1.1. What is language?
“Language is system of arbitrary vocal symbols ud for human communication. It is a system, since linguistic elements are arranged systematically, rather than randomly. Arbitrary, in the n 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 English, “livre” in French, in Japane, in Chine, “check” in Korean. It is symbolic, becau words are associated with objects, actions, ideas etc. by nothing but convention. Namely, people u the sounds or vocal forms to symbolize what they wish to refer to. It is vocal, becau sound or speech is the primary medium for all human languages, developed or “new”. 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.
1.2. 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
1.3. What is arbitrariness?
By “arbitrariness”, we mean there is no logical connection between meanings and sounds (e I .1). A dog might be a pig if only the first person or group of persons had ud it for a pig. Language is therefore largely arbitrary. But language is not absolutely em to be some sound-meaning association, if we think of echo words, like “bang”, “crash”, “roar”, which are motivated in a certain n. 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 less so, or more transparent or motivated than the words that make it. So we can say “arbitrariness” is a matter of degree.
1.4.What is duality?
Linguists refer “duality” (of structure) to the fact that in all languages so far 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 cond, lower level, it is en as a quence of gments which lack any meaning in themlves, but which combine to form units of meaning. According to Hu Zhanglin et al. (p.6), language is a system of two ts of structures, one of sounds and the other of meaning. This is important for the workings of language. A small number of mantic units (words), and the units of meaning can be arranged and rearranged into an infinite number of ntences (note that we have dictionaries of words, but no dictionary of ntences!). Duality makes it possible for a person to talk about anything within his knowledge. No animal communication system enjoys this duality, or even approaches this honor.
1.5.What is productivity?
Productivity refers to the ability to the ability to construct and understand an indefinitely large number of ntences in one’s native language, including tho 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 N.Chomsky).
1.6.What 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 prent, as easily as he does things prent. In other words, one can refer to real and unreal things, things of the past, of the prent, of the future. Language itlf 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 dome lost love or a bone to be lost. The bee’s system, nonetheless, has a small share of “displacement”, but it is an unspeakable tiny share.
1.7.What is cultural transmission?
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 wolves 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.
1.8.What is interchangeability?
(1) Interchangeability means that any human being can be both a producer and a receiver of messages. We can say, and on other occasions can receive and understand, for example, “Plea do something to make me happy.” Though some people (including me) suggest that there is x differentiation in the actual language u, in other words, men and women may say different things, yet in principle there is no sound, or word or ntence 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.
(2) Some male birds, however, utter some calls, which females do not (or cannot?), and certain kinds of fish have similar haps mentionable. When a dog barks, all the neighboring dogs bark. Then people around can hardly tell which dog (dogs) is (are0 “speaking” and which listening.
1.9.Why 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 n of them (e I .2-8). Let’s borrow C. F. Hocket’s Chart that compares human language with some animals’ systems, from Wang Gang (1998,p.8).
Secondly, linguists have done a lot trying to teach animals such as chimpanzees to speak a human language but have achieved nothing inspiring. Beatnice and Alan Gardner brought up Washoe, a female chimpanzee, like a human child. 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 lo to so (e the “Wolf Child”in I.7)
1.10.What functions does language have?
Language has at least ven functions: phatic, directive, Informative, interrogative, expre
ssive, evocative and per formative. 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, reprentative of the London school, recognizes three “Macro-Functions”: ideational, interpersonal and textual (e! 11-17;e HU Zhuanglin et al., pp10-13, pp394-396).
1. 11What is the phatic function?
The “phatic function” refers to language being ud for tting 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 Chine all rve 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 your friendship.
1.12. What is the directive function?
The “directive function” means that language may be ud to get the hearer to do something. Most imperative ntences perform this function, e.g., “Tell me the result when you finish.” Other syntactic structures or ntences of other sorts can, according to J.Austin and J.Searle’s “indirect speech act theory”(e Hu Zhuanglin et al., pp271-278) at least, rve the purpo of direction too, e.g., “If I were you, I would have blushed to the bottom of my ears!”
1.13.What is the informative function?
