English Linguistics

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• English Linguistics

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Course Objective

• Mastery of some linguistic concepts and theories
  in order to understand how language is
  constructed, how language operates,how language
  is used to do things, how language is acquired or
  learnt, how language varies according to the user
  or the situationetc.
• Improvement of English proficiency in general and
  enhancement of the awareness of patterns and
  regularities in the English language
• Preparation for further study and research about
  language.

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Textbook and Reference books

• ??? ??? ???????????(?2?)?????????,2010
• ??? ????????????????,2007
• ??? ????????????,2001
• Yule,G The Study of Language, ??????????,2000

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Course Outline

• Chapter 1 Introduction
• Chapter 2 Phonology
• Chapter 3 Morphology
• Chapter 4 Syntax
• Chapter 5 Semantics
• Chapter 6 Pragmatics
• Chapter 7 Language Change
• Chapter 8 Language and Society
• Chapter 9 Language and Culture
• Chapter 10 Language Acquisition
• Chapter 11 Second Language Acquisition
• Chapter 12 Language and the Brain

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Course Components

• Lectures
• Discussions
• Presentation
• Assignments
• Research

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Study and Research groups(4-5persons for one
group),each group draws a topic out of the
following(topics for Term 1)

• For chapter 1
• The 13 design features proposed by Charles
  Hockett
• The functions of language
• Phatic communion in English and Chinese
• The theories about the origin of language
• For Chapter 2
• The relation between the sound and the sense
• the function of suprasegmental features in daily
  communication in Chinese
• The effect of phonetic knowledge on language
  learning
• The effective strategies in learning English
  speech sounds

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• For Chapter 3
• On Word formation in English
• On the Word formation in Chinese
• On The role of morphonological knowledge on
  English vocabulary learning
• On the word-formation in on-line coined words in
  Chinese
• For Chapter 4
• on the syntactic theories presented by different
  linguistic schools
• on the main points of Chomskys Transformational
  Generative Grammar
• For Chapter 5
• The relation between sense and reference
• the majar types of synonyms and antonyms in
  English
• The implications of lexical sense relations on
  English teaching and learning

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Forms of Course Assessment

• Class attendance
• Participation(Oral presentation and regular
  participation in Classroom discussion)
• Fulfillment of the assignment
• Term paper(A-4,??,4?,3000?,5-10?????,first-hand
  dataanalysis)
• Examination

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Chapter 1. Introduction

• What is linguistics?
• What is language?

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1. What is linguistics? (P1)

• ----Linguistics is the scientific study of
  language. (subject, method, principle, procedure)
• Subject all languages of human societies
• Method scientific
• Principle Exhaustiveness,Consistency
  ,Economy,Objectivity
• Procedure collect language facts-analyze and
  find similiarities-make generalization and form
  hypothesis-checked by more language facts
• ----A person who studies linguistics is known as
  a linguist.

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The scope of linguistics

• major branches
• Phonetics
• Phonology
• Morphology
• Syntax
• Semantics / pragmatics
• Use of linguistics or
• interdisciplinary branches
• Applied linguistics
• Sociolinguistics
• Psycholinguistics

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Theoretical linguistics

• Phonetics----speech sound (description,
  classification, transcription) articulatory
  phonetics, acoustic phonetics, auditory
  phonetics.
• Phonology----sound patterns of languages
• Morphology----the form of words
• Syntax----the rules governing the combination of
  words into sentence.
• Semantics----the meaning of language (when the
  meaning of language is conducted in the context
  of language use----Pragmatics)

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Some important distinctions in linguistics

1. Descriptive vs. prescriptive
2. Synchronic vs. diachronic
3. Speech and writing
4. Langue and parole
5. Competence and performance
6. Traditional grammar and modern linguistics

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Descriptive vs. prescriptive

• Descriptive ---- describe/analyze linguistic
  facts observed or language people actually use
  (modern linguistics)
• Prescriptive ----lay down rules for correct
  linguistic behavior in using language
  (traditional grammar)

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Synchronic vs. diachronic

• Synchronic study---- description of a language at
  some point of time (modern linguistics)
• Diachronic study---- description of a language
  through time (historical development of language
  over a period of time)

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Speech and writing

• Speech ---- primary medium of language
• Writing ---- later developed
• Question Why is speech regarded as the primary
  medium of language?

