language2

Chapter 1 Language and Linguistics(语言学)

1.1 What is language?

We u language in most of our waking life (and sometimes in dreams,

too). Language is so indispensable 不可缺少的；绝对必要的；责无旁

贷的to us that we all tend to take it for granted. Few of us ever think

about what it is that allows us to talk about everything in the univer and

our inner world, to do things together with others. As a learner of a

foreign language, have you ever thought about the nature of the subject

that you learn through painstaking艰苦的；勤勉的；小心的 effort? As a

professional English teacher, have you ever pondered仔细考虑；衡量 at

the nature of the subject you teach?

Probing探索；探查 into this question, one may understand the 多

multi-faceted nature of language. Language is many things indee的确；

实在；真正地；甚至

int. 真的（表示惊讶、怀疑、讽刺等）d: a mediumadj. 中间的，中等

的；半生熟的 of communication, a system of code, a carrier of culture,

an instrument for thinking, a glue of a community, a social institution. 制

度；建立；（社会或宗教等）公共机构；, etc. This multi-faceted nature

of language explains the fact that there is no universally accepted

definitionn. 定义；[物] 清晰度；解说 of language. Linguists must face

up to this question, as language is the object of study in their rearch.

Hundreds of definitions have been propod 提议；计划（propo的过

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去式和过去分词）

adj. 被提议的；所推荐的 in the past. We cite a few here for discussion.

（注解）

Language is a system who parts can and must be consideredadj. 经过

深思熟虑的；被尊重的 in their synchronic solidarity.. 团结，团结一致

(de Saussure, 1916)详细»

adj. 不考虑历史上变化的；限于一时的；完全同步的

[Languages is] a t (finiten. 有限之物

adj. 有限的；限定的 or infinite) of ntences, each finite in length and

constructed out of a finite t of elements (Chomsky, 1957)elimənts] 详细

»n. 基础；原理

Language is a purely human and non-instinctiveɪn'stɪŋ(k)tɪv] 详细»

adj. 本能的；直觉的；天生的 method of communicating ideas, emotions

and desires by means of voluntarily[,vɑlən'tɛrəli] 详细»

adv. 自动地；以自由意 produced symbols. (Sapir, 1921)

Each of the definitions pinpoints查明；精确地找到；准确描述

adj. 精确的；详尽的

n. 针尖；精确位置；极 some aspects of the esnce of language, but all

have left out something.

In broad terms宽泛的说 大体上, linguists agree to define language

as a system of arbitrary['ɑːbɪt(rə)rɪ] 详细»

adj. [数] 任意的；武断的；专制的 vocal symbols ud for human

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communication(Wardhaugh 1977). This definition is bad on a number

of theoretical assumption 假定，设想s. Defined as such, language is en

as unique to human beings. In other words, it is assumed that only human

beings have language. Animal communication systems (bird chips, bee

dances, dog barks, and so on), are all excluded详细»

v. 排除（exclude的过去式和过去分词）；驱逐；拒绝接纳

adj. 排除的. Is this justified['dʒʌstɪfaɪd] 详细»

v. 调整（justify的过去分词）；证明…正当

adj. 有正当理由的；合乎情理的；事出有因的? Are communication

systems possd adj. 疯狂的；着魔的by other creatures

qualitativelyadv. 定性地；从品质上讲 different from human language?s

1.2 Features of human languages Many philosophers and linguists

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believe that language is unique to man. Language is a human trait 特性，

特点；品质；少许 that ts us apart from other living creatures. They spell

out a number of features of language which are not found in animal

communication systems.

(i) Creativity / productivity

Creativity is the first and foremostadj. 最重要的；最先的 striking

adj. 显著的，突出的，惊人的；打击的；罢工的feature of human language.

