1. Chapter 1 Introduction

2. Outline
Linguistics
Language
Major Concepts in Linguistics
Exercises

3. Objectives of study
To understand what linguistics is, how linguists study language, and what the scope of linguistics is.
To get to know the nature, origin, design features and functions of language.
To get familiar with the important concepts in linguistics

4. 1.1 Linguistics (1) Definition
▲Linguistics is the scientific or systemic study of language.
To be specific, linguistics describes language in all its respects including its system, its internal structure, its social functions, its use and its historical development, and formulates theories as to how it works.

5. The subject matter of linguistics is all natural language, living or dead.
As a branch of science, linguistics tries to answer the following three basic questions:
① What is language?
② How does language work?
③ How is language acquired?

6. The three canons that linguists observe when they study language:
① exhaustiveness: Linguists should gather all
the materials relevant to his investigation
and give them an adequate explanation.
② consistency: There should be no
contradiction between different parts of the
total statement.

7. ③ economy: The best statements are the
shortest possible ones which can
account most fully for all facts.
The two purposes of linguistics:
① Linguistics studies the nature of language in
order to establish a theory of language and
describes languages in the light of the theory
established.

8. ② Linguistics examines all the forms of
language in general and seeks a scientific
understanding of the ways in which it is
organized to fulfill the needs it serves and
the functions it performs in human life.

9. (2) Differences between linguistics and traditional grammar
Traditional grammar, as a pre-20th century language description and pre-linguistic product of research, was based upon earlier grammars of Latin or Greek, and laid emphasis on correctness, literary excellence, the use of Latin models, and the priority of written language. It is, therefore, prescriptive in nature.

10. Linguistics differs from traditional grammar in the following three ways:
①It describes languages, instead of
laying down rules of correctness.
②It regards the spoken language instead of
the written as primary.
③It describes each language on its own
merits instead of imposing Latin models on
it.
Linguistics is, therefore, descriptive in
nature.

11. (3) Scope of linguistics
Classification of linguistic study: micro-linguistics and macro-linguistics
Micro-linguistics: phonetics, phonology, morphology, syntax, semantics and pragmatics
Macro-linguistics: sociolinguistics, psycholinguistics, neurolinguistics, stylistics, discourse analysis, computational linguistics, cognitive linguistics, anthropological linguistics, et.al

13. the branch of linguistics that studies
phonetics:
the branch of linguistics that studies
speech sounds, how they are produced ,
how they are perceived, and the their
physical properties.
phonology:
the branch of linguistics that studies how
speech sounds function in a language, the
ways sounds are organized.
morphology:
the branch of linguistics that studies the
formation of words.

14. syntax:
the branch of linguistics that studies the
structure of sentence, how words are
combined to form phrases and sentences
semantics:
the branch of linguistics that studies
linguistic meaning.
pragmatics:
language in use. PRAGMATICS= MEANING-
SEMANTICS

15. the study of language and society: how social
sociolinguistics:
the study of language and society: how social
factors influence the structure and use of
language.
psycholinguistics:
the study of language and mind: the mental
structures and processes which are involved
in the acquisition, comprehension and
production of language.
neurolinguistics:
the study of language processing and
language representation in the brain.

16. the study of how literary effects can be
stylistics:
the study of how literary effects can be
related to linguistic features
discourse analysis:
the study of how sentences in spoken and
written language form larger meaningful
units as paragraphs, conversations, and
interviews.
computational linguistics:
an approach to linguistics which employs
mathematical techniques, often with help of
a computer.

17. mind, according to which language and
cognitive linguistics:
an approach to the study of language an
mind, according to which language and
language use are based on our bodily
experience and the way we conceptualize it.
anthropological linguistics:
a branch of linguistics that studies the
relationship between language and culture
in a community, i.e. its traditions, beliefs,
and family structure.

18. applied linguistics: the study of language and linguistics
in relation to practical issues, e.g.
speech therapy, language teaching ,
testing, and translation. In a narrow
sense, it means the application of
linguistic theories to language teaching.

