戴炜栋《简明英语语言学教程》配套笔记

Chapter 1  What is language?

[A] The origins of language

Some speculations of the origins of language:

① The divine source

The basic hypothesis: if infants were allowed to grow up without hearing any language, then they would spontaneously begin using the original god-given language.

Actually, children living without access to human speech in their early years grow up with no language at all.

② The natural-sound source

The bow-wow theory: the suggestion is that primitive words could have been imitations of the natural sounds which early men and women heard around them.

The “Yo-heave-ho” theory: the sounds produced by humans when exerting physical effort, especially when co-operating with other humans, may be the origins of speech sounds.

Onomatopoeic sounds

③ The oral-gesture source

It is claimed that originally a set of physical gestures was developed as a means of communication.

The patterns of movement in articulation would be the same as gestural movement; hence waving tongue would develop from waving hand.

④ Glossogenetics（言语遗传学）

This focuses mainly on the biological basis of the formation and development of human language.

Physiological adaptationàdevelop naming abilityàinteractions and transactions

Physical adaptation:

Human teeth are upright and roughly even in height.

Human lips have intricate muscle interlacing, thus making them very flexible.

The human mouth is small and contains a very flexible tongue.

The human larynx is lowered, creating a longer cavity called the pharynx, and making it easier for the human to choke on the pieces of food, but making the sound speech possible.

The human brain is lateralized. Those analytic functions (tool-using and language) are largely confined to the left hemisphere of the brain for most humans.

Two major functions of language:

Interactional: a social function of language.

Transactional: a function involving the communication of knowledge and information

[B] The properties of language

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

a) System: combined together according to rules

b) Arbitrary: no intrinsic connection between the word “pen” and the thing in the world which it refers to

c) Vocal: the primary medium is sound for all languages

d) Human: language is human-specific（交际性与信息性）

Communicative vs. Informative:

Communicative: intentionally using language to communicate something

Informative: through/via a number of signals that are not intentionally sent

Design features (unique properties): the defining properties of human language that distinguish it from any animal system of communication

① Displacement（跨时空性，移位性）

Language can be used to refer to contexts removed from the immediate situations of the speaker (refer to past and future time and to other locations)

② Arbitrariness（任意性）

There is no logical or natural connection between a linguistic form (either sound or word) and its meaning.

While language is arbitrary by nature, it is not entirely arbitrary.

a) echo of the sounds of objects or activities: onomatopoeic words

b) some compound words

③ Productivity（能产性，创造性）

Language is productive in that it makes possible the construction and interpretation of new signals by its users. (Creativity or open-endedness)

④ Cultural transition（文化传递性）

While human capacity for language has a genetic basis (everyone was born with the ability to acquire a language), the details of any language system are not genetically transmitted, but instead have to be taught and learnt.

⑤ Discreteness（可分离性）

Each sound in the language is treated as discrete.

⑥ Duality（双重结构性，两重性或二元性）

Language is organized at two levels or layers simultaneously. The lower or basic level is a structure of sounds which are meaningless. The higher level is morpheme or word (double articulation)

The above six properties may be taken as the core features of human language.

Vocal-auditory channel, reciprocity, specialization, non-directionality, or rapid fade, these properties are best treated as ways of describing human language, but not as a means of distinguishing it from other systems of communication.

[C] The development of written language

① pictograms & ideograms（象形文字和表意文字）

Pictogram: when some of the pictures came to represent particular images in a consistent way, we can begin to describe the product as a form of picture-writing, or pictograms.

Ideogram: the picture developed as more abstract and used other than its entity is considered to be part of a system of idea-writing, or ideogram

Hieroglyph: 古埃及象形文字

② Logograms（语标书写法）

When symbols come to be used to represent words in a language, they are described as examples of word-writing, or logograms.

“Arbitrariness”—a writing system which was word-based had come into existence.

Cuneiform--楔形文字—the Sumerians (5000 and 6000 years ago)

Chinese is one example of its modern writing system.

Advantages: two different dialects can be based on the same writing system.

