胡壮麟语言学概论复习要点

语言学概论复习要点

一．定义

1 language

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

2 define features

Design features refer to the defining properties of human language that distinguish it from any animal system of communication.

3 Synchronic vs. diachronic

A synchronic description takes a fixed instant (usually, but not necessarily, the present) as its point of observation. Diachronic linguistics is the study of a language through the course of its history and focuses on the differences in two or more than two states of language over decades or centuries.

4 Langue & parole

Langue is the abstract linguistic system shared by all the members of a speech community

Parole is particular realizations of langue

5 Competence and performance

An ideal language user's underlying knowledge about the system of rules in his language is called his linguistic competence.

Performance refers to the actual use of language in concrete situations, that is, the infinite varied individual acts of verbal behavior with irregularities, inconsistencies, and errors.

6 descriptive and prescriptive

7 phonetic transcription

A phonetic transcription is an economical means for capturing sounds on paper.

When we use a simple set of symbols in our transcription, it is called a broad transcription.

The use of more specific symbols to show more phonetic detail is referred to as a narrow transcription.

8 phoneme

Phoneme is a unit of explicit sound contrast. If two sounds in a language make a contrast between two different words, they are said to be different phonemes.

phoneme is the minimum phonemic unit that is not further analyzable into smaller units.

9 allophones

[p, ph] are two different phones (音子) and are variants of the phoneme /p/. Such variants of a phoneme are called allophones of the same phoneme. (Phonetic similarity, complementary distribution)

10 assimilation

assimilation, a process by which one sound takes on some or all the characteristics of a neighboring sound

assimilation refers to the phonological process in which a target or affected segment undergoes a structural change in certain environments or contexts

11 distinctive features

distinctive features are those phonologically relevant properties, that is, the features which can distinguish meaning, for example, voicing, place and manner of articulation are all principal distinctive features of consonants.

12 morphemes

the smallest unit of language in terms of relationship between expression and content, a unit that cannot be further divided into smaller units without destroying or drastically altering the meaning,

whether it is lexical or grammatical.

(Free vs. Bound morphemes:Free morphemes: those that may constitute words by themselves, e.g. boy, girl, table, nation.; Bound morphemes: those that cannot occur alone, e.g. -s, -ed, dis-, un-

Root vs. affix morphemes: a root morpheme can be a bound one or a free one. An affix morpheme can be a inflectional one or a derivational one.

Inflectional vs. Derivative morphemes:

Inflectional morpheme provides further grammatical meaning to the existing lexical item. Derivative morpheme provides lexical information to the existing lexical item）

Root: A “root”is the base form of a word that cannot be further analyzed without total loss of identity. In other words, a “root”is that part of the word left when all the affixes are removed. Affix: “affix”is a collective term for the type of formative that can be used, only when added to another morpheme (the root or stem). Affixes are naturally bound and they are limited in number in a language.

Stem(词干): A stem refers to the surplus part after the cutting of inflectional morpheme (曲折詞素)in a word.

Base(词基）: A base is any form to which affixes of any kind can be added; any root or stem can be termed a base

13 positional relation

Positional relation, or WORD ORDER, refers to the sequential arrangement of words in a language. syntagmatic, horizontal or chain relations.

14 Relation of Substitutability

The Relation of Substitutability refers to classes or sets of words substitutable for each other grammatically in sentences with the same structure.

15Construction and Constituent

Construction：the grammatical structure of a sentence or any smaller unit, represented by a set of elements and relations between them.

(Endocentric construction is one whose distribution is functionally equivalent to that of one or more of its constituents, i.e., a word or a group of words, which serves as a definable centre or head. Exocentric construction refers to a group of syntactically related words where none of the words is functionally equivalent to the group as a whole, that is, there is no definable “Centre” or “Head” inside the group)

A constituent is a word or a group of words that functions as a single unit within a hierarchical structure.

IC analysis:the analysis of a sentence in terms of its immediate constituents-word groups or phrases, which are in turn analyzed into the immediate constituents of their own, and the process goes on until the ultimate constituents are reached.

