A Course on Linguistics for Students of English

1. A Course on Linguistics for Students of English 主讲教师：杨朝军

2. 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 & learning (SLA or TEFL), cross-cultural communication……; • To prepare for the future research work.

3. The Requirements for this course • Class attendance • Classroom discussion • Fulfillment of the assignment • Examination

4. Levels • remembering • understanding • appreciating • creative

5. A list of reference books 1.《语言学教程》 (英语版), 胡壮麟, 北京大学出版社。 2.《语言学概论》 王德春， 上海外语教育出版社。 3.《现代英语语言学概论（英语版）戴炜栋, 上海外语教育出版社。 4.《现代语言学》何兆熊 梅德明，外语教学与研究出版社 5.《简明英语语言学教程》（英语版）戴炜栋等， 上海外语教育出版社 6.《语言学和语言的应用》 王宗炎，上海外语教育出版社 7.《语言学》 H.G.Widdowson， 上海外语教育出版社 8.《语言学入门》（英语版） Stuart C. Poole 外语教学与研究出版社

6. Chapter 1. Introduction 1. What is language?

7. Language can mean • what a person says (e.g. bad language, expressions) • the way of speaking or writing (e.g. Shakespeare’s language, Luxun’s language) • a particular variety or level of speech or writing (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 function) • a set of rules. (rule-governed)

8. Sapir’s definition (1921) • “Language is a purely human and non-instinctive method of communicating ideas, emotions and desires by means of voluntarily produced symbols.”

9. Hall’s definition (1968) • Language is “the institution whereby humans communicate and interact with each other by means of habitually used oral-auditory arbitrary symbols.”

10. Chomsky’s 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.”

11. Language can be generally defined as a system of arbitrary vocal symbols used for human communication.

12. Language is a system • Systematic---- rule-governed, elements in it are arranged according to certain rules; can’t be combined at will. e.g. *bkli, *I apple eat.

13. language is arbitrary • ①language is naturally arbitrary. signifier→signified • ②arbitrary is primary, motivation is secondary. • Pictograph or onomatopoeia is a rarity in language. • They are also arbitrary for • Unless we’ve learned we cannot identify the relations. • Different languages have different forms for the same signification. • Even the same language has different forms for the same referent. • ③arbitrariness keeps language productive. • ④ arbitrariness resides in every level of the language. • ⑤structure, as a sign, is also arbitrary.一锅饭吃了十个人。 • ⑥language at the syntactic level is relatively motivated.庭には木があります。 • ⑦arbitrariness and conventionalism: prison-house

14. 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 • Icon; index; symbol

15. Language is primarily vocal • Vocal---- the primary medium is sound for all languages; writing system came much later than spoken form.

16. Language is human-specific • Human-specific---- different from the communication systems other forms of life possess, e.g. bird songs, bee dance, animal cries.

17. The design/defining features of human language • Arbitrariness • recursiveness • Productivity/Creativity • Duality • Displacement • interchangeability • Cultural transmission

18. language is for human communication ①communication makes human human. ②communication is the basis for human development. ③communication is acculturation. ④communication makes the world more of a global village.

19. 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, shasha, dingdang… ) • Some compound words are not entirely arbitrary, e.g. type-writer, shoe-maker, air-conditioner, photocopy…

20. 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 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 productivity, 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

21. Duality (double articulation) • 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 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.

22. Displacement ----Language can be used to refer to things, which are not present: real or imagined 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 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.

23. Cultural transmission ----Language is culturally transmitted (through teaching and learning; rather than by instinct). • Animal call systems are genetically transmitted. All cats, gibbons and bees have systems which are almost identical to those of all other cats, gibbons and bees. • A Chinese speaker and an English speaker are not mutually intelligible. This shows that language is culturally transmitted. That is, it is pass on from one generation to the next by teaching and learning, rather than by instinct. • The story of a wolf child, a pig child shows that a human being brought up in isolation simply does not acquire human language.

24. Functions of language Context REFERENTIAL Addresser message addressee EMOTIVE POETIC CONATIVE Contact PHATIC Code METALINGUAL

25. Functions of language • Phatic: establishing an atmosphere or maintaining social contact. • Directive: get the hearer to do something. • Informative: give information about facts. • Interrogative: get information from others. • Expressive: express feelings and attitudes of the speaker. • Evocative: create certain feelings in the hearer (amuse, startle, soothe, worry or please) • Performative: language is used to do things, to perform actions.

26. Halliday’s Functions • Ideational • Textual • interpersonal

27. The origin of language • The divine source • Bow-wow theory • Ding-dong theory • Pooh-pooph theory • Yo-he-ho theory • Sing-song theory • Ta-ta theory • The evolutionary theory---- the result of physical and psychological development

28. 许国璋先生认为把语言定义成交际工具不够科学,至少不够严谨.他对语言的定义做了如下概括:语言是一种符号系统.许国璋先生认为把语言定义成交际工具不够科学,至少不够严谨.他对语言的定义做了如下概括:语言是一种符号系统. • 当它作用于人与人之间的关系的时候,它是表达相互反应的中介; • 当它作用于人与客观世界的关系的时候,它是认知事物的工具; • 当它作用于文化的时候,它是文化的载体.

