An Introduction to General Linguistics

1AnIntroductiontoGeneralLinguisticsSchoolofForeignLanguagesTUTEZhangWenxia2Aboutthiscourse1.Whothiscourseisfor2.Durationofthiscourse3.Howtostudythiscourse4.Howtodowellinassessment5.Whatthiscourseisabout6.Suggestedfurtherreading31.Whothiscourseisfor(1)ThiscourseisintendedforEnglishmajors,generallyfor3rdyearcollegestudents(undergraduates),oratanylevelofproficiencyfromintermediateupwards,whoneedtoknowthefundamentalsoflinguistics.(2)Pleasenotethatafairlygoodknowledgeoflinguisticsisrequiredinanypostgraduateentranceexam,sowestronglyadviseprospectiveMAstudentstospendadequatetimeonthiscourse.(3)Ifyouchooselinguisticsasyourfutureresearchinterestandyouplantodomoreadvancedworkinthisacademicfield,itistherighttimeforyoutoknowtheABCofgenerallinguistics.45.WhatthiscourseisaboutChapter1InvitationstoLinguisticsChapter2SpeechSoundsChapter3LexiconChapter4SyntaxChapter5MeaningChapter6LanguageinUseChapter7Language,Culture,andSocietyChapter8TheoriesandSchoolsofModernLinguistics56.Suggestedfurtherreading(1)H.G.Widdowson:《语言学》.上海：上海外语教育出版社，2000.(2)StuartC.Poole:《语言学入门》.北京：外语教学与研究出版社，2000.(3)VictoriaFromkin.《语言导论》.北京：北京大学出版社，2004.(4)GroverHudson:《语言学入门纲要》.北京：北京大学出版社，2005.(5)戴炜栋何兆熊：《新编简明英语语言学教程》.上海：上海外语教育出版社，2002.6ChapterOneInvitationstoLinguistics71.WhyStudyLanguage?82.Somemythsaboutlanguage1)Languageisonlyameansofcommunication.2)Languagehasaform-meaningcorrespondence.3)Thefunctionoflanguageistoexchangeinformation.4)EnglishismoredifficulttolearnthanChinese.5)BlackEnglishisnotstandardandshouldbereformed.93.SomefundamentalviewsaboutLChildrenlearntheirnativelanguageswiftly,efficientlyandwithoutinstruction.(languageacquisitioninSLA)Languageoperatesbyrules(ondifferentlevels:lexical,syntactic,socialandcultural).Alllanguageshavethreemajorcomponents:asoundsystem,asystemoflexicogrammarandasystemofsemantics.Everyonespeaksadialect.10Languageslowlychanges.(variation)Speakersofalllanguagesemployarangeofstylesandasetofjargons.Languagesareintimatelyrelatedtothesocietiesandindividualswhousethem.Writingisderivativeofspeech.114.WhatisLanguage?Language“isnottobeconfusedwithhumanspeech,ofwhichitisonlyadefinitepart,thoughcertainlyanessentialone.Itisbothasocialproductofthefacultyofspeechandacollectionofnecessaryconventionsthathavebeenadoptedbyasocialbodytopermitindividualstoexercisethatfaculty”.--FerdinanddeSaussure(1857-1913):CourseinGeneralLinguistics(1916)12FerdinanddeSaussure(1857-1913)－FatherofModernLinguistics(Swissprofessorandlinguist)13“Languageisapurelyhumanandnon-instinctivemethodofcommunicatingideas,emotionsanddesiresbymeansofvoluntarilyproducedsymbols.”--EdwardSapir(1884-1939):Language:AnIntroductiontotheStudyofSpeech(1921)14“Alanguageisasystemofarbitraryvocalsymbolsbymeansofwhichasocialgroupco-operates.”--BernardBloch(1907-1965)&GeorgeTrager(1906-1992):OutlineofLinguisticAnalysis(1942)15“Alanguageisasystemofarbitraryvocalsymbolsbymeansofwhichthemembersofasocietyinteractintermsoftheirtotalculture.”--GeorgeTrager:TheFieldofLinguistics(1949)16“FromnowonIwillconsiderlanguagetobeaset(finiteorinfinite)ofsentences,eachfiniteinlengthandconstructedoutofafinitesetofelements.”--NoamChomsky(1928-):SyntacticStructures(1957)17Languageis“theinstitutionwherebyhumanscommunicateandinteractwitheachotherbymeansofhabituallyusedoral-auditoryarbitrarysymbols.”--RobertA.Hall(1911-1997):IntroductoryLinguistics(1964)18“Languageisasystemofarbitraryvocalsymbolsusedforhumancommunication.”--RonaldWardhaugh:IntroductiontoLinguistics(1977)19“Thequestion‘Whatislanguage?’iscomparablewith--and,somewouldsay,hardlylessprofoundthan--‘Whatislife?’,thepresuppositionsofwhichcircumscribeandunifythebiologicalsciences...itisnotsomuchthequestionitselfastheparticularinterpretationthatthebiologistputsuponitandtheunravellingofitsmoredetailedimplicationswithinsomecurrentlyacceptedtheoreticalframeworkthatnourishthebiologist'sday-to-dayspeculationsandresearch.Soitisforthelinguistinrelationtothequestion‘Whatislanguage?’”--JohnLyons(1932-):LanguageandLinguistics(1981)20“...inasensealldefinitions[oflanguage]are,bythemselves,inadequate,since,iftheyaretobemorethantrivialanduninformative,theymustpresuppose...somegeneraltheoryoflanguageandoflinguisticanalysis.”--R.H.Robins(1921-2000):GeneralLinguistics(1989)21“Languageisaformofhumancommunicationbymeansofasystemofsymbolsprincipallytransmittedbyvocalsounds.”--StuartC.Poole:AnIntroductiontoLinguistics(1999)22“Languageisameansofverbalcommunication.”Itisinstrumentalinthatcommunicatingbyspeakingorwritingisapurposefulact.Itissocialandconventionalinthatlanguageisasocialsemioticandcommunicationcanonlytakeplaceeffectivelyifalltheusersshareabroadunderstandingofhumaninteractionincludingsuchassociatedfactorsasnonverbalcues,motivation,andsocio-culturalroles.--Ourtextbook(2006)23Languageisasystemofarbitraryvocalsymbolsusedforhumancommunication.1)Languagemustbeasystem.Bkli(spellingrules)Hetableagreen.(grammaticalrules)2)Languageisarbitrary(任意的):nointrinsicconnectionbetweenwordandobject;differentlanguageshavedifferentwordsforthesameobject.243)Languageiss