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ID:38527234
大小:96.00 KB
页数:11页
时间:2019-06-14
《英语语言学lecture two》由会员上传分享,免费在线阅读,更多相关内容在教育资源-天天文库。
1、TakelanguageasatoolforaccesstosomeotherfieldsratherthanstudyitasasubjectLanguagedistinguishesusfromanimalsbecauseitisfarmoresophisticatedthananyanimalcommunicationsystem.Whatislanguage?Itisverydifficulttogiveasatisfactorydefinition.Wemaysay“Languageisatoolforhumancommunication”.Butthat
2、doesnotsayanythingaboutitsdefiningproperties,onlyaboutitsfunction.Therearemanyothersystems(secretcodes,trafficsignals)performingthesamefunction.Wemaysay“Languageisasetofrules.”;againthatsaysnothingaboutitsfunction,andthereareothersystemscontainingsetsofrules.Atentativedefinitionisgiven
3、likethefollowing:Languageisasystemofarbitraryvocalsymbolsusedforhumancommunication.Languagemustbeasystem,sinceelementsinitarearrangedaccordingtocertainrules.Andtheycannotbecombinedatwill.Languageisarbitraryinthesensethatthereisnointrinsicconnectionbetweenthewordpenandthethingweusetowri
4、tewith.Thatfactthatdifferentlanguageshavedifferentwordsforitspeaksforthearbitrarynatureoflanguage.Wesaylanguageisvocalbecausetheprimarymediumissoundforalllanguage,nomatterhowwelldevelopedaretheirwritingsystems.Allevidenceshowsthatwritingsystemscamemuchlaterthanthespokenforms.Thefacttha
5、tchildrenacquirespokenlanguagefirstbeforetheycanreadorwritealsoindicatesthatlanguageisprimarilyvocal.Theterm“human”inthedefinitionismeanttospecifythatlanguageisverydifferentfromthecommunicationsystemsotherformsoflifepossess(suchasbirdsongsandanimalcries.)Step1.DesignfeaturesoflanguageW
6、hatmakesourlanguageadvantageousoveranimal“languages”/distinctivefromlanguagesusedbyotherspecies/complicatedandflexible?1.Arbitrariness@Theformsoflinguisticsigns/morphemebearnonaturalrelationshiptotheirmeaningandobjects.Wecannotexplainwhyabookiscalleda/buk/inEnglishbuta书inChinese.@Whati
7、sthelinkbetweenalinguisticsignanditsmeaning?Itisamatterofconvention.@Thereisnologicalconnectionbetweenmeaningsandsounds.However,languageisnotentirelyarbitraryHowaboutonomatopoeia,wordsthatsoundlikethesoundstheydescribe.;therearecaseswherethereseemstobesomeassociationbetweensoundsandm
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