Lecture 2：What is linguistics？.pptVIP

Lecture Two:What is linguistics? Liao Meizhen 1. Warming-up QuestionsI was wondering how many of you have ever for a moment in your life happened to think of the Questions:1. What if we had no language2. What is language3. Is language important? Is it more important than (less important, as important as) our eyes, hands, ears or legs? 2. Aims of this lecture 1. Get a gist of what linguistic science is and is about. 2. Get aware that language is crucial to human evolution. 3. Get aware that language is crucial to human civilization. 4. Get aware of some traditional and popular views about language. 3. Definitions of linguistics (1) Linguistics is the science of language. (2) Linguistics is generally defined as the scientific study of language.Not any particular language, but language in general.It is concerned with human language as a universal and recognizable part of human behavior and of the human faculties, perhaps one of the most essential to human life as we know it, and one of the most far-reaching of human capabilities in relation to the whole span of mankind’s achievements (R.H. Robins, 1964) (3)《辞海》 研究语言的科学。同哲学、心理学、历史学、文 学和自然科学技术均有密切的联系。分理论语言 学和具体语言学；前者研究人类语言的一般规 律，后者研究具体语言的存在和发展的规律，如 汉语语言学、英语语言学，根据不同的研究目 的，具体语言学又可分为描写语言学和历史语言 学，前者研究语言在某一时期的状态，后者研究 语言的古今演变。 此外，为研究语言实践问题，特别是同通讯科学 技术，机器翻译，语言教学和语言运用等有关的 语言实践问题，又分出应用语言学、数理语言 学、心理语言学和社会语言学等。语言学的内部 分科由语音学、语文学、语法学、语用学等。语 言研究已经有二千多年的历史，中国，印度，希 腊是世界上最早研究语言的国家（1989年版， 第447页） 。 4. The subject matter The subject matter of linguistics comprises all manifestations of human speech, whether that of savages or civilized nations, or of archaic, classical or decadent periods. In each period the linguist must consider not only correct speech and flowery language, but all other forms of expression as well. And that is not all: since he is often unable to observe speech directly, he must consider written texts, for only through them can he reach idioms that are remote in time or space. (de Saussure, 191