语言学 常见名词解释

常见名词解释

Synchronic

: said of an approach that studies language at a theoretical “point” in time.

Diachronic

: said of the study of development of language and languages over time.

Arbitrariness

: the absence of any physical correspondence between linguistic signals

and the

entities to which they refer.

Duality

: the structural organization of language into two abstract levels; meaningful

units and meaningless segments .

Competence:

unconscious knowledge of the system of grammatical rules in a

language.

Performance

: the language actually used by people in speaking or writing.

Langue

: the language system shared by a “speech community”.

Parole

: the concrete utterances of speaker.

Morpheme

: the smallest unit of language in terms of the relationship between

expression and content, a unit that cannot be divided into further smaller units without

destroying or drastically altering the meaning, whether it is lexical or grammatical.

Inflection

: is the manifestation of grammatical relationship through the addition of

inflectional affixes such as number, person, finiteness, aspect and cases to which they

are attached.

Root

: refers to the base form of a word that cannot be further analyzed without loss of

identity.

Stem

:is any morpheme or combinations of morphemes to which an inflectional affix

can be added.

Acronym

:is made up from the first letters of the name of an organization,which has a

heavily modified headword.

Syntax

: the study of the interrelationships between elements in sentence structure.

Subordination:

the process or result of linking linguistic units so that they have

different syntactic status, one being dependent upon the other, and usually a

constituent of the other.

Denotation

: denotation involves the relationship between a linguistic unit and the

non-linguistic entities to which it refers.

Connotation

: properties of the entity a word denote.

Synonymy

: synonymy is the technical name for one of the sense relations between

linguistic units, namely the sameness relation.

Hyponymy:

the technical name for inclusiveness sense relation, is a matter of class

membership.

Entailment

: This a logic relationship between two sentences in which the truth of the

second necessarily follows from the truth of the first, while the falsity of the first

follows from the falsity of the second.

Traffic light

does not have duality. Obviously, it is not a double-level system. There

is only one-to-one relationship between signs and meaning but the meaning units

cannot be divided into smaller meaningless elements further. So the traffic light only

has the primary level and lacks the secondary level like animals’ call.

1

1. What is language?

“Language is system of arbitrary vocal symbols used for

human communication.

It is a system, since linguistic elements are arranged systematically, rather than

randomly. Arbitrary, in the sense that there is usually no intrinsic connection

between a work (like “book”) and the object it refers to. This explains and is

explained by the fact that different languages have different “books”: “book” in

En

glish, “livre” in French, “shu” in Chinese. It is symbolic, because words are

associated with objects, actions, ideas etc. by nothing but convention. Namely,

people use the sounds or vocal forms to

symbolize what they wish to refer to. It

is vocal, because sound or speech is the primary medium for all human

languages. Writing systems came much later than the spoken forms. The fact

that small children learn and can only learn to speak (and listen) before they

write (and read) also indicates that language is primarily vocal, rather than

written. The term “human” in the definition is meant to specify that language is

human specific.

2. What are design features of language?

“Design features” here refer to the defining properties of human language that

tell the difference between human language and any system of animal

communication. They are arbitrariness, duality, productivity, displacement,

cultural transmission and interchangeability

3. What is arbitrariness?

By “arbitrariness”, we mean there is no logical c

onnection between meanings

and sounds. A

dog might be a pig if only the first person or group

of persons had

used it for a pig. Language is therefore largely arbitrary. But language is not

absolutely seem to be some sound-meaning association, if we think of echo

words, like “bang”, “crash”, “roar”, which are motivated in a certain sense.

Secondly, some compounds (words compounded to be one word) are not

entirely arbitrary either. “Type” and “write” are opaque or unmotivated words,

while “type

-

writer” is les

s so, or more transparent or motivated than the words

that make it. So we can say “arbitrariness” is a matter of degree.

4.

What is duality?

Linguists refer “duality” (of structure) to the fact that in all languages so far

2

investigated, one finds two levels of structure or patterning. At the first, higher

level, language is analyzed in terms of combinations of meaningful units (such

as morphemes, words etc.); at the second, lower level, it is seen as a sequence

of segments which lack any meaning in themselves, but which combine to form

units of meaning. According to Hu Zhanglin et al., language is a system of two

sets of

structures,

one of sounds and

the other of meaning. This is important for

the workings of language. A small number of semantic units (words), and these

units of meaning can be arranged and rearranged into an infinite number of

sentences (note that we have dictionaries of words, but no dictionary of

sentences!). Duality makes it possible for a person

to

talk about anything within

his knowledge. No animal communication system enjoys this duality.