Disadvantages: vast number of different written forms.

③ Syllabic writing（音节书写法）

When a writing system employs a set of symbols which represent the pronunciations of syllables, it is described as syllabic writing.

The Phoenicians: the first human beings that applied the full use of a syllabic writing system (ca 1000 BC)

④ Alphabetic writing（字母书写法）

Semitic languages (Arabic and Hebrew): first applied this rule

The Greeks: taking the inherently syllabic system from the Phoenicians via the Romans

Latin alphabet and Cyrillic alphabet (Slavic languages)

⑤ Rebus writing

Robus writing evolves a process whereby the symbol used for an entity comes to be used for the sound of the spoken word used for that entity.

Chapter 2  What is linguistics?

[A] The definition of linguistics

Linguistics is generally defined as the scientific study of language.

Process of linguistic study:

① Certain linguistic facts are observed, generalization are formed;

② Hypotheses are formulated;

③ Hypotheses are tested by further observations;

④ A linguistic theory is constructed.

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

[B] The scope of linguistics

General linguistics: the study of language as a whole

Phonetics: the general study of the characteristics of speech sounds (or the study of the phonic medium of language) (How speech sounds are produced and classified)

Phonology: is essentially the description of the systems and patterns of speech sounds in a language. (How sounds form systems and function to convey meaning)

Morphology: the study of the way in which morphemes are arranged to form words (how morphemes are combined to form words)

Syntax: the study of those rules that govern the combination of words to form permissible sentences (how morphemes and words are combined to form sentences)

Semantics: the study of meaning in abstraction

Pragmatics: the study of meaning in context of use

Sociolinguistics: the study of language with reference to society

Psycholinguistics: the study of language with reference to the workings of the mind

Applied linguistics: the application of linguistics principles and theories to language teaching and learning

Anthropological linguistics, neurological linguistics; mathematical linguistics; mathematical linguistics; computational linguistics

[C] Some important distinctions in linguistics

① Prescriptive vs. Descriptive

② Synchronic vs. Diachronic

The description of a language at some point in time;

The description of a language as it changes through time.

③ Speech and writing

Spoken language is primary, not the written

④ Langue and parole

Proposed by Swiss linguists F. de Sausse (sociological)

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

⑤ Competence and performance

Proposed by the American linguist N. Chomsky (psychological)

Competence: the ideal user’s knowledge of the rules of his language

Chapter 3  Phonetics and phonology

[A] The definition of phonetics

Phonetics: the study of the phonic medium of language: it is concerned with all the sounds that occur in the world’s languages.

Articulatory phonetics: the study of how speech sounds are made, or articulated.

Acoustic phonetics: deals with the physical properties of speech as sound waves in the air.

Auditory (or perceptual) phonetics: deals with the perception, via the ear, of speech sounds.

Forensic phonetics: has an application in legal cases involving speaker identification and the analysis of recorded utterances.

[B] Organs of speech

Voiceless: when the vocal cords are spread apart, the air from the lungs passes between them unimpeded.

Voiced: when the vocal cords are drawn together, the air from the lungs repeated pushes them apart as it passes through, creating a vibration effect.

All the English vowels are typically voiced (voicing).

The important cavities:

The pharyngeal cavity

The oral cavity

The nasal cavity

Lips, teeth, teeth ridge (alveolus), hard palate, soft palate (velum), uvula, tip of tongue, blade of tongue, back of tongue, vocal cords

[C] Orthographic representation of speech sounds

Broad and narrow transcriptions

IPA (International Phonetic Alphabet/Association)

Broad transcription: the transcription with letter-symbols only

Narrow transcription: the transcription with diacritics

E.g.:

[l]à[li:f]--à a clear [l] (no diacritic)

[l]à[bild]--àa dark [l] (~)

[l]à[helW]--àa dental [l] ( )

[p]à[pit]--àan aspirated [p^h](^h)

[p]à[spit]--àan unaspirated [p] (no diacritic)

[n]à[5bQtn]àa syllabic nasal [n] (7)

