英语专业语言学考试.pdfVIP

Chapter1

1．Whatislanguage?

Languageisasystemofarbitraryvocalsymbolsusedforhuman

communication

2.Designfeaturesoflanguage？

a)Arbitrariness:Itreferstothefactthattheformsoflinguisticsignsbearno

naturalrelationshiptotheirmeaning.

b)Duality:thepropertyofhavingtwolevelsofstructures.Suchthatunitsof

theprimarylevelarecomposedofelementsofthesecondarylevelandeach

ofthetwolevelshasitsownprinciplesoforganization

c)Productivity/creativity:Languageisresourcefulbecauseofitsdualityand

recursiveness.Languagehasitspotentialtocreateendlesssentences.

d)Displacement:Humanlanguagesenabletheiruserstosymbolizeobjects,

eventsandconceptswhicharenotpresent(intimeandspace)atthemoment

ofcommunication.

3.Functionsoflanguage

1)Informative:Thespeakersuselanguagetotalkabouttheirthoughts,ideas,

beliefsorwhattheybelieve,theysee,theyhear.

e.g.Waterboilsat212degreeFahrenheit.

2)Interpersonalfunction:peopleuselanguagetoestablishandmaintaintheir

statusinsociety.

e.g.Itincludesformsofaddress,speechfunction,modality,etc.

3)Performative:Languageisusedto“dothings”,toperformactions.

4)Emotivefunction:Itiscrucialinchangingtheemotionalstatusofan

audiencefororagainstsomeoneorsomething.

5)Phaticcommunion:Thespeakerwilluseseeminglymeaningless

expressionstoestablishacomfortablerelationshipbetweenpeoplewithout

involvinganyfactualcontent.

6)Recreationalfunction:Thelanguageisusedforthesheerjoy.

7)Metalingualfunction:Languagecanbeusedtotalkaboutlanguage.

Languageisself-reflexive.

E.g.paraphrase:(orderchange,similarexpressions)

definition:(/a:/isavoweland/b/isaconsonant.)

4.Mainbranches