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Langue and parole (F. de Saussure)

• Langue ---- the abstract linguistic system shared
  by all members of the speech community.
• Parole ---- the realization of langue in actual
  use.
• Saussure takes a sociological view of language
  and his notion of langue is a matter of social
  conventions.

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Competence and performance (Chomsky)

• Competence ---- the ideal users knowledge of the
  rules of his language
• Performance ---- the actual realization of this
  knowledge in linguistic communication
• Chomsky looks at language from a psychological
  point of view and to him competence is a property
  of the mind of each individual.

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Traditional grammar vs modern linguistics

• Traditional grammar ---- prescriptive, written,
  Latin-based framework
• Modern linguistics ----- descriptive, spoken, not
  necessarily Latin-based framework

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2. What is language? (P7)

• The question What is languageis comparable
  with-and, some would say, hardly less profound
  than What is life? ------John Lyons
• Question How do you define language?

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What does languagemean in each of the contexts?

• language used in various contexts
• Chinese is a language.
• Linguistics is the systematic study of language.
• Both Jane and John like Shakespeares language.
• The language of bees

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Language can mean

• what a person says (e.g. bad language,
  expressions)
• the way of speaking or writing (e.g.
  Shakespeares language, Luxuns language)
• a particular variety or level of speech or
  writing (e.g. language for special purpose,
  colloquial language)
• the abstract system underlying the totality of
  the speech/writing behavior of a community (e.g.
  Chinese language, first language)
• the common features of all human languages (e.g.
  He studies language)
• a tool for human communication. (social function)
  
• a set of rules. (rule-governed)
• Question Is there any other context in which the
  use of the word means something else?

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Sapirs definition (1921)

• Language is a purely human and non-instinctive
  method of communicating ideas, emotions and
  desires by means of voluntarily produced symbols.

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Halls definition (1968)

• Language is the institution whereby humans
  communicate and interact with each other by means
  of habitually used oral-auditory arbitrary
  symbols.

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Chomskys definition (1957)

• From now on I will consider language to be a set
  of (finite or infinite) sentences, each finite in
  length and constructed out of a finite set of
  elements.

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Language can be generally defined as

• a system of arbitrary vocal symbols used for
  human communication.

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Language is a system

• Systematic---- rule-governed, elements in it are
  arranged according to certain rules cant be
  combined at will. e.g. bkli, I apple eat.

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Language is arbitrary

• Arbitrary---- no intrinsic connection between the
  word and the thing it denotes, e.g. pen by any
  other name is the thing we use to write with.

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Language is symbolic in nature

• Symbolic---- words are associated with objects,
  actions ideas by convention. A rose by any other
  name would smell as sweet----Shakespeare

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Language is primarily vocal

• Vocal---- the primary medium is sound for all
  languages writing system came much later than
  spoken form.

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Language is human-specific

• Human-specific---- different from the
  communication systems other forms of life
  possess, e.g. bird songs, bee dance, animal cries.

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The design/defining features of human language
(Charles Hockett)

• Arbitrariness
• Productivity/Creativity
• Duality
• Displacement
• Cultural transmission

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Arbitrariness

• ----No logical (motivated or intrinsic)
  connection between sounds and meanings.
• Questions
• 1. by this property do we mean that a person
  can use the language as freely as we like?
• 2. How about onomatopoeic words which imitate
  natural sounds such as ( English rumble,
  crackle, bang, . Chinese putong, shasha,
  dingdang )
• 3. How about some compound words
  liketype-writer, shoe-maker, air-conditioner,
  photocopy?
• 4. How about words like flow, float, flood,
  fluentetc,?
• other examples
• J-- joy, jovial, jubilate, joyous, joyful,
  jubilant
• Gl-- glow, glisten, gleam, glare, glimmer,
  glitter

