语言学概论知识点概括.docVIP

Chapter1 介绍 1.1.1Linguistics is generally defined as the scientific study of langue Linguistics studies not any particular language, but in studies of languages in general. It is a scientific study because it is based on the systematic investigation of linguistic data, conducted with reference to some general theory of language structure. 1.1.2The scope of linguistics: 1. the study of language as a whole if often called general linguistics. 2. a number of relatively independent branches：phonetics, phonology, morphology, syntax, semantics, pragmatics. 3. language and society are closely connected and the study of all the social aspects of language and its relation with society form the core of the branch called sociolinguistics.4. psycholinguistics relates the study of language to psychology.5. the study of the applications is generally known as applied linguistics. 1.1.3Some important distinctions in linguistics: 1). prescriptive vs descriptive. 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 rules for”correct and standard” behaviour in using language and to tell people what they should say and should not say, it is said to be prescriptive.Modern linguistics is mostly descriptive. 2) synchronic vs diachronic: 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. 3) speech and writing: speech and writing are the two major media of communication. 4) language and parole: the distinction between language and parole was made by the Swiss linguist F.de Saussure in the early 20th century. Langue and parole are French words. Langue refers to the abstract linguistic system shared by all the members of a speech community and parole refers to the realization of langue in actual use. What linguists should d