英语语言学笔记

第一章

1.What is language?

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

2.Design features of language

①Arbitrariness(任意性)refers to the forms of linguistic signs bear no natural relationship to their meaning. (sounds and meanings)

②Duality（二层性）:The property of having two levels of structures, such that units of the primary level are composed of elements of the secondary level and each of the two levels has its own principles of organization.

③Productivity/creativity(创造性）:Language is productive in that it makes possible the construction and interpretation of new signals by its users.

④Displacement(移位性):Human Languages enable their users to symbolize objects, events and concepts which are not present (in time and space) at moment of communication. (p7)

3.Functions of language

①Informative(信息功能): to give information about facts. (ideational)

② Interpersonal(人际功能): to establish and maintain social status in a society.(age, sex, language, background, accent, status)

③Performative(施为功能) : language is used to do things, to perform certain actions. (name, promise, apologize, sorry, declare)

④. Emotive/Expressive (情感功能): to express feelings and attitudes of the speaker.

⑤Phatic communion(寒暄交流) : to use small and meaningless expressions to establish a comfortable relationship or maintain social contact between people without any factual content. (health, weather)

⑥ Recreational function(娱乐): the use of language for sheer joy. (lyrics, poetry)

⑦Metalingual function(元语言功能): to talk about language itself.

4. What is linguistics?

Linguistics is generally defined as the scientific study of language.

5. Important distinctions in linguistics

Descriptive & prescriptive

Synchronic & diachronic

Langue & parole

Competence & performance

6.Descriptive(描写/述性)—describe and analyze linguistic facts or the language people actually use (modern linguistic) Prescriptive(规定性)—lay down rules for “correct and standard” linguistic behavior in using language (traditional grammar: “never use a double negative”)

7.Synchronic study (共时)—description of a language at some point of time (modern linguistics)

Diachronic study (历时)—description of a language as it changes through time (historical development of language over a period of time)

第四章

1．What is Syntax （句法）?

Syntax is the study of the rules governing the ways different constituents are combined to form sentences.句法就是研究语言的不同成分组成句子的规则

2．Four Approaches :The traditional approach传统语言观(Parts of speech、Syntactic Function不考、Category范畴、Concord and government一致关系和支配关系)、The structural approach结构语言观、The generative approach、The functional approach功能语言观

3．The traditional grammar regards sentences as a sequence of words , so it pays great attention to the study of words, such as the classification of words in terms of parts of speech, the identification of function of words in terms of subject, predicate , etc.

4. Parts of speech

Traditional grammar defines 8 parts of speech: nouns, verbs, pronouns, adjectives, adverbs, prepositions, conjunctions and interjections.

5．The term Category范畴in some approaches refers to word classes and functions in its narrow sense,范畴这一术语狭义上是指词类和功能eg. Noun, Verb, Subject, Predicate. More specifically, it refers to the defining properties of these general units:

the categories of the noun名词的范畴, include number, gender, case and countability（case）;

the categories of the verb动词的范畴: tense, aspect, voice, etc.

6．Number is mostly a category of the noun and pronoun名词和不可数名词.

Two terms of number in nouns: singular and plural单数和复数

Number is also reflected in the inflections of pronouns and verbs

7. Gender is also mostly a category of the noun and pronoun. In English, the gender distinctions are on the whole natural, determined by the biological gender of the creature.

8. Case is used in the analysis of word classes to identify the syntactic relationship between words in a sentence.在词类分析中，格范畴用来辨别句子中词之间的句法关系

In English, pronouns have three cases of nominative主格, accusative受格, and genitive与格. Nouns have two of general and genitive所有格

In English, the case of noun is realised in three channels:(a) inflection(b) following a preposition(c) word order

9. Tense时态: the absolute location of an event or action on time. It is marked by an inflection of the verb. As a result, there are only two tenses recognized now: past and present. Since the future time does not involve any inflection of the verb, we do not refer to a “future tense”, even though in many different ways we can talk about the future.

10. Aspect体: It has nothing with time, and it tells us whether an action is ongoing or completed.

Perfective（完成体）and Imperfective（进行体）

Perfective and Progressive (in English)

11. Voice语态: describe the relationship between verb and subject

Passive被动语态and active主动语态

12. Concord and government

①Concord (一致关系) refers to agreement between words, especially between a verband the subject of a sentence.