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Productivity/creativity

• ----Peculiar to human languages,users of
  language can understand and produce sentences
  they have never heard before, e.g. we can
  understand sentence like A red-eyed elephant is
  dancing on the hotel bed, though it does not
  describe a common happening in the world.
• A gibbon call system is not productive for gibbon
  draw all their calls from a fixed repertoire
  which is rapidly exhausted, making any novelty
  impossible.
• The bee dance does have a limited productivity,
  as it is used to communicate about food sources
  in any direction. But food sources are the only
  kind of messages that can be sent through the bee
  dance bees do not talk about themselves, the
  hives, or wind, let alone about people, animals,
  hopes or desires

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Duality (double articulation)

• Lower level----sounds (meaningless)
• Higher level----meaning (larger units of meaning)
• . A small number of sounds can be grouped and
  regrouped into a large number of units of meaning
  (words), and the units of meaning can be arranged
  and rearranged into an infinite number of
  sentences.
• Questions
• Why is this property generally assumed as central
  to language? Does animal language have this
  property?
• How is this related to communicative power?

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Displacement

• ---Language can be used to refer to things, which
  are not present real or imagined matters in the
  past, present or future, or in far-away places.
• Questions
• What advantages does this property of language
  yield?
• How about the other communication systems?
• A gibbon never utters a call about something he
  ate last year
• There is something special about the bee dance
  though. Bees communicate with other bees about
  the food sources they have found when they are no
  longer in the presence of the food. In this
  sense, the bee dance has a component of
  displacement. But this component is very
  insignificant. For the bees must communicate
  about the food immediately on returning to the
  hive. They do not dance about the food they
  discovered last month nor do they speculate about
  future discoveries.

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Cultural transmission

• ----Language is culturally transmitted (through
  teaching and learning rather than by instinct).
• Animal call systems are genetically transmitted.
  All cats, gibbons and bees have systems which are
  almost identical to those of all other cats,
  gibbons and bees.
• A Chinese speaker and an English speaker are not
  mutually intelligible. This shows that language
  is culturally transmitted. That is, it is pass on
  from one generation to the next by teaching and
  learning, rather than by instinct.
• Question Can we deny that human language has a
  genetic basis? What is the implication of the
  story about wolf child? What about those
  patients with aphasia(patial or total loss of
  language due to brain damage)?

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Functions of language

• Language contributes to the success of our
  everyday life and the survival of human beings.
• Discussion What functions does language serve
  for our life and survival?
• Humans are said to be language animals. But what
  if we humans lived without language?
• There are some 6,800 known languages spoken in
  the 200 countries of the world. In 2003, the
  total number of languages in teh world was
  estimated to be 6,809, of which 2,261 have
  writing systems (the other are only spoken), what
  if there were only one language over the world?

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The story of Babel

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• What can we learn from this Bible Story?

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Babel(???)
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Functions of language

• Three main functions( distinct but overlapping
  to some degree)
• Descriptive function----to convey factual
  information
• Expressive function----to supply information
  about users feelings, preferences, prejudices,
  and values.
• Social function----to establish and maintain
  social relations between people.
• Roman Jakobson (six functions)
• Emotive / Conative / Referential
• Poetic / Phatic communion/ Metalinguistic
• M.A.K. Halliday( three macrofunction)
• Ideational / interpersonal / textual

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The origin of language

• The divine-origin theory---- Language is a gift
  of God to mankind.
• The invention theory---- imitative, cries of
  nature, the grunts of men working together.
• The evolutionary theory---- the result of
  physical and psychological development.

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Assignments

• Review the majar points of this chapter.
• For the various functions of language discussed
  in class, use one example of your own to
  illustrate each.

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For further reading

• Jakobson, R. Closing Statement Linguistics and
  Poetics, in Sebeok, T.a.(ed. ) Style in Language,
  Mass. MIT, 1960
• Lyons, J. Chapters 3 4, The Design Features of
  Language, in Semantics I. Cambridge Cambridge
  University Press, 1977
• Widdowson, H. Chapters 1 2, in Linguistics.
  Oxford Oxford University Press, 1966

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The End Thank you!