It refers to the fact that language provides opportunities for nding

messages that have never been nt before and for understanding novel

messages. The grammaticaadj. 文法的；符合语法规则的l rules and the

words of a language are finite,['faɪnaɪt] 详细»

n. 有限之物adj. 有限的；限定的 but the ntences are infinite. Every

speaker us language creatively. Even a child acquiringə'kwaɪr] 详细»

n. 捕获，探测；习得；瞄准

v. 获得（ his mother tongue can put speech sounds and words into novel

adj. 新奇的；异常的combinations to express meanings. This feature is not

found in animal communication systems. Talking birds such as parrots can

imitate human utterances,['ʌt(ə)r(ə)ns] 详细»

n. 表达；说话；说话方式 but they cannot gmen'gm(ə)nt] 详细»

n. 段；部分vt. 分割vi. 分割t the sounds and the words in the phras

they imitate and putthem in a different quence.['siːkw(ə)ns] 详细»

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n. [数][计] 序列；顺序；续发事件vt. 按顺序排好

Results of experiments show that even animals clost in kin[kɪn]

详细»n. 亲戚；家族；同族adj. 同类的；有亲属关系的；性质类似的 to

human beings cannot match children in learning and using language. In the

1930s, Winthrop and Luella Kellogg raid their infant[kɪn] 详细»

n. 亲戚；家族；同族adj. 同类的；有亲属关系的；性质类似的 son

together with an infant chimpanzee named Gua. When the boy could

understand I say what I mean and I mean what I say, Gua could understand

neither, although it understood some words. Several decades later, another

chimpanzee, named Nim Chimsky (after the famous American linguist

Noam Chomsky, who states that language is unique to human beings) was

taught American Sign Language, under careful experimental conditions,

including record keeping and video taping. After analyzing the video tapes

of Nim's conversations, the rearchers found that only 12% of Nim's

utterances were spontaneous[spɒn'teɪnɪəs] 详细»adj. 自发的；自然的；

无意识的, and of the 88% where the teacher initiated . 开始，发起；开创

signing, half of Nim's respons were imitations n. 模仿，仿造；仿制品

adj. 人造的，of the teacher's utterance. Children initiate ɪ'nɪʃɪeɪt] 详

细»n. 开始；新加入者，接受初步知识者

vt. 开始，创始；发起；使初步了解

adj. 新加入的；接受初步知识的conversations more and more frequently

as they grow older. Children hardly ever imitate in conversation. Children

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become increasingly creative in their language u, but Nim and other

chimpanzees in similar experiments showed almost no tendencyn. 倾向，

趋势；癖好 toward such creativity (Fromkin and Rodman, 1998). Facts

like the em to suggest that creativity is a feature that distinguishes

dɪ'stɪŋgwɪʃ] 详细»vt. 区分；辨别；使杰出，使表现突出

vi. 区别，区分；辨别human language from communication systems of

other creatures.

The ideationaladj. 概念的；观念的；构想的；设想的 function

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When we u language to identifyvi. 确定；认同；一致

vt. 确定；识别；使参与；把…看成一样 things, to think, or to record

information, we u language as a symbolic adj. 象征的；符号的；使用

符号的 code n. 代码，密码；编码；法典 to reprent the world around

us. Playing this function, language rves as a medium that links a person

with the world. Everything in mind exists through language. The

ideational function is, then, the function language plays in human

cognitionn. 认识；知识；认识能力, in our conceptualizationn. 概念化；

化为概念 of the world. It is this function of language, in a n在某种

意义上, that brings the world into our mind.

The interpersonaladj. 人际的；人与人之间的 function

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In addition to using language to conceptualizevt. 使概念化

vi. 概念化 the world, we u it as a medium to get along in a community.

We u it to identify ourlves and others, to soothe vt. 安慰；使平静；

缓和vi. 起抚慰作用or anger someone, to argue with or to convince

others, to thank or to apologize to somebody, and more importantly, to get

things done together with others or by others. This function of language

binds约束捆绑 individualsn. 个人；个体 together. With this function

language is able to glue all members of a speech community.

The textualadj. 本文的；按原文的 function

In using language, we organize messages in a logical adj. 合逻辑的，

合理的；逻辑学的 way so that they fit in with the other messages and

with the wider contextn. 环境；上下文；来龙去脉 in which we are

talking or writing. When we speak or write we usually don't confinen. 界

限，边界vt. 限制；禁闭 ourlves to single phras or ntences; we

stringn. 线，细绳；一串，一行vt. 扎，缚；使排成一列，串起；伸

展，拉直vi. 连成一串；排成一列 them together to form a text. There are

expressions that refer vt. 涉及；委托；归诸于；使…求助于vi. 参考；

涉及；提到；查阅 backwards and forwards, or substitut n. 代用品；代

替者vi. 替代vt. 代替e for others, or link phras or ntences. They

play the role of bringing units of language into unityn. 团结；一致；联

合；个体.

