A Course on Linguistics for

Students of English

The Goals for this Course

To get a scientific view on language; To understand some basic theories on

linguistics; To understand the applications of the linguistic

theories, especially in the fields of language teaching & learning (SLA or TEFL), cross-cultural communication……;

To prepare for the future research work.

The Requirements for this course

Class attendanceClassroom discussionFulfillment of the assignmentExamination

Chapter 1. Introduction

1. What is language?

Language can mean what a person says (e.g. bad language, expressions) the way of speaking or writing (e.g. Shakespeare’s lan

guage, Luxun’s language) a particular variety or level of speech or writing (e.g. la

nguage for special purpose, colloquial language) the abstract system underlying the totality of the speec

h/writing behavior of a community (e.g. Chinese language, first language)

the common features of all human languages (e.g. He studies language)

a tool for human communication. (social function) a set of rules. (rule-governed)

Sapir’s definition (1921)

“Language is a purely human and non-instinctive method of communicating ideas, emotions and desires by means of voluntarily produced symbols.”

Hall’s definition (1968)

Language is “the institution whereby humans communicate and interact with each other by means of habitually used oral-auditory arbitrary symbols.”

Chomsky’s definition (1957)

“From now on I will consider language to be a set of (finite or infinite) sentences, each finite in length and constructed out of a finite set of elements.”

Language can be generally defined as

a system of arbitrary vocal symbols used for human communication.

Language is a system

Systematic---- rule-governed, elements in it are arranged according to certain rules; can’t be combined at will. e.g. *bkli, *I apple eat.

Language is arbitrary

Arbitrary---- no intrinsic connection between the word and the thing it denotes, e.g. “pen” by any other name is the thing we use to write with.

Language is symbolic in nature

Symbolic---- words are associated with objects, actions ideas by convention. “A rose by any other name would smell as sweet”----Shakespeare

Language is primarily vocal

Vocal---- the primary medium is sound for all languages; writing system came much later than spoken form.

Language is human-specific

Human-specific---- different from the communication systems other forms of life possess, e.g. bird songs, bee dance, animal cries.

The design/defining features of human language (Charles Hockett)

• Arbitrariness• Productivity/Creativity• Duality• Displacement• Cultural transmission

Arbitrariness ----No logical (motivated or intrinsic) connection betwee

n sounds and meanings.

Onomatopoeic words (which imitate natural sounds) are somewhat motivated ( English: rumble, crackle, bang, …. Chinese: putong, shasha, dingdang… )

Some compound words are not entirely arbitrary, e.g. type-writer, shoe-maker, air-conditioner, photocopy…

Productivity/creativity

----Peculiar to human languages ， users of language can understand and produce sentences they have never heard before, e.g. we can understand sentence like “ A red-eyed elephant is dancing on the hotel bed”, though it does not describe a common happening in the world.

A gibbon call system is not productive for gibbon draw all their calls from a fixed repertoire which is rapidly exhausted, making any novelty impossible.

The bee dance does have a limited productivity, as it is used to communicate about food sources in any direction. But food sources are the only kind of messages that can be sent through the bee dance; bees do not “talk” about themselves, the hives, or wind, let alone about people, animals, hopes or desires

Duality (double articulation) Lower level----sounds (meaningless) Higher level----meaning (larger units of meaning) A communication system with duality is considered

more flexible than one without it, for a far greater number of messages can be sent. A small number of sounds can be grouped and regrouped into a large number of units of meaning (words), and the units of meaning can be arranged and rearranged into an infinite number of sentences. (we make dictionary of a language, but we cannot make a dictionary of sentences of that language.

Displacement ----Language can be used to refer to things, which are not

present: real or imagined matters in the past, present or future, or in far-away places.

A gibbon never utters a call about something he ate last year There is something special about the bee dance though. Bees

communicate with other bees about the food sources they have found when they are no longer in the presence of the food. In this sense, the bee dance has a component of displacement. But this component is very insignificant. For the bees must communicate about the food immediately on returning to the hive. They do not dance about the food they discovered last month nor do they speculate about future discoveries.

Cultural transmission----Language is culturally transmitted (through teaching and

learning; rather than by instinct).

Animal call systems are genetically transmitted. All cats, gibbons and bees have systems which are almost identical to those of all other cats, gibbons and bees.

A Chinese speaker and an English speaker are not mutually intelligible. This shows that language is culturally transmitted. That is, it is pass on from one generation to the next by teaching and learning, rather than by instinct.

The story of a wolf child, a pig child shows that a human being brought up in isolation simply does not acquire human language.

Functions of language Phatic: establishing an atmosphere or maintaining soci

al contact. Directive: get the hearer to do something. Informative: give information about facts. Interrogative: get information from others. Expressive: express feelings and attitudes of the spea

ker. Evocative: create certain feelings in the hearer (amuse,

startle, soothe, worry or please) Performative: language is used to do things, to perfor

m actions.

The origin of language

The divine-origin theory---- Language is a gift of God to mankind.

The invention theory---- imitative, cries of nature, the grunts of men working together.

The evolutionary theory---- the result of physical and psychological development.

许国璋先生认为把语言定义成交际工具不够科学 ,至少不够严谨 .他对语言的定义做了如下概括 :语言是一种符号系统 .

当它作用于人与人之间的关系的时候 , 它是表达相互反应的中介 ;

当它作用于人与客观世界的关系的时候 , 它是认知事物的工具 ;

当它作用于文化的时候 , 它是文化的载体 .

2. What is linguistics?

----Linguistics is the scientific study of language.

----A person who studies linguistics is known as a linguist.

Four principles of linguistic studies

Exhaustiveness/adequacy

Consistency

Economy

Objectivity

The scope or major branches of linguistics

Theoretical linguistics1. Phonetics2. Phonology3. Morphology4. Syntax5. Semantics Use of linguistics1. Applied linguistics2. Sociolinguistics3. Psycholinguistics ……

Theoretical linguistics

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 word

s into sentence. Semantics----the meaning of language (when the mea

ning of language is conducted in the context of language use----Pragmatics)

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

Some other applications

Anthropological linguistics

Neurolinguistics

Computational linguistics (e.g. machine translation)

Some important distinctions in linguistics

Descriptive vs prescriptive

Descriptive ---- describe/analyze linguistic facts observed or language people actually use (modern linguistic)

Prescriptive ----lay down rules for “correct” linguistic behavior in using language (traditional grammar)

Synchronic vs diachronic

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)

Speech vs writing

Speech ---- primary medium of language

Writing ---- later developed

Langue vs parole (F. de Saussure)

Langue ---- the abstract linguistic system shared by all members of the speech community.

Parole ---- the realization of langue in actual use.

Saussure takes a sociological view of language and his notion of langue is a matter of social conventions.

Competence and performance (Chomsky)

Competence ---- the ideal user’s knowledge of the rules of his language

Performance ---- the actual realization of this knowledge in linguistic communication

Chomsky looks at language from a psychological point of view and to him competence is a property of the mind of each individual.

Traditional grammar vs modern linguistics

Traditional grammar ---- prescriptive, written, Latin-based framework

Modern linguistics ----- descriptive, spoken, not necessarily Latin-based framework

Chapter 2 Phonology

Language is primarily vocal. The primary medium of human language is sound. Linguists are not interested in all sounds, but in speech sounds----sounds that convey meaning in human communication.

Phonetics

----A branch of linguistics which studies the characteristics of speech sounds and provides methods for their description, classification and transcription, e.g. [p] bilabial, stop.

Three branches of phonetics

Articulatory phonetics----from the speakers’ point of view, “how speakers produce speech sounds”

Auditory phonetics----from the hearers’ point of view, “how sounds are perceived”

Acoustic phonetics----from the physical way or means by which sounds are transmitted from one to another.

Articulatory phonetics

Speech organs: three important areas

•Pharyngeal cavity ---- the throat;

•The oral cavity ---- the mouth;

•Nasal cavity ---- the nose.