5. What is productivity?

Productivity refers to the ability to the ability to construct and understand an

indefinitely large number of sentences in one?s native language, including those

that has never heard before, but that are appropriate to the speaking situation.

No one has ever said or heard “A red

-eyed elephant is dancing on the small hotel

bed with an African gibbon”, but he can say it when necessary, and he can

understand it in right register. Different from artistic creativity, though,

productivity never goes outside the language, thus also called “rule

-bound

creativity” (by y).

is displacement?

“Displacement”, as one of the design features of the human language, refers to

the fact that one can talk about things

that are not present, as easily as he does

things present. In other words,

one can refer to real and unreal things, things

of

the past, of the present, of the future. Language itself can be talked about too.

When a man, for example, is crying to a woman, about something, it might be

something that had occurred, or something that is occurring, or something that

is to occur. When a dog is barking, however, you can decide it is barking for

something or at someone that exists

now and there. It couldn?t be bow

-wowing

sorrowfully for a bone to be lost. The bee?s system, nonetheless, has a small

share of “displacement”, but it is an unspeakable tiny share.

is cultural transmission?

3

This means that language is not biologically transmitted from generation to

generation, but

that

the

details of the linguistic system must

be learned anew by

each speaker. It is true that the capacity for language in human beings (N.

Chomsky called it “language acquisition device”, or LAD) has a

genetic basis,

but the particular language a person learns to

speak is a cultural one other than

a genetic one like the dog?s barking system. If a human being is brought up in

isolation he cannot acquire language. The Wolf Child reared by the pack of

wolv

es turned out to speak the wolf?s roaring “tongue” when he was saved. He

learned thereafter, with no small difficulty, the ABC of a certain human

language.

8. What is interchangeability?

Interchangeability means that any human being can be both a producer and a

receiver of messages. Though some people suggest that there is sex

differentiation in the actual language use, in other words, men and women may

say different things, yet in principle there is no sound,

or word or sentence that

a man can utter and a woman cannot, or vice versa. On the other hand, a person

can be the speaker while the other person is the listener and as the turn moves

on to the listener, he can be the speaker and the first speaker is to listen. It is

turn-taking that makes social communication possible and acceptable. Some

male birds, however, utter some calls which females do not (or cannot). When

a dog barks, all the neighboring dogs bark. Then people around can hardly tell

which dog (dogs) is (are) “speaking” and which listening.

do linguists say language is human specific?

First of all, human language has six “design features” which animal

communication systems do not have, at least not in the true sense of them.

Secondly, linguists have done a lot trying to teach animals such as chimpanzees

to speak a human language but have achieved nothing inspiring. Washoe, a

female chimpanzee, was brought up like a human child by Beatnice and Alan

Gardner. She was taught “American sign Language”, and learned a little that

made the teachers happy but did mot make the linguistics circle happy, for few

believed in teaching chimpanzees. Thirdly, a human child reared among animals

cannot speak a human language, not even when he is taken back and taught to

do so.

4

10. What functions does language have?

Language has at least seven functions: phatic, directive, Informative,

interrogative, expressive, evocative and performative. According to

Wang Gang

(1988,p.11), language has three main functions: a tool of communication, a

tool whereby people learn about the world, and a tool by which people learn

about the world, and a tool by which people create art . M .A. K. Halliday,

representative of the London school, recognizes three “Macro

-

Functions”:

ideational, interpersonal and textual.

11. What is the phatic function?

The “phatic function” refers to language being used for setting up a certain

atmosphere or maintaining social contacts(rather than for exchanging

information or ideas). Greetings, farewells, and comments on the weather in

English and on clothing in Chinese all serve this function. Much of the phatic

language (e.g. “How are you?” “Fine, thanks.”) is insincere if taken literally, but

it is important. If you don't say “Hello” to a friend you meet, or if you don?t

answer his “Hi”, you ruin you

r friendship.

