englishlinguistics英语语言学考研必读.pptVIP

A Course on Linguistics for Students of English--Cheng Zhenquan School of Foreign Studies, SCNU The Goals for this Course To get a scientific view on language; To understand some basic theories on linguistics; To understand the applications of the linguistic theories, especially in the fields of language teaching learning (SLA or TEFL), cross-cultural communication……; To prepare for the future research work. The Requirements for this course Class attendance Classroom discussion Fulfillment of the assignment Examination Reference Books 戴炜栋，何兆熊，(2002)，《新编简明英语语言学教程》，上海外语教育出版社。 胡壮麟，(2001)，《语言学教程》，北京大学出版社。 刘润清，(1995)，《西方语言学流派》，外语教学与研究出版社。 Fromkin,V. R. Rodman, (1998), An Introduction to Language the sixth edition, Orlando, Florida: Holt, Ranehart Winston, Inc. Chapter 1. Introduction 1. What is language? Language can mean what a person says (e.g. bad language, expressions) the way of speaking or writing (e.g. Shakespeare’s language, Luxun’s language) a particular variety or level of speech or writing (e.g. language for special purpose, colloquial language) the abstract system underlying the totality of the speech/writing behavior of a community (e.g. Chinese language, first language) the common features of all human languages (e.g. He studies language) a tool for human communication. (social function) a set of rules. (rule-governed) Sapir’s definition (1921) “Language is a purely human and non-instinctive method of communicating ideas, emotions and desires by means of voluntarily produced symbols.” Hall’s definition (1968) Language is “the institution whereby humans communicate and interact with each other by means of habitually used oral-auditory arbitrary symbols.” Chomsky’s definition (1957) “From now on I will consider language to be a set of (finite or infinite) sentences, each finite in length and constructed out of a finite set of elements.” Language can be generally defined as a system of arbitrary vocal symbols used for human communication.