The diagram of speech organs

1. Lips2. Teeth3. Teeth ridge

(alveolar)4. Hard palate5. Soft palate (velum)6. Uvula7. Tip of tongue8. Blade of tongue9. Back of tongue10. Vocal cords11. Pharyngeal cavity12. Nasal cavity

Orthographic representation of speech sounds

---- A standardized and internationally accepted system of phonetic transcription is the International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA). The basic principle of the IPA is using one letter to represent one speech sound.

Broad transcription ---- used in dictionary and textbook for general purpose, without diacritics, e.g. clear [ ], [ pit ]

Narrow transcription ---- used by phonetician for careful study, with diacritics, e.g. dark [ l ], aspirated [ p ]

Some major articulatory variables

---- dimensions on which speech sounds may vary:

Voicing---- voiced & voiceless

Nasality ---- nasal & non-nasal

Aspiration ----- aspirated & unaspirated

Classification of English speech sounds

---- English speech sounds are generally classified into two large categories:

Vowels Consonants

Note: The essential difference between these two classes is that in the production of the former the airstream meets with no obstruction of any kind in the throat, the nose or the mouth, while in that of the latter it is somehow obstructed.

Classification of consonants

---- English consonants may be classified according to two dimensions:

The manner of articulation

The place of articulation

The manner of articulation

stops/plosives: [p], [b], [t], [d], [k], [g];

fricatives: [], [v], [s], [z], [], [], [], [], [h];

affricates: [], [];

liquids: [l](lateral), [];

nasals: [], [], [];

glides/semivowels: [w], [].

The place of articulation

bilabial: [p], [b], [], [w]; labiodental: [ ], [v]; dental: [], []; alveolar: [t], [d], [s], [z], [n], [l], [r]; palatal: [], [], [], [], [ ]; velar: [k], [g], []; glottal: [h].

The place of articulation

1. Bilabial;

2. Labiodental;

3. Dental or interdental;

4. Alveolar;

5. Palatoalveolar;

6. Palatal;

7. Velar;

8. Uvular;

9. Glottal.

The description of English consonants

Place

mannerVoic-ing

Bila-

bial

Labio-

dentalDental

Alveo-lar

Palatal Velar Glottal

Stops or plosives

VL [ p ] [ t ] [ k ]

VD [ b ] [ d ] [ g ]

Frica-tives

VL [ ] [ ] [ s ] [ ] [h]VD [ v ] [ ] [ z ] [ ]

Affri-

cates

VL ([] ) []

VD ([]) []

Nasals VD [] [n] [ ]

Liquids VD [l], [r]

Glides VD [w] [ ]

Classification of vowels

---- English vowels can be divided into two large categories:

Monophthongs or pure/single vowels

Diphthongs or gliding vowels

Monophthongs or pure/single vowels

----According to which part of the tongue is held highest in the process of production, the vowels can be distinguished as:

front vowels: [], [], [], [], [], []

central vowels: [], [], [];

back vowels: [], [], [], [], [].

According to the openness of the mouth

Close: [], [], [], [].

Semi-close: [], [];

Semi-open: [], [];

Open: [], [], [], [], [];

The diagram of single vowel classification by applying the two criteria

so far mentioned:

According to the shape of the lips orthe degree of lip rounding

rounded: [], [], [], [];

unrounded: [], [], [], [], [], [], [], [], [], [].

According to the length of the vowels

long: [], [], [], [], []

short: [], [], [], [], [], [], [], [], [].

Diphthongs/gliding vowels

[], [], [], [], [], [], [], [].

Exercises: underline the words that begin with a sound as required.

A bilabial consonant: mad sad bad cad pad had lad A velar consonant: nod god cod pod rod Labiodental consonant: rat fat sat mat chat vat pat An alveolar consonant: nick lick sick tick kick quick A palato-alveolar consonant: sip ship tip chip lip zip A dental consonant: lie buy thigh thy tie rye A glide: one war yolk rush

Underline the words that end with a sound as required:

A fricative

pay horse tough rice breath push sing wreathe hang cave message

A nasal

train bang leaf limb A stop

drill pipe fit crab fog ride laugh rack through

tip An affricate: rack such ridge booze

Underline the words that contain the sound as required:

A central vowel:

mad lot but boot word A front vowel:

reed pad load fate bit bed cook A rounded vowel:

who he bus her hit true boss bar walk A back vowel:

paid reap fool top good father

Describe the underlined consonants according to three dimensions:

vd/vl place manner LetterBrotherSunnyHopperItchingLodgerCallingSingingRobbereither

Phonology

Phonology studies the patterning of speech sounds, that is, the ways in which speech sounds form systems and patterns in human languages.

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 general nature; it is interested in all the speech sounds used in all human languages; 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 language form patterns and how these sounds are used to convey meaning in linguistic communication.

Phone, phoneme, allophone

Phone

A phone---- a phonetic unit or segment. The speech sounds we hear and produce during linguistic communication are all phones. Phones do not necessarily distinguish meaning, some do, some don’t, e.g. [ bt ] & [ bt ], [spt] & [spt].

Phoneme

A phoneme---- 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 [pt], [tp] and [spt].

Allophone

Allophones ---- the phones that can represent a phoneme in different phonetic environments.

Phonemic contrast, complementary distribution and

minimal pair.

Phonemic contrast

Phonemic contrast----different or distinctive phonemes are in phonemic contrast, e.g.

/b/ and /p/ in [ bt ] and [pt].

Complementary distribution

Complementary distribution----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 [p] & unaspirated [p].

Minimal pair

Minimal pair----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 phonology

Sequential rules

Assimilation rule

Deletion rule

Sequential rules

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.

Sequential rules

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/. * [ ] never occurs in initial position in English and sta

ndard Chinese,but it does occur in some dialects, e.g. in Cantonese: “ 牛肉，我， 俄语……”

Assimilation rule

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 [n] inconceivable velar [] input bilabial []

Assimilation in Mandarin

好啊 hao wa 海啊 hai ya 看啊 kan na 唱啊 chang 跳啊 tiao wa ……

Deletion rule

Deletion rule---- it tells us when a sound is to be deleted although it is orthographically represented, e.g. design, paradigm, there is no [g] sound; but the [g] sound is pronounced in their corresponding forms signature, designation, paradigmatic.

Suprasegmental features Suprasegmental features----the phonemic featu

res that occur above the level of the segments ( larger than phoneme):

stress

tone

intonation

Syllable (what is syllable?) Ancient Greek: a unit of speech sound consisting of a

vowel or a vowel with one or more than one consonant. Dictionary: word or part of a word which contains a vo

wel sound or consonant acting as a vowel. The syllable consists of three parts: the ONSET, the P

EAK, the CODA, e.g. [mn]. The peak is the essential part. It is usually formed by a

vowel. But [l], [n] and [m] might also function as peaks as in “ apple, hidden, communism”.

Stress

Word stress

Sentence stress

Word stress The location of stress in English distinguishes

meaning, e.g. a shift in stress in English may change the part of speech of a word:

verb: import; increase; rebel; record …

noun: import; increase; rebel; record …

Word stress Similar alteration of stress also occurs between a

compound noun and a phrase consisting of the same elements:

compound: blackbird; greenhouse; hotdog…

noun phrase: black bird; green house; hot dog…

Word stress The meaning-distinctive role played by word stress is

also manifested in the combinations of -ing forms and nouns:

modifier: dining-room; readingroom; sleepingbag… doer: sleeping baby; swimming fish; flying plane…

Sentence stress Sentence stress----the relative force given to the

components of a sentence. Generally, nouns, main verbs, adjectives, adverbs, numerals and demonstrative pronouns are stressed. Other categories like articles, person pronouns, auxiliary verbs prepositions and conjunctions are usually not stressed.

