习题1
Questions on Lecture III * Saussure looks at language from the ____________ point of view, Chomsky looks at language from the _____________ point of view and _______ looks at it from the functional point of view. * _______ refers to the abstract linguistic system shared by all the members of a community. * ___________ refers to the ideal user‘s knowledge of the rules of his language. * Competence is a form of ―knowing‖; ________________ is a set of possibilities for ―doing‖. * Linguistics involves such branches as ___________, __________, ___________, ______, _________. Questions on Lecture III * Langue is not suitable for study. * Parole is always a naturally occurring event. * Langue is subject to personal and situational limits. * A person's competence is stable but his performance is often influenced by psychological and social factors. * A speaker's performance does not always match his competence. * The object of study is the ideal speaker's competence. * Linguistic potential actually refers to a lot of possibilities to choose from. * The linguistic potential vs actual linguistic behavior distinction is one between what a person ―knows‖ and what he ―does‖.
习题2
Exercises for Lecture IV * _______ and ______ are the two major media used by natural languages for communication. * The limited range of sounds which are meaningful & of interest to phoneticians are called ______________ of L. * Phonetics is the study of phonic medium of language, i.e., the study of the __________, ____________ and ___________ of speech sounds. * Phonetics studies speech sounds from three different angles. Accordingly, it can be further classified into three sub-branches: __________ phonetics, ________ phonetics and ________ phonetics. * The speech organs are also called the ____________, whose secondary use is to produce _____________. Exercises for Lecture IV * The speech organs are contained in three important areas or cavities: the ________________, the ________ and the___________. * At the top of the trachea is the ______, the front of which is the Adam‘s apple. * The ____ cavity makes the greatest modification of speech sounds. * Sounds produced while the vocal cords are vibrating are called ______________. * [f, s, p] are of the ________________. * __________ are sounds produced by some form of obstruction of the air stream and may be either voiced or voiceless.
Exercises for Lecture IV * For __________ consonants, the obstruction takes place between the lower lip and the front upper teeth. * ________ consonants are made by completely shutting up the air passage at some points in the mouth and lowering the soft palate to let the air go out through the nose. * That different Ls have different words for the same object is good proof that human language is ________.
* ________ are produced in Sindhi which uses the pharynx air to push down the larynx so that the air is sucked into the mouth. * The _____ of a sound depends on the rate of vibration of the vocal cords
Exercises for Lecture IV * Phonetics also studies the sound of one‘s cough. * Phonetics is concerned with all the sounds that occur in the world‘s languages. * The branch of phonetics which studies the perception of speech sounds is called acoustic phonetics. * When the vocal cords are held tightly, there is only a narrow passage between them. This is the position when one is breathing normally. * All vowels and no consonants are produced with the vibration of vocal cords. * Glottal stop occurs in the English language. * The English spoken sounds, like any other language, are generally divided into two main classes: vowels and consonants.
Exercises for Lecture IV * Speech sounds are limited in number. * Of the two media of language, writing is more basic than speech. * Of the three branches of phonetics, the longest established, and until recently the most highly developed, is acoustic phonetics. * Human capacity for language has a genetic basis, i.e. we are all born with the ability to acquire language and the details of a language system are genetically transmitted.
习题3
Exercises * Just as a phoneme is the basic unit in the study of phonology, so is a morpheme the basic unit in the study of morphology. * The smallest meaningful units that can be used freely all by themselves are free morphemes. * The existing form to which a derivational affix can be added is called a stem, which can be a bound root, a free morpheme, or a derived form itself. * Prefixes usually modify the part of speech of the original word, not the meaning of it. * Phonetically, the stress of a compound always falls on the second element, while the first element receives secondary stress.
The affix ―-ish‖ in the word boyish conveys a g__________ meaning. * B____ morphemes are those that cannot be used independently but have to be combined with other morphemes, either free or bound, to form a word. * D_______ affixes are added to a form to create words. * The rules governing which affix are added to what type of stem to form new words are m___________ rules. * In terms of morphemic analysis, c___________ can be viewed as the combination of two or more than two words to create new words. Exercises * The morpheme ―vision‖ in the common word ―television‖ is a(n) ___. A. bound morpheme B. bound form C. inflectional morpheme D. free morpheme * The part of speech of the compound is generally determined by the part of speech of ___.
A. the first element B. the second element
C. either the first or the second element D. both the first and the second element * ____is a branch of grammar which studies the internal structure of words and the rules by which words are formed.
A.Phonetics B.Phoneme C.Morphology D.Morpheme Exercises * ____ modify the meaning of the stem, but usually do not change the part of speech of the original word. A. Prefixes B. Suffixes C. Roots D. Affixes * ____ are often thought to be the smallest meaningful units of language by the linguists.
A. Words B. Morphemes C. Phonemes D. Sentences * ―-s‖ in the word ―books‖ is ____.
A. a derivative affix B. a stem C. an inflectional affix D. a root
The word ―internationalists‖ contains ___ morphemes.
A. 4 B. 5 C. 6 D. 7
习题4
Exercises for Lecture X * Syntax is a subfied of linguistics that studies the sentence structure of language, including the combination of morphemes into words. * The term syntax came from Latin. * Sentences are composed of sequence of words arranged in a simple linear order, with one adding onto another following a simple arithmetic logic. * Universally found in the grammars of all human languages, syntactic rules that comprise the system of internalized linguistic knowledge of a language speaker are known as linguistic competence. * The syntactic rules of any language are finite in number, but there is no limit to the number of sentences native speakers of that language are able to produce and comprehend. * In a complex sentence, the two clauses hold unequal status, one subordinating the other. * Constituents that can be substituted for one another without loss of grammaticality belong to the same syntactic category. * Grammatical sentences are formed following a set of syntactic rules. * Minor lexical categories are open because these categories are not fixed and new members are allowed for. * In English syntactic analysis, four phrasal categories are commonly recognized and discussed, namely, noun phrase, verb phrase, infinitive phrase, and auxiliary phrase. * In English the subject usually precedes the verb and the direct object usually follows the verb. * What is actually internalized in the mind of a native speaker is a complete list of words and phrases rather than grammatical knowledge. * A noun phrase must contain a noun, but other elements are optional. * It is believed that phrase structure rules, with the insertion of the lexicon, generate sentences at the level of D-structure. * WH-movement is obligatory in English which changes a sentence from affirmative to interrogative. * The recursiveness of phrasal structural rules shows that language has a property of ―being creative‖. * A s________ sentence consists of a single clause which contains a subject and a predicate and stands alone as its own sentence. * A s______ is a structurally independent unit that usually comprises a number of words to form a complete statement,
question or command. * A s______ may be a noun or a noun phrase in a sentence that usually precedes the predicate. * The part of a sentence which comprises a finite verb or a verb phrase and which says something about the subject is grammatically called p____. * A c_________ sentence contains two, or more, clauses, one of which is incorporated into the other. * In the complex sentence, the incorporated or subordinate clause is normally called an e_______ clause. * Major lexical categories are o___ categories in the sense that new words are constantly added. * A _____ Condition on case assignment states that a case assignor and a case recipient should stay adjacent to each other. * P_______ are syntactic options of UG that allow general principles to operate in one way or another and contribute to significant linguistic variations between and among natural languages. * The theory of C_____condition explains the fact that noun phrases appear only in subject and object positions. * A sentence is considered ____ when it does not conform to the grammatical knowledge in the mind of native speakers. A. right B. wrong C. grammatical D. ungrammatical * A __________ in the embedded clause refers to the introductory word that introduces the embedded clause. A. coordinator B. particle
C. preposition D. subordinator * Phrase structure rules have ____ properties. A. recursive B. grammatical C. social D. functional * Phrase structure rules allow us to better understand _____________.
A. how words and phrases form sentences.
B. what constitutes the grammaticality of strings of words C. how people produce and recognize possible sentences D. All of the above. * Syntactic movement is dictated by rules traditionally called ________.
A. transformational rules B. generative rules
C. phrase structure rules D. x-bar theory * The theory of case condition accounts for the fact that __________.
A. noun phrases appear only in subject and object positions. B. noun phrases can be used to modify another noun phrase C. noun phrase can be used in adverbial positions
D. noun phrase can be moved to any place if necessary. * The sentence structure is ________. A. only linear
B. Only hierarchical C. complex
D. both linear and hierarchical * The syntactic rules of any language are ____ in number. A. large B. small C. finite D. infinite * The ________ rules are the rules that group words and phrases to form grammatical sen-tences.