1.4 Types of language

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1.4.1 Natural languages and artificial adj. 人造的；仿造的；虚伪的；

非原产地的；武断的languages

A natural language is one that is the mother tongue of an ethnic adj.

种族的；人种的community. It is estimatedadj. 估计的；预计的；估算

的 that there are about 4,000 natural languages in the world. The

uncertainty is due to various factors. Firstly, new peoples, and therefore

languages, continue to be discovered in the unexplored未勘查过的

regions n. 地区；地域；领域（region的复数）of the world. Secondly, a

language may die --- there are no longer native speakers of the language.

This is happening to languages of smaller communities of the world.

Thirdly, the distinctionn. 区别；差别；特性；荣誉、勋章 between

language and dialect n. 方言，土话；同源语；行话；个人用语特征

adj. 方言的is not always clear-cutadj. 清晰的；轮廓鲜明的.

Among natural languages in the world, some have achieved special

status n. 地位；状态；情形；重要身分 due to historical reasons and are

chon as official languages. Latin ud to be a medium of education in

Western Europe throughout the middle ages, and French the language of

international diplomacy n. 外交；外交手腕；交际手段 from the 17th to

the 20th century. Today, English is the (an) official language of over 40

countries. It tops the list of official languages, with an estimated

population of 1,400 million English speakers. Natural languages that are

ud to break the barrier n. 障碍物，屏障；界线vt. 把…关入栅栏of

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communication between nations are called world lingua franca.难懂的

混合语

Before world lingua francas were ud, people ud to desire a

universal language. The desire led to the invention of artificial languages

--- languages which are specially invented to facilitatevt. 促进；帮助；

使容易 international communication. The idea began to flourish n. 兴

旺；茂盛；挥舞；炫耀；华饰vi. 繁荣，兴旺；茂盛；活跃；处于旺

盛时期vt. 夸耀；挥舞 in the 17th century. Since then a number of

artificial languages have been invented, among which Esperanto n. 世

界语 still exists today. It was created by a Polish oculistn. 眼科医生，

[眼科] 眼科医师, Ludwig Lazarus Zamenhof (1859-1917). The scheme

n. 计划；组合；体制；诡计vt. 计划；策划vi. 搞阴谋；拟订计划

was first published in Russian, using the pudonym n. 笔名；假名

‘Doktoro Esperanto’ (Doctor Hopeful). Although Esperanto is taught in

some schools and universities and some journalsn. 学术期刊（journal的

复数）；日记；日记账 are published in it, the artificial language is still yet

to be accepted as an international language.

1.4.2 Genetic adj. 遗传的；基因的；起源的classification 分类；类

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别，等级 of languages

Genetic (or genealogical) classification, one of the two main ways of

classification, is bad on the assumption n. 假定；设想；担任；采取 that

languages have diversified adj. 多样化的；各种的v. 使…多样化

（diversify的过去分词） from a common ancestor n. 始祖，祖先；被

继承人. It us early remains as evidence, and deductions n. 扣除 are

made to reconstruct vt. 重建；改造；修复；重现 the parent language

when no written remains can be found. This approach n. 方法；途径；接

近

vt. 接近；着手处理vi. 靠近has been widely ud in Europe in the 19th

century. The outcome 结局 is the establishment n. 确立，制定；公司；

设施 of language families, the names of which generally indicate. 表明；

指出；预示；象征 their geographical adj. 地理的；地理学的

distributionsn. 分布；分配.

The Indo-European n. 印欧语系adj. 印欧语系的family is one of

the largest families. Languages of this family are the ones that first spread

throughout Europe and many parts of southern Asia. Their parent

language ‘Proto-Indo-European' is believed to have been spoken before

3000 BC, and to have split up adj. 劈开的vt. 分离；使分离；劈开；离

开vi. 离开；被劈开；断绝关系into different languages during the

subquent adj. 后来的，随后的 millennium n. 千年期，千禧年；一

千年，千年纪念；太平盛世，黄金时代. The family has now split up into

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nearly 10 division n. 除法；部门；分割；师（军队）；[体]赛区s. English

belongs to the West Germanicn. 日耳曼语

adj. 德国的；德语的；日耳曼人的；日耳曼语的 division (See Appendix

II for the divisions of Indo-European family and the daughter

languages).