Note: for pragmatic reason, this rule is not always right, e.g. we may stress any part in the following sentences.

He is driving my car. My mother bought me a new skirt yesterday.

Tone

Tones are pitch variations,which are caused by the differing rates of vibration of the vocal cords.

English is not a tone language, but Chinese is.

ma 妈 (level) ma 麻 (the second rise) ma 马 (the third rise) ma 骂 (the fourth fall)

Intonation When pitch, stress and length variations are tied to the

sentence rather than to the word, they are collectively known as intonation.

English has three types of intonation that are most frequently used:

falling tone (matter of fact statement) rising tone (doubts or question) the fall-rise tone (implied message) For instance, “That’s not the book he wants.”

Grammatical functions of intonations

----Intonation plays an important role in the conveyance of meaning in almost every language, esp. in English.

a) It may indicate different sentence types by pitch direction.

Grammatical functions of intonations

b) It may impose different structures on the sentence by dividing it into different intonation units, e.g. “John didn’t come because of Marry”

Within one intonation unit, it means: John came, but it had nothing to do with Marry.

With two intonation units, it means: Marry was the reason why John didn’t come.

Exercises: Think of the utterance in different intonations:

“Those who bought quickly made a profit.”

Grammatical functions of intonations

c) It can make a certain part of a sentence especially prominent by placing nucleus on it, e.g.

Jack came yesterday by train.

Grammatical functions of intonations

d) Its attitudinal functions. Falling tone ---- matter-of-fact statement,

downright assertion, commands. Rising tone ----politeness, encouragement,

pleading.

Note: these can only be very general indications. The specific attitudinal meaning of an intonation pattern must be interpreted within a context.

Chapter 3 Morphology

Morphology refers to the study of the internal structure of words and the rules by which words are formed.

Open class word and closed class word

Open class words----content words of a language to which we can regularly add new words, such as nouns, adjectives, verbs and adverbs, e.g. beatnik(a member of the Beat Generation), hacker, email, internet, “ 做秀，时装秀…” in Chinese.

Closed class words----grammatical or functional words, such as conjunction, articles, preposition and pronouns.

Morpheme--the minimal unit of meaning

---Words are composed of morphemes. Words may consist of one morpheme or more morphemes, e.g.

1-morpheme boy, desire 2-morpheme boy+ish, desir(e)+ble 3-morpheme boy+ish+ness, desir(e)+bl(e)+ity 4-morpheme gentle+man+li+ness,

un+desir(e)+abl(e)+ity 5-morpheme un+gentle+man+li+ness 6-morpheme anti+dis+establish+ment+ari+an+ism

Affix

Prefix ---- morphemes that occur only before others, e.g.

un-, dis, anti-, ir-, etc. Suffix ---- morphemes that occur only after

others, e.g.

-ful, -er, -ish, -ness, -able, -tive, tion, etc.

Free morpheme & bound morpheme

Free morpheme----is one that may constitute a word (free form) by itself, such as bed, tree, sing, dance, etc.

Bound morpheme----is one that may appear with at least one other morpheme. They can not stand by themselves, such as “-s” in “dogs”, “al” in “national”, “dis-” in “disclose”, “ed” in “recorded”, etc.

Allomorph Some morphemes have a single form in all contexts, such as “d

og, bark, cat”,etc. In other instances, there may be some variation, that is, a morpheme may have alternate shapes or phonetic forms. They are said to be the allomorphs of the morpheme, the plural morpheme may be represented by:

map----maps [s] dog----dogs [z] watch----watches [iz] mouse----mice [ai] ox----oxen [n] tooth----teeth sheep----sheep Each of the underlined part is called an allomorph of plural mor

pheme.

Derivational morpheme & inflectional morpheme

Derivational morphemes---- the morphemes which change the category, or grammatical class of words, e.g. modern---modernize, length---lengthen, fool---foolish, etc.

Inflectional morphemes---- the morphemes which are for the most part purely grammatical markers, signifying such concepts as tense, number, case and so on; they never change their syntactic category, never add any lexical meaning, e.g.

a) number: tables apples cars

b) person, finiteness and aspect: talk/talks/talking/talked

c) case: John/John’s

Some other terms

Root

Stem

Base

Root

A root is that part of the word left when all the affixes (inflectional & derivational) are removed, e.g. “desire” in “desirable”, “care” in “carefully”, “nation” in “internationalism”, “believe” in “unbeliev(e)able”…

Stem

A stem is part of a word-form which remains when all inflectional affixes have been removed, e.g. “undesiralbe” in undesirables

Base

A base is any form to which affixes of any kind can be added. This means any stem and root can be termed as a base.

The difference between root, stem & base

A base can be added by both inflectional & derivational affixes while a stem can be added only by inflectional affixes;

A base is derivationally analyzable (e.g. undesire in undesirable) while a root cannot be further analyzed, e.g. desire in undesirable;

Root, stem and base can be the same form, e.g. desire in desired;

Undesirable in undesirables is either a stem or a base; Desirable in undesirable is only a base.

Morphological rules

The rules that govern the formation of words, e.g. the “un- + ----” rule.

unfair unthinkable unacceptable… Compounding is another way to form new

words, e.g.

landlady rainbow undertake…

Compounds Noun compounds daybreak (N+V) playboy (V+N) haircut (N+V) callgirl (V+N) windmill (N+N) Verb compounds brainwash (N+V) lipread (N+V) babysit(N+V) Adjective compounds maneating (N+Ving) heartfelt (N+Ved) dutyfree (N+adj.) Preposition compounds into (P+P) throughout (P+P)

Some points about compounds

When the two words are in the same grammatical category, the compound will be in this category, e.g. postbox, landlady, icy-cold, blue-black…

When the two words fall into different categories, the class of the second or final word will be the grammatical category of the compound, e.g. head-strong, pickpocket…

Compounds have different stress patterns from the non-compounded word sequence, e.g. red coat, green house…

The meaning of a compound is not always the sum of the meanings of its parts.

Chapter 4 Syntax

What is syntax?

----a branch of linguistics that studies how words are combined to form sentences and the rules that govern the formation of sentences.

Transformational Generative Grammar (TG)

Norm. Chomsky, the most influential linguist in 20th century, some important works:

(1957) Syntactic Structure; (1965) Aspects of the Theory of Syntax; (1981) Lectures on Government and Binding; (1986) Barriers (1993) A Minimalist Program for Linguistic

Theory; (1995) The Minimalist Program; (1998) The Minimalist Inquiry……

Criteria on good grammar

Observational adequacy Descriptive adequacy Explanatory adequacy The ultimate goal for any theory is to

explain. TG differs from traditional grammar in that

it not only aims at language description, but also its explanation.

Chomsky is much more interested in the similarities (language universals) between languages rather than their differences.

Linguists should attempt to find a grammatical framework which will be suitable for all languages;

Linguists should concentrate on the elements and constructions that are available to all languages rather than on elements that actually occur in all languages.

There are likely to be universal constraints on the ways linguistic elements are combined

Chomsky proposed that the grammars of all human languages share a common framework (Universal Grammar).

Categories

Category refers to a group of linguistic items which fulfill the same or similar functions in a particular language such as a sentence, a noun phrase or a verb. The most central categories to the syntactic study are the word-level categories (traditionally, parts of speech)

Word-level categories

Major lexical categories: N, V, Adj, Prep. Minor Lexical categories: Det, Deg, Qual,

Auxi, Conj.

The criteria on which categories are determined

Meaning Inflection Distribution Note: The most reliable criterion of

determining a word’s category is its distribution.

Phrase categories and their structures

Phrase categories----the syntactic units that are built around a certain word category are called phrase categories, such as NP(N), VP(V), AP(A), PP(P).

The structure: specifier + head + complement Head---- the word around which a phrase is formed Specifier---- the words on the left side of the heads Complement---- the words on the right side of the hea

ds

Phrase structure rules The grammatical mechanism that regulates the arrang

ement of elements that make up a phrase is called a phrase structure rule, such as:

NP (Det) + N +(PP)……e.g. those people, the fish on the plate, pretty girls.