16 category

The term category refers to the defining properties of the general units of different word classes as well as their syntactic functions

17 agreement

Agreement (or concord) may be defined as the requirement that the forms of two or more words of specific word classes that stand in specific syntactic relationship should agree with one another in terms of some categories

二．简答

1 Design Features of Language:

Arbitrariness Duality Creativity Displacement

2 Functions of language

?referential (to convey message and information),

?poetic (to indulge in language for its own sake),

?emotive (to express attitudes, feelings and emotions),

?conative (to persuade and influence others through commands and requests),

?phatic (to establish communion with others)

?metalingual (to clear up intentions and meanings).-----Jocobson

Metafunctions of Language

?ideational, interpersonal and textual functions.

4 Functional Grammar

?Theoretical approach to the description and explanation of linguistic phenomena based on

their various functions.

?basic assumption: linguistic phenomena cannot be explained without examining their

function

It offers an alternative to (post) structuralism attempts at describing linguistic phenomena formally

(i.e. assuming the autonomy of syntax)

5 5.1 The Prague School

?Prague Linguistic Circle:

?Started by V. Mathesius (1882-1946) in 1926, with such activists as R. Jacobson

(1896-1982), N. Trubetzkoy (1890-1938) and later J. Firbas (1921-2000).

?The Circle stood at the heart of important developments in structural linguistics and

semiotics in the 1930's.

?Three important points:

?Stressed synchronic linguistics, but not rigidly separated from diachronic studies.

?L is systemic in that no element of L can be satisfactorily analysed or evaluated in

isolation and assessment can only be made if its relationship is established with the

coexisting elements in the same language system.

?L is functional in that it is a tool for performing a number of essential functions or

tasks for the community using it.

5.1.1 Prague School Phonology

?N. Trubetzkoy: Principle of Phonology (1939).

?Phonetics & phonology: different for parole & langue.

?Phoneme: an abstract unit of the sound system.

?Distinctive features: phonological oppositions.

?Showed distinctive functions of speech sounds and gave an accurate definition of the

phoneme.

Trubetzkoy’s contributions

?Defined the sphere of phonological studies.

?Revealed interdependent syntagmatic and paradigmatic relations between phonemes.

?Put forward a set of methodologies for phonological studies.

5.1.2 Functional Sentence Perspective

?FSP is a theory about analysis of utterances (or texts) in terms of the information they contain.

?Principle: the role of each utterance part is evaluated for its semantic contribution to the

whole.

5.1.3 Communicative dynamism

?J. Firbas

?Linguistic communication is dynamic, not static.

?CD measures the amount of info an element carries in a sentence. The degree of CD is

the effect contributed by a linguistic element. For example,

5.2 The London School

? B. Malinowski (1884-1942), professor of anthropology (1927).

?J. R. Firth (1890-1960), the first professor of linguistics in the UK (1944).

?M. A. K. Halliday (1925- ), student of Firth.

?All three stressed the importance of context of situation and the system aspect of L.

5.2.1 Malinowski’s theories

?Language “is to be regarded as a mode of action, rather than as a counterpart of thought”.

?The meaning of an utterance comes from its relation to the situational context in which it

occurs.

?Three types of situational context:

?situations in which speech interrelates with bodily activity;

?narrative situations;

?situations in which speech is used to fill a speech vacuum—phatic communion.

5.2.2 Firth’s theories

a.语言观

Regarded L as a social process, a means of social life.

?L is a means of participation in social activities.

?L is a means of doing things and of making others do things, a means of acting and

living.

?L is both inborn and acquired.

?The object of linguistic study is L in use.

?The goal of linguistic inquiry is to analyse meaningful elements of L in order to establish

corresponding relations between linguistic and non-linguistic elements.

?The method of linguistic study is to decide on the composite elements of L, explain their

relations on various levels, and ultimately explicate the internal relations between these

elements and human activities in the environment of language use.

b. 意义观

Meaning is use. five parts of its analysis:

?the relationship of each phoneme to its phonetic context;

?the relationship of each lexical item to the others in the sentence;

?the morphological relations of each word;

?the sentence type of which the given sentence is an example;

?the relationship of the sentence to its context of situation.

