Linguistics Chapter 1
Introduction: Language and Linguistics
What is language?
Different definitions of language
Language is a system whose parts can and must be considered in their synchronic solidarity. (de Saussure, 1916)
[Language is] a set (finite or infinite) of sentences, each finite in length and constructed out of a finite set of elements. (Chomsky, 1957)
Language is a purely human and non-instinctive method of communicating ideas, emotions and desires by means of voluntarily produced symbols.
Each of the definitions above has pointed out some aspects of the essence of language, but all of them have left out something. We must see the multi-faceted nature of language.
As is agreed by linguists in broad terms, language can be defined as a system of arbitrary vocal symbols used for human communication.
Features of human language
Creativity
Language provides opportunities for sending messages that have never been sent before and for understanding brand new messages.
The grammar rules and the words are finite, but the sentences are infinite. Every speaker uses language creatively.
Duality
Language contains two subsystems, one of sounds and the other of meanings.
Certain sounds or sequences of sounds stand for certain meanings.
Certain meanings are conveyed by certain speech sounds or sequences of speech sounds. Arbitrariness
The relationship between the two subsystems of language is arbitrary.
There is no logical connection between sound and meaning.
Displacement
There is no limit in time or space for language.
Language can be used to refer to things real or imagined, past, present or future.
Cultural transmission
Culture cannot be genetically transmitted. Instead, it must be learned.
Language is a way of transmitting culture.
Interchangeability
All members of a speech community can send and receive messages.
Reflexivity Human languages can be used to describe themselves.
The language used to talk about language is called meta-language.
Functions of language – three meta-functions
The ideational function
To identify things, to think, or to record information.
The interpersonal function To get along in a community.
The textual function To form a text.
Types of language
Genetic classification
Typological classification
Analytic language – no inflections or formal changes, grammatical relationships are shown through word order, such as Chinese and Vietnamese
Synthetic language – grammatical relationships are expressed by changing the internal structure of the words, typically by changing the inflectional endings, such as English and German Agglutinating language – words are built out of a long sequence of units, with each unit expressing a particular grammatical meaning, such as Japanese and Turkish
The myth of language – language origin
The Biblical account
Language was God’s gift to human beings.
The bow-wow theory
Language was an imitation of natural sounds, such as the cries of animals, like quack, cuckoo. The pooh-pooh theory
Language arose from instinctive emotional cries, expressive of pain or joy.
The yo-he-ho theory
Language arose from the noises made by a group of people engaged in joint labour or effort – lifting a huge hunted game, moving a rock, etc.
The evolution theory
Language originated in the process of labour and answered the call of social need.
What is linguistics?
Linguistics is the scientific study of language.
Observing & questioning Formulating hypotheses Verifying the hypotheses
Proposing a theory Branches of linguistics
Internal branches: intra-disciplinary divisions
Phonetics Phonology Morphology Syntax Semantics
External branches: inter-disciplinary divisions
Pragmatics Psycholinguistics Sociolinguistics Applied linguistics Computational linguistics Neurolinguistics
Features of linguistics
Descriptive Dealing with spoken language Synchronic
Chapter 2 Phonetics
What is phonetics?
Phonetics is termed as the study of speech sounds.
Sub-branches of phonetics
Articulatory phonetics – the production of speech sounds
Acoustic phonetics – the physical properties of speech sounds
Auditory phonetics – the perceptive mechanism of speech sounds
The speech organs
Where does the air stream come from? From the lung
What is the function of vocal cords? Controlling the air stream
What are the cavities? Oral cavity Pharyngeal cavity Nasal cavity Transcription of speech sounds Units of representation Segments (the individual sounds)
Phonetic symbols
The widely used symbols for phonetic transcription of speech sounds is the International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA).
The IPA attempts to represent each sound of human speech with a single symbol and the symbols are enclosed in brackets [ ] to distinguish phonetic transcriptions from the spelling system of a language.
In more detailed transcription (narrow transcription) a sound may be transcribed with a symbol to which a smaller is added in order to mark the finer distinctions.
Description of speech sounds Description of English consonants General feature: obstruction Criteria of consonant description Places of articulation Manners of articulation Voicing of articulation Places of articulation
This refers to each point at which the air stream can be modified to produce a sound.
Bilabial: [p] [b] [m] [w] Labiodental: [f] [v]
Interdental: [] [] Alveolar: [t] [d] [s] [z] [l] [n] [r]
Palatal: [] [] [t] [d] [j] Velar: [k] [g] [] Glottal: [h]
Manners of articulation
This refers to how the air stream is modified, whether it is completely blocked or partially obstructed.
Stops: [p] [b] [t] [d] [k] [g] Fricatives: [s] [z] [] [] [f] [v] [] [] [h] Affricates: [t] [d] Liquids: [l] [r] Glides: [w] [j] Nasals: [m] [n] []
Voicing of articulation
This refers to the vibrating of the vocal cords when sounds are produced.