A. lexical B. morphological C. linguistic D. combinational
* _______ rules may change the syntactic representation of a sentence. A. Generative
B. Transformational C. X-bar
D. Phrase structure
习题5
Exercises * I. Decide whether each of the following statements is True or False: * 1. Voicing is a phonological feature that distinguishes meaning in both Chinese and English. * 2.If two phonetically similar sounds occur in the same environments and they distinguish meaning, they are said to be in complementary distribution. * 3.A phone is a phonetic unit that distinguishes meaning. * 4.English is a tone language while Chinese is not. * 5.In linguistic evolution, speech is prior to writing. Exercises * 6.In everyday communication, speech plays a greater role than writing in terms of the amount of information conveyed. * 7.Articulatory phonetics tries to describe the physical properties of the stream of sounds which a speaker issues with the help of a machine called spectrograph. * 8.The articulatory apparatus of a human being are contained in three important areas: the throat, the mouth and the chest. * 9.Vibration of the vocal cords results in a quality of speech sounds called voicing. * 10. English consonants can be classified in terms of place of articulation and the part of the tongue that is raised the highest. Exercises * 11. According to the manner of articulation, some of the types into which the consonants can be classified are stops, fricatives, bilabial and alveolar. * 12. Vowel sounds can be differentiated by a number of factors: the position of tongue in the mouth, the openness of the mouth, the shape of the lips, and the length of the vowels. * 13. According to the shape of the lips, vowels can be classified into close vowels, semi-close vowels, semi-open vowels and open vowels. * 14.Any sound produced by a human being is a phoneme. * 15. Phones are the sounds that can distinguish meaning. Exercises * 16.Phonology is concerned with how the sounds can be classified into different categories. * 17. A basic way to determine the phonemes of a language is to see if substituting one sound for another results in a change of meaning. * 18.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 words are said to form a phonemic contrast. * 19.The rules governing the phonological patterning are language specific. * 20.Distinctive features of sound segments can be found running over a sequence of two or more phonemic segments. Exercises * II. Fill in each of the following blanks with one word which begins with the letter given: * 21.A ____ refers to a strong puff of air stream in the production of speech sounds.
* 22.A___________ phonetics describes the way our speech organs work to produce the speech sounds and how they differ. * 23.The four sounds /p/,/b/,/m/ and /w/ have one feature in common, i.e, they are all b_______ sounds. * 24. Of all the speech organs, the t ____ is the most flexible, and is responsible for varieties of articulation than any other. * 25.English consonants can be classified in terms of manner of articulation or in terms of p_______ of articulation. Exercises * 26. When the obstruction created by the speech organs is total or complete, the speech sound produced with the obstruction audibly released and the air passing out again is called a s________. * 27.S_________ features are the phonemic features that occur above the level of the segments. They include stress, tone, intonation, etc. * 28.The rules that govern the combination of sounds in a particular language are called s ____ rules. * 29.The transcription of speech sounds with letter-symbols only is called broad transcription while the transcription with letter-symbols together with the diacritics is called n_________ transcription. * 30.When pitch, stress and sound length are tied to the sentence rather than the word in isolation, they are collectively known as i_________. Exercise * 31.P___________ is a discipline which studies the system of sounds of a particular language and how sounds are combined into meaningful units to effect linguistic communication. * 32.The articulatory apparatus of a human being are contained in three important cavities: the pharyngeal cavity, the o_______ cavity and the nasal cavity. * 33.T_______ are pitch variations, which are caused by the differing rates of vibration of the vocal cords and which can distinguish meaning. * 34.Depending on the context in which stress is considered, there are two kinds of stress: word stress and s_________ stress. Exercises * 35.Of all the speech organs, the _______ is/ are the most flexible.
A. mouth B. lips C. tongue D. vocal cords * 36.The sounds produced without the vocal cords vibrating are ____ sounds.
A. voiceless B. voiced C. vowel D. consonantal * 37．__________ is a voiced alveolar stop.
A. /z/ B. /d/ C. /k/ D./b/ * 38.The assimilation rule assimilates one sound to another by ―copying‖ a feature of a sequential phoneme, thus making the two phones ____________.
A. identical B. same C. exactly alike D. similar Exercises * 39.Since /p/ and /b/ are phonetically similar, occur in the same environments and they can distinguish meaning, they are said to be ___________.
A. in phonemic contrast
B. in complementary distribution
C. the allophones D. minimal pair * 40.The sound /f/ is _________________.
A. voiced palatal affricate B. voiced alveolar stop C. voiceless velar fricative D. voiceless labiodental fricative * 41. A ____ vowel is one that is produced with the front part of the tongue maintaining the highest position. A. back B. central C. front D. middle Exercises * 42. Distinctive features can be found running over a sequence of two or more phonemic segments. The phonemic features that occur above the level of the segments are called_____. A. phonetic components B. immediate constituents C. suprasegmental features D. semantic features * 43. A(n) ___is a unit that is of distinctive value. It is an abstract unit, a collection of distinctive phonetic features. A. phone B. sound C. allophone D. phoneme * 44.The different phones which can represent a phoneme in different phonetic environments are called the ____ of that phoneme. A. phones B. sounds C. phonemes D. allophones Exercises * IV. Define the terms below: * 45. phonology 46. phoneme 47.allophone 48. international phonetic alphabet 49. intonation 50. phonetics 51. auditory phonetics 52. acoustic phonetics 53. phone . phonemic contrast 55. tone 56. minimal pair Exercises * V. Answer the following questions as comprehensively as possible. Give ex-amples for illustration if necessary: * 57. Of the two media of language, why do you think speech is more basic than writing? * 58. What are the criteria that a linguist uses in classifying vowels? * 59. What are the major differences between phonology and phonetics? * 60. Illustrate with examples how suprasegmental features can affect meaning. * 61. In what way can we determine whether a phone is a phoneme or not? syntax A subfield of linguistics that studies the sentence structure of language.It is a major component of grammar.Grammatical sentences are formed following a set of syntactic rules. What is a sentence？ L. Bloomfield defines sentence as an independent linguistic form not included by some grammatical marks in any other linguistic form, i.e., it is not subordinated to a larger linguistic form, it is structurally independent. It‘s also called a maximum free form. Syntax consists of a set of abstract rules that allow words to be combined with other words to form grammatical S. Syntactic rules comprise the system of internalized linguistic knowledge of a language speaker known as linguistic competence. Syntactic rules are capable of yielding an endless of number of sentences in a natural language. Types of sentences :simple sentence+complex sentence+Coordinate/compound sentence A simple sentence consists of a single clause that contains a subject and a predicate and stands alone as its own sentence. e.g. 2. John reads extensively. A clause that (a) takes a subject and a finite verb,and (b) at the same time stands structurally alone is known as a finite clause(限定分句). Normally, a finite clause is called a sentence while a clause that is combined with other clauses is called a clause(从句/小句). Note: The central element in a sentence/clause is the finite verb. A coordinate sentence (并列句) contains two clauses joined by a linking word called coordinating conjunction, like ―and, but, or‖. e.g 3. John is reading a linguistic book, and Mary is preparing for her history exam. The two clauses are structurally equal parts of the sentence; neither is subordinate to the other. In other words, each clause is separable from the other and stand as a structurally independent S. A complex sentence contains two or more clauses, one of which is incorporated into the other. i.e, the two clauses in a complex sentence have unequal status, one subordinating the other. The incorporated, or subordinate, clause is normally called an embedded clause(子句), and the clause into which it is embedded is called a matrix sentence(主句). 4.Mary told Jane [that John liked linguistics]. 5.Mary saw [John reading a linguistics book]. 6.[For John to like linguistics] quite puzzled Mary. 7.Mary didn‘t like linguistics [until he gave her a lecture]. 8.Mary lost the book [that he bought her]. The characteristics of complex sentences: I. an embedded clause functions as a grammatical unit in its matrix clause. Therefore, the relationship between the embedded clause and its matrix clause is one of a part to the whole. II. most embedded clauses require an introductory word called
a subordinator, such as ―that‖,‖ until ‖. III. an embedded clause may not function as a grammatically well-formed sentence if it stands independently as a simple sentence unless its form changes. The structure of sentences Language is a highly structured system of communication. Sentences are not formed by randomly combining lexical items, but by following a set of syntactic rules that arrange linguistic elements in a particular order to make a string of words not only meaningful but also linearly- and hierarchically--structured(线形结构和层次结构). The linear word order of a sentence When a sentence is uttered or written down,the words of the sentence are produced one after another in a sequence. Meanwhile, they are heard or read as arranged one after another in a sequence. This sequential order of words suggests that the structure of a sentence is linear(线性).
The students like the linguistics teacher. The hierarchical structure of a sentence the sentence structure that groups words into structural constituents (成分) and shows the syntactic categories of each structural constituent, such as NP and VP. A: The students/like the/linguistics teacher. B: The/students like/the/linguistics teacher. C: The students like the/linguistics/teacher. D: The students//like/the linguistics teacher. Tree diagrams of sentence structure The hierarchical order can be best illustrated with a tree diagram of constitute structure, so called because a diagram looks like an inverted tree.
IC analysis is a new approach of sentence study that cuts a sentence into two (or more) segments. This kind of pure segmentation is simply dividing a sentence into
its constituent elements without even knowing what they really are. What remain of the first cut are called―immediate constituents(直接成分)‖and what are left at the final cut are called ―ultimate constituents‖. E.g，―John left yesterday‖ can be thus segmented：―John| left | | yesterday‖.
