新编简明英语语言学教程..docVIP

Chapter 1:Introduction 1.1 What is linguistics? 1.1.1 Definition Linguistics is generally defined as the scientific study of language. It tries to answer the basic questions ???? What is language????? How does language work????? What do all languages have in common? (language universal语言共同性)???? What range of variation(变体) is found among languages? (dialect. Mandarin普通话，accent)???? What makes language change? ???? To what extent are social class differences reflected in language? (sociolinguistics社会语言学)???? How does a child acquire his mother tongue? (language acquisition 语言习得) 1.1.2 The scope of linguistics（语言学研究的范围）branches?????? general linguistics（普通语言学）?????? phonetics（语音学）?????? phonology（音系学）?????? morphology（形态学）?????? syntax（句法学）?????? semantics（语义学）Example:boy: human male young animategirl: human female young animatecomponential analysis 语义成分分析?????? pragmatics（语用学）It is cold here.Please close the door.I want to put on more clothes.I don’t want to stay here.?????? sociolinguistics（社会语言学）?????? psycholinguistics （心理语言学）?????? applied linguistics（应用语言学）broad sense:广义,narrow sense:狭义=language teaching 1.1.3 Some important distinctions in linguistics (语言学中一些重要的概念区分)1.1.3.1 Prescriptive vs. descriptive（规定与描写） If a linguistic study aims to describe and analyze the language people actually use, it is said to be descriptive; If the linguistic study aims to lay down(规定) rules for correct and standard behaviour in using language, i.e. to tell people what they should say and what they should not say, it is said to be prescriptive. ? 1.1.3.2 Synchronic（共时语言学） vs. diachronic（历时语言学） ? ?????? The description of a language at some point of time in history is a synchronic study. ?????? The description of a language as it changes through time is a diachronic study. A diachronic study of language is a historical study; it studies the historical development of language over a period of time. 1.1.3.3 Speech and writing（言语