In sum, he emphasizes three kinds of meaning: collocational meaning, referential meaning, and contextual meaning

c. 语境观

contextual analysis: situational context and linguistic context

?Internal relations of the text:

?syntagmatic relations in structure

?paradigmatic relations in system

?Internal relations of the context of situation:

?relations between text and non-linguistic elements

?analytical relations between elements of the text and elements within the situation

d. Prosodic analysis (韵律分析): prosodic phonology

?Since any human utterance is continuous speech flow made up of at least one syllable,

it cannot be cut into independent units. Mere phonetic and phonological descriptions

are insufficient.

?It is not phonemes that make up the paradigmatic relations, but Phonematic Units, the

features of which are fewer than those of phonemes and are called prosodic units.

?prosodic units include such features as stress, length, nasalisation, palatalisation, and

aspiration.

?prosodic analysis is advantageous in categorising data and revealing the relations between

them compared with phonemic analysis

一．论述

1 TG grammar

A brief introduction to generative grammar

?Generative grammar: a system of rules that in some explicit and well-defined way assigns

structural descriptions to sentences. It aims to reveal the unity of particular grammars and

universal grammars as well as human cognitive systems. To achieve this goal, a grammar

should achieve observational adequacy, descriptive adequacy and explanatory adequacy.

?Different from Bloomfield’s data-oriented discovery procedure, he insists on the

Hypothesis-deduction method.

Five stages of development

?The Classical Theory

?The Standard Theory

?The Extended Standard Theory

?The Revised Extended Standard Theory

?The Minimalist Program

4.1 Early theories (1957)

4.1.1 Innateness hypothesis: the starting point of TG grammar

Language is somewhat innate, and children are born with a Language Acquisition Device (LAD)—a unique kind of knowledge that fits them for language learning.

Children are endowed with a universal knowledge of the basic grammatical relations and categories and study of language can shed light on the nature of the human mind.

LAD consists of three parts: hypothesis maker, linguistic universal and evaluation procedure.

?Evidences: children learn mother tongue very fast and with little effort; similar stages

experienced by them (babbling stage, nonsense word stage, holophrastic stage, two-word

utterance, developing grammar, near-adult grammar, and full competence); learn the total

grammar during limited period of time, from limited exposure to speech.

?target: to reveal linguistic universals

4.2 The classical theory

Syntactic Structures (1957)

?Three features: emphasis on generative ability of language, introduction of transformational

rules and grammatical description regardless of meaning.

?finite state grammar, phrase structure grammar, and transformational grammar.

4.2.1 Phrase structure grammar

? A system of finite rules generating an infinite number of sentences, and the rules are:

generative, simple (represented by symbols and formulae), explicit (to state everything

precisely), exhaustive (to cover all linguistic fact) and recursive (can be repeatedly applied to generate an infinite number of sentences)

?more generative, stronger power

Phrase structural rules are also called rewritten rules, and the generative process of a sentence is that of rewriting one symbol into another.

(NP(Det(the)N(man)) VP(V(hit)NP(Det(the)N(ball))))

4.2.2 Transformational grammar

?Linguistic competence : phrase structure grammar that consists rules governing idealized

sentence formation, and transformational grammar that enables us to manipulate sentences to produce the full range of sentence types.

?Every sentence has a surface structure (a post-transformational stage) and a deep structure (a

pre-transformational stage)

Deep structure and surface structure

?Deep structure: the abstract structure and the propositional core. The underlying structure that

specifies the grammatical relations and functions of the syntactic elements as well as the

meaning of constituents.

?Surface structure: the actually produced structure and the directly observable actual form. An

abstract sentence structure resulting from the application of transformational rules. Transformation

?the relationship between deep structure and surface structure.

?responsible for the generation of many phrase markers not generated directly by the phrase

structure rules, and thus contribute to the open-endedness and creativity of languages.

?structural analysis (SA) and structural change (SC)

?SA shows which relevant structural properties phrase markers must have for the

transformations to apply and specifies the input. (structural description SD)

?SC describes the effect of the transformation and specifies what the output structure will be.

?Transformation is based on the deletion and insertion of constituents. Substitution and

permutation are derived from them.

4.3 The standard theory (1965)

?Aspects of the Theory of Syntax (1965)

?three components: syntactic (base component including categories and lexicon, and

transformational components), semantic (makes semantic interpretations on the deep

structure), phonological (phonological interpretation on the surface structure).