VP (Qual) + V + (NP)……e.g. always play games, finish assignments.

AP (Deg) + A + (PP)……very handsome, very pessimistic, familiar with, very close to

PP (Deg) + P + (NP)……on the shelf, in the boat, quite near the station.

Specifier X Complement

Head

XP

The XP rule

Note: The phrase structure rules can be summed up as XP rule shown in the diagram, in which X stands for N, V, A or P.

X’ Theory

XP (Specifier)X’ X’ X(complement)

X(head) complement

specifier

XP(Phrase level)

X’

Coordination rule Coordination structures-----the structures that are

formed by joining two or more elements of the same type with the help of a conjunction such as and, or, etc.

----Coordination has four important properties: no limit on the number of coordinated categories

before the conjunction; a category at any level can be coordinated; the categories must be of the same type; the category type of the coordinate phrase is identical

to the category type of the elements being conjoined.

Phrase elements

Specifier Head complement

Specifiers

---- Semantically, specifiers make more precise the meaning of the head; syntactically, they typically mark a phrase boundary. Specifiers can be determiners as in NP, qulifiers as in VP and degree words as in AP.

Complements ---- Complements themselves can be a phrase, they pr

ovide information abut entities and locations whose existence is implied by the meaning of the head, e.g. a story about a sentimental girl; There can be no complement, one complement, or more than one complement in a phrase, e.g. appear, break, put…; a sentence-like construction may also function as a complement such as in “I believed that she was innocent. I doubt if she will come. They are keen for you to show up.” That/if /for are complementizers, the clauses introduced by complementizers are complement clause.

Modifiers

---- Modifiers specify optionally expressible properties of heads.

Sentences (the S rule)

S NP VP

S

NPVP

NP

Det N V Det N

A boy found the evidence

S NP infl VP

Many linguists believe that sentences, like other phrases, also have their own heads. Infl is an abstract category inflection (dubbed ‘Infl’) as their heads, which indicates the sentence’s tense and agreement.

InflP(=S)

NP VPInfl

Sentences (the S rule)Sentences (the S rule)

Infl realized by a tense label

InflP （ =S）NP VP

NP

Det N Infl V Det N

A boy Pst found the evidence

Infl realized by an auxiliary

InflP （ =S） VPNP

NP

Det N Infl V Det N

A boy will find the evidence

Transformations

Auxiliary movement (inversion) Do insertion Deep structure & surface structure Wh-movement Move α and constraints on transformations

Auxiliary movement (inversion)

Inversion Move Infl to the left of the subject NP. Inversion (revised) Move Infl to C.

C

CP

S

Det N Infl V

the train will arrive

NP

Auxiliary movement (inversion)

CP

SC NP

Infl Det N Infl V

Will the train e arrive

Do insertion Do insertion---- Insert interrogative do into an empty In

fl position. CP

C

S

NP Infl VPBirds fly

CP CP

C C

SS

Infl NP Infl VPNP Infl VPBirds do fly Do birds e fly

Figure-1

Figure-2 Figure-3

Deep structure & surface structure

Consider the following pair of sentences:

John is easy to please.

John is eager to please.

Structurally similar sentences might be very different in their meanings, for they have quite different deep structures.

Deep structure & surface structure

Consider one more sentence: Flying planes can be dangerous.

It can mean either that if you fly planes you are engaged in a dangerous activity or Planes that are flying are dangerous.

Deep structure----formed by the XP rule in accordance with the head’s sub-categorization properties; it contains all the units and relationships that are necessary for interpreting the meaning of the sentence.

Surface structure----corresponding to the final syntactic form of the sentence which results from appropriate transformations; it is that of the sentence as it is pronounced or written.

Deep structure & surface structure

The organization of the syntactic component

The XP rule

Deep structure

transformations

Surface structure

Subcategorization restricts choice of complements

Wh-movement

Consider the derivation of the following sentences:

What languages can you speak?

What can you talk about?

These sentences may originate as:

You can speak what languages.

You can talk about what.

Wh-movement

Wh-movement---- Move a wh phrase to the beginning of the sentence.

What language can you speak ?

What can you talk about ?

Wh-movement Wh-movement---- Move a wh phrase to the spe

cifier position under CP. (Revised)

CP

VP

V NP

won the game

S

NP Infl

e Pst

NP C

Who

Move α and constraints on transformations

Inversion can move an auxiliary from the Infl to the nearest C position, but not to a more distant C position.

No element may be removed from a coordinate structure.

Chapter 5 Semantics

Semantics----the study of language meaning.

Meaning is central to the study of communication.

What is meaning?---- Scholars under different scientific backgrounds have different understandings of language meaning.

Some views concerning the study of meaning

Naming theory (Plato) The conceptualist view Contextualism (Bloomfield) Behaviorism

Naming theory (Plato)

Words are names or labels for things. Limitations: 1) Applicable to nouns only. 2) There are nouns which denote things that do

not exist in the real world, e.g. ghost, dragon, unicorn, phenix…

3) There are nouns that do not refer to physical objects but abstract notions, e.g. joy, impulse, hatred…

The conceptualist view

The conceptualist view holds that there is no direct link between a linguistic form and what it refers to (i.e. between language and the real world); rather, in the interpretation of meaning they are linked through the mediation of concepts in the mind.

Ogden and Richards: semantic triangle

Symbol/form

word/phrase/sentence

Referent/object in the

world of experience

Thought/reference/concept

Ogden and Richards: semantic triangle

The symbol or form refers to the linguistic elements (words and phrases);

The referent refers to the object in the world of experience;

Thought or reference refers to concept. The symbol or a word signifies things by

virtue of the concept associated with the form of the word in the minds of the speaker; and the concept looked at from this point of view is the meaning of the word.

The contextualism

Meaning should be studied in terms of situation, use, context—elements closely linked with language behavior. Two types of contexts are recognized:

Situational context: spatiotemporal situation Linguistic context: the probability of a word’s co-

occurrence or collocation. For example, “black” in black hair & black coffee, or

black sheep differs in meaning; “The president of the United States” can mean either the president or presidency in different situation.

Behaviorism

Behaviorists attempted to define meaning as “the situation in which the speaker utters it and the response it calls forth in the hearer”.

The story of Jack and Jill:

Jill Jack

S_________r--------s_________R

Lexical meaning Sense and reference are both concerned with the

study of word meaning. They are two related but different aspects of meaning.

Sense---- is concerned with the inherent meaning of the linguistic form. It is the collection of all the features of the linguistic form; it is abstract and de-contextualized. It is the aspect of meaning dictionary compilers are interested in.

Reference----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.

Note:

Linguistic forms having the same sense may have different references in different situations; on the other hand, there are also occasions, when linguistic forms with the same reference might differ in sense, e.g. the morning star and the evening star, rising sun in the morning and the sunset at dusk.

Major sense relations

Synonymy  Antonymy Polysemy Homonymy Hyponymy

Synonymy Synonymy refers to the sameness or close

similarity of meaning. Words that are close in meaning are called synonyms.