②Government (支配关系) is a type of grammatical relationship between two or more elements in a sentence.

In traditional grammar, the term government has typically been used to refer to the relationship between verbs and nouns or between prepositions and nouns.

13.The Structural Approach ，由Ferdinand de Saussure提出

14.Syntactic Relations：Positional relations位置关系、Relations of substitutability替代关系、Relations of co-occurrence同现关系

15.Immediate constituent (直接成分) is any meaningful constituent at the first step in an analysis.

16.An endocentric construction (向心结构) is a construction that contains:

1) a head, which is the single obligatory element in the

construction;

2) one or more optional elements subordinate to the head.

17.them e(主位) refers to the known information which is not new to the reader or listener

Rheme (述位) refers to the information that is new. The new information is what is to be transmitted to the reader or listener

The linguists of the Prague school believed that sentence may be analyzed from the functional side as well as the grammatical side.

subject, predicate (grammatical side)

theme, rheme (functional side)

第五章

1. What is Semantics?

Semantics is the study of the meaning of words, phrases and sentences.语义学是研究单词、短语和句子的意义的学科2．Geoffrey Leech利奇Seven types of meaning7种意义类型:

①Conceptual meaning概念意义

②Connotative meaning内涵意义

③Social meaning社会意义

④Affective meaning 感情意义Associative Meaning联想意义（②——⑥）

⑤Reflected meaning反射意义

⑥Collocative meaning搭配意义

⑦Thematic meaning主位意义

3.Conceptual meaning (概念意义) is also called “denotative”（外延义）and it is concerned with the relationship between a word and the thing it refers to.概念意义也叫外延义，它关注词语跟它所指称事物之间的联系

Conceptual meaning is meaning given in the dictionary. 4.Associative meaning (联想意义) is the total of all the meanings a person thinks of when they hear the word Associative meaning is the meaning which a word suggests or implies.

5.Thematic meaning (主位意义) is “what is communicated by the way in which the message is organized in terms of order and emphasis.”它是由词序和词语重音所决定的

6. The Referential Theory（指称理论）：

① The Referential Theory

②The Semantic Triangle

③ Sense and Reference

7.The referential theory 指称理论is the theory of meaning which relates the meaning of a word to the thing it refers to.指称论是把词语意义跟它所指称的事物联系起来的理论

8. The semantic triangle语意三角is the indirectrelation between a word and a thing it refers to and it is mediated by concept.语意三角指词和所指事物之间没有直接关系，它们是以概念为中介的

9.Sense (涵义) is a set of properties possessed by a name.

10.Reference (指称) is the symbolic relationship that a linguistic expression has with the concrete object.

11. The sense of an expression is the thought it expresses, while its reference is the object it represents

Every word has a sense, but not every word has a reference.

12. Sense Relations涵义关系

①Synonymy（同义关系）

②Antonymy（反义关系）（Gradable、Complementary、Converse）

③Hyponymy（上下义关系）

13.But total synonymy is rare. They may differ in style, connotations and dialect.

14.Gradable antonymy (等级反义关系) 、Complementary antonymy (互补反义关系)、Converse antonymy (反向反义关系)

15. Componential analysis is an approach to the study of meaning which analyses a word into a set of meaning

components.

16. Sentence Meaning

17. Sense relations between sentences

① Synonymity (同义)

a. He was a bachelor all his life.

b. He never married all his boy.

Sentences a and b are in a synonymous relationship: the truth of one sentence necessarily implies the truth of another sentence

②Inconsistency (矛盾)

a. Elizabeth II is Queen of England.

b. Elizabeth II is a man.

Sentences a and b are in a relationship of contradiction: the truth of one sentence necessarily implies the falseness of another sentence.

③Entailment (蕴涵)

a. He married a blonde heiress.

b. He married a blonde.

Entailment refers to a kind of meaning inclusion. If x entails y, the meaning of x is included in y.

④Presupposition (前提预设)

It is what a speaker or writer assumes that the receiver of

the message already knows.

⑤Contradiction (矛盾)

⑥Semantic anomaly (语义反常)

18. An integrated theory

﹡Compositionality(组合性原则)：the meaning of a sentence depends on the meaning of the constituent words and the way they are combined.

