英语语言学介绍课件.ppt

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1、Readings,Textbook:The Study of Language,by George Yule.(copy it)Additional readings:Pinker,S.The Language Instinct(available at bookstore),Requirements,Class attendanceTake notes carefullyFinal examinationThe examination will be based on the ppt slides and the textbook.At the end of the whole classe

2、s,I will let you copy this ppt material.,Introduction,I.Some interesting facts about languageII.What is linguistics?III.Why study linguistics?IV.Distinctive features of language V.Basic attributes of language,I.Some Interesting Facts About Language,Number of languages:about 6,809 languages in the wo

3、rld(or about 4,000 8000 languages because its hard to define what counts as a language),about 50%of these are dying out.Most of them do not have a written form.Ten most widely spoken languages:1.Mandarin Chinese 2.Spanish 3.English 4.Bengali 5.Hindi/Urdu 6.Portuguese 7.Russian 8.Japanese 9.German 10

4、.Chinese-Wu,Ten Most Widely Spoken Languages,According to David Crystal The Cambridge Encyclopedia of Language(1987,p.287)mother tongue speakers1.Chinese(Mandarin)2.English 3.Spanish 4.Hindi 5.Arabic 6.Bengali 7.Russian 8.Portuguese 9.Japanese 10.German,Reasons for the Uncertainty over Numbers of la

5、nguage,New discoveries:new people(and therefore languages)continue to be discovered in the unexplored regions of the world(esp.in the Amazon basin,Central Africa,and New Guinea).Alive or dead language?Political decisionsEconomic reasonDiseasesothers,Language and dialect,Language or dialect?Five type

6、s of relationship between dialect and languageType 1community A community Be.g.British Eng.same language American Eng.,Mutually intelligible common cultural history,Type 2community A community Be.g.Englishdifferent languages Hindi Type 3community A community Be.g.Norwegian?Danish,Mutually unintellig

7、ible different cultural history,Mutually intelligible different cultural history,Type 4community A community Be.g.Cantonese Hakka(Chinese)?(Chinese)Type 5 Community A community Be.g.Turkish?Uzbek,Mutually unintelligible same cultural history,Partially(un)intelligible overlapping cultural history,The

8、 number of sentences is infinite.We are able to distinguish grammatical from ungrammatical sentences.We are able to recognize truncated sentences(“Stop it”)that are missing nouns.We are able to recognize ambiguous sentences(“Andrew saw the girl with binoculars”)We can create sentences that paraphras

9、e each other.,What Is Linguistics?,Definitionthe systematic how it works in our minds and in society.,Core fields of linguistics,PhoneticsPhonologyMorphologySyntaxSemanticsPragmatics,Outer fields of linguistics,SociolinguisticsPsycholinguisticsNeurolinguisticsComputational linguisticsHistorical ling

10、uistics,Why study linguistics?,To explore the nature of human languagesFrom studying language,one may have a closer look at human nature.A joke:it is harmless to study linguistics.,What is grammar?,Descriptive grammarDescribes the rules that govern what people do or can say(their“mental grammar”)Pre

11、scriptive grammarPrescribes rules governing what people should/shouldnt say,Prescriptive rules:school grammar,“Dont end a sentence with a preposition!”“Dont split infinitives!”“Dont use double negatives!”,Distinctive features of language,Human language vs.animal communication,We are Uniquely Languag

12、e-Users,Other Animals also CommunicateCats arch their back to scare the neighbor catBees tell each other when they have found foodChimpanzees can be taught to use primitive sign language to communicate desires.,Design features,Charles Hockett(1960):a set of key properties of language not shared or n

13、ot known to be shared as a set,with systems of communication in any other species.Their number and names vary from one account to another;but all include,as among the most important,the properties of duality,arbitrariness and productivity.Characterize language,distinguish it from other communication

14、 systems If a system lacks even one feature,it is communication,not language,7 Design features,DiscretenessDualityArbitrariness Cultural transmissionDisplacementProductivityRecursiveness,Discreteness,Larger,complex messages can be broken down into smaller,discrete parts.Each sound is discrete.e.g.,p

15、at,tapapt,pa t,Duality,Duality enables us to use our language in a very economic way for a virtually infinite production of linguistic units.All human languages have a small,limited set of speech sounds.The limitation derives from the restricted capacity of our vocal apparatus.Linguistically speakin

16、g,the distinctive speech sounds are called phonemes,which are explained in more detail in the chapter on phonology.You cannot use isolated phonemes for communication,because phonemes are by themselves meaningless.But we can assemble and reassemble phonemes into larger linguistic units.These are comm

17、only called words.Although our capacity to produce new phonemes is limited,we frequently coin new words.Hence,our capacity to produce vocabulary is unlimited.,Arbitrariness,There is no(necessary)connection between the form of signal and its meaning e.g.,whale is small word for big animal,microorgani

