Chapter 1 Invitations to Linguistics 1.pptVIP

Chapter 1 Invitations to Linguistics a. She could not bear children. b. Visiting relatives can be awful. c. War is war. d. A: “There’s the phone.” B: “I’m in the bathroom.” A: “Ok.” e. Green dreams are sleeping furiously. g. You luck dog. Every dog has its day. He worked like a dog. You can’t teach an old dog new tricks. 狗急跳墙， 狗仗人势， 鸡鸣狗盗， 狼心狗肺， 狗头军师， 狗血喷头 About the course Linguistics is a university course for language majors in their 3rd or 4th year and it involves many fields of research e.g. psychology, sociology, philosophy , so it’s not surprising if you find it difficult at the beginning. It’s a must for language students to learn something about linguistics and very important for those who want to do further study after graduation. The course will be given mainly in English, but in Chinese when necessary. A list of reference books: 1. 胡壮麟, 《语言学教程》 第三版 , 2007，北京：北京大学出版社。 2. 戴炜栋,《现代英语语言学概论（英语版）上海外语教育出版社。 3. 戴炜栋等，《简明英语语言学教程》（英语版）上海外语教育出版社 4. Stuart C. Poole.《语言学入门》（英语版） 外语教学与 研究出版社 1.??? What is language? 1.1 Definitions of language Language is a tool for human communication. Language is a set of rules. Edward Sapir 1921 “Language is a purely human and non-instinctive method of communicating ideas, emotions, and desires by means of a system of voluntarily produced symbols.” David Crystal 1989 : “The discussion may be summarized by referring to language as human vocal noise or the graphic representation of this noise in writing used systematically and conventionally by a community for purposes of communication.” Language is the most frequently used and most highly developed form of human communication we possess. 语言是音义结合的词汇和语法的体系，是人类最重要的工具，是人类思维的工具，也是社会上传递信息的工具。 ── 王德春 pp.2-3, Hu Zhuanglin Unfortunately, a perfect and satisfactory definition has yet to come. Despite the differences in their views, many linguists have agreed to accept the view that “Language is, in essence, a system of symbols designed for the purpose of human communicati