1、1现代语言学考试复习要点1. Definition of language Language is a system of arbitrary(随意的) vocal symbols used for human communication.2. microlinguistics and macrolinguisticsmicrolinguistics: is concerned with the study of language or languages per se, not concern other field of study such as sociology, psycholog
2、y, literature, computer science, etc.Macrolinguistics:is concerned with the study of language which involves other discipline (interdisciplinary) sociolinguistics: Psycholinguistics: Applied linguistics: 3 langue and parole(语言和言语) 由 Swiss linguist F. de Saussure 提出的Langue refers to the abstract ling
3、uistic system shared by all the members of a speech community.(conventions and rules; abstract; relatively stable;)Parole refers to the realization of a langue in actual use.(the concrete use of the conventions and rules; concrete, refers to the naturally occurring language events; varies from perso
4、n to person, situation to situation)区别的目的：parole is simple a mass of linguistic facts, too varied and confusing for systematic investigation and what linguists should do is to abstract langue from parole(发现规律)。4competence and performance(能力和运用)：American linguist A. Chomsky proposed in the late 1950s
5、.Competence: the ideal users knowledge of the rules of his languagePerformance: the actual realization of this knowledge in linguistic communication.犯错误的原因是：though internalized, but with social and psychological factors such as stress, anxiety and embarrassment. .5prescriptive VS descriptive(规定性和描述性
6、):descriptive: describes and analyses the language people actually use, / descriptive is a distinctive feature in modern linguistic studies. prescriptive: aims to lay down rules for correct behaviour(what 2should say or not say, grammar and usage), 18th century prescriptive approach to prescribe a s
7、et of rules for the native speakers to learn to follow, but it played an important role in the standardisation of the English language. 6 synchronic vs diachronic（共时性和历时性）：Synchronic: the description of a language at some point in time / is focused on a particular phase, usually the current phase, o
8、f the development of the language, paying little attention to its relation to the prior phases in its history of development. Linguistic studies today are usually synchronic in nature. Diachronic: the description of a language as it changes through time(historical or evolutionary study of language),
9、 known as historical linguistics. Linguistic studies in the 19th century were usually classified as studies of Historical Linguistics.7 speech vs writing(口语和书面语)Modern linguistics gives priority to the spoken form of language, which is considered as more basic than the written form for a number of r
10、easons-speech precedes writing; more spoken language; spoken language for a wider purpose and larger load of communication.8. Deep structure and surface structureDeep structure: the abstract syntactic representation of a sentence. It is believed that phrase structure rules, with the insertion of the
11、 lexicon, generate sentences at the level of deep structure. Surface structure: the directly observable syntactic form of the sentence. The application of transformational rules transforms a sentence from the level of deep structure to that of surface structure. 9. Universal GrammarA theory which cl
12、aims to account for the grammatical competence of every adult no matter what language he or she speaks. It claims that every speaker knows a set of principles (原理)which apply to all languages and also a set of Parameters(参量)that can vary from one language to another, but only within certain limits.
13、According to UG theory, acquiring a language means applying the principles of UG to a particular language and learning which value is appropriate for each parameter. 10. The naming theory(命名论):3According to this theory, the linguistic forms or symbols, in other words, the words used in a language ar
14、e taken to be labels of the objects they stand for.11The conceptualist view（意念观）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 m
15、ediation of concepts in the mind. 12 Contextualism （语境论）Contextualism is based on the presumption that one can derive meaning from observable contexts: situational context and the linguistic context.(1) Situational context: Every utterance occurs in a particular spatiotemporal situation, the main co
16、mponents of which include, apart from the place and time of the utterance, the speaker and the hearer, the actions they are performing at the time, the various objects and events existent in the situation.e.g. Do you know the meaning of war?a. It may mean Do you know the meaning of the word war? ,wh
17、en said by a language teacher to a class of students.b. It may mean War produces death, injury and suffering, when said by an injured soldier to a politician who favours war.(2) Linguistic context: is concerned with the probability of a words collocation with another word, which forms part of the “m
18、eaning of the word, i.e. its collocative meaning, and also with the part of text that precedes and follows a particular utterance.Collocative meaning: Black hair,/ black coffee(浓咖啡)Text position: The seal could not be found. The zoo keeper became worried.The seal could not be found,. The king became
19、 worried.13. Sense(系统意义) and reference（所指意义）(1) Sense: It refers to the meaning that lies in the relation or the lexical contrasts among linguistic forms themselves. It is concerned with all the features of the linguistic form; it is the collection of all the features of the linguistic form; it is 4
20、abstract and de-contextualized. It is the aspect of meaning dictionary compilers are interested in. For example: The word dog is given the definition -A domesticated carnivorous mammal (Canis familiaris) related to the foxes and wolves and raised in a wide variety of breeds. This does not refer to a
21、ny particular dog that exists in the real world, but apply to any animal that meets the features described in the definition. So this is the sense of the word dog. Sense is intra-linguistic in nature.系统意义是指附加意义，涉及语言内部关系，一个词的系统意义通过语别的词的对照关系表现出来。(2) Reference: It refers to the meaning that resides in
22、the relation between linguistic forms and 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. For example: if we say the dog is barking, we must be talking about a certain dog in the si