We get two immediate constituents for the first cut (|) and they are ―John‖ and ―left yesterday‖. Further split（||） this sentence generates three ―ultimate constituents‖: ―John‖,―left ‖and ―yesterday‖.
In additional to the use of structural tree diagrams,Linguists may show the hierarchical structure of Sentences by using brackets and subscripts labels.
[ [ The students][ [ like][ the linguistics teacher]]]
Syntactic categories: (句法类型) The term category in some approaches refers to classes and functions in its narrow sense, e.g.，noun, verb, subject, predicate, noun phrase, verb Phrase, etc. More specifically it refers to the defining properties of these general units：the categories of the noun, for example, include number, gender, case and accountability; and of the verb, e.g., tense, aspect, ice, etc.
Number (数) is a grammatical category used for the analysis of word classes displaying such contrasts as singular, dual, plural, etc.In English, number is mainly observed in nouns, and there are only two forms: singular and plural. Number is also reflected in the inflections of pronouns and verbs.
Gender(性) displays such contrasts as masculine, feminine, neuter or animate and inanimate, etc. for the analysis of word classes. When word items refer to the sex of the real-world entities，we natural gender (the opposite is grammatical gender).
Case(格) identifies the syntactic relationship between words in a sentence. In Latin grammar, cases are based on variations in the morphological forms of the word, and are given the terms accusative, nominative, dative, etc.In English, the case category is realized in three ways: by following a preposition and by word order.
Words and phrases are organized according to the syntactic categories they belong to.
Apart from sentences and clauses, a syntactic categoryusually refers to a word (called a lexical category) or a phrase (called a phrasal category) that performs a
particular grammatical function, such as the subject. syntactic categories may lead to three results
Constitutes that can be substituted for one another without loss of grammaticality belong to the same syntactic category.
a. The student liked the linguistics lecture. b. The linguistics lecture liked The student. c. Liked the student the linguistics lecture. Grammatical relations(语法关系)
The structural and logical relations of constituents are called grammatical relations. It concerns the way each noun phrase in the sentence relates to the verb.
In many cases, grammatical relations refer virtually to ―who‖ does ―what‖ do whom‖. We usually refer to the grammatical relations as ―subject of‖ and ―direct object of‖.
The subject precedes the verb and the direct object follows the verb, with the former called the structural subject and the latter the structural object. The structural subject is not necessarily the logical subject (the doer of an action) and the structural object is not necessarily the logical object (the recipient of the action). The man killed the dog.
The dog was killed by the man. I left the wallet in the park.
It was in the park that I left the wallet.
X-bar theory is a general and highly abstract schema that collapses all phrasal structure rules into a single format: X″→ (Spec) X (Compl). In this format, Spec stands for specifier while Compl stands for complement.
This theory is capable of reducing the redundancies of individual phrasal structure rules and may well capture certain basic properties shared by all phrasal categories, i.e. NP, VP, AP, PP, across the languages of the world.
The XP rule: XP (specifier) X (complement) give him some books; put them on the desk The revised XP rule:
XP (specifier) X (complement*)
a very beautiful river; listen attentively; sit with ease The expanded XP rule:
XP (spec) (mod) X (compl*) (mod) Syntactic movement and movement rules
Syntactic movement occurs when a constituent moves out of its original place to a new position, the sentence involving which cannot be described by phrase structure rules. It was governed by transformational rules, the operation of which may change the syntactic representation of a sentence (句法的表达方式). NP-movement and WH-movement
NP-movement occurs when, for example, a sentence changes from the active voice to the passive voice. The workers have finished the job.
The job has been finished by the workers. It is said that 20 people died in the accident. 20 people are said to have died in the accident.
WH-movement is obligatory in English. It changes a sentence from affirmative to interrogative.
He bought a pair of shoes yesterday in the shop. What did he buy yesterday in the shop?
When did he buy a pair of shoes in the shop? Where did he buy a pair of shoes yesterday? Other types of movement AUX-movement The movement of an auxiliary verb to the sentence- Initial position, like ―be, have, do, will, can, should, etc‖ Is he your linguistics teacher? Can you understand me? D-structure and S-structure
Two levels of syntactic representation, one that exists before movement takes place, the other that occurs after movement takes place. The former is called D-structure (the deep structure) while the latter SStructure (the surface structure). Phrase Structure Rules + the Lexicon (词汇) （generate）D-structure (deep structure)―― Movement Rules（ transform）――― S-structure (Surface structure)
The syntactic component of the grammar: Phrase Structure Rules + the Lexicon (词汇) ↓generate D-structure ↓
Movement Rules
↓translate S-structure
Moveα---a general movement rule
There is a general movement rule accounting for the syntactic behavior of any constituent movement, called Moveα (or Move Alpha), which means ―move any constituent to any place‖. The problem is Moveα is too powerful and the grammar should include some conditions which will restrain this power and stimulate that only ―certain constituents‖ move to ―certain positions‖.
Semantics
Definition: the study of meaning from the linguistic point of view.
Some views concerning the study of meaning:
Toward a theory of universal grammar
Since early 1980s, Noam Chomsky and other generative linguists proposed and developed a theory of universal grammar (UG) known as the principles and parameters theory. UG is a system of linguistic knowledge and a human species-specific gift which exits in the mind or brain of a normal human being and which consists of some general principles and parameters about natural languages.
According to Chomsky, UG is a system of linguisticknowledge and a human species-specific gift, which exists in the mind or brain of a normal human being. According to principles-and-parameters framework, UG consists of a set of general conditions, or general principles, that generate phrases and at the same time restrain the power of Moveα, thus preventing this rule from applying in certain cases. UG also contains a set of parameters that allow general principles to operate in certain ways, according to which particular grammar of natural
languages vary.
General principles of UG
Case Condition Adjacency Condition相连条件
Case Condition principle: a noun phrase must have case and case is assigned by V or P to the object position or by Aux to the subject position.It explains why a NP acts either as the Subject or the O.
Adjacency condition or Case assignment:
a case assignor and a case recipient should stay adjacency to each other.
Adjacency Condition principle accounts for why no other phrasal category can intervene between a Verb and its direct object.
Adjacency Condition is strictly observed in English well-formed sentences, not other languages Therefore, the adjacency condition must be subject to parametric variation in order to explain the apparent adjacency violations such as in French.
The parameters参数 of UG
Parameters are syntactic options of UG that allow general principles to operate in one way or another and contribute to significant linguistic variations between and among natural languages.
A parameter acquires a particular value, eg, a plus [+]or minus [-], which allows the grammar of a languageto behave in a way very different from that of another language.
UG is believed to contain a parameter with the value[+strict adjacency] and [-strict adjacency] set on the Adjacency Condition.With English-type language, the Adjacency parameter is set to the [+strict adjacency] value, while for the French-type languages, the Adjacency parameter is set to the [-strict adjacency] value.
The Directionality Parameter, involving word order, concerns the directionality of Case assignment. It offers a neat and consistent account for the typological difference in the word order within the VP category between English and Japanese. En: VP word order VP V NP Jp: VP word order VP NP V The naming theory (命名论) The conceptualist view (意念论) Mechanism(机制主义论) Contextualism (语境论) Behaviorism (行为主义论) Functionalism(功能主义论) The naming theory:
One of the oldest notions concerning meaning, and
also a very primitive one.
It was proposed by the ancient Greek scholar Plato. According to this theory, the linguistic forms or
symbols used in a language are taken to be labels of the objects they stand for. So words are just names or labels for things. The conceptualist view
It holds that there is no direct link between a
linguistic form and what it refers to. In the interpretation of meaning, they are linked through the mediation of concepts in the mind. Mechanism
Some linguists, Bloomfield，for example, turned to
science to counter-act the precious theories and this leads to what call the mechanistic approach.
Since one can define the names of minerals in terms
of chemistry and mineralogy, one can define the English word.
The nature of this theory has nothing to do with the
scientific study of mental phenomena. It is restricted to the scientific definition of everything to which language may contribute. Contextualism
It is based on the presumption that one can derive
meaning from or reduce meaning to observable contexts.
Two kinds of context : the situational context and the
linguistic context.
The main factors in a spatiotemporal situation:
The time, the place, the speaker, the hearer, the
actions, the objects and events, ―deictic‖ feature.
For example, the meaning of the sentence \" Visiting
professors can be fun. \" can only be determined according to the context in which it occurs:
Visiting professors can be fun, for some are
humorous.
Visiting professors can be fun, for it is relaxing. Behaviorism
The contextualist view was further strengthened by
Bloomfield . He drew on behaviorist psychology when he tried to define the meaning of linguistic forms.
Behaviorists attempted to define the meaning of a
language form as \" the situation in which the speaker utters it and the response it calls forth in the hearer\". (Bloomfield, 1933)
This behaviorist theory is somewhat close to
contextualism. It is linked with psychological interest.
