英语语言学lecture two

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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