Generl linguistics2.ppt

General linguistics: The Scope of the Subject 王文超 100111008 杨 扬 100111006 General linguistics General linguistics may be defined as the science of language. As with other branches of knowledge and scientific study, such a definition involves the subject in certain relation with other disciplines and sciences outside itself, and in subdivision into different branches of the subject comprised within it. The most important and immediate subdivisions of the subject are descriptive linguistics, historical linguistics, and comparative linguistics. Descriptive linguistics Descriptive linguistics, as its title suggests, is concerned with the description and analysis of the ways in which a language operates and is used by a given set of speakers at a given time. 描写语言学，顾名思义，就是描写和分析一个特定语言社团在一个特定时期使用语言的方式以及语言起作用的方式。 Historical linguistics Historical linguistics is the study of the developments in languages in the course of time, of the ways in which languages change from period to period, and of the causes and results of such changes, both outside the languages and within them. 历史语言学研究语言在一个时间序列中的发展，研究语言从一个历史时期到另一个历史时期的变化方式，研究这些变化在语言内部和外部的因果要素。 Comparative linguistics In comparative linguistics one is concerned with comparing from one or more points of view (and the possibilities of this are very wide) two or more different languages, and, more generally, with the theory and techniques applicable to such comparisons. 在比较语言学中，人们关注的是从一个或多个视角（这样的可能性是非常广泛的）将两种或更多的不同语言进行比较，更一般地说，人们关注这种比较适用的理论和技术。 Language as a science In saying that linguistics is a science in the stricter sense, one is saying that it deals with a specific body of material, namely spoken and written language, and that it proceeds by operations that can be publicly communicated and described, and justified by reference to statable principles and to a theory capable of formulation. 3 canons of science Exhaustiveness(穷尽性), the adequate treatment of all the relevant material. Consistency(一致性),the absence of c