1) Dialectal synonyms---- synonyms used in different regional dialects, e.g. autumn - fall, biscuit - cracker, petrol – gasoline…

2) Stylistic synonyms----synonyms differing in style, e.g. kid, child, offspring; start, begin, commence;…

Synonymy

3) Synonyms that differ in their emotive or evaluative meaning, e.g.collaborator- accomplice,…

4) Collocational synonyms, e.g. accuse…of, charge…with, rebuke…for; …

5) Semantically different synonyms, e.g. amaze, astound,…

Antonymy

Gradable antonyms----there are often intermediate forms between the two members of a pair, e.g. old-young, hot-cold, tall-short, …

Complementary antonyms----the denial of one member of the pair implies the assertion of the other, e.g. alive-dead, male-female, …

Relational opposites----exhibits the reversal of the relationship between the two items, e.g. husband-wife, father-son, doctor-patient, buy-sell, let-rent, employer-employee, give-receive, above-below, …

Gradable antonyms

Gradable antonyms ----there are often intermediate forms between the two members of a pair, e.g. old-young, hot-cold, tall-short, …

Complementary antonyms

Complementary antonyms ----the denial of one member of the pair implies the assertion of the other, e.g. alive-dead, male-female, …

Polysemy

Polysemy----the same one word may have more than one meaning, e.g. “table” may mean:

A piece of furniture All the people seated at a table The food that is put on a table A thin flat piece of stone, metal wood, etc. Orderly arrangement of facts, figures, etc. ……

Homonymy Homonymy---- the phenomenon that words having diff

erent meanings have the same form, e.g. different words are identical in sound or spelling, or in both.

Homophone ---- when two words are identical in sound, e.g. rain-reign, night/knight, …

Homogragh ---- when two words are identical in spelling, e.g. tear(n.)-tear(v.), lead(n.)-lead(v.), …

Complete homonym---- when two words are identical in both sound and spelling, e.g. ball, bank, watch, scale, fast, …

Note:

A polysemic word is the result of the evolution of the primary meaning of the word (the etymology of the word); while complete homonyms are often brought into being by coincidence.

Hyponymy

Hyponymy----the sense relation between a more general, more inclusive word and a more specific word.

Superordinate: the word which is more general in meaning.

Hyponyms: the word which is more specific in meaning.

Co-hyponyms: hyponyms of the same superordinate.

Hyponymy

Superordinate: flower Hyponyms: rose, tulip, lily, chrysanthemum, pe

ony, narcissus, …

Superordinate: furniture Hyponyms: bed, table, desk, dresser, wardrobe,

sofa, …

Sense relations between sentences

(1)   X is synonymous with Y (2)   X is inconsistent with Y (3)   X entails Y (4)   X presupposes Y (5)   X is a contradiction (6)   X is semantically anomalous

X is synonymous with Y

X: He was a bachelor all his life.

Y: He never got married all his life.

X: The boy killed the cat.

Y: The cat was killed by the boy.

If X is true, Y is true; if X is false, Y is false.

X is inconsistent with Y

X: He is single. Y: He has a wife.

X: This is my first visit to Beijing. Y: I have been to Beijing twice.

If X is true, Y is false; if X is false, Y is true.

X entails Y

X: John married a blond heiress. Y: John married a blond.

X: Marry has been to Beijing. Y: Marry has been to China.

Entailment is a relation of inclusion. If X entails Y, then the meaning of X is included in Y.

If X is true, Y is necessarily true; if X is false, Y may be true or false.

X presupposes Y

X: His bike needs repairing. Y: He has a bike.

Paul has given up smoking. Paul once smoked.

If X is true, Y must be true; If X is false, Y is still true.

X is a contradiction

*My unmarried sister is married to a bachelor.

*The orphan’s parents are pretty well-off.

X is semantically anomalous

*The man is pregnant.

*The table has bad intentions.

*Sincerity shakes hands with the black apple.

Analysis of meaning

Componential analysis Predication analysis

Componential analysis

Componential analysis---- a way to analyze lexical meaning. The approach is based on the belief that the meaning of a word can be dissected into meaning components, called semantic features. For example,

Man: [+HUMAN, +ADULT, +ANIMATE, +MALE] Boy: [+HUMAN, -ADULT, +ANIMATE, +MALE] Woman: [+HUMAN, +ADULT, +ANIMATE, -MALE] Girl: [+HUMAN, -ADULT, +ANIMATE, -MALE]

Predication analysis

1) The meaning of a sentence is not to be worked out by adding up all the meanings of its component words, e.g “The dog bites the man” is semantically different from “The man bites the dog” though their components are exactly the same.

2) There are two aspects to sentence meaning: grammatical meaning and semantic meaning, e.g.

*Green clouds are sleeping furiously. *Sincerity shook hands with the black apple. Whether a sentence is semantically meaningful is gove

rned by rules called selectional restrictions.

Predication analysis

Predication analysis---- a way to analyze sentence meaning (British G. Leech).

Predication----the abstraction of the meaning of a sentence. A predication consists of argument(s) and predicate.

An argument is a logical participant in a predication, largely identical with the nominal elements in a sentence.

A predicate is something said about an argument or it states the logical relation linking the arguments in a sentence.

Predication analysis According to the number of arguments

contained in a predication, we may classify the predications into the following types:

One-place predication: smoke, grow, rise, run, …

Two-place predication: like, love, save, bite, beat,…

Three-place predication: give, sent, promise, call, …

No-place predication: It is hot.

Predication analysis

Tom smokes. TOM (SMOKE) The tree grows well. TREE (GROW) The kids like apples. KIDS (LIKE) APPLE I sent him a letter. I (SEND) HIM LETTER

Chapter 6 Pragmatics

---- the study of language in use or language communication; the study of the use of context to make inference about meaning.

---- the study of how speakers of a language use sentences to effect successful communication.

Some basic notions in Pragmatics

Context

Pragmatics vs. semantics

Sentence meaning vs. utterance meaning

Correctness vs. appropriateness

Context

Context---- a basic concept in the study of pragmatics. It is generally considered as constituted knowledge shared by the speaker and the hearer, such as cultural background, situation(time, place, manner, etc.), the relationship between the speaker and the hearer, etc.….

Pragmatics vs. semantics

Semantics---- is the study of the literal meaning of a sentence (without taking context into consideration).

Pragmatics---- the study of the intended meaning of a speaker (taking context into consideration), e.g.

“Today is Sunday”, semantically, it means that today is the first day of the week; pragmatically, you can mean a lot by saying this, all depending on the context and the intention of the speaker, say, making a suggestion or giving an invitation…

Sentence meaning vs. utterance meaning

---- Sentence meaning: Abstract and context-independent meaning; literal meaning of a sentence; having a dyadic relation as in: What does X mean?

----utterance meaning: concrete and context-dependent meaning; intended meaning of a speaker; having a triadic relation as in: What did you mean by

X?

For example, “The bag is heavy” can mean

a bag being heavy (sentence meaning); an indirect, polite request, asking the hearer to help

him carry the bag; the speaker is declining someone’s request for help. Note: The meaning of an utterance is based on the

sentence meaning; it is the realization of the abstract meaning of a sentence in a real situation of communication, or simply in a context; utterance meaning is richer than sentence meaning; it is identical with the purpose for which the speaker utters the sentence.

Correctness vs. appropriateness *“John play golf”---- grammatically incorrect;

?“Golf played John” ---- logically incorrect; but it might be appropriate pragmatically in certain context.

Note: Pragmatics can make sense out of nonsense, given a suitable context. Appropriateness is very important in linguistic communication, especially in cross-cultural communication. If you say something grammatically incorrect, you are at worse condemned as “speaking badly”, but, if you say something inappropriately, you will be judged as “behaving badly”, such as insincere, untruthful, or deceitful. (Thomas, 1983)

Speech act theory

Speech acts is a term derived from the work of the philosopher J. L. Austin (1962) and now used to refer to a theory which analyzes the role of utterances in relation to the behavior of the speaker and the hearer in interpersonal communication. It aims to answer the question “What do we do when using language?”

Two types of utterances

Constatives ( 叙述句 ) ---- statements that either state or describe, and are thus verifiable;

Performatives ( 施为句 ) ---- sentences that do not state a fact or describe a state, and are not verifiable.

Note: Sometimes they are easy to get confused, e.g.“It is raining outside” can be a constative, and also a performative, for by uttering such a sentence, we may not only state a fact, but involve in the act of informing someone about the rain.