﹡This semantic theory is the integration of syntax and semantics

﹡Their basic idea is that a semantic theory consists of two parts: a dictionary and a set of projection rules

﹡The dictionary provides the grammatical classification and semantic information of words

﹡The projection rules are responsible for combining the meanings of words together.

19.Logical semantics（逻辑语义学）

﹡A proposition(命题) is what is to be expressed by a declarative sentence when that sentence is uttered to make a statement.

﹡It is the basic meaning which a sentence express.

﹡A very important property of the proposition is that it has a truth value.

第七章

https://www.360docs.net/doc/853448485.html,nguage and Culture：①Sapir-Whorf Hypothesis②Evidence Given by Whorf ③Implication of SWH ④Relation between Language and Culture

2．SHW can be broken down into two basic principles:Linguistic determinism (语言决定论): the language we use determines the way we view about the world around us.

Language may determine our thinking patterns. (语言决定思维) P162

3. Relation between Language and Culture

Language influences thought and culture，Language varies in categories and concepts, thus reflecting the different world views of different language users, that is, culture and thought are conditioned by language

Culture influences language，Every language is a part of a culture. As such, it can not but serve and reflect cultural needs. When a culture experience radical changes, the vocabulary also undergoes corresponding alterations

https://www.360docs.net/doc/853448485.html,nguage and Society

Relation between Language and Society

Varieties of language（Dialects、Registers）

Bilingualism and Diglossia

Pidgin and Creole

5.Varieties related to the user are normally known as dialectsand varieties related to use as registers.

6.Dialectal Varieties ：Regional dialect、Social dialect （Sociolect、Language and gender、Language and age、Idiolect、Ethnic dialect）

7.Social dialect refers to a variety of language associated with a particular social group, such as a particular social class, or ethnic group, or those based on age, gender and occupation.

8.An ethnic dialect is a social dialect of a language that cuts across regional differences; it is mainly spoken by a less privileged population that has experienced some form of social isolation such as racial discrimination or segregation.

9.Idiolect refers to the speech variety of an individual. Every speaker has his own way of expressing his or her idea.

10.Register refers to the functional variety of language that is defined according to its use in a context of situation.

11.Halliday’s Register Theory

Language varies as its function varies; it differs in different situations.

Halliday distinguishes 3 variables that determine the register:field of discourse (语场)、tenor of discourse (语旨)、mode of discourse (语式)

12.Bilingualism (双语制): the use of two languages, esp with equal or nearly equal fluency.

13.Diglossia (双语体现象): when two varieties of a language exist side by side; and each is used for different purposes, this is called diglossia.

14．A pidgin : it is a special language variety that mixes and blends languages used for communicative purposes by groups of people who do not know each other’s language. 15.A creole : when a pidgin has become the primary language of a speech community, and is acquired by the children of that speech community as their native language, it is said to have become a creole.

第八章

1.What is Pragmatics

Pragmatics is the study of language in context/ use/ communication.

2 Semantics and Pragmatics

Similarity：Pragmatics and semantics are both linguistic

study of meaning

Difference：Semantic meaning: the more constant, inherent side of meaning ；Pragmatic meaning: the more indeterminate, the more closely related to context ；Pragmatic = meaning - semantics

3.Three Contents :Speech Act Theory、The Theory of Conversational Implicature、Post-Gricean Developments

4.Speech Act Theory(言语行为理论)：① Performatives and Constatives②A theory of the illocutionary act

5.The utterance which performs an act is calleda performative (行事话语)。

6.A constative (述事话语) is an utterance which asserts something that is either true or false.

7Characteristics of Implicature：Calculability、Cancellability、Non-detachability、Non-conventionality 8.Calculability(可推导性): means that implicature of an utterance can be calculated based on literal meaning, CP and its maxims, context, etc.

9.Cancellability/Defeasibility(可取消性/可废除原则) If the factors that conversational implicature relied on change, the implicature will also change.

10.Relevance Theory关联理论

Communicative Principle of Relevance：Every ostensive stimulus conveys a presumption of its own optimal relevance.

Cognitive Principle of Relevance：Human cognition tends to be geared to the maximization of relevance.