[D] Classification of English consonants

In terms of manner of articulation (the manner in which obstruction is created)

① Stops: the obstruction is total or complete, and then going abruptly

[p]/[b], [t]/[d], [k]/[g]

② Fricatives: the obstruction is partial, and the air is forced through a narrow passage in the month

[f]/[v], [s]/[z], [W]/[T], [F]/[V], [h] (approximant)

③ Affricates: the obstruction, complete at first, is released slowly as in fricatives

[tF]/[dV]

④ Liquids: the airflow is obstructed but is allowed to escape through the passage between part or parts of the tongue and the roof of the mouth

[l]àa lateral sound; [r]à retroflex

⑤ Glides: [w], [j] (semi-vowels)

Liquid + glides + [h]à approximants

⑥ Nasals: the nasal passage is opened by lowering the soft palate to let air pass through it

[m], [n], []

By place of articulation (the place where obstruction is created)

① bilabials: upper and lower lips are brought together to create obstructions

[p]/[b], [w]à(velar)

② labiodentals: the lower lip and the upper teeth

[f]/[v]

③ dentals: the tip of the tongue and the upper front teeth

[W]/[T]

④ alveolars: the front part of the tongue on the alveolar ridge

[t]/[d], [s]/[z], [n], [l], [r]

⑤ alveo-palatals (palato-alveolars): tongue and the very front of the palate, near the alveolar ridge

[F]/[V], [t]/[d]

⑥ palatal: tongue in the middle of the palate

[j]

⑦ velars: the back of the tongue against the velum

[k], [g], [N] … [w]

⑧ glottals: the glottal is the space between the vocal cords in the larynx

[h]

 [E] Classification of English vowels

① The highest position of the tongue: front, central, back;

② The openness of the mouth: close, semi-close, semi-open, open;

③ The roundness (shape) of the month (the lips):

All the front, central vowels are unrounded vowels except [B]

All the back vowels, except [A:] are rounded vowels

④ The length of the sound: long vowels & short vowels

Larynx à (tense) or (lax)

Monophthongs, diphthongs

Cardinal vowels

[F] The definition of phonology

Phonetics is interested in all the speech sounds used in all human languages; how they are produced, how they differ from each other, what phonetic features they possess, how they can be classified, etc.

Phonology, on the other hand, is interested in the system of sounds of a particular languages; it aims to discover how speech sounds in a language form patterns and how these sounds are used to convey meaning in linguistic communication.

[G] Phone, phoneme, and allophone

Phone: the different versions of the abstract unit – phoneme

Phoneme: the mean-distinguishing sound in a language, placed in slash marks

Allophone: a set of phones, all of which are versions of one phoneme

[G] Phonemic contrast, complementary distribution, and minimal pair

Phonemic contrast: when two phonemes can occur in the same environments in two words and they distinguish meaning, they’re in phonemic contrast.

E.g. pin & bin à /p/ vs. /b/ rope & robe à /p/ vs. /b/

Complementary distribution: two or more than two allophones of the same phonemes are said to be in complementary distribution because they can not appear at the same time, or occur in different environment, besides they do not distinguish meaning.

Minimal pair: when two different forms are identical in every way except for one sound segment which occurs in the same place in the strings, the two sounds are said to form a minimal pair.

When a group of words can be differentiated, each one from the others, by changing one phoneme (always in the same position), then all of these words constitute a minimal sets.

[H] Some rules in phonology

① sequential rules

Syllable

Onset                 rime

             Nucleus        coda

[Consonant]     vowel    [consonant(s)]

Phonotactics of 3Cs occurring in onset:

No1:

___/s/

___voiceless stops: /p/, /t/, /k/

___approximants: /r/, /l/, /w/, /j/

No2:

The affricates [tF]/[dV] and the sibilants [s], [z], [F], [V] are not to be followed by another sibilants.

② assimilation rules

Co-articulation effects: the process of making one sound almost at the same time as the next is called co-articulation.

Assimilation & elision effects

Assimilation: two phonemes occur in sequence and some aspect of one phoneme is taken or copied by the other