Voiced sounds Voiceless sounds Description of English vowels
General feature: without obstruction
Criteria of vowel description Part of the tongue that is raised Front Central Back Extent to which the tongue rises in the direction of the palate High Mid Low
Kind of opening made at the lips Position of the soft palate Single vowels (monophthongs) and diphthongs
Phonetic features and natural classes
Classes of sounds that share a feature or features are called natural classes.
Major class features can specify segments across the consonant-vowel boundary.
Classification of segments by features is the basis on which variations of sounds can be analyzed.
Chapter 3 Phonology
What is phonology?
Phonology is the study of sound systems and patterns.
Phonology and phonetics are two studies different in perspectives, which are concerned with the study of speech sounds.
Phonology focuses on three fundamental questions.
What sounds make up the list of sounds that can distinguish meaning in a particular language? What sounds vary in what ways in what context?
What sounds can appear together in a sequence in a particular language?
Phonemes and allophones
A phoneme is a distinctive, abstract sound unit with a distinctive feature.
The variants of a phoneme are termed allophones.
We use allophones to realize phonemes. Discovering phonemes
Contrastive distribution – phonemes
If sounds appear in the same environment, they are said to be in contrastive distribution. Typical contrastive distribution of sounds is found in minimal pairs and minimal sets.
A minimal pair consists of two words that differ by only one sound in the same position. Minimal sets are more than two words that are distinguished by one segment in the same position. The overwhelming majority of the consonants and vowels represented by the English phonetic alphabet are in contrastive distribution.
Some sounds can hardly be found in contrastive distribution in English. However, these sounds are distinctive in terms of phonetic features. Therefore, they are separate phonemes. Complementary distribution – allophones
Sounds that are not found in the same position are said to be in complementary distribution.
If segments are in complementary distribution and share a number of features, they are allophones of the same phoneme.
Free variation
If segments appear in the same position but the mutual substitution does not result in change of meaning, they are said to be in free variation.
Distinctive and non-distinctive features
Features that distinguish meaning are called distinctive features, and features do not, non-distinctive features.
Distinctive features in one language may be non-distinctive in another.
Phonological rules
Phonemes are abstract sound units stored in the mind, while allophones are the actual pronunciations in speech.
What phoneme is realized by what allophones in what specific context is another major question in phonology.
The regularities that what sounds vary in what ways in what context are generalized and stated in phonology as rules.
There are many phonological rules in English. Take the following ones as examples.
[+voiced +consonant] – [-voiced]/[-voiced +consonant]_ [-voiced +bilabial +stop] – unaspirated/[-voiced +alveolar +fricative]_
Syllable structure
A syllable is a phonological unit that is composed of one or more phonemes.
Every syllable has a nucleus, which is usually a vowel.
The nucleus may be preceded by one or more consonants called the onset and followed by one or more consonants called the coda.
Sequence of phonemes
Native speakers of any language intuitively know what sounds can be put together.
Some sequences are not possible in English. The impossible sequences are called systematic gaps. Sequences that are possible but do not occur yet are called accidental gaps.
When new words are coined, they may fill some accidental gaps but they will never fill systematic gaps.
Suprasegmental features
Features that are found over a segment or a sequence of two or more segments are called suprasegmental features.
These features are distinctive features.
Stress
Stress is the perceived prominence of one or more syllabic elements over others in a word. Stress is a relative notion. Only words that are composed of two or more syllables have stress. If a word has three or more syllables, there is a primary stress and a secondary stress.
In some languages word stress is fixed, i.e. on a certain syllable. In English, word stress is unpredictable.
Intonation
When we speak, we change the pitch of our voice to express ideas.
Intonation is the variation of pitch to distinguish utterance meaning.
The same sentence uttered with different intonation may express different attitude of the speaker. In English, there are three basic intonation patterns: fall, rise, fall-rise.
Tone
Tone is the variation of pitch to distinguish words.
The same sequence of segments can be different words if uttered with different tones.
Chinese is a typical tone language.
Chapter 4 Morphology
What is morphology?
The total number of words stored in the brain is called the lexicon.
Words are the smallest free units of language that unite sounds with meaning.
Morphology is defined as the study of the internal structure and the formation of words. Morphemes and allomorphs
The smallest meaningful unit of language is called a morpheme.
A morpheme may be represented by different forms, called allomorphs.
“zero” form of a morpheme and suppletives
Some countable nouns do not change form to express plurality. Similarly, some regular verbs do not change form to indicate past tense. In these two cases, the noun or verb contains two morphemes, among which there is one
“zero form” of a morpheme.
Some verbs have irregular changes when they are in past tense. In this case, the verbs also have two morphemes. Words which are not related in form to indicate grammatical contrast with their roots are called suppletives.
Free and bound morphemes
Some morphemes constitute words by themselves. These morphemes are called free morphemes. Other morphemes are never used independently in speech and writing. They are always attached to free morphemes to form new words. These morphemes are called bound morphemes.
The distinction between a free morphemes and a bound morpheme is whether it can be used independently in speech or writing.
Free morphemes are the roots of words, while bound morphemes are the affixes (prefixes and suffixes).
Inflexional and derivational morphemes下载本文