Some Examples of Performatives

“I do” “I name this ship Elizabeth.” “I give and bequeath my watch to my brother.” “I bet you sixpence it will rain tomorrow.” “I declare the meeting open.”

Austin’s new model of speech acts

----According to Austin’s new model, a speaker might be performing three acts simultaneously when speaking: locutionary act, illocutionary act and perlocutionary act.

The locutionary act----an act of saying something, i.e. an act of making a meaningful utterance (literal meaning of an utterance);

The illocutionary act----an act performed in saying something: in saying X, I was doing Y (the intention of the speaker while speaking).

The perlocutionary act----an act performed as a result of saying something: by saying X and doing Y, I did Z.

For example,“It is cold in here.”

Its locutionary act is the saying of it with its literal meaning the weather is clod in here;

Its illocutionary act can be a request of the hear to shut the window;

Its perlocutionary act can be the hearer’s shutting the window or his refusal to comply with the request.

----Analyze one more example: “You have left the door wide open.”

Note: Of the three acts, what speech act theory is most concerned with is the illocutionary act. It attempts to account for the ways by which speakers can mean more than what they say.

Analyze the illocutionary acts of the following conversation between a couple:

----(the telephone rings)

----H: That’ the phone. (1)

----W: I’m in the bathroom. (2)

----H: Okay. (3) This seemingly incoherent conversation goes on successfully

because the speakers understand each other’s illocutionary acts:

(1)   Making a request of his wife to go and answer the phone. (2)   A refusal to comply with the request; issuing a request of

her husband to answer the phone instead. (3) Accepting the wife’s refusal and accepting her request,

meaning “all right, I’ll answer it.”

Searle’s classification of speech acts (1969)

Assertives/representatives( 陈述 ) Directives( 指令 ) Commissives( 承诺 ) Expressives( 表达 ) Declarations( 宣布 )

Assertives/representatives

---- Stating or describing, saying what the speaker believes to be true, e.g.

I think the film is moving. I’m certain I have never seen the man before. I solemnly swear that he had got it.

…

Directives

---- Trying to get the hearer to do something, e.g.

I order you to leave right now. Open the window, please. Your money or your life!

…

Commissives

---- Committing the speaker himself to some future course of action, e.g.

I promise to come. I will bring you the book tomorrow

without fail.

…

Expressives

----Expressing the speaker’s psychological state about something, e.g.

I’m sorry for being late. I apologize for the sufferings that the war

has caused to your people.

…

Declarations

----Bringing about an immediate change in the existing state or affairs, e.g.

I now appoint you chairman of the committee.

You are fired. I now declare the meeting open.

…

Note: (1) All the acts that belong to the same category share the same purpose but differ in their strength or force, e.g.

I guess / am sure / swear he is the murderer. Note: (2) In order to get someone open the

door, we can choose one from a variety of the forms in below:

Could you open the door, please!

Can you open the door!

Do you mind opening the door?

Open the door!

The door please!

Principle of conversation (Paul Grice)

Cooperative principle (CP)---- According to Grice, in making conversation, there is a general principle which all participants are expected to observe. It goes as follows:

Make your conversational contribution such as required at the stage at which it occurs by the accepted purpose or direction of the talk exchange in which you are engaged.

Four maxims of CP The maxim of quality

----Do not say what you believe to be false.----Do not say that for which you lack adequate evidence. The maxim of quantity----Make your contribution as informative as required for the

current purpose of the exchange.----Do not make your contribution more informative than is

required. The maxim of relation----Be relevant ( make your contribution relevant). The maxim of manner----Avoid obscurity of expression.----Avoid ambiguity.----Be brief.----Be orderly.

Conversational implicature

In real communication, however, speakers do not always observe these maxims strictly. These maxims can be violated for various reasons. When any of the maxims is blantantly violated, i.e. both the speaker and the hearer are aware of the violation, our language becomes indirect, then conversational implicature arises.

Violation of Maxim of quality

----A: Would you like to go movie with me tonight?----B: The final exam is approaching. I’m afraid I have to

prepare for it.

----A: would you like to come to our party tonight?----B: I’m afraid I’m not feeling so well tonight.

----A: Who was that lady I saw you with last night?----B: That was no lady, that was my wife.

Violation of maxim of quantity

At a party a young man introduces himself by saying “I’m Robert Sampson from Leeds, 28, unmarried…”

“War is war.” “Girls are girls.”

----A:When is Susan’s farewell party?

----B:Sometime next month.

Violation of maxim of relation

----A: How did the math exam go today, Jonnie?----B: We had a basketball match with class 2 and

we beat them.

----A: The hostess is an awful bore.----B: The roses in the garden are beautiful, aren’t

they?

----A: What time is it?----B: The postman has just arrived.

Violation of maxim of manner

----A: Shall we get something for the kids?

----B: Yes. But I veto I-C-E-C-R-E-A-M.

Politeness principle (Leech)

Chapter 7 Language change

Sound change Morphological and syntactic change Vocabulary change

Morphological and syntactic change

Change in “agreement” rule Change in negation ruleProcess of simplificationLoss of inflections

Vocabulary change

Addition of new words Loss of words Changes in the meaning of words

Addition of new words

coinage( 创新词 ) clipped words( 缩略词 ) blending( 紧缩法 ) acronyms( 词首字母缩略词 ) back-formation( 逆构词法 ) functional shift borrowing

Coinage

----A new word can be coined outright to fit some purpose, e.g.

walkman Kodak Xerox Ford Benz Toyota

Clipped words

----The abbreviation of longer words or phrases, e.g.

gym—gymnasiummemo—memorandumdisco—discothequefridge—refrigerator

Blending

----A blend is a word formed by combining parts of other words, e.g.

smog—smoke + fogmotel—motor + hotelcamcorder—camera + recorder

Acronyms

----Acronyms are words derived from the initials of several words, e.g.

CBS---- Columbia Broad casting system

ISBN----International Standard Book Number

WTO WHO PLA AIDS UNESCO APEC OPEC CAD SARS

Back-formation

----New words may be coined from already existing words by “subtracting” an affix thought to be part of the old word.

edit editorhawk hawkerbeg beggarbaby-sit baby-sitter

Functional shift

----Words may shift from one part of speech to another without the addition of affixes, e.g.

Noun verb: to knee, to bug, to tape, to brake… Verb noun: a hold, a flyby, a reject, a retreat… Adj. verb: to cool, to narrow, to dim, to slow… Adj. noun: a daily, a Christian, the rich, the

impossible…

Borrowing

----When different cultures come into contact, words are often borrowed from one language to another. The following are some of the loan words in English (see more in P100-101).

Latin bonus education exit German beer waltz quartz Chinese tea kowtow sampan Russian sputnik commissar vodka Arabic zero algebra alcohol

Loss of words Words can be lost from a language as time go

es by. The following words, taken from Romeo and Juliet, have faded out of the English language.

Beseem to be suitable Wot to know Gyve a fetter Wherefore why

Changes in the meaning of words

Widening of meaning Narrowing of meaning Meaning shift

Widening of meaning

Holiday: [+specific] holy day

[+general] any rest day

Tail: [+specific] tail of a horse

[+general] tail of any animal

Narrowing of meaning hound: any dog a special kind of dog girl: young person of either sex young people of female sex deer: any animal a particular kind of animal meat: food edible part of an animal corn: grain a particular grain

Meaning shift

inn: a small, old hotel or pub well-known, nice hotel nice: ignorant (1000 years ago) good, fine lust: pleasure with negative and sexual overtones silly: happy naïve, foolish

Some recent trends

Moving towards greater informality

The influence of American English

The influence of science and technology

The influence of science and technology

Space travelComputer and internet languageEcology

Causes of the language change

The rapid development of science and technology; More and more women have taken up activities

formerly reserved for men, more neutral job titles have been created;

“ Economy of memory” results in grammar simplification;

Regularization of exceptional plural forms provides another example for analogical change.