12. What is the directive function?

The “directive function” means that language may be used to get the hearer to

do something. Most imperative sentences perform this function, e. g., “Tell me

the result when you finish.” Other syntactic str

uctures or sentences of other

sorts can, according to J. Austin and J. Searle?s “Indirect speech act theory” at

least, serve the purpose of direction too, e.g., “If I were you, I would have

blushed to the bottom of my ears!”

13. What is the informative function?

Language serves an “informational function” when used to tell something,

characterized by the use of declarative sentences. Informative statements are

often labelled as true (truth) or false (falsehood). According to P. Grice?s

“Cooperative Principle”, one ought not to violate the “Maxim of Quality”, when

he is informing at all.

14. What is the interrogative function?

5

When language is used to obtain information, it serves an “interrogative

function”. This includes all questions that expect replies,

statements,

imperatives etc., according to the “indirect speech act theory”, may have this

function as well, e.g., “I?d like to know you better.” This may bring forth a lot of

personal information. Note that rhetorical questions make an exception, since

t

hey demand no answer, at least not the reader?s/listener?s answer.

15. What is the expressive function?

The “expressive function” is the use of language to reveal something about the

feelings or attitudes of the speaker. Subconscious emotional ejaculations are

good examples, like “Good heavens!” “My God!” Sentences like “I?m sorry about

the delay” can serve as good examples too, though in a subtle way. While

language is used for the informative function to pass judgment on the truth or

falsehood of statements, language used for the expressive function evaluates,

appraises or asserts the speaker?s own attitudes.

16. What is the evocative function?

The “evocative function” is the use of language to create certain feelings in the

hearer. Its aim is , for example, to amuse, startle, antagonize, soothe, worry or

please. Jokes(not practical jokes, though) are supposed to amuse or entertain

the listener; advertising to urge customers to purchase certain commodities;

propaganda to influence public opinion. Obviously, the expressive and the

evocative functions often go together, i.e., you may express, for example, your

personal feelings about a political issue but end up by evoking the same feeling

in, or imposing it on, your listener. That?s also the case with the o

ther way

round.

17. What is the performative function?

This means people speak to “do things” or perform actions. On certain occasions

the utterance itself as an action is more important than what words or sounds

constitute the uttered sentence. The judge

?s imprisonment sentence, the

president?s war or independence declaration, etc., are performatives.

18. What is linguistics?

“Linguistics” is the scientific study of language. It studies not just

one language

6

of any one society, but the language of all human beings. A linguist, though,

does not have to know and use a large number of languages, but to investigate

how each language is constructed. He is also concerned with how a language

varies from dialect to dialect, from class to class,

how it changes

from century to

century, how children acquire their mother tongue, and perhaps how a person

learns or should learn a foreign language. In short, linguistics studies the

general principles whereupon all human languages are constructed and operate

as systems of communication in their societies or communities.

19. What makes linguistics a science?

Since linguistics is the scientific study of language, it ought to base itself upon

the systematic, investigation of language data which aims at discovering the

true nature of language and its underlying system. To make sense of the data,

a linguist usually has conceived some hypotheses about

the language structure,

to be checked against the observed or observable facts. In order to make his

analysis scientific, a linguist is usually guided by four principles: exhaustiveness,

consistency, and objectivity. Exhaustiveness means he should gather all the

materials relevant to

the study and give them an adequate explanation, in spite

of the complicatedness. He is to leave no

linguistic “stone” unturned.

Consistency means there should be no contradiction between different parts of

the total statement. Economy means a linguist should pursue brevity in the

analysis when it is possible. Objectivity implies that since some people may be

subjective in the study, a linguist should be (or sound at least) objective,

matter-of-face, faithful to reality, so that his work constitutes part of the

linguistics research.

20. What are the major branches of linguistics?

The study of language as a whole is often called general linguistics. But a

linguist sometimes is able to deal with only one aspect of language at a time,

thus the arise of various branches: phonetics, phonology, morphology, syntax,

semantics, pragmatics, sociolinguistics, applied linguistics, psycholinguistics

etc.

21. What are synchronic and diachronic studies?

The description of a language at some point of

time (as if it stopped developing)

is a synchrony study (synchrony). The description of a language as it changes

7