29. 2. What is linguistics? ----Linguistics is the scientific study of language. ----A person who studies linguistics is known as a linguist.

30. 2. Linguistics is scientific Data-collection Methodology Observation generalization Hypothesis Testing Modification conclusion

31. Four principles of linguistic studies • Exhaustiveness/adequacy • Consistency • Economy • Objectivity • (i)Adequacy of observation (ii) Adequacy of description (iii) Adequacy of explanation

32. Use of linguistics • Why should we call the thing we sit on chair? Can’t we call chair table and table chair? • How is it that children don’t seem to make a big effort in learning their first language while we adults have to work very hard to learn a second language? • Why can we talk about yesterday and last year while cats and dogs never seem to make noises about their past experience? • Do you think we can think as clearly without language as with language? • Does language determine what we think or thought determines what we say? • For a language student • For a teacher of foreign languages • For a researcher

33. The scope or major branches of linguistics • Theoretical linguistics • Phonetics • Phonology • Morphology • Syntax • Semantics • Use of linguistics • Applied linguistics • Sociolinguistics • Psycholinguistics ……

34. Theoretical linguistics • Phonetics----speech sound (description, classification, transcription): articulatory phonetics, acoustic phonetics, auditory phonetics. • Phonology----sound patterns of languages • Morphology----the form of words • Syntax----the rules governing the combination of words into sentence. • Semantics----the meaning of language (when the meaning of language is conducted in the context of language use----Pragmatics)

35. Use of linguistics • Applied linguistics----linguistics and language teaching • Sociolinguistics---- social factors (e.g. class, education) affect language use • Psycholinguistics----linguistic behavior and psychological process • Stylistics----linguistic and literature

36. Some other applications • Anthropological linguistics • Neurolinguistics • Computational linguistics (e.g. machine translation)

37. Some important distinctions in linguistics

38. Descriptive vs prescriptive • Descriptive ---- describe/analyze linguistic facts observed or language people actually use (modern linguistic) • Prescriptive ----lay down rules for “correct” linguistic behavior in using language (traditional grammar)

39. Synchronic vs diachronic • Synchronic study---- description of a language at some point of time (modern linguistics) • Diachronic study---- description of a language through time (historical development of language over a period of time)

40. Syntagmatic and paradigmatic • horizontal • vertical

41. Speech vs writing • Speech ---- primary medium of language • Writing ---- later developed

42. Langue vs parole (F. de Saussure) • Langue ---- the abstract linguistic system shared by all members of the speech community. • Parole ---- the realization of langue in actual use. • Saussure takes a sociological view of language and his notion of langue is a matter of social conventions.

43. Competence and performance (Chomsky) • Competence ---- the ideal user’s knowledge of the rules of his language • Performance ---- the actual realization of this knowledge in linguistic communication • Chomsky looks at language from a psychological point of view and to him competence is a property of the mind of each individual.

44. Traditional grammar vs modern linguistics • Traditional grammar ---- prescriptive, written, Latin-based framework • Modern linguistics ----- descriptive, spoken, not necessarily Latin-based framework

45. Discussion • 1.The following two sentences are said to be ambiguous in meaning. How many interpretations could you give to either of them? What can you do to resolve such ambiguity/ • He turned in his bed. • They gave preference to young men and women. • 2. Identify the units that have reference and the units that indicate structure. • I saw Mary when I went to the library. • 3. How would you judge the following four sentences? Are they good or bad sentences? • The moon is made of brown eggs. • Moon brown the is of made egges. • 慢走，您。 • 为了安全，给您。

46. 4. How would you classify the following signs? What do these signs mean to you and how do you come to know their meenings/ 5. If you saw smoke coming out of a house, what conclusion would you draw and how do you come to such a conclusion? 6. What does a flushed complexion signify for the physician or a lover? 7. Onomatopoetic words are said to be iconic by some people. For the cuckoo, the sequence of English sounds is [ku:ku:], and the sequence of Chinese sounds is “bugu”. Do you think both words are onomatopoetic? 8. A Chinese father names his son XiaoLong (little dragon). How would you use the concept of arbitrariness to account for this? 9. If you have developed a new shampoo and wanted to put it into the market, would you name it “Pig Hair Shampoo”? Why? 10. Discuss the relation of arbitrariness and rules.

47. 11. When you go shopping in a supermarket, which do you prefer to use, spoken language or written? Why? 12. In foreign language learning, which one do you think should come first, listening and speaking, or reading and writing? Why? 13. Some people say that humans and dogs can communicate with each other. Do you agree? 14. You can tell your cat to lie down. What do you think has happened? 15. Please explain the primacy of human language over animal communication? 16. Please explain the roles of technology in human communication. 17. Sometimes communication may break down. What do you think are the causes for such breakdowns? 18. What do you think we should pay attention to in intercultural communication.

48. THANK YOU