Chapter 8 Language and society

Sociolinguistics ---- a sub-field of linguists that studies the relation between language and society, between the uses of language and the social structures in which the users of language live.

The relatedness between language and society

----There are many indications of the inter-relationship between language and society.

Language is often used to establish and maintain social relationships. (e.g. greeting)

The use of language is in part determined by the user’s social background. (social class, age, sex, education level, etc.)

Language, especially the structure of its lexicon, reflects both the physical and the social environments of a society. (“snow” for Eskimo)

As a social phenomenon language is closely related to the structure of the society in which it is used, the evaluation of a linguistic form is entirely social ( the postvocalic [r] ).

Speech community and speech variety

Speech community ---- the social group that is singled out for any special sociolinguistic study is called the speech community.

Speech variety or language variety---- any distinguishable form of speech used by a speaker or a group of speakers. In sociolinguistic study three types of speech variety are of special interest, i.e. regional dialects, sociolects and registers.

Two approaches to sociolinguistic studies

Macro sociolinguistics, i.e. a bird’s-eye view of the languages used in society;

Micro sociolinguistics, i.e. a worm’s-eye view of language in use.

Varieties of language Dialectal varieties Register Degree of formality

Dialectal varieties Regional dialect is a linguistic variety used by people living in the

same geographical region(e.g. Br.E. & Am.E.). Sociolect is a linguistic variety characteristic of a particular social

class. (e.g. Received Pronunciation) Language and gender (e.g. intonation, lexicon) Language and age (Lexical difference: icebox---- fridge, wireles

s----boombox) Idiolect---- a personal dialect of an individual speaker that combi

nes elements regarding regional, social, gender, and age variations(e.g. Hemingway, Luxun).

Ethnic dialect----a social dialect of a language that cuts across regional differences; it is mainly spoken by a less privileged population that has experienced some form of social isolation such as racial discrimination or segregation (e.g. Black English).

Register Register, in a restricted sense, refers to the varie

ty of language related to one’s occupation. In a broader sense, according to Halliday, “langu

age varies as its function varies; it differs in different situations.” The type of language which is selected as appropriate to the type of situation is a register.

Halliday further distinguishes three social variables that determine the register: field of discourse, tenor of discourse, mode of discourse.

Three social variables Field of discourse: what is going on: to the area of

operation of the language activity. It is concerned with the purpose (why) and subject matter (about what) of communication. It can be either technical or non-technical.)

Tenor of discourse: the role of relationship in the situation in question: who are the participants in the communication and in what relationship they stand to each other. (customer-shop-assistant, teacher-student, etc.)

Mode of discourse: the means of communication. It is concerned with how communication is carried out. (oral, written, on the line…)

Degree of formality ----Five stages of formality (Martin Joos) Intimate: Up you go, chaps! Casual: Time you all went upstairs now. Consultative: Would you mind going upstairs right awa

y, please? Formal: Visitors should go up the stairs at once. Frozen: Visitors would make their way at once to the u

pper floor by way of the staircase. ----Note: Different styles of the same language can be ch

aracterized through differences at three levels: syntactic, lexical and phonological(P121).

Standard dialect

The standard variety is a superimposed, socially prestigious dialect of a language. It is the language employed by the government and the judiciary system, used by the mass media, and taught in educational institutions, including school settings where the language is taught as a foreign or second language.

Pidgin and Creole

A pidgin is a special language variety that mixes or blends languages and it is used by people who speak different languages for restricted purposes such as trading.

When a pidgin has become the primary language of a speech community, and is acquired by the children of that speech community as their native language, it is said to have become a Creole.

Bilingualism and Diglossia In some speech communities, two languages are used

side by side with each having a different role to play; and language switching occurs when the situation changes. This constitutes the situation of Bilingualism.

According to Ferguson (1959), diglossia refers to a sociolinguistic situation similar to bilingualism. But in stead of two different languages, in a diglossia situation two varieties of a language exist side by side throughout the community, with each having a definite role to play.

Chapter 9 Language and culture

What is culture?

In a broad sense, culture means the total way of life of a people, including the patterns of belief, customs, objects, institutions, techniques, and language that characterizes the life of the human community.

In a narrow sense, culture may refer to local or specific practice, beliefs or customs, which can be mostly found in folk culture, enterprise culture or food culture, etc.

There are generally two types of culture: material and spiritual.

The relationship between language and culture

The same word may stir up different associations in people under different cultural background, e.g. the word “dog”.

Language expresses cultural reality, reflects the people’s attitudes, beliefs, world outlooks, etc.

The culture both emancipates and constrains people socially, historically and metaphorically.

Culture also affects its people’s imagination or common dreams which are mediated through the language and reflected in their life.

On the one hand, language as an integral part of human being, permeates in his thinking and way of viewing the world, language both expresses and embodies cultural reality; on the other, language, as a product of culture, helps perpetuate the culture, and the changes in language uses reflect the cultural changes in return.

Sapir-Whorf hypothesis

Edward Sapir and Benjamin Whorf, proclaimed that the structure of the language people habitually use influences the ways they think and behave, i.e. different languages offer people different ways of expressing the world around, they think and speak differently, this is also known as linguistic relativity.

Sapir and Whorf believe that language filters people’s perception and the way they categorize experiences. This interdependence of language and thought is now known as Sapir-Whorf Hypothesis.

Strong version & weak version Strong version believes that the language patterns

determine people’s thinking and behavior; Weak version holds that the former influence the

latter. ----The study of the linguistic relativity or SWH has shed

two important insights: There is nowadays a recognition that language, as

code, reflects cultural preoccupations and constrains the way people think.

More than in Whorf’s days, however, we recognize how important context is in complementing the meanings encoded in the language.

Linguistic evidence of cultural differences

Denotative meaning ---- a meaning that can be found in a dictionary.

Connotative meaning ---- a meaning or idea suggested by a word or thing in addition to the formal meaning or nature of the word or thing.

Iconic meaning ---- the image or icon invoked in mind by a word.

For example, “rose”.

Some cultural differences in language use

Greetings and terms of address Thanks and compliments Color words Privacy and taboos Rounding off numbers Words and cultural-specific connotations Cultural-related idioms, proverbs and metaphor

The significance of cultural teaching and learning

Learning a foreign language is inseparable from learning its culture.

We need to learn enough about the language’s culture so that we can communicate in the target language properly to achieve not only the linguistic competence but also the pragmatic or communicative competence as well.

Cultural overlap

Cultural overlap refers to the identical part of culture between two societies owing to some similarities in the natural environment and psychology of human beings. For example, the superior tends to refer to himself or herself by means of kinship terms, such as

“Have daddy/mummy/teacher told you that?”

Cultural diffusion Through communication, some elements of culture A

enter culture B and become part of culture B, this phenomenon is known as cultural diffusion.

One typical example of cultural diffusion is the appearance of loan words.

The practice of observing holidays of foreign origins and accepting concepts from other cultures.

The attitude towards cultural diffusion (esp. cultural imperialism owing to linguistic imperialism)

Intercultural communication Intercultural or cross-cultural communication is

communication between people from different cultures (their cultural perceptions and symbols systems are distinct enough to alter the communication event.)

In cross-cultural communication, we need to pay special attention to the significant differences regarding social relations and concept of universe from different perspectives such as language, food, dress, attitude towards time, work habits, social behavior and religious belief that can cause frustrations in communications and contacts.

Chapter 10 Language acquisition

Language acquisition----refers to the child’s acquisition of his mother tongue, i.e. how the child comes to understand and speak the language of his community.

Theories of child language acquisition

A behaviorist view of language acquisition (Skinners)

An innatist view of language acquisition (Chomsky)

An interactionist view of language acquisition Cognitive factors in child language developmen

t

A behaviorist view of language acquisition

Traditional behaviorists view language as behavior and believe that language learning is simply a matter of imitation and habit formation.