Language rves an “informational function” when ud to tell something, characterized by the u of declarative ntences. Informative statements are often labeled as true (truth) or fal (falhood). According to P.Grice’s “Cooperative Principle”(e Hu Zhuanglin et al., pp282-283), one ought not to violate the “Maxim of Quality”, when he is informing at all.
1.14.What is the interrogative function?
When language is ud to obtain information, it rves 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 they demand no answer, at least not the reader’s/listener’s answer.
1.15.What is the expressive function?
The “expressive function” is the u 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 rve as good examples too, though in a subtle way. While language is ud for the informative function to pass judgment on the truth or falhood of statements, language ud for the expressive function evaluates, apprais or asrts the speaker’s own attitudes.
1.16.What is the evocative function?
The “evocative function” is the u of language to create certain feelings in the hearer. Its aim is, for example, to amu, startle, antagonize, soothe, worry or plea. Jokes (not practical jokes, though) are suppod to amu or entertain the listener; advertising to urge customers to purcha 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 ca with the other way round.
1.17.What is the per formative function?
This means people speak to “do things” or perform actions. On certain occasions the utterance itlf as an action is more important than what words or sounds constitute the uttered ntence. When asked if a third Yangtze Bridge ought to be built in Wuhan, the m
ayor may say, “OK”, which means more than speech, and more than an average social individual may do for the construction. The judge’s imprisonment ntence, the president’s war or independence declaration, etc., are per formatives as well (e J.Austin’s speech Act Theory, Hu Zhuanglin, ecal.pp271-278).
1.18.What is linguistics?
“Linguistics” is the scientific study of language. It studies not just one language of any one society, but also the language of all human beings. A linguist, though, does not have to know and u 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 (e Hu Zhuanglin et al., pp20-22)
1.19.What makes linguistics a science?
Since linguistics is the scientific study of language, it ought to ba itlf upon the systematic, investigation of language data, which aims at discovering the true nature of language and its underlying system. To make n of the data, a linguist usually has conceived some hypothes about the language structure, to be checked against the obrved or obrvable 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 rearch.
1.20.What are the major branches of linguistics?
The study of language as a whole is often called general linguistics (e.g.Hu Zhuanglin et al., 1988;Wang Gang, 1988). But a linguist sometimes is able to deal with only one aspect of language at a time, thus the ari of various branches: phonetics, phonology, morphology, syntax, mantics, sociolinguistics, applied linguistics, pragmatics, psycholinguistics, lexicology, lexicography, etymology, etc.
1.21.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 through time is a diachronic study (diachronic). An essay entitled “On the U of THE”, for example, may be synchronic, if the author does not recall the past of THE, and it may also be diachronic if he claims to cover a large range or period of time wherein THE has undergone tremendous alteration (e Hu Zhuanglin et al., pp25-27).
1.22.What is speech and what is writing?
(1) No one needs the repetition of the general principle of linguistic analysis, namely, the primacy of speech over writing. Speech is primary; becau it existed long long before writing systems came into being. Genetically children learn to speak before learning to write. Secondly, written forms just reprent in this way or that the speech sounds: individual sounds, as in English and French as in Japane.
(2) In contrast to speech, spoken form of language, writing as written codes, gives language new scope and u that speech does not have. Firstly, messages can be carried through space so that people can write to each other. Secondly, messages can be carried through time thereby, so that people of our time can be carried through time thereby, so that people of our time can read Beowulf, Samuel Johnson, and Edgar A. Poe. Thirdly, oral messages are readily subject to distortion, either intentional or unintentional (causing misunderstanding or malentendu), while written messages allow and encourage repeated unalterable reading.
(3) Most modern linguistic analysis is focud on speech, different from grammarians of the last century and theretofore.
1.23.What are the differences between the descriptive and the prescriptive approaches?
A linguistic study is “descriptive” if it only describes and analys the facts of language, and “prescriptive” if it tries to lay down rules for “correct” language behavior. Linguistic studies before this century were largely prescriptive becau many early grammars were largely prescriptive becau many early grammars were bad on “high” (literary or religious) written records. Modern linguistics is mostly descriptive, however. It (the latter) believes that whatever occurs in natural speech (hesitation, incomplete utterance, misunderstanding, etc.) should be described in the analysis, and not be marked as incorrect, abnormal, corrupt, or lousy. The, with changes in vocabulary and structures, need to be explained also.