18、sm is just the reverse,Sound symbolism in names,LilliputBrobdingnag Tarzan,Humpty Dumpty means the shape he is,“My name is Alice,but”“Its a stupid name enough!”Humpty Dumpty interrupted impatiently.“What does it mean?”“Must a name mean something?”Alice asked doubtfully.“Of course it must,”Humpty Dum

19、pty said with a short laugh:“my name means the shape I am-and a good handsome shape it is,too.With a name like yours,you might be any shape,almost.”,Cultural transmission,At least some aspect of communication system is learned from other users e.g.,child of French-speaking parents will learn French,

20、Displacement,Ability to talk about things not present in space or timee.g.,Productivity,Speakers can create infinite number of novel utterances that others can understand.e.g.,“colorless green ideas sleep furiously.”Speakers can create new forms of language according to the language rules.,The child

21、 is presented with a new object:This is a wug:,Now there are two,The Wug Test:,The Walkman Test,This is a man,now there are two_.This is a Walkman,now there are two_.,Creativity:We automatically produce and understand utterances we have never heard before,whether they make sense or not:Seventeen and

22、 one half turtles wearing yellow hats with penguins on them began to simultaneously yodel as I approached the food truck.Put differently:Languages have a finite number of words,from which infinite sentences can be created/understood;its not just about making sense,Recursiveness,I think that John gue

23、sses that Tom believes that Mary suggests thatCan we find larger recursiveness in language?Yes.,Recursiveness in discourse:,从前有座山，山上有个庙，庙里有个老和尚在给一个小和尚讲故事。讲的什么呢？从前有座山，山上有个庙，庙里有个老和尚在给一个小和尚讲故事。讲的什么呢？从前有座山，山上有个庙，庙里有个老和尚在给一个小和尚讲故事。讲的什么呢？从前有座山，山上有个庙，庙里有个老和尚在给一个小和尚讲故事。讲的什么呢？从前有座山，山上有个庙，庙里有个老和尚在给一个小和尚讲故事。讲的

24、什么呢？从前有座山，山上有个庙，庙里有个老和尚在给一个小和尚讲故事。讲的什么呢？从前有座山，山上有个庙，庙里有个老和尚在给一个小和尚讲故事。讲的什么呢？从前有座山，山上有个庙，庙里有个老和尚在给一个小和尚讲故事。讲的什么呢？从前有座山，山上有个庙，庙里有个老和尚在给一个小和尚讲故事。讲的什么呢？从前有座山，山上有个庙，庙里有个老和尚在给一个小和尚讲故事。讲的什么呢？从前有座山，山上有个庙，庙里有个老和尚在给一个小和尚讲故事。讲的什么呢？从前有座山，山上有个庙，庙里有个老和尚在给一个小和尚讲故事。讲的什么呢？从前有座山，山上有个庙，庙里有个老和尚在给一个小和尚讲故事。讲的什么呢？,Aspects

25、 of Language,We are concerned with the objective study of language;not with claims about how language should be made by so-called expertsBy language here we mean roughly the system of principles that account for linguistic expressions;languages that actually exist(or existed)and are used by people,M

26、oreover:Our production and comprehension of complex linguistic utterances is automatic and(typically)effortless.We do not have to think about using language any more than we have to think about walking or about using vision,Oral,Speech primaryHistoryindividualWriting is not always present.Change ref

27、lected slowly in writingSimilar writing system can be used for very different languages,or more than one system for one language.,But written language is also important in any civilized society,If you hear the following language:Shi shi shi shi shi shi,shi shi shi shi,shi shi,shi shi shi shi,shi shi

28、 shi shi shi shi,shi shi shi shi,shi shi,shi shi shi shi,shi shi shi shi shi shi,shi shi shi shi,shi shi,shi shi shi shi,shi shi shi shi shi shi,shi shi shi shi,shi shi,shi shi shi shi,In written language,this make a beautiful little prose,石室诗士施氏，嗜狮，誓食十狮。施氏时时适市视狮。十时，适十狮适市。是时，适施氏适市。氏视是十狮，恃矢势，使是十狮逝世。氏

29、拾是十狮尸，适石室。石室湿，氏使侍拭石室。石室拭，氏始试食是十狮。食时，始识是十狮，实十石狮尸。试释是事。,Universal,Language is universal-every human society ever known has languageUnlike cultural inventions or technology-which vary in complexity from culture to culture-every human society has complex languageThis suggests that humans have a biologic

30、al capacity for language,Easy acquisition,One well-known fact about language:children acquire language easily and without explicit instruction.It should be clear that adults do not have this capacity;acquiring language in adulthood is difficult and typically results in sub-native performance.This su

31、ggests a biological window of opportunity for acquiring a language natively.,Structural,Phonetics/Phonology:The sounds of a language,and how they combineExample:the sounds p,t,k in English are pronounced with a puff of air(aspirated)at the start of a word:pilltillkillThis is not the case when s prec