Imitation Recognition Reinforcement The inadequacy of behaviorist view lies in

explaining how children acquire complex language system. (See examples in P144)

An innatist view of language acquisition

According to the innatist view of language acquisition, human beings are biologically programmed for language and that the language develops in the child just as other biological functions such as walking.

An interactionist view of language acquisition

The interactionist view holds that language develops as a result of the complex interplay between the human characteristics of the child and the environment in which the child develops. Integrated with the innatist view, the interactionist further claims that the modified language which is suitable for the child’s capability is crucial in his language acquisition. (motherese)

Cognitive factors in child language development

1)      Language development is dependent on both the concepts children form about the world and what they feel stimulated to communicate at the early and later stages of their language development. (the acquisition of perfect tense and the concept of present relevance)

2)      The cognitive factors determine how the child makes sense of the linguistic system himself instead of what meanings the child perceives and expresses. (the acquisition of negative form)

Language environment & the critical period hypothesis

Two important factors: the linguistic environment children are exposed to and the age they start to learn the language.

In behaviorist approach, language environment plays a major role in providing both language models to be imitated and necessary feedbacks.

The innatist view emphasizes more on children’s internal processing of the language items to be learnt. The environment functions as a stimulus that triggers and activates the pre-equipped UG to process the materials provided by the linguistic environment around the children.

The interactionist view calls for the quality of the language samples available in the linguistic environment, only when the language is modified and adjusted to the level of children’s comprehension, do they process and internalize the language items.

Critical Period Hypothesis (CPH)

---- Eric Lenneberg argues that the LAD, like other biological functions, works successfully only when it is stimulated at the right time ---- a specific and limited time period for language acquisition.

The strong version of CPH suggests that children must acquire their first language by puberty or they will never be able to learn from subsequent exposure.

The weak version holds that language learning will be more difficult and incomplete after puberty. (Support in Victor’s and Genie’s cases)

Stages in child language development

Phonological development Vocabulary development 1) Under-extension 2) Over-extension 3) Prototype theory Grammatical development 1) Telegraphic speech (2) 2) Sentences of three main elements (2.5) Pragmatic development

Atypical development

Atypical or abnormal language development occurs due to trauma or injury. Atypical language development includes:

Hearing impairment Mental retardation autism stuttering Aphasia Dyslexia and dysgraphia

Chapter 11 Second Language Acquisition

Second Language Acquisition ---- formally established itself as a discipline around the 1970s, refers to the systematic study of how one person acquires a second language subsequent to his native language.

Distinguish second language & foreign language

Connections between first language acquisition and second language

acquisition The first language study has served as a backcl

oth for perceiving and understanding new facts about second language learning (Littlewood, 1986).

SLA is different from first language acquisition. Interlanguage

Contrastive analysis (CA) (1960s)

Positive transfer----facilitate target language learning Negative transfer----interfere or hinder target language

learning It is believed that differences between the native

language and the target language would pose difficulties in second/foreign language learning and teaching, e.g.

*To touch the society . *There are more people come to study in the states. *I wait you at the gate of the school.

Shortcomings of CA

The CA was soon found problematic, for many of the predictions of the target language learning difficulty formulated on the basis of contrastive analysis turned out to be either uninformative or inaccurate. Predicted errors did not materialize in learner language while errors did show up that the contrastive analysis had not predicted. “differences” and “difficulties” are not identical concepts.

Error analysis (EA)

The contrastive approach to learners’ errors has shed new light on people’s attitudes: the errors are significant in telling the teacher what needs to be taught, in telling the researcher how learning proceeds and those errors are a means whereby learners test their hypotheses about the language to be learnt.

Two main sorts of errors: Interlingual errors & intralingual errors

Interlingual errors

----Interlingual errors mainly result from cross-linguistic interference at different levels such as phonological, lexical, grammatical or discoursal etc. For examples,

a. Substitution of [t] for [W] and [d] for [T]: threetree, thisdis.

b. Shortening of long vowels: sheepship, meetmit

Intralingual errors

----The intralingual errors mainly from faulty or partial learning of the target language, independent of the native language.

Two types of errors have been well exploited:

overgeneralization & cross-association

Overgeneralization

Overgeneralization ---- the use of previously available strategies in new situations.

Walked, watched, washed…

*rided, *goed, *doed, *eated… Jane advise me to give up smoking.

Jane told me to give up smoking.

*Jane hoped me to give up smoking.

*Jane suggested me to give up smoking.

Cross-association

Cross-association refers to the phenomenon that the close association of the two similar words often leads to confusion, e.g.

Other/another, much/many, stalagmite/stalactite… It may also occurs at all levels of language from

phonological to syntactic, e.g.

The coffee is too hot to drink.

*The apricot is too sour to eat it.

Errors & mistakes

Errors ---- unintentionally deviant from the target language and not self-corrigible by the learner (failure in competence) ；

Mistakes ---- either intentionally or unintentionally deviant forms and self-corrigible (failure in performance).

Interlanguage (S. Pit Corder & Larry Selinker)

Interlangauge ---- learners’ independent system of the second language which is of neither the native language nor the second language, but a continuum or approximation from his native language to the target language.

What learners produce, correct or wrong, are evidence or the approximation from their first language to the target language.

Characteristics of interlanguage

Interlanguage has three important characteristics: systematicity, permeability and fossilization.

Fossilization---- a process occurring from time to time in which incorrect linguistic features become a permanent part of the way a person speaks or writes a language.

The role of native language in 2nd language learning

Language transfer: positive & negative (behaviorism) Mentalists argued that few errors were caused by

language transfer; transfer is not transfer, but a kind of mental process.

Three interacting factors in determining language transfer:

A learner’s psychology Perception of native-target language distance Actual knowledge of the target language

2nd language learning models and input hypothesis

Behaviorism model emphasizes the role of imitation and positive reinforcement, a “nurture” position;

The mentalists or the innativists shift to a “nature” position by stressing that human beings equipped innately with language acquisition device, are capable of language learning provided with adequate language input.

The social interactionists argue that language and social interaction cannot be separated.

Krashen’s Input Hypothesis

Krashen make a distinction between acquisition & learning.

He put forward that learners advance their language learning gradually by receiving comprehensible input.

He defined comprehensible input as “i + 1” : “i” represents learners’ current state of knowledge, the

next stage is an “i + 1”. Krashen mistook input and intake, thus receive criticis

m.

Individual differences

Language aptitude Motivation Learning strategies Age of acquisition Personality

Language aptitude

Language aptitude refers to a natural ability for learning a second language. It is believed to be related to a learner’s general intelligence. John Carroll identified some components of language aptitude:

Phonemic coding ability Grammatical sensitivity Inductive language learning ability Rote learning ability

Motivation

Motivation can be defined as the learner’s attitudes and affective state or learning drive. It has a strong impact on his efforts in learning a second language. Generally four types of motivations have been identified:

Instrumental motivation Integrative motivation Resultative motivation Intrinsic motivation

Learning strategies Learning strategies are learners’ conscious, goal-orien

ted and problem-solving based efforts to achieve learning efficiency. According to Chamot (1986) & Oxford (1990), three types of strategies have been identified:

Cognitive strategies ---- analyzing,synthesis and internalizing what has been learned.

Metacognitive strategies ---- planning, monitoring and evaluating one’s learning.

Affect/social strategies ---- the ways learners interact with other speakers.

Cohen (1998) further distinguishes language learning strategies and language using strategies.

Age of acquisition

The Critical Period Hypothesis

Recent studies support the hypothesis that in terms of learning achievement and grammaticality the younger learners outperform the adults.

Personality

In terms of communicative ability rather than grammatical accuracy or knowledge of grammatical rules, the personality traits such as extroversion, talkative, self-esteem, self-confidence can be found in successful second language learners ( as in the case of Liyang: Crazy English).

SLA & its pedagogical implications

Chapter 12 Language and Brain