1.24.What is the difference between langue and parole?
F. De Saussure refers “langue”to the abstract linguistic system shared by all the members of a speech community and refers “parole” to the actual or actualized language, or the realization of langue. Langue is abstract, parole specific to the speaking situation; langue not actually spoken by an individual, parole always a naturally occurring event; langue relatively stable and systematic, parole is a mass of confud facts, thus not suitable for systematic investigation. What a linguist ought to do, according to Saussure, is to abstract langue from instances of parole, I. e. to discover the regularities governing all instances of parole and make than the subject of linguistics. The langue-parole distinction is of great importance, which casts great influence on later linguists.
1.25.What is the difference between competence and performance?
(1) According to N. Chomsky, “competence” is the ideal language ur’s knowledge of the rules of his language, and “performance” is the actual realization of this knowledge in utterances. The former enables a speaker to produce and understand an indefinite number of ntences and to recognize grammatical mistakes and ambiguities. A speaker’
s competence is stable while his performance is often influenced by psychological and social factors. So a speaker’s performance does not always match or equal his suppod competence.
(2) Chomsky believes that linguists ought to study competence, rather than performance. In other words, they should discover what an ideal speaker knows of his native language.
(3) Chomsky’s competence-performance distinction is not exactly the same as, though similar to, F. de Saussure’s langue-parole distinction. Langue is a social product, and a t of conventions for a community, while competence is deemed as a property of the mind of each individual. Sussure looks at language more from a sociological or sociolinguistic point of view than N. Chomsky since the latter deals with his issues psychologically or psycholinguistically.
1.26.What is linguistic potential? What is actual linguistic behavior?
M. A. K. Halliday made the two terms, or the potential-behavior distinction, in the 1960s,
from a functional point of view. There is a wide range of things a speaker can do in his culture, and similarly there are many things he can say, for example, to many people, on many topics. What he actually says (i.e. his “actual linguistic behavior”) on a certain occasion to a certain person is what he has chon from many possible injustice items, each of which he could have said (linguistic potential).
1.27.In what way do language, competence and linguistic potential agree? In what way do they differ? And their counterparts?
Langue, competence and linguistic potential have some similar features, but they are innately different (e 1.25). Langue is a social product, and a t of speaking conventions; competence is a property or attribute of each ideal speaker’s mind; linguistic potential is all the linguistic corpus or repertoire available from which the speaker choos items for the actual utterance situation. In other words, langue is invisible but reliable abstract system. Competence means “knowing”, and linguistic potential a t of possibilities for “doing” or “performing actions”. They are similar in that they all refer to the
constant underlying the utterances that constitute what Saussure, Chomsky and Halliday respectively called parole, performance and actual linguistic behavior. Paole, performance and actual linguistic behavior enjoy more similarities than differences.
1.28.What is phonetics?
“Phonetics” is the science which studies the characteristics of human sound-making, especially tho sounds ud in speech, and provides methods for their description, classification and transcription (e Hu Zhuanglin et al., pp39-40), speech sounds may be studied in different ways, thus by three different branches of phonetics. (1) Articulatory phonetics; the branch of phonetics that examines the way in which a speech sound is produced to discover which vocal organs are involved and how they coordinate in the process. (2) Auditory phonetics, the branch of phonetic rearch from the hearer’s point of view, looking into the impression which a speech sound makes on the hearer as mediated by the ear, the auditory nerve and the brain. (3) Acoustic phonetics: the study of the physical properties of speech sounds, as transmitted between mouth and ear.
Most phoneticians, however, are interested in articulator phonetics.
1.29.How are the vocal organs formed?
The vocal organs (e Figure1, Hu Zhuanglin et al., p41), or speech organs, are organs of the human body who condary u is in the production of speech sounds. The vocal organs can be considered as consisting of three parts; the initiator of the air-stream, the producer of voice and the resonating cavities.
1.30.What is place of articulation?