19. 1.2 Language □ Different meanings of the word “language”
- what a person says, e.g. bad language,
expressions
- the way of speaking or writing, e.g.
Shakespeare’s language, Luxun’s
language

20. - 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.

21. - a tool for human communication. (social
function)
- a set of rules. (rule-governed)
(1) Definition of language
Different definitions of language by linguists:
As language is so complex a phenomenon,
a satisfactory definition is difficult. As a
result, many different definitions have been
given by linguists in the history of linguistics.
The following are some of them.

22. “Language is a purely human and non-instinctive method of communicating ideas, emotions and desires by means of voluntarily produced symbols.” (Sapir, 1921)
Language is “the institution whereby humans communicate and interact with each other by means of habitually used oral-auditory arbitrary symbols.” (Hall, 1968)

23. “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.”
(Chomsky,1957)
语言是一种符号系统.当它作用于人与人之间的关系的时候,它是表达相互反应的中介;当它作用于人与客观世界的关系的时候,它是认知事物的工具;当它作用于文化的时候,它是文化的载体. (许国璋)

24. ▲ The most widely accepted definition was
given by Wardhaugh in his Introduction to
Linguistics (1972):
"Language is a system of arbitrary vocal
symbols used for human communication."

25. Interpretation of the definition:
First of all, language is a system, that is, elements of language are combined according to rules, for example, "iblk" is not a possible sound combination in English, and "Been he has here" is not an acceptable sentence in English, either. If language were not constructed according to certain rules, it could not be learned and used consistently.

26. Second, language is arbitrary
Second, language is arbitrary. There is no direct connection between the linguistic form and the thing it refers to. For example, the instrument that people uses to write, is named as “pen” in English while is called “钢笔”in Chinese.
Third, language is vocal. The primary medium of language is sound (speech). As we know, language is abstract and it is realized in two forms: speech and writing. Among the two media of language, speech is primary for the following reasons:

27. ① Speech has a history of about 100,000
years while writing has only a history of
several thousands.
② There are still some communities that have
speech without writing system.
③ Speech is learned before writing.

28. ④ Most of the human communication is done
by speech.
⑤ Written language can, to a large extent, be
converted into speech without loss, but the
converse is not true.
Fourth, language is used for human communication and language is human-specific. That is, language is only possessed by human beings, and it makes it possible for its users to talk to each other and fulfill their communicative needs.

29. (2) Origin of language

30. Language originates, grows and develops in society.
Different theories about origin of language:
①The divine-origin theory --- Language is
a gift of God to mankind.
②The invention theory --- imitative, cries
of nature, the grunts of men working
together.
③The evolutionary theory --- the result of
physical and psychological development.

31. (3) Design features of language
Design features of language: the features which are thought to distinguish human language from animal cry system.
The American linguist Charles Hockett specified the following 7 design features of language:

32. ① Arbitrariness—There is no logical
(intrinsic or direct) connection between
sounds and meanings, or the linguistic
forms bear no natural relationship to
their meaning. For instance, a dog might
be a pig if only the first person or group
of persons had used it for a pig.
But what needs to be noticed is that
language is not entirely arbitrary; there are
cases where there seems to be some
association between sounds and meaning.
Such cases are not arbitrary, but motivated.

33. ② Duality—the property of language with
two levels of structure, one of sounds
(lower level) and the other of meaning
(higher level). At the lower level there is
a structure of sounds, which are
meaningless (e.g. /p/, //, /t/) and which
can be grouped and regrouped into a
large number of units of meaning such
as morphemes and words (e.g. /pt/). At
the higher level, the units of meaning
can be grouped and regrouped into an
infinite number of sentences.

34. ③ Productivity/creativity—Language users
can utilize limited linguistic rules to
produce or understand infinite
meaningful linguistic forms, including
those they have never heard before.
④ Interchangeability/reciprocity—This refers
to the fact that any speaker/sender of a
linguistic signal can also be a listener/
receiver.

35. ⑤Displacement—Language can be used to
refer to things which are present or not
present, real or imagined matters in the
past, present or future, or in far-away
places, here and now.
⑥Specialization—Linguistic signals do not
normally serve any other type of purpose,
such as breathing or feeding.