Bloomfield argued that meaning consists in the
relation between speech and the practical events.
This view of meaning is illustrated by the story about
Jack and Jill. Functionalism
Functionalists as represented by the Prague school
linguists and neo-Firthian linguists, approach the problem from an entirely new orientation.
They argue that meaning could only be interpreted
from its use or function in social life.
Following this principle, semantics is concerned with
accounting for the degree of uniformity in the “use” of language.
Kind of Meaning
The traditional approach
C.C.Fries（1952）makes a traditional distinction
between lexical meaning and structural meaning. The former is expressed by those “meaningful”
parts of speech，such as nouns，verbs，adjectives，and adverbs，and is given in the dictionary associated with grammar.
The latter expresses the distinction between the
subject and the object of a sentence, oppositions of definiteness, tense the number, and the difference between statements, questions and requests.
In a word, “the total linguistic meaning of any
utterance consists of the lexical meaning of the separate words plus such structural meaning„” Following a functional approach, G. Leech (1981)
categorizes 7 kinds of meaning, five of which are brought under the“associative meaning‖.
conceptual meaning (logical, cognitive, or denotative
content)
connotative meaning (what is communicated by
virtue of what language refers to)
social meaning (what is communicated of the social
circumstances of language use)
Following a functional approach, G. Leech (1981)
categorizes 7 kinds of meaning, five of which are brought under the“associative meaning‖.
conceptual meaning (logical, cognitive, or denotative
content)
connotative meaning (what is communicated by
virtue of what language refers to)
social meaning (what is communicated of the social
circumstances of language use)
affective meaning (what is communicated of the
feeling and attitudes of the speaker/writer)
reflected meaning (what is communicated through
association with another sense of the same expression)
collocative meaning (what is communicated through
association with words which tend to occur in the environment of another word)
thematic meaning (what is communicated by the way
in which the message is organized in terms of order and emphasis
Different from the traditional and the functional
approach，F.R.Palmer(1981)and J.Lyons(1977)suggest we draw a distinction between sentence meaning and utterance meaning. The former is directly predictable from the
grammatical and lexical features of the sentence, while the latter includes all the various types of meaning not directly related to them.
Sense and reference
Reference means what a linguistic form refers to in
the real, physical world; it deals with the relationship between the linguistic element and the non-linguistic world of experience.
E.g. Put the book on the desk. Obviously, linguistic forms having the same sense
may have different references in different situations. On the other hand, there are less frequent occasions
when linguistic forms with the same reference might differ in sense, e.g. “morning star” and “evening star”.
Major sense relations
synonymy(同义) polysemy(多义)
homonymy(同音异意，同形异意) hyponymy(上下关系) Antonymy (反义)
Synonymy: refers to the sameness or close similarity of meaning.
Words that are close in meaning are called synonyms. Synonymy can be divided into the following groups: Dialectal synonyms (地域性同义词):
Dialectal synonyms are words which have more or
less the same meaning and are used in different regional dialects.
Petroleum (Br. E) & gasoline (A.E.).
Dialectal synonyms can also be found within British,
or American English itself.
\"girl\" is called \"lass\" or \"lassie\" in Scottish dialect. Stylistic synonyms文体同义词):
words which have the same meaning but differ in
style, or degree of formality. Some of the stylistic synonyms tend to be more formal , others tend to be casual , and still others are neutral in style. E.g:old man, daddy, dad, father, male parent.
Synonyms that differ in their emotive or evaluative
meaning :感性或评价方面不同的同义词They are words that have the same meaning but express different emotions of the user. The emotions of the user indicate the attitude or bias of the user toward what he is talking about, such as thrifty and miser. Collocational synonyms: Some synonyms differ in
their collocation. That is, they go together with different words, for example: accuse„of, charge„with, rebuke„for.
Semantically different synonyms:
They refer to the synonyms that differ slightly in
what they mean.
eg, “amaze” and “astound” are very close in
meaning to the word “surprise”, but they have very subtle differences in meaning. While “amaze” suggests confusion and bewilderment, “astound” implies difficulty in believing. polysemy：
the same one word may have more than one meaning. eg: table: 1 a piece of furniture; 2 all the people
seated at a table; 3 the food that is put on a table „. homonymy
refers to the phenomenon that words having different
meanings have the same form, i.e. different words are identical in sound or spelling , or in both.
Homophones(同音异意):refer to two words are
identical in sound, e.g. rain/ reign
Homographs(同形异意):refer to two word are
identical in spelling, e.g. tear n./tear v. hyponymy:
refers to the sense relating between a more general,
more inclusive word and a more specific word.
The word which is more general in meaning is called
superordinate, and the more specific words are called its hyponyms.
Hyponyms of the same superordinate are called
co-hyponyms to each other. Hyponymy is a matter of class membership. Antonymy
refers to the oppositeness of meaning.
Words that are opposite in meaning are called
antonyms.
gradable antonymy (渐进反义关系):
complementary antonymy (互补反义关系): converse antonymy(相反反义关系) gradable antonymy:
Some antonyms are gradable because there are often
intermediate forms between the two members of a pair. This is the commonest type of antonymy. old/young, hot/cold, long/shrt.
Gradable antonyms are mainly adjectives. And they
have three characteristics.
First, they are gradable. That is, the members of a
pair differ in terms of degree.
The denial of one is not necessarily the assertion of
the other.
As such, they can be modified by \"very\".
And they may have comparative and superlative
degrees.
Sometimes the intermediate degrees may be
lexicalized. They may be expressed by separate words rather than by adding modifiers.
Second, antonyms of this kind are graded against
different norms.
There is no absolute criterion by which we may say
something is good or bad, long or short, big or small. The criterion varies with the object described.
A big car is in fact much smaller than a small plane.
A microcomputer is giant by the standard of microorganism.
Third, one member of a pair, usually the term for the
higher degree, serves as the cover term(涵盖词). We ask somebody \"How old are you ?\" and the
person asked may not be old in any sense. He may be as young as twenty or three. The word old is used here to cover both old and young. The sentence means the same as \"What is your age ?\"
Technically, the cover term is called ―unmarked(未标
志词)”, i.e. usual; and the covered ―marked(有标志词)\
That means, it is the cover term that is more often
used. If the covered is used, it means there is sth odd, unusual here. The speaker may already know that sb./sth. is young and he wants to know the extent in greater detail.
This characteristic is also reflected in the
corresponding nouns, such as length, height, width, breadth and depth, which are cognates of the cover terms.
Complementary antonyms(互补反义):
A pair of complementary antonyms is characterized
by the feature that the denial of one member of the pair implies the assertion of the other.
alive: dead male: female pass: fail ( a
test )
Characteristics of complementary antonyms
They divide up the whole of a semantic field
completely. Not only the assertion of one means the denial of the other, the denial of one also means the assertion of the other.
There is no intermediate ground between the two. It is a question of two term choice: yes or no; not a multiple choice, a choice between more or less.
The adjectives cannot be modified by \"very\". One can’t say somebody is very alive or very dead.
And they do not have comparative or superlative degrees either. The saying He is more dead than alive is not a true comparative. The sentence actually means \"It is more correct to say that he is dead than to say he is 'alive\".
To some extent, this difference between the gradable and the complementary can be compared to the traditional logical distinction between the contrary and the contradictory.
In logic, a proposition is the contrary of another if both cannot be true, though they may both be false; e.g. The coffee is hot and The coffee is cold.
And a proposition is the contradictory of another if it is impossible for both to be true, or false;
e.g. This is a male cat and This is a female cat.
Secondly, the norm in this type is absolute. It does not vary with the thing a word is applied to. The same norm is used for all the things it is applicable to.
For example, the criterion for separating the male from the female is the same with human beings and animals. There will be no such a situation that a creature is male by the standard of human being, but female by the standard of animal.
And the death of a man is the same as that of an elephant, or even a tree, in the sense that there is no longer any life in the entity.
Thirdly, there is no cover term for the two members of a pair.
If you do not know the sex of a baby, you ask \"Is it a boy or a girl ?\" not \"How male is it ?\" The word male can only be used for boys, it cannot cover the meaning of girl.
As a matter of fact, no adjective in this type can be modified by how.
This is related to the fact that they are not modifiable by words like very. Converse antonymy
Pairs of words that exhibit the reversal of a relationship between the two items are called converse antonymy, which is also known as relationship opposites.
Huaband/wife doctor/patient let/rent
This is a special type of antonymy in that the members of a pair do not constitute a positive-negative opposition. They show the reversal of a relationship between two entities.
A buys something from B means the same as B sells something to A. It is the same relationship seen from two different angles.
This type of antonymy is typically seen in reciprocal social roles, kinship relations, temporal and spatial relations.
It is in this sense that they are also known as RELATIONAL OPPOSITES. There are always two entities involved. One presupposes the other.
This is the major difference between this type and the previous two.