It refers to the place in the mouth where, for example, the obstruction occurs, resulting in the utterance of a consonant. Whatever sound is pronounced, at least some vocal organs will get involved. g. Lips, hard palate etc., so a consonant may be one of the following (1) bilabial: [p, b, m]; (2) labiodental: [f, v]; (3) dental: [,]; (4) alveolar: [t, d, l, n.s, z]; (5) retroflex; (6) palato-alveolar: [,]; (7) palatal: [j]; (8) velar [k, g,]; (9) uvular; (10) glottal: [h].
Some sounds involve the simultaneous u of two places of articulation. For example, th
e English [w] has both an approximation of the two lips and tho two lips and that of the tongue and the soft palate, and may be termed “labial-velar”.
1.31.What is the manner of articulation?
The “manner of articulation” literally means the way a sound is articulated. At a given place of articulation, the airstreams may be obstructed in various ways, resulting in various manners of articulation, are the following: (1) plosive: [p, b, t, d, k, g]; (2) nasal: [m, n,]; (3) trill; (4) tap or flap; (5) lateral: [l]; (6) fricative: [f, v, s, z]; (7) approximant: [w, j]; (8) affricate: [].
1.32.How do phoneticians classify vowels?
Phoneticians, in spite of the difficulty, group vowels in 5 types: (1) long and short vowels, e.g.,[i:,]; (4) rounded and unround [,i]; (5) pure and gliding vowels, e.g.[I,].
1.33.What is IPA? When did it come into being ?
The IPA, abbreviation of “International Phonetic Alphabet”, is a compromi system making u of symbols of all sources, including diacritics indicating length, stress and intonation, indicating phonetic variation. Ever since it was developed in 1888, IPA has undergone a number of revisions.
1.34.What is narrow transcription and what is broad transcription?
In handbook of phonetics, Henry Sweet made a distinction between “narrow” and “broad” transcriptions, which he called “Narrow Romic”. The former was meant to symbolize all the possible speech sounds, including even the most minute shades of pronunciation while Broad Romic or transcription was intended to indicate only tho sounds capable of distinguishing one word from another in a given language.
1.35.What is phonology? What is difference between phonetics and phonology?
(1) “Phonology” is the study of sound systems- the invention of distinctive speech sounds that occur in a language and the patterns wherein they fall. Minimal pair, phonem
es, allophones, free variation, complementary distribution, etc., are all to be investigated by a phonologist.
(2) Phonetics, as discusd in I.28, is the branch of linguistics studying the characteristics of speech sounds and provides methods for their description, classification and transcription. A phonetist is mainly interested in the physical properties of the speech sounds, whereas a phonologist studies what he believes are meaningful sounds related with their mantic features, morphological features, and the way they are conceived and printed in the depth of the mind phonological knowledge permits a speaker to produce sounds which from meaningful utterances, to recognize a foreign “accent”, to make up new words, to add the appropriate phonetic gments to from plurals and past tens, to know what is and what is not a sound in one’s language.
1.36.What is a phone? What is a phoneme? What is an allophone?
(1) A “phone” is a phonetic unit or gment. The speech sounds we hear and produce during linguistic communication are all phones. When we hear the following wor
ds pronounced:[pit], [tip], [spit], etc., the similar phones we have heard are [p] for one thing, and three different[p]’s, readily making possible the “narrow transcription or diacritics”. Phones may and may not distinguish meaning. A “phoneme” is a phonological unit; it is a unit that is of distinctive value. As an abstract unit, a phoneme is not any particular sound, but rather it is reprented or realized by a certain phone in a certain phonetic context. For example, the phoneme[p] is reprented differently in [pit], [tip] and [spit].
(2) The phones reprenting a phoneme are called its “allophones”, i. e., the different (i.e., phones) but do not make one word so phonetically different as to create a new word or a new meaning thereof. So the different[p]’s in the above words are the allophones of the same phoneme[p]. How a phoneme is reprented by a phone, or which allophone is to be ud, is determined by the phonetic context in which it occurs. But the choice of an allophone is not random. In most cas it is rule-governed; the rules are to be found out by a phonologist.
1.37.What are minimal pairs?
