Chapter 1 Introduction

1. Chapter 1 Introduction

2. Outline Linguistics Language Major Concepts in Linguistics Exercises

3. Objectives of study To understand what linguistics is, how linguists study language, and what the scope of linguistics is. To get to know the nature, origin, design features and functions of language. To get familiar with the important concepts in linguistics

4. 1.1 Linguistics (1) Definition ▲Linguistics is the scientific or systemic study of language. To be specific, linguistics describes language in all its respects including its system, its internal structure, its social functions, its use and its historical development, and formulates theories as to how it works.

5. The subject matter of linguistics is all natural language, living or dead. As a branch of science, linguistics tries to answer the following three basic questions: ① What is language? ② How does language work? ③ How is language acquired?

6. The three canons that linguists observe when they study language: ① exhaustiveness: Linguists should gather all the materials relevant to his investigation and give them an adequate explanation. ② consistency: There should be no contradiction between different parts of the total statement.

7. ③ economy: The best statements are the shortest possible ones which can account most fully for all facts. The two purposes of linguistics: ① Linguistics studies the nature of language in order to establish a theory of language and describes languages in the light of the theory established.

8. ② Linguistics examines all the forms of language in general and seeks a scientific understanding of the ways in which it is organized to fulfill the needs it serves and the functions it performs in human life.

9. (2) Differences between linguistics and traditional grammar Traditional grammar, as a pre-20th century language description and pre-linguistic product of research, was based upon earlier grammars of Latin or Greek, and laid emphasis on correctness, literary excellence, the use of Latin models, and the priority of written language. It is, therefore, prescriptive in nature.

10. Linguistics differs from traditional grammar in the following three ways: ①It describes languages, instead of laying down rules of correctness. ②It regards the spoken language instead of the written as primary. ③It describes each language on its own merits instead of imposing Latin models on it. Linguistics is, therefore, descriptive in nature.

11. (3) Scope of linguistics Classification of linguistic study: micro-linguistics and macro-linguistics Micro-linguistics: phonetics, phonology, morphology, syntax, semantics and pragmatics Macro-linguistics: sociolinguistics, psycholinguistics, neurolinguistics, stylistics, discourse analysis, computational linguistics, cognitive linguistics, anthropological linguistics, et.al

13. phonetics: the branch of linguistics that studies speech sounds, how they are produced , how they are perceived, and the their physical properties. phonology: the branch of linguistics that studies how speech sounds function in a language, the ways sounds are organized. morphology: the branch of linguistics that studies the formation of words.

14. syntax: the branch of linguistics that studies the structure of sentence, how words are combined to form phrases and sentences semantics: the branch of linguistics that studies linguistic meaning. pragmatics: the branch of linguistics that studies language in use. PRAGMATICS= MEANING- SEMANTICS

15. sociolinguistics: the study of language and society: how social factors influence the structure and use of language. psycholinguistics: the study of language and mind: the mental structures and processes which are involved in the acquisition, comprehension and production of language. neurolinguistics: the study of language processing and language representation in the brain.

16. stylistics: the study of how literary effects can be related to linguistic features discourse analysis: the study of how sentences in spoken and written language form larger meaningful units as paragraphs, conversations, and interviews. computational linguistics: an approach to linguistics which employs mathematical techniques, often with help of a computer.

17. cognitive linguistics: an approach to the study of language an mind, according to which language and language use are based on our bodily experience and the way we conceptualize it. anthropological linguistics: a branch of linguistics that studies the relationship between language and culture in a community, i.e. its traditions, beliefs, and family structure.

18. applied linguistics: the study of language and linguistics in relation to practical issues, e.g. speech therapy, language teaching , testing, and translation. In a narrow sense, it means the application of linguistic theories to language teaching.

19. 1.2 Language □ Different meanings of the word “language” - what a person says, e.g. bad language, expressions - the way of speaking or writing, e.g. Shakespeare’s language, Luxun’s language

20. - 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.

21. - a tool for human communication. (social function) - a set of rules. (rule-governed) (1) Definition of language Different definitions of language by linguists: As language is so complex a phenomenon, a satisfactory definition is difficult. As a result, many different definitions have been given by linguists in the history of linguistics. The following are some of them.

22. “Language is a purely human and non-instinctive method of communicating ideas, emotions and desires by means of voluntarily produced symbols.” (Sapir, 1921) Language is “the institution whereby humans communicate and interact with each other by means of habitually used oral-auditory arbitrary symbols.” (Hall, 1968)

23. “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.” (Chomsky,1957) 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. (许国璋)

24. ▲ The most widely accepted definition was given by Wardhaugh in his Introduction to Linguistics (1972): "Language is a system of arbitrary vocal symbols used for human communication."

25. Interpretation of the definition: First of all, language is a system, that is, elements of language are combined according to rules, for example, "iblk" is not a possible sound combination in English, and "Been he has here" is not an acceptable sentence in English, either. If language were not constructed according to certain rules, it could not be learned and used consistently.

26. Second, language is arbitrary. There is no direct connection between the linguistic form and the thing it refers to. For example, the instrument that people uses to write, is named as “pen” in English while is called “钢笔”in Chinese. Third, language is vocal. The primary medium of language is sound (speech). As we know, language is abstract and it is realized in two forms: speech and writing. Among the two media of language, speech is primary for the following reasons:

27. ① Speech has a history of about 100,000 years while writing has only a history of several thousands. ② There are still some communities that have speech without writing system. ③ Speech is learned before writing.

