature it is not entirely arbitrary; certain words are motivated. The best examples are the onomatopoeic words, such as rumble, crash, cackle, bang in English. Besides, some compound words are also not entirely arbitrary. For example, while photo and copy are both arbitrary, the compound word photocopy is not entirely arbitrary. But non-arbitrary words make up only a small percentage of the vocabulary of a language. The arbitrary nature of language is a sigh of sophistication and it makes it possible for language to have an unlimited source of expressions. 5. Productivity Language is productive or creative in that it makes possible the construction and interpretation of new signals by its users. This is why they can produce and understand an infinitely large number of sentences, including sentences they have never heard before. They can send messages which no one else has ever sent before. Much of what we say and hear are saying or hearing for the first time. 6. Duality Language is a system, which consists of two sets of structures or two levels. At the lower or the basic level there is a structure of sounds, which are meaningless by themselves. But the sounds of language can be grouped and regrouped into a large number of units of meaning such as morphemes and words, which are found at the higher level of the system. 7. 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 faraway places. In other words, language can be used to refer to contexts removed from the immediate situations of the speaker. This is what “displacement” means. This property provides speakers with an opportunity to talk about a wide range of things, free from barriers caused by separation in time or place. In contrast, no animal communication system possesses this feature. Animal calls are mainly uttered in response to immediate changes of situation, i.e. in contact of food, in presence of danger, or in pain. Once the danger or pain is gone, calls stop. 8. Cultural transmission While human capacity for language has a genetic basis, i.e. we were all born with the ability to acquire language, the details of any language system are not genetically transmitted, but instead have to be taught and learned. An English speaker and a Chinese speaker are both able to use a language, but they are not mutually intelligible. This shows that language is culturally transmitted. It is passed on from one generation to the next through teaching and learning, rather than by instinct. In contrast, animal call systems are genetically transmitted, i.e. animals are born with the capacity to produce the set of calls peculiar to their species. 9. Broad transcription and narrow transcription: Broad transcription is the transcription with letter-symbols only, this is the transcription normally used in dictionaries and teaching textbooks for general purposes. Narrow transcription is the transcription with letter-symbols together with the diacritics, this is the transcription needed and used by the phoneticians in their study of speech sounds. With the help of the diacritics they can faithfully represent as much of the fine details as it is necessary for their purpose. 10. Sense and reference Sense and reference are two terms often encountered in the study of word meaning. They are two related but different aspects of meaning. Sense is concerned with the inherent meaning of a linguistic form, the collection of all its features; it is abstract and de-contextualized. It is the aspect of meaning dictionary compilers are interested in. Reference means what a linguistic form refers to in the real, physical world; it deals with relationship between the linguistic element and non-linguistic world of experience. 11. Context It is generally considered as constituted by the knowledge shared by the speaker and the hearer. Various components of shared knowledge have been identified, e.g. knowledge of the language they use, knowledge of what has been said before, knowledge about the world in general, knowledge about the specific situation in which linguistic communication is taking place, and knowledge about each other. Context determines the speaker’s use of language and also the hearer’s interpretation of