语言学学习笔记

语言学是以人类语言为研究对象的学科，探索范围包括语言的性质、功能、结构、运用和历史发展，以及其他与语言有关的问题。下图梳理了语音学、音系学、形态学、句法学、语义学、心理语言学等内容。

Linguistics

• branches/ domains of linguistics
  • Phonetics语音学
    • a science of speech sounds
    • subfields
      • Articulatory phonetics
        • Three cavities
          • the pharyngeal cavity
          • the oral cavity
          • the nasal cavity
        • diagram of the speech organs
        • The process of producing speech
        • Mechanism of articulation
          • articulate a sound (playing the guitar)
            • power: lungs providing a stream of air
            • main articulator: vocal cords (move & vibration)
            • resonator: three cavities
      • Acoustic phonetics
        • Length/duration音长
        • Pitch音高
        • Intensity音强
        • Quality音质
      • Auditory phonetics
    • IPA (International Phonetic Alphabet)
    • classification of speech sounds
      • vowels: all voiced, no obstruction
        • The position of the tongue (high/low, front/back)The openness of the mouth (open/close)The shape of the lips (rounded/unrounded)
        • Monophthong (单元音） e.g. [u]Diphthong （双元音） e.g. [au] [uə]Triphthong （三元音） e.g. [auə] tow
      • consonants: is obstructed
        • The place of articulationThe manner of articulation
    • voicing
      •  Voiced （浊音）or voiceless（清音） Whether the vocal cord is vibrated Vowels: all voiced Consonants: some voiced, some voiceless Voiceless consontants in English: |p||t||k||f| |s||ʃ| |tʃ||θ||h
  • Phonology音系学
    • the structure and systematic patterning of sounds, a language specific
    • Phone音素
      • the smallest identifiable phonetic unit or segment in a stream of speech. They may or may not distinguish meaning
      • Narrow Transcription(严式标音）： [ ] peak [phi:k]Broad Transcription(宽式标音): | | peak |pi:k|
    • Phoneme音位
      • the smallest unit of sound in a language which can distinguish meaning
        • E.g. peak [phi:k] Vs. beak [bi:k] in English怕怕 [pha] Vs. 爸爸 [pa] in Mandarin
    • Allophone音位变体
      • the phonetic variant of a phoneme, which can be substituted for another without bringing about a change of meaning
        • Positional variant: peak [phi:k] speak [spi:k]Free variant: Stand up!
    • Segment音段
      • vowels / consonants
    • Suprasegments超音段
      • Stress
      • Tone声调
        • Chinese ia a tonal language
      • Intonation语调
  • Morphology形态学/词法学
    • structure of words, the way in which morphemes are arranged to form words
    • Morphemes classificaiton (structurally)
      • Free morphemes（自由语素）
        • Lexical (child, teach)
        • Functional (and, the, a/an, on, to, as )
      • Bound morphemes（黏着语素）
        • Derivational派生词缀 (re-, -ness, -ful, -less, -ly, -ish; re-, pre-, ex-, mis-, co-, un-)
        • Inflectional屈折词缀 (-’s, -ed, -s/es, -s, -er, -est, -ing, -en)
    • Morphemes classificaiton (semantically)
      • root词根
        • Free morphemes（自由语素）
        • in rare condition, bound(e.g. conceive, receive)
      • affixes词缀
        • Derivational (re-, -ness)Inflectional (-’s, -ed)
        • Prefix (dis-, re-)Suffix (-ness, -ful)infix (-l-: a plural marker tuwa (foreigner)---tulwa(foreigners))
    • Language can be classified morphologically
      • Isolating language(孤立语)
        • Chinese, Vietnamese,Samoan, Zhuang, Miao, Yi
      • Inflecting language（屈折语)
        • e.g. English, German,French, Latin, Spanish, Greek
      • Agglutinating language（黏着语)
        • e.g. Japanese, Turkish, Korean, Uyghur
    • Word information
      • coinage eg aspirin
      • borrowing eg羊角面包
      • compounding eg bookcase
        • a process of forming newwords by joining two or more separate words(not by means of affixes)
      • blennding eg brunch, smog
      • clipping缩略 eg bra(ssiere)
      • backformation逆构词 eg. worker--work
      • conversion转换
      • acronyms 首字母缩略词 eg NBA
      • derivation eg adding affixes to other words
  • Syntax句法学
    • internal structure of sentences and the relationship among their component parts
    • Merging (a label tree diagram)
      • VP (projection) the sister to the head of a phraseV(head) NP (complement) an expansion of a head word
    • functional category
      • any word or morpheme serves as an essentiallygrammatical function in gluing the lexical words (Inflectional morphemes, finite auxiliaries (have, do, can, could, should, will, would, may, might…), infinitival particle (to))
    • X-bar trees
      •  X: any category you need, lexical or functional X: head, minimal projection XP: projection, a maximal projection of X.  X': X-bar is an intermediate level between X and XP, and hence it is an intermediate projection of X
  • Semantics语义学
    • meanings of words and phrases, examines how meaning is encoded in a language.
    • Propositions
      • the unit of meaning (in form of declarative sentence) "A怎么(B）了/A怎样的.”
      • consists of a verbal unit plus one or more nouns. Verbal unit (tip:怎样) is the core of a proposition
      • Core part: verbal unit---predicate V (mostly a verb)
      • Verb
        • transitive verb及物
          • subject object external argument外论元 internal argument内论元
        • intransitive verb不及物
          • subject external argument
        • ditransitive verb双宾语
          • external argument, two internal argumments
      • Predicate V (external argument, internal argument(s))
      • Argument: really required by the Predicate V, otherwise they are called Adjuncts
    • Theta theory（θ-theory）题元角色理论
      • is concerned with assigning thematic roles to the arguments of verbs.
      • theta/thematic roles