With gradable, or complementary antonyms, one can encoded in the structure of language.
say “A is good\or “A is male\without • 2.Pragmatics is the study of all those aspects of presupposing B. It is, as it were, a matter of A only, meaning not captured in a semantic theory. which has nothing to do with B. • 3.（语用学似乎成了语义学什么都可以往里仍的 But with converse antonyms, there are always two ―废纸篓‖。（熊学亮 2003：140））
sides. • 4.Pragmatics is the study of the relations between If there is a buyer, there must also be a seller. language and context that are basic to an account of A parent must have a child. Without a child, one language understanding.
cannot be a parent. • 5.Pragmatics is the study of deixis, implicature, Major sense relations presupposition, speech acts, and aspects of discourse entailment (蕴涵关系) structure. (Levison 1983: 6-27) Entailment can be illustrated by the following two • 6.Pragmatics is the study of linguistic acts and the
sentences, with Sentence A entailing Sentence B: contexts in which they are performed. (Stalnaker A: He married a blonde heiress. 1972: 383)
B: He married a blonde. In terms of truth value, the following relationships exist between these two sentences （1）When A is true，B is necessarily true； （2）When B is false，A is false； （3）when A is false，B may be true or false ； （4）When B is true，A may be true or false. Entailment is basically a semantic relation or logical implication, but we have to assume co-reference of He in sentence A and sentence B，before we have A entail B. presupposition (前提/预设) A: The girl he married was an heiress. B: He married a girl. Presupposition is similar to entailment in that when A is true, B is true. An important difference：P is not subject to negation, i.e.，when A is false，B is still true. Other statements: （3）When B is true，A can either be true or false；（4）When B is false，A has no truth value at all. Presupposition does not have to be found between two propositions. ― When did you stop beating your wife？‖This presupposes that he has been beating his wife. Implicature (言外之意) Few men marry blonde heiress. Some men marry blonde heiress. It is also a relation of implication. However, this is generally interpreted as a relation of pragmatic implication, defined in terms of the speaker’s and the hearer’s assumptions and beliefs. A is synonymous with B If A is true, B is true, and if A is false, B is false, and vice versa. The boy cleaned the floor. The floor was cleaned by the boy. A is inconsistent with B If A is true, B is false, and if A is false, B is true. John married to Marry. John is a bachelor A is a contradiction, therefore, A is invariably false. e.g. My unmarried sister is married to a bachelor. A is semantically anomalous (语义变异). A is absurd as it presupposes a contradiction. e.g. The table has bad intentions. Pragmatics Definition: • 1.Pragmatics is the study of those relations between language and context that are grammaticalized, or • 7.Pragmatics is a theory which seeks to characterize how speakers use the sentences of a language to
effect successful communication. (Kempson 1975: 84) • 8.Pragmatics is the theory of language use and linguistic communication. (Akmajian 1979: 267) • 9.Pragmatics can be defined as the study of how utterances have meanings in situations. (Leech 1983)
• 10.Pragmatic is the science of language seen in relation to its users. (Mey 1993: 5) • 11.Pragmatics is the study of meaning in interaction. (Thomas 1995: 22) • 12.Pragmatics is concerned with the study of
meaning as communicated by a speaker (or writer) and interpreted by a listener (or reader). (Yule 1996:
3) • 试图去比较各种不同的定义之间的优劣是没有意
义的。它们的差别只不过是个侧重面和措辞的问题，它们的共同点是它们都围绕了语言交际中的意义这同一个中心。各种说法不一的定义的存在有利
于加深我们对语用学这门学科的理解。（何兆熊等 2000：10）
• Pragmatics is the study of language in use to effect successful communication.
• pragmatics= meaning-semantics Origin and development of pragmatics • 1. The term “Pragmatics” comes from Morris’ (1938) general theory of signs. In his semiotic model, Morris distinguishes the following areas of study:
• (1) the syntactic aspect, i.e. the relation between different signs Syntax; • (2) the semantic aspect, i.e. the relation between sign and its meaning Semantics; and • (3) the pragmatic aspect, i.e. the relation between the
sign and the sign user Pragmatics. • 2. Development in linguistics
• （1）Saussure: 语言学所要研究的是―语言‖（langue），而不是―言语‖（parole），因为语言是一个受一定规则制约的体系，而言语则不是，只有语言才能经得起严谨的、科学的分析，而言语则不能。 • （2）Chomsky: 以句法为中心，把语言的意义排除在语言研究之外。 • （3）The rise of semantics. • (4) The rise of contextualism: Malinowsky, Firth, Halliday Pragmatics vs. semantics • 1. Research methods • 1. Semantics: The meaning of language was considered as something intrinsic , and inherent, i.e., a property attached to language itself. Therefore,
meanings of words, sentences were all studied in
isolation from language use.
•
2. Pragmatics: It would be impossible to give an adequate description of meaning if the context of language use is left unconsidered. Therefore, context is taken into consideration. • 2. Scope
• 逻辑语义学首先关心的是和真实值有关的那些意
义范畴。而只有―思想‖才可能具有真实值，也就是说只有―思想‖才会有真实与否这个问题。（Frege 1967: 20） • 三类句子： • 表达思想
• （1）不具有表达思想的那种意义
• （2）表达了比思想更多的的内容 → 语用学 • （3） 不足以表达思想 • （1）：表示请求、命令、意愿、感叹的句子，以及
除问句之外的其他问句 →言语行为 • （2）：包含暗示意义（会话含义、间接语言）的句
子 →语用推理 • （3）：包含指示性词语的句子 → 指示 Key in the distinction
• Both semantics and pragmatics study the meaning of
a linguistic form.
• However, they are different in many respects, such as
their research methods, their research scope. What essentially distinguishes them is whether the context of use is considered. If it its not considered, the study is confined to the area of traditional semantics; if it is considered, the study is being carried out in the area of pragmatics.
Context
• As a comprehensive concept, ‘context’ refers to all
elements of a communicative situation: the verbal and non-verbal context, the context of the given speech situation and the social context of the relationship between the speaker and hearer, their knowledge, and their attitude. (Bussmann 1996: 100)
• Context = linguistic context + situational context +
cognitive context
Cognitive Context
• It is generally considered as constituted by the
knowledge shared by the speaker and the hearer: (1) knowledge of the language they use, (2) knowledge of what has been said before,(3) knowledge about the world in general, (4) knowledge about the specific situation in which linguistic communication is taking place, and (5) knowledge about each other.
Importance of Context
• Context determines the speaker’s use of language and also the hearer’s interpretation of what is said to him.
• It is cold in here.
Sentence vs. utterance
• Sentence:
• a unit of speech constructed according to language-dependent rules, which is relatively complete and independent in respect of content, grammatical structure, and intonation. It is a grammatical unit, abstract, self-contained, and independent of context. • Utterance:
• When a sentence is taken as something a speaker utters in a certain situation with a certain purpose, it is treated as an utterance. Therefore, utterance is the string of sounds or written symbols
produced by a speaker between two pauses.
• An utterance can consist of a single word or several sentences.
• While most utterances take the form of grammatically complete sentences, some utterances do not, and some cannot even be restored to complete sentences.
• While the meaning of a sentence is abstract and decontextualized, that of an utterance is concrete and context-dependent. The meaning of an utterance is based on sentence meaning; it is the realization of the abstract meaning of a sentence in a real situation of communication, or simply in a context.
• 3. Examples
• ―My bags is heavy‖
• 1. Sentence meaning: BAG (BE HEAVY) • 2. Possible utterance meanings:
• (1) A straightforward statement, telling the hearer that his bag is heavy.
• (2) an indirect, polite request, asking the hearer to help him carry the bag. (When?)
• (3) A declining of someone‘s request for help. (When?)
• Try to think of contexts in which the following sentences can be used for other purposes than just stating facts.
• (1) The room is messy. • (2) Oh, it is raining.
• (3) The music of the movie is good.
• (4) You have been keeping my notes for a whole week now.
Main Theories of Pragmatics
• Speech Act Theory 言语行为理论 • Conversational Implicature 会话含义 • Relevance Theory 关联理论
• Post-Gricean Developments后格莱斯时期
Diectics(指示语) Diexis person diectics place diectics time diectics discourse diectics social diectics
• Personal deixis
– I, you, she, he …
• Social deixis
– You vs. thou, vous vs. tu, 你vs您…
• Spatial deixis
– Here, there, this, that …
• Temporal deixis
– Then, now, yesterday, tomorrow, …
• Textual deixis
– This, that, the above, the following, …
Speech Act Theory
• Austin奥斯丁 • Oxford philosopher
1. Words and Deeds
《言与行》（1952） 2. How to Do Things with Words
《如何以言行事》（1962）
• we are performing various kinds of acts when we are speaking.
• Austin made the primary distinction between
two types of utterances: constative(表述句) and performative(施为句)
• Backgrounds for the proposing of the performative theory
• In the 40‘s and 50‘s, it was commonly held that the study of language should be concerned only with the truth-conditional meaning of the proposition, and not with the situations of the utterance.
