英语语言学论述题

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1.语言学Linguistics

Linguistics is generally defined as the scientific study of language.

2.普通语言学General Linguistics

The study of language as a whole is often called General linguistics.

3.语言language

Language is a system of arbitrary vocal symbols used for human communication.

语言是人类用来交际的任意性的有声符号体系。

4.识别特征Design Features

It refers to the defining poperties of human language that distinguish it from any animal system of communication.

语言识别特征是指人类语言区别与其他任何动物的交际体系的限定性特征。

Arbitrariness任意性

Productivity多产性

Duality双重性

Displacement移位性

Cultural transmission文化传递

⑴arbitrariness

There is no logical connection between meanings and sounds.

P.S the arbitrary nature of language is a sign of sophistication and it makes it possible for language to have an unlimited source of expressions

⑵Productivity

Animals are quite limited in the messages they are able to send.

⑶Duality

Language is a system, which consists of two sets of structures ,or two levels.

⑷Displacement

Language can be used to refer to contexts removed from the immediate situations of the speaker.

⑸Cultural transmission

Human capacity for language has a genetic basis, but we have to be taught and learned the details of any language system. this showed that language is culturally transmitted. not by instinct. animals are born with the capacity to produce the set of calls peculiar to their species.

5.语言能力Competence

Competence is the ideal user’s knowledge of the rules of his language.

6.语言运用performance

Performance is the actual realization of this knowledge in linguistic communication.

语言运用是所掌握的规则在语言交际中的体现。

7.历时语言学Diachronic linguistics

The study of language change through time. a diachronic study of language is a historical study, which studies the historical development of language over a period of time.

8.共时语言学Synchronical linguistics

The study of a given language at a given time.

9.语言langue

The abstract linguistic system shared by all members of a speech community.

10.言语parole

The realization of langue in actual use.

11.规定性Prescriptive

It aims to lay down rules for ”correct” behavior, to tell people what they should say and what should not say.

12.描述性Descriptive

A linguistic study describes and analyzes the language people actually use.

1.language is not an isolated phenomenon, it’s a social activity carried out in a certain social environment by human beings.

语言不是一种孤立的现象，而是人类在一定的社会环境下进行的一种社会活动。

2.几种观点和现象的提出者：

⑴瑞士语言学家F.de Saussure F.de Saussure:Langue和parole的区别

⑵U.S.A linguist N.Chomsky美国语言学家N.Chomsky

in1950针对Saussure’s langue&parole提出Competence和performance

⑶曾经对语言概念下过定义的语言学家

Sapir---language is a purely human and non-instinctive method of communication ideas, emotions and desires by means of voluntarily produced symbols.

Hall----language is the institution whereby humans communicate and interact with each other by means of habitually used oral-auditory arbitrary symbols.

Chomsky---from now on I will consider language to be a set of sentences, each finite in length and constructed out of a finite set of elements.

⑷U.S.A Linguist Charles Hockett美国语言学家Charles Hockett

提出了语言的识别特征design features

3.the word ’language’ preceded by the zero-article ,it implies that linguistics studies not any particular language.

Language一词前不加冠词说明语言学家不只研究一种特定的语言。

4.in order to discover the nature of the underlying language system ,what the linguists has to do first if to study language facts.

5.language is a complicated entity with multiple layers and facts, so it's hardly possible for the linguistics to deal with it all at once. 判断题

6.Frist drew the attention of the linguists were the sounds used in languages.最先引起语言学家注意的是语言的发音。

1.what are major branches of linguistics? what does each study?

Phonetics----it’s defined as the study of the phonic medium of language, it’s concerned with all the sounds that occur in the world’s languages.

Phonology---the study of sounds systems—the inventory of distinctive sounds that occur in a language and the patterns into which they fall.

Morphology---It’s a branch of a grammar which studies the internal structure of words and the rules by which words are formed.

Syntax-------it's a subfield of linguistics that studies the sentence structure of a language.

Semantics---It’s simply defined as the study of meaning in abstraction.

Pragmatics---the study of meaning in context of words.

Sociolinguistics—the study of language with reference to society.

Psycholinguistics---the study of language with reference to the working of the mind.

Applied linguistics---the application of linguistic principles and theories to language teaching and learning.

2.why do we say language is arbitrary?

Language is arbitrary in the sense that there is no intrinsic connection between the sounds that people use and the objects to which these sounds refer.

The fact that different languages have different words for the same object is a good illustration of the arbitrary nature of language, it’s only our tacit agreement of utterance and concept at work and not any innate relationship bound up in the utterance.

A typical example to illustrate the ‘arbitrariness’ of language is ‘a rose by any other name would smell as sweet’.

3. what makes modern linguistics different from traditional grammar?

Modern linguistics is descriptive, its investigations are based on authentic and mainly spoken language date.现代语言学是描述性的，其研究以确实可靠的、主要以口语形式的资料为基础。

traditional grammar is prescriptive. it is based on’ high’ written language.

传统语法是规定性的，研究‘高级’书面语。

4.Is modern linguistics mainly synchronic or diachronic? why

Modern linguistics is mainly synchronic, focusing on the present-day language. unless the various states of a language are successfully studied, it will not be possible to describe language from a diachronic point of view.

现代语言学主要是共时性的，重点研究现代语言。除非对语言的各种状态都进行成功的研究，否则很难从历时性角度对语言进行描述。

5.which enjoys priority in modern linguistics, speech or writings?

Speech enjoys for the following reasons:

⑴Speech precedes writing in terms of evolution.

⑵A large amount of communication is carried out in speech than in writing.

⑶speech is the form in which infants acquire their native language.

6.how is Saussure’s distinction between langue and parole similar to Chomsky’s ?

Both Saussure and Chomsky make the distinction between the abstract language system and the actual use of language. their purpose is to single out the language system for serious study