28. ④ Most of the human communication is done by speech. ⑤ Written language can, to a large extent, be converted into speech without loss, but the converse is not true. Fourth, language is used for human communication and language is human-specific. That is, language is only possessed by human beings, and it makes it possible for its users to talk to each other and fulfill their communicative needs.

29. (2) Origin of language

30. Language originates, grows and develops in society. Different theories about origin of language: ①The divine-origin theory --- Language is a gift of God to mankind. ②The invention theory --- imitative, cries of nature, the grunts of men working together. ③The evolutionary theory --- the result of physical and psychological development.

31. (3) Design features of language Design features of language: the features which are thought to distinguish human language from animal cry system. The American linguist Charles Hockett specified the following 7 design features of language:

32. ① Arbitrariness—There is no logical (intrinsic or direct) connection between sounds and meanings, or the linguistic forms bear no natural relationship to their meaning. For instance, a dog might be a pig if only the first person or group of persons had used it for a pig. But what needs to be noticed is that language is not entirely arbitrary; there are cases where there seems to be some association between sounds and meaning. Such cases are not arbitrary, but motivated.

33. ② Duality—the property of language with two levels of structure, one of sounds (lower level) and the other of meaning (higher level). At the lower level there is a structure of sounds, which are meaningless (e.g. /p/, //, /t/) and which can be grouped and regrouped into a large number of units of meaning such as morphemes and words (e.g. /pt/). At the higher level, the units of meaning can be grouped and regrouped into an infinite number of sentences.

34. ③ Productivity/creativity—Language users can utilize limited linguistic rules to produce or understand infinite meaningful linguistic forms, including those they have never heard before. ④ Interchangeability/reciprocity—This refers to the fact that any speaker/sender of a linguistic signal can also be a listener/ receiver.

35. ⑤Displacement—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, here and now. ⑥Specialization—Linguistic signals do not normally serve any other type of purpose, such as breathing or feeding.

36. ⑦ Cultural Transmission—A language system is not genetically transmitted, but culturally transmitted. That is, a language system is passed on from one generation to another by teaching and learning rather than by instinct or birth.

37. (4) Functions of language Different classifications of the functions of language: a. R. Jakobson—six functions b. M. A. K. Halliday—three functions c. J. Lyons—three main functions According to the popular view, language has at least seven basic functions that serve people’s daily communication:

38. ①Phatic funcition Phatic function is the function to establish communion with others. Language is used for establishing an atmosphere or maintaining social contact between the speakers rather than for exchanging information or ideas, e.g. greetings, farewells, small talk. For example, when a person asks “How are you today?”, he is not really interested in the hearer’s state of health, but is expressing good will.

39. ② Directive function Language is used to get the hearer to do something. ③ Informative function Language is used to tell the facts, to give information about something, to describe the material world, or to reason things out. ④ Interrogative function Language is used to inquire information.

40. ⑤ Expressive function Language is used to reveal something about the feelings and attitudes of the speaker. ⑥ Evocative function Language is used to create certain feelings in the hearer, e.g. to amuse, to anger, to worry or to please the hearer.

41. ⑦Performative function Language is used to do things or to perform actions. On certain occasions, the uttering of the appropriate words is the central component in the performance of the act. Actually in our daily life, something can be done either linguistically or non-linguistically; and others only linguistically or non- linguistically.

42. 1.3 Major concepts in linguistics (1) Descriptive and prescriptive grammars Descriptive grammar refers an approach which only describes the facts of language. Prescriptive grammar refers to an approach which tries to lay down rules for “correct” language behavior.

43. (2) Synchronic and diachronic linguistics synchronic linguistics: It refers to the study of a language system at one particular point of time. It focuses on the differences between two or more states of the language over history. diachronic linguistics: It refers the study of the way a language changes over a period of time. It focuses on the state of language at a point of time.

44. (3) Langueand parole According to the Swiss linguist F.D. Saussure, founder of modern linguistics: Langue refers to the abstract linguistic system shared by all the members of a speech community,; Parole refers to the realization of langue in actual use.

45. - 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, not the language people actually use, while parole is concrete, which 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.

46. (4) Competence and performance According to the American linguist Noam Chomsky: Linguistic competence refers to the unconscious knowledge about sounds, meaning and syntax which is possessed by the native speaker of a language.

47. Linguistic performance refers to the actual use of language by individuals in speech and writing. ▲ Chomsky’s distinction between competence and performanceis similar to Saussure’s distinction between langue and parole but they differ in that Chomsky’s distinction was made from the psychological perspective while Saussure’s distinction was made from the sociological perspective.

48. (5) Syntagmatic and paradigmatic relations Another distinction made by F.D. Saussure. According to him: A syntagmatic relation refers tp the horizontal relation between linguistic elements in a sequence, or between linguistics elements which are all present, such as the relation between those in the following sentence. e.g. John loves Mary.

49. A paradigmatic relation is the vertical relation holding between elements replaceable with each other at a particular place in a structure, or between one element present and the others absent. e.g. The ___ is reading. Nouns like boy, girl, man, woman, student are capable of occurring in the context. And these words are said to be in a particular relation here.

50. (6) Functionalism and formalism Functionalism is an approach which is concerned with language as an instrument of social interaction rather than as a system that is viewed in isolation. It considers the individual as a social being and investigates the way in which he or she acquires language and uses it in order to communicate with others in his or her social environment. Halliday’s systemic-functional grammar is a good example of functionalism.