However, it had been observed that sometimes people are using words to do things. And in such cases, what is of more importance is not the truth -conditional meaning, but the action of doing things.
• Two Types of sentences:
• Constatives: sentences which describe things (True or False)
• Shanghai is the capital of China.
• Performatives: sentences which do not describe things, but the utterance of the sentences is the doing of an action.
Performatives(施为句)
• Performatives are sentences used to perform such functions as promising, naming, warning, inviting, requesting, ordering and asking etc. • ―I declare the meeting open.‖
---as uttered in an open ceremony.
• Teacher: Class begins! • Boss: You are fired!
• I name this baby “Yang Guo”.
• ― I give and bequeath the watch to my brother.‖
--- as occurring in a will.
• ― I bet you sixpence it will rain tomorrow.‖
--- as uttered when making a bet.
• I promise to love you forever! • Performative verbs:
• Name, apologize, warn, bet, bequeath, declare, promise, swear, beg, order, advise, congratulate, welcome, nominate
• Felicity Conditions
A. The proposition must have proper content;
• B. There must be proper agent and proper
object to enable the performative to be carried out;
• C. the act must be performed sincerely;
• D. the act must bring about effects to the object.
• Characteristics of Performatives
A. They are performed in saying something; B. they cannot be performed unless L is used;
C. they have connected with them performative verbs, the
occurrence of which as a main verb in a present tense, indicative, active, a first person sentence makes explicit what act a speaker intends to be performing in uttering the sentence.
• How to distinguish performatives and constatives
• 1. Conditions: true or false (constative)
felicity conditions (合适条件）
• 2. grammatical criterion: (performative)
• first person singular sub.
• simple present tense • indicative mood • active voice
• 3. lexical criterion: “state” (constative) • “hereby” (performative)
It has been noted that some statives can also be viewed as performatives.
E.g. A dog is watching you. =I tell you that a dog is watching you.
All sentences can be used to do things.
Saying something can be understood as doing something.
Saying something can be understood as doing something.
Three Types of Act
In How to do things with words, Austin holds that there are three senses in which saying something can be understood as doing something.
Locutionary Act (发话行为/言中行为） (1) an act of producing linguistic units.
(2) the basic literal meaning of the utterance which is conveyed by particular words and structures which the utterance contains.
---inherent meaning of a sentence.(语义学研究的对象）
• Illocutionary Act 言外行为/行事行为 • 言外之意
• Illocutionary force
• Speaker’s meaning or intention • Contextual meaning • Extra-meaning
• Perlocutionary Act 言后行为/取效行为 • The act performed through, by means of a locutionary act .
• The hearer’s interpretations or reactions • Example ―Shoot it !‖ • Locutionary act (X):
• In ―Shoot it !” = the meaning of the verb shoot + the meaning of the pronoun it. • Illocutionary act (Y):
• Using a sentence to perform a function. • ‗the act performed in saying something‘ • ‗In saying X, I was doing Y.‘
• ‗In saying ―Shoot it‖, I was ordering the three soldiers to shoot at the target. • Perlocutionary Act (Z):
• The results or effects that are brought about by saying something.
• ―the act performed by saying something‖
• ―By saying X, and doing Y, I did Z.‖ • ―By saying ‗Shoot it‘, and thus ordering the three soldiers to shoot at the target, I made it possible for the target to be shot by the three soldiers.‖ 例I love you X= I (the dog) love you (the cat).
Y= showing love Z=the cat‘s reaction
• Indirect speech act theory 间接言语行为理论 • Searle 塞尔(1969, 1975)
• the speaker’s utterance meaning and the sentence
meaning come apart in various ways, or there is a non-literal illocutionary force in addition the literal force. In such cases, one illocutionary act is performed indirectly by way of performing another. • (utterance meaning indirectly reflected by literal
meaning)
• ―The unit of linguistic communication is not, as has
generally been supposed, the symbol, word or sentence,„ but rather the production of the symbol or word or sentence in the performance of the speech act” — Searle
－－布什：可逮着你小丫了。
－－萨达姆：布哥！布哥！我投降、 我合作、我陪你玩PS2还不行吗？
The utterance ―我陪你玩PS2还不行吗?‖ literally is a question; in this case, however, Sadam is actually not asking the question, but making a commission. It may even be the case that the two here are not conscious of the sentence being a question litterally
A Direct Performative act:
• I order you to leave the room.
Indirect illocutionary acts:
• You'd better leave the room. • If I were you, I'd leave the room.
• If you know what's good for you, you'll leave the room.
• I'd say it was in your best interests to leave the room.
• I'd better not see you in this room the next time I turn around.
five categories of illocutionary act
• representatives 陈述类 （state, describe, swear, report)
• directives指令类（ask, order, request, command, advise)
• commissives 承诺类(promise, bet)
• expressives 表达类(thank, congratulate, apologize,
welcome, deplore)
• declaratives:宣告类(name, declare, nominate, point,
christen) 1. One utterance -> two or more acts (the same hearer) -- Is that your coat on the floor? A question? A request? A blame?
2. One utterance -> two or more acts (different hearers) -- Sorry, there‘s a lot of noise at this end.
Morphology
Morphology refers to the study of the internal structure of words and the rules by which words are formed. Purify, simplify, falsify classification:
Inflectional Morphology: inflections
Derivational/Lexical Morphology: word formation. * Inflection: the manifestation of grammatical relationship through the addition of inflectional affixes, such as number, person, finiteness, aspect and case, which do not change the grammatical class of the stems to which they are attached.
Word-formation: in its restricted sense, refers to the process of word variations signalling lexical relationships. * Compositional type (compound) and the derivational type (derivation). * Compound * The term compound covers a wide range of different relations between lexical words. * Noun compounds * Verb compounds * Adjective compounds * Preposition compounds * Derivation * Different from compounds, derivation shows the relation between stems and affixes. * In contrast with inflections, derivations can make the word class of the original either changed or unchanged. * Word class changed * N---V N---Adj N---Adj/Adv * V---N V---Adj * Adj--- N Adj---V Adj--- Adj Morphology * Word class unchanged * N---N * V---V * Adj---Adj
1.What is Phonetics?
a branch of linguistics which studies the characteristics of speech sound and provides methods for their description, classification and transcription. Those speech sounds are supposed to express one‘s thoughts or feelings in a systematic way: The speaker→the air→the hearer
↑ ↑ ↑
Articulatory acoustic auditory Phonetics phonetics phonetics
Articulatory phonetics: how speakers produce speech sounds Auditory phonetics:how sounds are perceived
Acoustic phonetics:the physical way or means by which sounds are transmitted from one to another. 2. The Vocal Organs
(definition: or the speech organs, are organs of human body whose secondary use is in the production of speech sounds.) * The vocal organs of a human being are contained in three important cavities: * The pharyngeal cavity: the throat * The oral cavity: the mouth * The nasal cavity: the nose.
The pharyngeal cavity * The initiator of the air-stream (Implosives are produced in Sindhi which uses the pharynx air to push down the larynx so that the air is sucked into the mouth.)
The vocal cords(The vocal cords make the first possible modification of the air stream)
The vocal cords have three functions in speech: * A. closed tightly: glottal stop [ʔ]
The sound is inaudible, but has effects on surrounding segments.
in English, it often occurs initially to pronounce a word beginning with a vowel, like ―idiom‖. B. brought together
* Vibration * Voice * Voiced sounds * [b], [m], [z] * Voicing: pronouncing a word (usu. a vowel or a voiced consonants) by vibrating the vocal cords. * The Pitch of a sound depends on the rate of vibration of the vocal cords. * The vocal cords of male adults are longer than those of female, men‘s sounds are lower than women adults‘. C. drawn wide apart: * [h] * Voiceless sounds. * [f], [s], [p]
Speech sounds as two types: * The sounds in the production of which there is an obstruction of the air-stream at some point of the vocal tract are called consonants. * The sounds in the production of which no articulators come very close together and the air-stream passes through the vocal tract without obstruction are called vowels. * The consonants are articulated by obstruction of different vocal organs and of various degrees, the former called Places of articulation and the latter as Manners of articulation.