32、edes:spillstillskill,Morphology:The structure of words.Some words seem simple,e.g.cat.But others are made out of parts:vapor-izeun-attain-ableun-lock-ing-sSometimes the rules are complex,and the same pieces can combine in different ways:Un-(lock-able):cant be locked(un-lock)-able:capable of being un

33、locked,Syntax:How words combine to form sentences:The tall man*The man tallI saw John and Mary.*Who did you see Mary and?I saw a thief with a telescope.,Semantics/Pragmatics:What words/sentences mean,and how this relates to how they are used.Example:Every man loves a woman.,Changing,New wordsNew gra

34、mmarI seye not the wordes.古之人不我欺一屠晚归,Language is a biological capability,not social or cultural,Very important,Innateness,A research program initiated by Chomsky;two major points Producing and understanding novel utterances indicates speakers must have a mental grammar-a kind of program for construc

35、ting/understanding sentences.What is mental grammar?In Chomsky,it is linguistic competence as distinguished from linguistic performance.,Competence vs performance,Language or grammar is innate rather than a cultural invention.Grammar/language is encoded genetically in human brain.In the course of no

36、rmal human development,language arises in the same way that e.g.walking does:as an automatic instinctWhy it is so?,Language is innate.,Arguments,The invention of language by childrenIn first language learningIn creolizationArguments for creative use rather than imitationBiological considerationsSpec

37、ialization of brain regions for languageLinks between genes and linguistic abilities,Children inventing language,As noted,language acquisition in childhood is automaticNot imitation:Mommy giggled me and I holded the baby rabbits are things that are produced by children.But they are not in the input.

38、The idea then is that they are generated by systematic rules;in this case,rules that are overapplied:As a general point,the idea is that the evidence for learning the grammar of a language is relatively fragmentary.The childs innate competence fills in the gaps.The same principle applies in creoliza

39、tion,seen below.,Consider yes/no question formation in English:The dog is in the garden.Is the dog in the garden?,Yes/No Questions,The dog that is eating the food is in the garden.The dog that is eating the food is in the garden.Is the dog that is eating the food in the garden?*Is the dog that eatin

40、g the food is in the garden?Children employ rules of this type correctly,without having been exposed to such complicated examples.,Pidgins and Creoles,Pidgin:A makeshift jargon that arises when speakers of different languages are in contactNo systematic grammarNo native speakersIn Hawaii,for example

41、,speakers of different languages worked together on sugar plantations,and a pidgin developed in order to communicate with each other.,Creolization,In the case of children who grow up hearing a pidgin,something special happens.They wind up speaking a fully complex natural language.The complex languag

42、e is not in the input to these children(which is the pidgin).The children create(uniformly)the complex grammatical structure.Since the structure is not in the input,it must come from somewhere else.It is hypothesized that the structure comes from the innate linguistic capacity of the(child)brain.,An

43、other example,In schools for the deaf,children invented a system of communication where none had existed before;it was a(signed)pidgin.Like other pidgins,the signed pidgin in Nicaragua had relatively little grammatical structure and systematicity.Children who were brought into this environment at a

44、young age learned something different:a fully formed language,in effect,a language created from the fragmentary input of the pidgin.,Brains and Disorders,Evidence from the study of the brain and the study of diseases and other afflictions supports the conclusion that language is innate.Specializatio

45、n of brain areas for language.Systematic correlation between impairment of certain linguistic abilities and specific areas of brain injury.Disorders that show that language and general intelligence can be dissociated from one another.,Brain areas,There are at least two major language areas in the co

46、rtex,Brocas Area and Wernickes Area:,Sources of evidence,A source of evidence comes from cases of brain injury that affect language;these are instances of aphasia.The area of the brain that is damaged has a direct effect on how someones linguistic abilities are going to be affected.,Aphasia,Two prim

47、ary types:Brocas Aphasia:Difficulty in creating sentences.Speech is often labored or halting,with omission of function words,endings to verbs(e.g.no-ed on past tense verbs),and so onWernickes aphasia:Speech is fluent but often non-sensical,containing nonwords,filler words like that,etc.,Specific Lan

48、guage Impairment,SLI appears to run in the family,suggesting that it has a genetic basis.People with SLI have normal intelligence.Speech is slow and careful,with frequent mistakes(e.g.misuse of pronouns and suffixes):She remembered when she hurts herself the other day.Carol is cry in the church.Fail

49、ure to perform at normal(i.e.like a four-year old)on the wug test.,Connections between language and intelligence,Cases like Brocas aphasia and SLI involve impaired language,but relatively intact general intelligence.Interestingly,there are in fact cases where intelligence is impaired,but linguistic

50、ability is not.Hydrocephalus:an increase in pressure in the fluid that fills the cavities of the brain;some brain tissue is crushed by this pressure.People with this condition are retarded but have highly developed linguistic skills.Williams Syndrome:A genetic condition with a number of effects.Chil