23、tuation, the word dog refers to a dog known both to the speaker and the listener. This is the reference of the word dog in this particular situation. Referential meaning is extra-linguistic in nature, because its interpretation depends on non-linguistic context.所指意义是指词和句子的语言成分跟外部世界的关系。14. Sentence m
24、eaningGrammatical meaning: refers to its grammaticality, i.e. its grammatical well-formedness.( The dog are chasing the cat.not grammatically well-formed)Semantical meaning: Whether a sentence is semantically meaningful is governed by rules called selectional restrictions ,i.e., constraints on what
25、lexical items can go with what others.(有些句子语法正确，但语义上不正确)Green clouds are sleeping furiously.Sincerity shook hands with the black apple.So in both sentences some selectional restrictions have been violated.15. Pragmatics VS. semanticsAs pragmatics and semantics are both linguistic studies of meaning,
26、 then how are they related and how do they differ?For example, with the word dog semanticists were happy with the definition a domesticated, canine mammal. With the sentence The dog is barking ,they would be happy to explain its meaning as the predication consisting of an argument dog and the predic
27、ate bark.-Dog(bark). However, pragmatics would take the context into consideration, interpreting it as a warning of danger or something else.5Therefore, what essentially distinguishes semantics and pragmatics is whether in the study of meaning the context of use is considered. If it is not considere
28、d, the study is restricted to the area of traditional semantics; if it is considered, the study is being carried out in the area of pragmatics.16. Sentence meaning VS. utterance(话语) meaningIf we think of a sentence as what people actually utter in the course of communication, it becomes an utterance
29、, and it should be considered in the situation in which it is actually uttered or used.( the meaning of sentence is abstract and decontextualized, that of an utterance is concrete and context-dependent, based on sentence meaning. It is the realisation of the abstrat meaning of a sentence in a real s
30、ituation or context. For example, The dog is barking may be a sentence or utterance. Take it as grammatical unit and a self-contained unit in isolation, then we treat it as a sentence. If we take it as something a speaker utters in a certain situation with a certain purpose (a burglar broke in ), th
31、en we treat it as utterance.17. Austins theory: a speaker might be performing three acts simultaneously when speaking: locutionary act (言内行为)、illocutionary act (言外行为)and perlocutionary act (言后行为)。(1) A locutionary act is the act of uttering words, phrases, clauses. It is the act of conveying literal
32、 meaning by means of syntax, lexicon and phonology.An illocutionary act is the act of expressing the speakers intention; it is the act performed in saying something.A perlocutionary act is the act performed by or resulting from saying something; it is the consequence of, or the change brought about
33、by the utterance.例句：You have left the door wide open.Locutionary act: uttered the words and expressed what the words literally mean.Illocutionary act: expressed his intention of speaking-asking someone to close the door.Perlocutionary act: if the hearer gets the message and sees the speaker means to
34、 ask someone to close the door, the speaker has successfully brought about the change in the real world.18. Principle of conversation Paul Grices Cooperative principle (CP): In making conversation, the participants must first of all be willing to cooperate, otherwise, it would not be possible for th
35、em to carry on the talk. Four maxims:(1)The maxim of quantity(数量准则)：6(2)The maxim of quality（质量准则）：(3)The maxim of relevance( 关联准则)：(4)The maxim of manner( 方式准则)：19. Discourse : Discourse refers to large units of language such as paragraphs, conversations, and interviews. 20. Discourse Analysis: the
36、 study of how sentences in spoken and written language form large meaningful units such as paragraphs, conversations , interviews, etc. 21. Schema Theory Schema theory is used to describe the interaction between the knowledge of the world and a text or discourse. Schemas come from our previous exper
37、ience with the world, either through living experience or through formal/informal education. 22. Standard and nonstandard languageThe standard language is the variety of a language which has the highest status in a community or nation and which is usually based on the speech and writing of educated
38、native speakers of the language. It is the language employed by the government and the judiciary system, used by the mass media and in literature , described in dictionary and grammar, and taught in educational institutions and taught to non-native speakers when they learn the language as a foreign
39、language. Language varieties other than the standard are called nonstandard, or vernacular , languages(本地话)。23. Diglossia (双言现象) and bilingualism（双语现象）Diglossia(双言现象)It usually describes a situation in which two very different varieties of language co-exist in a speech community. One is more standar
40、d variety called the high variety, for more formal or serious matters (gov. media. Church), and the other called low variety, for colloquial and other informal situations (family, friend servant, waiters, workmen).Bilingualism(双语现象)Bilingualism refers to a linguistic situation in which two standard
41、languages 7are used either by an individual or by a group of speakers.24. The critical period for language acquisitionCritical period hypothesis refers to a period in ones life extending from about age two to puberty（青春期）, during which the human brain is most ready to acquire a particular language a
42、nd language learning can proceed easily, swiftly, and without explicit instruction.25. Acquisition vs learningAccording to Krashen, acquisition refers to the gradual and subconscious development of ability in the first language by using it naturally in daily communicative situation. Learning is defined as a conscious process of accumulating knowledge of a second language, usually in school setting.A second language is more commonly learned but to some degree may also be acquired, depending on the environmental setting and the input received by the L2 learner.