?Category component is somewhat similar to the re-writing rules, but with feature

specifications for the words.

?N ? [+N, ±Common]

?[+Common] ? [±Count]

?[+Count] ? [±Animate]

?[-Common] ? [±Animate]

?[+Animate] ? [±Human]

?[-Count] ? [±Abstract]

?verbs are subcategoriezed according to the context they occur in. eat [+V,+--NP, +--#]

?words with the same feature specifications are in a paradigmatic relation and can occur in the

same specific context. Sincerity may frighten the boy.

?transformations can’t alter the meaning

?selection restriction

?restrictions on transformations

?the symbol S is introduced, which means that a sentence can be embedded

?order of the rules

4.4 The Extended Standard Theory

?the first revision of the Standard Theory (the EST): the principle that the transformation rule

can’t change meaning cannot be held with the passive transformation. E.g. I have been taught physics by Einstein. Surface structure also has some bearing on semantic interpretation.

?The second revision (the REST): all the necessary information for semantic interpretation can

be captured by the surface structure with the help of the notion trace.

Beavers built dams

Dams are built t by beavers

4.5 the Theory of Government and Binding

?In 1981, Lectures on Government and Binding

? A Rule system with four components: lexicon, syntax (categorical component and

transformational component), phonetic form and logical form. The transformational

component has one rule: move α: any element may be moved to another place, or more

generally changed in some way, as long as the relevant conditions are satisfied.

? A principle system which specifies these conditions: bound theory, θtheory, binding

theory, government theory, case theory and control theory, among which we only focus on

government and binding theory here.

The minimalist program:

? a universal grammar is a theory for studying the initial states and particular grammars study

the states of acquisition.

Particular language exposure

Universal Grammar Particular Grammar

4.5 Main features of TG Grammar

?The development of TG reflects a process of constantly minimalising theories and controlling

the generative powers.

?rationalism, innateness, deductive methodology, emphasis on interpretation, formalization,

emphasis on linguistic competence, strong generative powers, emphasis on linguistic

universals.

Systemic-functional grammar

?Two components and inseparable parts:

?systemic grammar: internal relations in L as a system network, meaning potential.

?functional grammar: L as a means of social interaction, uses or functions of language

form.

5.2.3.1Systemic grammar

?System: a set of mutually exclusive options that can appear in a linguistic structure.

?characteristics (entry conditions): options have a common area of meaning and grammatical

environment; mutually exclusive; finite; interdependent relationships between terms of

different systems.

?Delicacy is a scale on which we can arrange systems according to the fineness of the

distinction.

? A system is simultaneous with another if they are independent of each other but have the same

entry conditions. Their terms can combine freely to enable us to make more delicate

distinctions in meaning.

?SG: a chart of the full set of choices available in constructing a sentence, with a specification

of the relationships between choices.

?realization relationships between various levels: semantics (meaning)

lexicogrammar (form)

phonology(substance)

?features of SG:

a. emphasizes the sociological aspects

b. L is a form of doing rather than knowing

c. distinguishes linguistic behavior potential from actual linguistic behavior

d. emphasizes particular language

e. explains L in terms of clines (continuum)

f. empirical: observation from texts and by means of statistical techniques

g. The category of the system is the core.

5.2.3.2 Functional grammar

?Ideational function (experiential & logical): to convey new info, communicate a content

unknown to the hearer

?Interpersonal function: to express social and personal relations

?Textual function: to make any stretch of spoken or written discourse into a coherent and

unified text and make a living passage different from a random list of sentences.

Ideational function

Experiential function: six processes of transitivity

? A process, in principle, mainly consists of three components:

(1)the process itself

(2)participants in the process;

(3)circumstances associated with the process.

?L can express experiential function by building a mental picture of reality to interpret or make

sense of what goes on around us or inside us.

.a Material process: process of doing

?Actor—the one who does something

?Goal—the one who receives the action

?Dispositive type: the lion caught the tourist.

?Creative type: they wrote a letter.

Transitivity analysis of John built a house.

Actor: John

Process: Material: Creation: built

Goal: Affected: a new house

b.Mental process: process of sensing

?The human conscious participant is called the Senser and the other one called Phenomenon.