3,consonant
The place of articulation * The point where a consonant is made. * Ten important ones * Bilabial: the obstruction of the airstream is made by the two lips, like [p], [b], [m] in ―pen‖, ―mine‖; * Labiodental: the obstruction of the airstream is made by the lower lip and upper front teeth, like [f], [v] * Dental: the obstruction of the airstream is caused by the tongue tip or blade and the upper front teeth, like [ ], [ð] * Alveolar: the obstruction is formed between the blade of the tongue and the teeth-ridge, e.g. [t], [d], [s], [z], [n], [l] in ―light‖, ―night‖ * Retroflex: the obstruction is formed between the underside of the tongue tip and the back of the teeth-ridge, like [r] in ―car‖ by Americans * Palato-alveolar: the obstruction is formed when the blade of the tongue is raised towards the back of the teeth ridge, like [tʃ], [d3], [ʃ], [ʒ] * Palatal: the obstruction is formed between the front of the tongue and the hard palate, e.g. [j] in ―yes‖ * Velar: the obstruction is formed between the back of the tongue and the soft palate, e.g. [k], [g], [ŋ] * Uvular: the obstruction is formed between the back of the tongue and the uvular, as [r] in French word ―rouge‖ * Glottal: the obstruction is caused by the vocal coeds, as glottal stop [ʔ]; [h] in the English word ―her‖. * Labial- velar: the simultaneous use of two places of articulation, eg [w] is the production of two lips together with the back of the tongue and the soft palate. * the manner of articulation * Plosive: obstructed both in the oral and nasal tracts, and then suddenly released; bilabial [p, b]; alveolar [t, d]; velar [k, g]; glottal [ʔ]; an oral stop * Nasal: obstructed in the oral tract but not in the nasal tract; bilabial [m]; alveolar [n]; velar [ŋ]; a nasal stop * Trill: when a flexible organ quickly touches and leaves a firmer surface repeatedly. [R] in Dutch and French;
* Tap/flap: the obstruction only lasts for a very short time. It is simply a very rapid articulation of a plosive. In English, an alveolar tap is often used when ―r‖ occurs in
intervocalic positions, like ―sorry, carry‖; In American English, also replaces [t, d, n] in ―latter, tanner, ladder‖. * Lateral: obstructed along the center of the oral tract, and going through the mouth laterally; [l] in ―low, ball‖; a lateral approximant. * Fricative: two vocal organs brought close together so that the airstream becomes turbulent; labiodental [f, v], dental[ , ð ], alveolar [s, z], palatal-alveolar [ʃ, ʒ]; sibilants * Approximant: the space between two approximating vocal organs is slightly wider than for a fricative, wide enough to avoid causing friction; [r] in ―red, right‖; [j] in ―young‖ and [w] in ―we‖; semi-vowels * Affricate: involving two manners of articulation; eg: [tʃ, dʒ] are a combination of a plosive and fricative.
Classification of Consonants * Five dimensions to describe a consonant: * The state of the vocal cords (voiced or voiceless); * The place of articulation; * The course of the escaping of the air-stream (central or lateral); * The position of the soft palate (oral or nasal); * The manner of articulation. * [f]: voiceless labiodental central oral fricative * [n]:voiced alveolar central nasal plosive * [l]:voiced alveolar lateral oral approximant
4. Vowels
* The English vowels can roughly be classified into two types: monophthongs and diphthongs. * The description of the monophthongs mainly depends on the four factors:
The position of the tongue: front, central,& back * The front vowels: [i:], [i], [e], [æ], [a] * The central vowels: [ə:], [ə], [ʌ] * The back vowels: [u:], [u], [ɔ:], [ɔ], [a:]
The openness of the mouth: * Close vowels, semi-close vowels, semi-open vowels, open vowels. * The close vowels: [i:], [i], [u:], [u] * The semi-close vowels: [e], [ə:] The semi-open vowels: [ə], [ɔ:] * The open vowels: [æ], [a], [ʌ], [ɔ], [a:] The shape of the lips: rounded or unrounded. * In English, all the front and central vowels are unrounded vowels * All the back vowels, excluded [a:] are rounded vowels. The length of the vowels: * The vowels with a colon are called long vowels; * The vowels without a colon are called short vowels.
We can now describe the English vowels in this way: * [i:]:high front tense unrounded vowel * [u]:high back lax rounded vowel * [ə]:mid central lax unrounded vowel * [ɒ]:low back lax rounded vowel Tense vowels vs lax vowels: * All the long vowels are tense vowels and the short vowels are lax vowels. * Diphthongs: vowels which are produced by moving from one vowel position to another through intervening positions. * [ei, ai, ɔi, au, əu, iə, eə, uə]
5. Phonetic transcription * 1. IPA (International Phonetic Alphabet): * A standardized and internationally accepted system of phonetic transcription. The present one mainly derives from one developed in the 19202 by the British phonetician, Daniel Jones (1881-1967), revised in 1993, corrected (updated) in 1996. * Broad and Narrow Transcription * Broad transcription（宽式音标）： * The transcription of sounds with letter-symbols only. / _ / * Narrow transcription（严式音标）: * The transcription of sounds with letter-symbols together with the diacritics. [ _ ] * Diacritics（发音符号/辨音符）: the set of symbols in IPA, which are added to the letter-symbols to bring out finer distinctions than the letters alone may possibly do. * The symbol [l] for the sound [l]: * BT: leaf [li:f], feel [fi:l], build [bild], health [helө]; * NT:leaf [li:f], feel [fi:ł], build [biłd], health [helө]; * The symbol [p] for the sound [p]: * BT: pit [pit], spit [spit]; NT: pit [phit], spit [spit]; * The sound [n]: * [ten] vs['bʌtn] ['bʌtn]]
What is Phonology？
Phonology studies sound systems---the inventory of distinctive sounds that occur in a language and the patterns in which they fall.
Phonetics & phonology :Both are concerned with the same aspect of language---- the speech sounds. But they differ in their approach and focus.
Phonetics is of a general nature; it is interested in all the speech sounds used in all human Ls; it aims to answer questions like: how they are produced, how they differ from each other,what phonetic features they have, how they can be classified, etc.
Phonology aims to discover how speech sounds in a certain language form patterns and how these sounds are used to convey meaning in linguistic communication.
A common methodology of phonology is to begin by analyzing an individual language, to determine its phonological structure, i.e. which sound units are used and how they pattern. Then compare different sound system, develop hypo-theses about the rules in particular group languages, and ultimately in all languages. For example:
a) How sounds are combined in English？ b) Can English words end with /h/? c) Can English words begin with /z/? d) Is /sgtif/ possible in English？
A phone：Phones do not necessarily a phonetic unit or segment.The speech sounds we hear & produce during linguistic communication are all phones .distinguish meaning, some do, some don‘t .
A phoneme: a distinctive sound. It is a phonological unit; It is a unit of distinctive value; an abstract unit, not a particular sound but it is represented by a certain phone in certain phonetic context.
e.g. the phoneme /p/ can be represented differently in [pit], [tip] and [spit].
Allophones :the phones that can represent a phoneme in different phonetic environments.
Phonemic contrast (音位对立) different or distinctive phonemes are in phonemic contrast. e.g /b/ and /p/ in [ bit ] and [pit]. complementary distribution（互补分布）Allophones of the same phoneme are in complementary distribution. They do not distinguish meaning. They occur in different phonetic contexts. e.g. dark [l] & clear [l], aspirated[ph]& unaspirated [p].
minimal pair（最小对立体）when two different forms are identical (the same) in every way except for one sound segment which occurs in the same place in the strings, the two sound combinations are said to form a minimal pair. e.g.beat, bit, bet, bat, boot, but, bait, bite, boat some rules of phology Sequential rules
the rules that govern the combination of sounds in a particular language. e.g. in English, ―k b i I‖ might possibly form: blik, klib, bilk, kilb.
If a word begins with a [l] or a [r], then the next sound must be a vowel.
If three consonants should cluster together at the beginning of a word, the combination should obey the following three rules.
e.g. spring, strict, square, splendid, scream. a) the first phoneme must be /s/,
b) the second phoneme must be /p/ or /t/ or /k/,
c) the third phoneme must be /l/ or /r/ or /w/.
Assimilation rule
assimilates one sound to another by ―copying‖ a feature of a sequential
phoneme, thus making the two phones similar.
e.g. the prefix ―in‖ is pronounced differently when in different phonetic contexts:
indiscreet alveolar [in] inconceivable velar [in]
input bilabial [n] Assimilation in Mandarin 好啊 hao wa 海啊 hai ya 看啊 kan na
唱啊 chang na 跳啊 tiao wa Deletion rule
It tells us when a sound is to be deleted although it is orthographically represented.e.g. in design, paradigm, there is no [g] sound; but the [g] sound is pronounced in their corresponding forms signature, designation, paradigmatic.
Suprasegmental phonology(超切分音位) The study of phonological properties of units lager than the segment—phoneme.
They are syllable(音节)， stress （重音）, intonation（语调）and tone (音/声调)
Syllable :Structurally, the syllable may be divided into three parts: the onset, the peak, and the coda. big [big]
Apple, hidden, rhythm
An open syllable: a syllable ending in a vowel. A closed syllable: a syllable checked or arrested by a consonant.
In closed syllables any vowel can occur.
In stressed open syllables, only tense vowels and diphthongs occurs; the lax vowels /i/,/e/,/æ/,/u/,/ʌ/ in English, never do.
The study of syllable structure, the combination of phones, is known as Phonotactics(音位结构学)/ Syntagmatic Phonology（结构段音系学）.