36. ⑦ Cultural Transmission—A language
system is not genetically transmitted, but
culturally transmitted. That is, a language
system is passed on from one generation
to another by teaching and learning
rather than by instinct or birth.

37. (4) Functions of language
Different classifications of the functions of language:
a. R. Jakobson—six functions
b. M. A. K. Halliday—three functions
c. J. Lyons—three main functions
According to the popular view, language has at least seven basic functions that serve people’s daily communication:

38. ①Phatic funcition
Phatic function is the function to establish communion with others. Language is used for establishing an atmosphere or maintaining social contact between the speakers rather than for exchanging information or ideas, e.g. greetings, farewells, small talk. For example, when a person asks “How are you today?”, he is not really interested in the hearer’s state of health, but is expressing good will.

39. ② Directive function
Language is used to get the hearer to do
something.
③ Informative function
Language is used to tell the facts, to give
information about something, to describe the
material world, or to reason things out.
④ Interrogative function
Language is used to inquire information.

40. ⑤ Expressive function
Language is used to reveal something about
the feelings and attitudes of the speaker.
⑥ Evocative function
Language is used to create certain feelings in
the hearer, e.g. to amuse, to anger, to worry or
to please the hearer.

41. ⑦Performative function
Language is used to do things or to perform
actions. On certain occasions, the uttering of
the appropriate words is the central
component in the performance of the act.
Actually in our daily life, something can be
done either linguistically or non-linguistically;
and others only linguistically or non-
linguistically.

42. 1.3 Major concepts in linguistics
(1) Descriptive and prescriptive grammars
Descriptive grammar refers an approach which only describes the facts of language.
Prescriptive grammar refers to an approach which tries to lay down rules for “correct” language behavior.

43. (2) Synchronic and diachronic linguistics
synchronic linguistics:
It refers to the study of a language system at
one particular point of time. It focuses on the
differences between two or more states of
the language over history.
diachronic linguistics:
It refers the study of the way a language changes over a period of time. It focuses on
the state of language at a point of time.

44. (3) Langue and parole
According to the Swiss linguist
F.D. Saussure, founder of
modern linguistics:
Langue refers to the abstract linguistic system shared by all the members of a speech community,;
Parole refers to the realization of langue in
actual use.

45. - Langue is the set of conventions and rules which language users all have to follow while parole is the concrete use of the conventions and the application of the rules.
- Langue is abstract, not the language people actually use, while parole is concrete, which refers to the naturally occurring language events.
- Langue is relatively stable, it does not change frequently, while parole varies from person to person and from situation to situation.

46. (4) Competence and performance
According to the American linguist Noam Chomsky:
Linguistic competence refers to the unconscious knowledge about sounds, meaning and syntax which is possessed by the native speaker of a language.

47. Linguistic performance refers to the actual use of language by individuals in speech and writing.▲
Chomsky’s distinction between competence and performance is similar to Saussure’s distinction between langue and parole but they differ in that Chomsky’s distinction was made from the psychological perspective while Saussure’s distinction was made from the sociological perspective.

48. (5) Syntagmatic and paradigmatic relations
Another distinction made by F.D. Saussure. According to him:
A syntagmatic relation refers tp the horizontal relation between linguistic elements in a sequence, or between linguistics elements which are all present, such as the relation between those in the following sentence. e.g.
John loves Mary.

49. A paradigmatic relation is the vertical relation holding between elements replaceable with each other at a particular place in a structure, or between one element present and the others absent. e.g. The ___ is reading.
Nouns like boy, girl, man, woman, student are capable of occurring in the context. And these words are said to be in a particular relation here.

50. (6) Functionalism and formalism
Functionalism is an approach which is concerned with language as an instrument of social interaction rather than as a system that is viewed in isolation. It considers the individual as a social being and investigates the way in which he or she acquires language and uses it in order to communicate with others in his or her social environment. Halliday’s systemic-functional grammar is a good example of functionalism.

51. Formalism is the study of the abstract forms of language and their internal relations. The most outstanding representative of formalism is Noam Chomsky’s transformational-generative grammar.

52. Thank you for your attention!