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1、A Course on Linguistics for Students of English,The Goals for this Course,To get a scientific view on language; To understand some basic theories on linguistics; To understand the applications of the linguistic theories, especially in the fields of language teaching To prepare for the future researc
2、h work.,The Requirements for this course,Class attendance Classroom discussion Fulfillment of the assignment Examination,Reference Books,戴炜栋，何兆熊，(2002)，新编简明英语语言学教程，上海外语教育出版社。胡壮麟，(2001)，语言学教程，北京大学出版社。刘润清，(1995)，西方语言学流派，外语教学与研究出版社。Fromkin,V. & R. Rodman, (1998), An Introduction to Language the sixth e
3、dition, Orlando, Florida: Holt, Ranehart & Winston, Inc.,Chapter 1. Introduction,1. What is language?,Language can mean,what a person says (e.g. bad language, expressions) the way of speaking or writing (e.g. Shakespeares language, Luxuns language) a particular variety or level of speech or writing
4、(e.g. language for special purpose, colloquial language) the abstract system underlying the totality of the speech/writing behavior of a community (e.g. Chinese language, first language) the common features of all human languages (e.g. He studies language) a tool for human communication. (social fun
5、ction) a set of rules. (rule-governed),Sapirs definition (1921),“Language is a purely human and non-instinctive method of communicating ideas, emotions and desires by means of voluntarily produced symbols.”,Halls definition (1968),Language is “the institution whereby humans communicate and interact
6、with each other by means of habitually used oral-auditory arbitrary symbols.”,Chomskys definition (1957),“From now on I will consider language to be a set of (finite or infinite) sentences, each finite in length and constructed out of a finite set of elements.”,Language can be generally defined as,a
7、 system of arbitrary vocal symbols used for human communication.,Language is a system,Systematic- rule-governed, elements in it are arranged according to certain rules; cant be combined at will. e.g. *bkli, *I apple eat.,Language is arbitrary,Arbitrary- no intrinsic connection between the word and t
8、he thing it denotes, e.g. “pen” by any other name is the thing we use to write with.,Language is symbolic in nature,Symbolic- words are associated with objects, actions ideas by convention. “A rose by any other name would smell as sweet”-Shakespeare,Language is primarily vocal,Vocal- the primary med
9、ium is sound for all languages; writing system came much later than spoken form.,Language is human-specific,Human-specific- different from the communication systems other forms of life possess, e.g. bird songs, bee dance, animal cries.,The design/defining features of human language (Charles Hockett)
10、,Arbitrariness Productivity/Creativity Duality Displacement Cultural transmission,Arbitrariness,-No logical (motivated or intrinsic) connection between sounds and meanings.Onomatopoeic words (which imitate natural sounds) are somewhat motivated ( English: rumble, crackle, bang, . Chinese: putong, sh
11、asha, dingdang )Some compound words are not entirely arbitrary, e.g. type-writer, shoe-maker, air-conditioner, photocopy,Productivity/creativity,-Peculiar to human languages，users of language can understand and produce sentences they have never heard before, e.g. we can understand sentence like “ A
12、red-eyed elephant is dancing on the hotel bed”, though it does not describe a common happening in the world.A gibbon call system is not productive for gibbon draw all their calls from a fixed repertoire which is rapidly exhausted, making any novelty impossible. The bee dance does have a limited prod
13、uctivity, as it is used to communicate about food sources in any direction. But food sources are the only kind of messages that can be sent through the bee dance; bees do not “talk” about themselves, the hives, or wind, let alone about people, animals, hopes or desires,Duality (double articulation),
14、Lower level-sounds (meaningless) Higher level-meaning (larger units of meaning) A communication system with duality is considered more flexible than one without it, for a far greater number of messages can be sent. A small number of sounds can be grouped and regrouped into a large number of units of
15、 meaning (words), and the units of meaning can be arranged and rearranged into an infinite number of sentences. (we make dictionary of a language, but we cannot make a dictionary of sentences of that language.,Displacement,-Language can be used to refer to things, which are not present: real or imag
16、ined matters in the past, present or future, or in far-away places. A gibbon never utters a call about something he ate last year There is something special about the bee dance though. Bees communicate with other bees about the food sources they have found when they are no longer in the presence of
17、the food. In this sense, the bee dance has a component of displacement. But this component is very insignificant. For the bees must communicate about the food immediately on returning to the hive. They do not dance about the food they discovered last month nor do they speculate about future discoveries.,