Stress is generally defined as syllable prominence. In other
words, it refers to the degree of force used in producing a syllable. In many languages, including English, some syllables within a word are relatively more prominent than others.
The stress pattern in English is no easy matter because it may fall on any syllable. They change over history and exhibit regional or dialectal differences.
E.g. international, dictionary, fantastic, democracy; integral, communal, formidable, controversy; laboratory, garage.
(1) For different grammatical functions, e.g. convict, insult, produce, rebel (1st, n; 2nd, v) (2) Compounds and phrases
Compound Free phrase a ‗hot dog a fat ‗dog a ‗black bird a black ‗bird a black horse a black 'horse a 'green room a green 'room
(3) Some words may have a primary stress and one or more than one secondary stresses.
In such a case, more than one vowel may be stressed, but the most strongly accented syllable of a word receives greater stress than the others. Thus it is said
to carry primary stress, indicated by an acute accent mark. The other stressed vowels received secondary stress. (4) When words are combined into phrases and sentences, one of the syllables receives greater stress than all others.
Only one of the vowels in a phrase or sentence receives primary stress. All the other stressed vowels are reduced to secondary stress.
Intonations refer to the pitch differences that extend over phonetic units larger than the syllable. By means of intonation, syllables are grouped into phrases, and phrases into sentences. In English a phrase usually has one or two different terminations. The most common Phrasal intonation ends on a falling pitch; the other ends on a more or less level pitch.
Tone refers to pitch variations. In some languages, the same sequence of segments may have different meanings if uttered at different relative pitches.
The function of tone is quite different from that of stress.
Tones do not mark the beginning and ending of words, nor do they even indicate to the speaker how many words there are in an utterance. PS:
Phonemic contrast vs minimal pair
●When two phonemes can occur in the same environments in two words and they distinguish meaning, they‘re in phonemic contrast. pin & bin /p/ vs. /b/ rope & robe /p/ vs. /b/
●When two different word forms are identical in every way except for one sound segment which occurs in the same place in the strings, the two words are said to form a minimal pair.
Pin/bin; pin/pen; pin/pig
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 set. Bit/boat/bite/but/bat/bet/boot.
Phonemic contrast vs complementary distribution
Phonetically similar sounds form a contrast if they are two distinctive phonemes. Or they don‘t if they are allophones of the same phoneme. 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, and they do not distinguish meaning. pot& spot [ph ] vs [p] free variation.
If two sounds occurring in the same environment do not contrast, that is, the substitution of one for the other do not produce a different word form, but merely a different pronunciation of the same word, the two sounds are in free variation.
act [k] vs [k ] good morning [d ]
Phonetic similarity vs complementary distribution
Sounds in complementary distribution may be
assigned to the same phoneme.
But CD is not the only condition to identify two
sounds as of the same phoneme. They must satisfy some other condition as well.
One condition is that they must be phonetically
similar. [h] vs [ŋ]
Phonetic similarity is a matter of degree.
It is hard to decide to what extent the similarity
counts,
and when a sound is similar to two other sounds, it is
hard to decide which of the two it should be grouped with.
Pattern congruity
Why are the unaspirated phones [p],[t],[k] respectively
assigned to the phonemes /p/, /t/, /k/ rather than to the phonemes /b/,/d/,/g/?
A general pattern of the phoneme of English: in a consonant cluster of plosives and fricatives, they usually share the same voice feature: either both are voiced or both are voiceless.
The feature of voice is more important than the feature of
aspiration.
Why are /tʃ/ and /d3/regarded as separate phonemes
while [tr],[dr],[ts],[dz] as combinations of phonemes?
Pattern congruity has also been used in the sense that other
things being equal, the more symmetrical a phonological system is the better.
The sound [ʃ] is very frequently used, eg: [kæʃ], [kæt]
and [kætʃ]; [tʃip], [tip] and [ʃip];
But the sound [ʒ] has a limited occurrence, eg: [dʒɔg],
[dog] but no [ʒɔg]; [ridʒ], [rid] but not [riʒ].
It appeared that the sound [dʒ] can be regarded as a single
phoneme while the sound [tʃ] as a combination.
If so, the pattern of the English consonants would appear
asymmetrical: p, t, k, ө, s, ʃ b, d, g, ð, z, ʒ, dʒ
On the ground of pattern congruity, so [tʃ] is better
treated as a single phoneme, too.
Language
2. Some basic distinctions a. speech vs writing * The primacy of speech over writing is one general principle of linguistic analysis. * Speech as the primary medium of language for 3 reasons. * Speech is prior to writing historically. * Genetically, children learn to speak before they learn to write. * The primacy of speech can be seen in the forms writing systems use. * Alphabetic writing (The written forms represent individual sounds, like English, French, etc.) * Syllabic writing (The written forms represent syllables) * Logographic writing (The written forms represent individual words, such as Chinese.) * Writing gives L new scope and uses speech don't have. * Written messages can be carried through space. * Written messages can be carried through time. * Written messages remain unchangeable over time and space, unlike oral messages' being subject to distortion. * Everything considered, speech is believed to be more representative of human L than writing. b. Descriptive vs prescriptive * Descriptive: to describe and analyse facts observed; * Prescriptive: to lay down rules for \"correct\" language. * Linguistic studies before 20thC are largely prescriptive in the sense that many early grammars were based on \"high\" written language. They use logical and aesthetic criterion to judge the correctness of sentences. * Modern linguistics is mostly descriptive. They believe that whatever occurs in natural speech (hesitation, incomplete utterance, misunderstanding, etc) should be described in their analysis.
C.Synchronic vs Diachronic studies * Language exists in time and changes through time. * 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) * One principle is the priority of synchronic descriptions to diachronic descriptions. * Synchronic descriptions are often thought of the descriptions of the language.
It's hard to draw a sharp line between the two studies in reality for some reasons. * Languages are changing constantly. * The language of any speech community is never uniform * When a language changes, it is not the case that one set of features are suddenly replaced another set of features.
d.Langue vs parole(F. de Saussure) * Langue: the abstract linguistic system shared by all the members of a speech community. * Parole: the actualized language, or realization of langue. * As a social product, langue is a set of conventions that members of a speech community seem to abide by. It can be thought of as the generalized rules of the language. Parole is the concrete use of the conventions or application of the rules. * Langue is abstract; parole is specific; * Langue is not actually spoken by everyone while parole is always a naturally occurring event; * Langue is relatively stable and systematic; parole is subject to personal and situational constraints. * Which should be studied in linguistics, langue or parole? * For Saussure, parole is a mass of confused facts and not suitable for investigation; * The linguist has to abstract langue from instances of parole, that is, to discover the regularities governing all instances of parole and make them the subject of linguistics. * Saussure takes a sociological view of language and his notion of langue is a matter of social conventions
e.Competence vs performance (Chomsky) * Competence: the ideal user‘s knowledge of the rules of his language. * Performance: the actual realization of thisknowledge in linguistic communication. * Competence enables a speaker to produce and understand an indefinite number of sentences and recognize grammatical mistakes and ambiguities. * A person's competence is stable but his performance is often influenced by psychological and social factors. * A speaker's performance does not always match his competence.
The object is the ideal speaker's competence, not his performance. * Chomsky's vs Saussure's distinction * Saussure's langue is a social product, a set of conventions for a speech community. Chomsky regards competence as a property of the mind of each individual. * Saussure looks at language more from a sociological point of view while Chomsky looks at it from a psychological point of view.
f. Linguistic potential vs actual linguistic behavior * Halliday looks at L from a functional point of view; he is more concerned with what speakers do with L. * His linguistic potential is similar to Saussure's langue and Chomsky's competence, and his actual linguistic behavior to the notion of parole and performance.
Linguistic potential, langue and competence are similar in only one aspect: they all refer to the constant which underlines the utterances that constitute parole / performance/actual linguistic behavior * Langue is a social property while LP is sth available for the speaker to choose from; * Competence is a form of \"knowing― while LP is a set of possibilities for \"doing\"; * The competence vs performance distinction is one between what a person \"knows― and what he \"does\le the LP vs ALB is one between what a person \"can do\" and what a person \"does\".
g.Traditional grammar vs modern linguistics * Traditional grammar: prescriptive, written, Latin-based framework
* Modern linguistics: descriptive, spoken, not necessarily Latin-based framework
3. Major branches of general linguistics
General linguistics and applied linguistics * The study of language as a whole is called General linguistics * concepts, theories, descriptions models and methods * It is used in contrast with branches of study which apply linguistics to the research of other areas. General linguistics 1. Phonetics 2. Phonology 3. Morphology 4. Syntax 5. Semantics Use of linguistics 1.Applied linguistics 2.Sociolinguistics 3.Psycholinguistics
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) 4.Use of linguistics * Applied linguistics: linguistics and language teaching * Sociolinguistics: social factors (e.g. class education) affect language use * Psycholinguistics: linguistic behavior and psychological process * Stylistics: linguistic and literature * Anthropological linguistics * Neurolinguistics * Computational linguistics
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