Other language families and their geographical distributionsn. 分派；

分派；分销（ are shown in Appendix I. Most of the world's languages

can be grouped into families by the comparative methods. However, there

are language isolaten. [生物] 隔离种群vt. 使隔离；使孤立；使绝缘

adj. 隔离的；孤立的vi. 隔离；孤立s, the ones which have no known

historical connection with any other language.

1.4.3 The typologicaladj. 类型的；类型学的 classification n. 分类；

类别，等级of languages

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This is the other of the two main ways of classifying languages.

It is bad on a comparison of the formal similarities or differenc

es which exist between languages. It is an attempt to group langua

ges into structural types, on the basis of phonologyn. 音系学；音韵

学；语音体系, morphologyn. 形态学，形态论；[语] 词法，[语] 词

态学

and syntaxn. (事物的)联系体系(或次序)；(组成部分的)系统(或有条

理)的排列；【语言学】

.

Phonologically, languages can be grouped in terms of how

they u speech sounds --- how many and what kinds of vowelsn.

元音；母音adj. 元音的 they have, whether they u tonesn. 语

气；色调；音调；音色vt. 增强；用某种调子说vi. 颜色调和；呈

现悦目色调, and so on. Chine, for example, is a tone language,

while English is not.

Morphologically, languages can be classified on the basis

of the way words are constructed. Some European linguists in

the 19th century recognized three main types: (a) analytic

(isolating) languages, such as Chine and Vietnamen. 越南

人；越南语adj. 越南的；越南人的; (b) synthetic n. 合成物

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adj. 综合的；合成的，人造的(inflecting) languages, with Latin,

Greek and Arabic as clear cas; (c) agglutinating vi. 粘合；

成胶状vt. 使粘合；使凝集adj. 胶合的；粘结的languages, Turkish,

Japane and Swahiln. 斯瓦希里人；斯瓦希里语adj. 斯瓦希里人

的i, for example. In type (a), there are no inflectionsn. 弯

曲，变形；音调变化, or formal changes；grammaticaladj. 文法

的；符合语法规则的 relationships are shown through word order.

In type (b), grammatical relationships are expresd by

changing the internal adj. 内部的；内在的；国内的structure of

the words, typicallyadv. 代表性地；作为特色地 by changing the

inflectional屈折的；屈曲的；抑扬的 endings. In type 排好版

(c), words are built out of a long quence of units, with each

unit expressing a particular grammatical meaning.

Syntacticallyadv. 依照句法地；在语句构成上, languages can

also be classified by obrving their word order in the ntence,

that is, whether the word order is fixed or free and what kind

of order is favoredadj. 有利的；受到优待的；受到喜爱的

v. 赞成；宠爱；帮助（favor的过去分词）；给…以恩惠. The three

basic elements of the ntence, the subject, the predicaten.

谓语，述语adj. 谓语的；述语的vt. 断定为…；使…基于

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vi. 断言，断定 (verb) and the object can be arranged in six

different orders:

(a) SVO

(b) SOV

(c) VSO

(d) VOS

(e) OVS

(f) OSV

The most frequent word orders found in languages of the world

are (a), (b), and (c), in which the subject precedes the object.

It is obrved that the order of other ntence componentsn.

成分；组件；[电子] 元件adj. 组成的，构成的 is most frequently

correlatedadj. 有相互关系的v. （使）相关联；（使）相互对照 with

the order of the three main components. If a language is

basically a VO language, then the auxiliaryn. 助动词；辅助者，

辅助物；附属机构adj. 辅助的；副的；附加的 verb tends to

precedevt. 领先，在…之前；优于，高于vi. 领先，在前面 the verb;

adverbs tend to follow the verb; and the language utilizes vt.

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利用 prepositions n. 介词；前置词. English, as an example of

SVO languages, exhibits all the three tendencies.

Although languages in the world are diversified adj. 多样化的；各种

的v. 使…多样化（diversify的过去分词）, they are also remarkablyadv.

显著地；非常地；引人注目地 similar in many ways. The similarities

provide esntial data for the study of universality of language. This will

be shown in the following chapters.

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