        • agent施事，动作发起者
        • theme/patient受事
        • experiencer （emotion）
        • benefactive (benefiting from some action)
        • recipient (receiving some entities)真正接受事物
        • instrument （means/tools）
        • locative (place)
        • goal
        • source
    • argument structure of a verb（论元结构）
      • eat (John, the cake）snow (null, null)new (the book, null)
    • semantic triangle语义三角
    • meaning
      • connotative内涵意义
        • A concept in an individual’s mind is mostly the connotative meaning, formed through one’s perception of some features of the object a sign refers to
      • denotative外延意义
        • is not necessarily generated in such a process, but has long been an agreement among all the people in a community
    • semantic features
      • smallest semantic units for the description of linguistic expressions and their semantic relations
      • Matrix of semantic features
    • Chomsky: I-meaning(内化意义)
      • synonymy
      • contradiction
      • entailment蕴含
      • presupposition预设
      • ambiguity歧义
      • lnclusive-exclusive distinction
      • metaphorical interpretation
      • infecility不恰当，不合适
  • Pragmatics语用学
    • the way used to express / meaning in context of use
    • studies how utterances communicate meaning in context
    • Speech art theory
      • John Austin
        • locutionary act以言指事
        • illocutionary act以言行事
        • prelocutionary act以言成事
      • John. Searle
        • Perlocutionary act : cannot be controlled. We should focus on the illocutionay act
    • Cooperative Principle合作原则(Herbert Paul Grice)
      • People in a conversation normally cooperate with each other, to a maximum extent
      • 4 Conversational Maxims会话准则
        • Maxim of quality
          • don't used unreal, lack adequate evidence
        • Maxim of quantity
          • not more or less information
        • Maxim of relevance
          • be relevant to the aims
        • Maxim of manner
          • avoid obscurity, ambiguity, wordiness and disorderliness
  • Psycholinguistics心理语言学
  • Sociolinguistics社会语言学
  • Language Acquisition社会语言学
  • Neurolinguistics神经语言学
  • Typology类型学
  • Applied linguistics应用语言学
    • deals with language application to other fields, particularly education
• Three adequacies
  • Observational adequacy
  • Descriptive adequacy
  • Explanatory adequacy
• Disputes in Morden Linguistics
  • NATIVISM/MENTALISM (Chomsky's epistemology of the knowledge of language)There is a biological, physiological entity inside our brain which decides that we speak
    • Human beings are born with something that other species are not born with, i.e. language acquisition device.
    • The initial state of human language faculty is called Universal Grammar.
    • Due to the effect of later experience, our brain/mind develops from the initial state into the steady state, which corresponds to the competence of speaking a human language
  • BEHAVIORISM/EMPIRICISMOur brain was blank when we were born. Language is a social, empirical entity
• some distinctions
  • Ferdinand de Saussure (1857-1913）Langue VS. Parole (language and speech)
    • Langue语言: the abstract linguistic system shared by all the members of a speech community
    • Parole言语: the concrete act of speaking in actual situation by an individual speaker
  • Noam Chomsky (1928-）Competence VS. Performance
    • Competence语言能力: one’s knowledge of all the linguistic regulation systems / the ideal user's knowledge of the rules of his language
    • Performance语言运用: the use of one’s language knowledge in concrete situations. / the actual realization of the ideal language user's knowledge of the rules of his language in utterances
  • Synchronic 共时性 linguistics and Diachronic 历时性 linguistics
    • Synchronic linguistics共时语言学: The description of a language at some point of time
    • Diachronic linguistics历时语言学: The description of a language as it changes through time
  • Descriptive linguistics and Historical linguistics
    • ≈ Synchronic linguistics◦ At a particular time of history
    • ≈ Diachronic linguistics◦ The historical development of language over a periodof time
  • Theoretical 理论性 linguistics and Applied linguistics
    • Theoretical linguistics: dealing with the general theory of a language; general linguistic
    • Applied linguistics:◦ Broad sense: the applications of linguistic theories andprinciples to the solution practical problems◦ Narrow sense: language teaching
  • Prescriptive 指令性 and Descriptive 描述性
    • Prescriptive：to tell people what should they say
    • Derscriptive: to describe what language is like, instead of imposing norms
• design features/ properties of language
  • arbitrariness
    • no inherent relationship between a linguistic form and its meaning (e.g. tree)
  • duality
    • two levels: sound level, meaningful level (e.g. dislike, typewriter)
  • displacement
    • present or not present, real or not real, or about matters in the past, present or future or in a far-away place
  • productivity能产性
    • creativity. can be used in new ways to mean new things
  • cultural transimission
    • also socio transmission, the process whereby a language is passed on from one generation to the next in a community
• Definition
  • the scienticfic study of language
    • language is the system of human communication which consists of the structured arrangement of sounds into larger units (morpheme-word-phrase-sentense)
    • Language is a complicated entity with multiple layers and facts
    • Language is a system of arbitrary vocal symbols used for human communication