The three sub-processes of the mental process: feeling, perceiving and thinking are labeled in more general terms: 1. PERCEPTION (seeing, hearing, smelling), 2. AFFECTION (liking,

fearing, etc. ) and 3. COGNITION (thinking, knowing, understanding).

?John likes the house.

Senser :John

Process: mental: affection: likes

Phenomenon: the house

c. Relational process: process of being

?two parts are related in a certain way, indicated by verbs like be, become, turn, etc.

d. Behavioral Processes

?processes of physiological and psychological behaviors, like smiling, breathing, coughing, etc.

?The participant: one participant called Behaver, typically a conscious being

e. Verbal process: a process of saying

?Apart from the Sayer, there are other three participants in a verbal process: (1) RECEIVER,

(2)VERBIAGE, (3) TARGET. The first two are oblique participants, that is, they are in the

oblique case (间接格).

?The RECEIVER is the participant to which the saying is directed.

He didn’t tell me the truth.

f. Existential Process

?It represents that something exists or happens. The thing that exists is labeled Existent Interpersonal function

?embodies all uses of language to express social and personal relations.

?realized by mood and modality.

Mood

?the role selected by the speaker in the speech situation an that he assigns to the addressee. Two speech roles: giving and demanding.

Contents of giving/demanding: goods-services/information

?In sum, we have four moods: offer, command, statement and question P.314

?Mood includes two parts: subject and finite.

?Subject : N, NP or clause

?Finite elements: Aux and M to express tense or modality, one part of VP.

?Residue

Textual function

?to make any stretch of spoken or written discourse into a coherent and unified text rather than

a random list of sentences.

?related to the theme-rheme structure

?two inseparable components for an integral framework of Systemic-Functional linguistics

theory.

?SG aims to explain the internal relations in L as a system of meaning potential. FG functions

to reveal that L is a means of interaction. SG has a functional component, and the theory

behind his FG is systemic.

?innovation: relate his FG to its structure. The three metafunctions are related respectively to

three systems: transitivity, mood and theme.

A brief summary: formalism vs. functionalism

?Formalism: Structural grammar & TG grammar which pays more attention to structures.

?Functionalism: functional grammar which emphasizes systems and relates them to functions

played by L.

Semantics

1 The conceptualist (referential) theory

●The conceptualist theory treats meaning as concept or reference to cope with problems of the

naming theory.

●any particular sound image is psychologically associated with a particular concept.

2 Types of meaning

Leech’s seven types of meaning

Geoffrey Leech (1974, 1981). Semantics: The Study of Meaning.

●Conceptual meaning

●Associative

●Connotative meaning

●Social meaning

●Affective meaning

●Reflected and meaning

●Collocative meaning

●Thematic meaning

3 marked and unmarked

Unmarked forms: more usual, easy to learn, broader in meaning, non-metaphorical

Marked forms: less frequently used.

4 Antonymy

a: gradable antonymy (semantic polarity and semantic relativity; continuum; markedness)

good ----------------------- bad

●Can be modified by adverbs of degree like very. Can have comparative forms. Can be

asked with how.

●graded against different norms

●one member of a pair, usually the one for the higher degree, serves as the cover term or

unmarked term. E.g. How long…, length

b: Complementary antonymy. These antonyms divide a semantic field completely. The assertion of one means the denial of the other and there is no intermediate ground between the two. A yes or no question, not a choice between more or less.

●alive : dead male : female

Features: no comparative or superlative degrees. absolute norm, no cover term

c: converse antonymy （关系反义词）: the two members of the pair do not constitute a positive-negative opposition. They show the reversal of a relationship between two entities in reciprocal social roles. X presuppose Y.buy : sell lend : borrow husband : wife smaller: bigger

反义词有不稳定性，针对具体语义特征而言。比如，rich-plain/poor (meal); humble-arrogant/luxurious (speaker)

5 Hyponymy

●Inclusiveness: a class-membership relationship. A is included in / a kind of B.

●Cf.: chair and furniture, rose and flower

●Superordinate/hypernym: the more general term, the class name

●Hyponym: the more specific term, the members, Co-hyponyms: members of the same

class

●auto-hyponymy: a hyponym of itself

●the missing of a superordinate: red, green, white