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1、《英语语言学概论》重、难点问与答Questions&AnswersonKeyPointsofLinguistics1.1.Whatislanguage?"Languageissystemofarbitraryvocalsymbolsusedforhumancommunication.Itisasystem,sincelinguisticelementsarearrangedsystematically,ratherthanrandomly.Arbitrary,inthesensethatthereisusuallynointrins
2、icconnectionbetweenawork(like"book")andtheobjectitrefersto.Thisexplainsandisexplainedbythefactthatdifferentlanguageshavedifferent“books=ubook^inEnglish,"livre"inFrench,inJapanese,inChinese,“check”inKorean.Itissymbolic,becausewordsareassociatedwithobjects,actions,idease
3、tc.bynothingbutconvention.Namely,peopleusethesoundsorvocalformstosymbolizewhattheywishtoreferto.Itisvocal,becausesoundorspeechistheprimarymediumforallhumanlanguages,developedor"new.Writingsystemscamemuchlaterthanthespokenforms.Thefactthatsmallchildrenlearnandcanonlylea
4、rntospeak(andlisten)beforetheywrite(andread)alsoindicatesthatlanguageisprimarilyvocal,ratherthanwritten.Theterm“humarTinthedefinitionismeanttospecifythatlanguageishumanspecific・1.2.Whataredesignfeaturesoflanguage?aDesignfeatures^hererefertothedefiningpropertiesofhumanl
5、anguagethattellthedifferencebetweenhumanlanguageandanysystemofanimalcommunication.Theyarearbitrariness,duality,productivity,displacement,culturaltransmissionandinterchangeability1.3.Whatisarbitrariness?By"arbitrariness”,wemeanthereisnologicalconnectionbetweenmeaningsan
6、dsounds(seeI」)・Adogmightbeapigifonlythefirstpersonorgroupofpersonshaduseditforapig.Languageisthereforelargelyarbitrary.Butlanguageisnotabsolutelyseemtobesomesound-meaningassociation,ifwcthinkofechowords,like“bang'："crash'；“roaF；whicharcmotivatedinacertainsense・Secondly
7、,somecompounds(wordscompoundedtobeoneword)arenotentirelyarbitraryeither."Type"and“write"areopaqueorunmotivatedwords,while"type-writer55islessso,ormoretransparentormotivatedthanthewordsthatmakeit.Sowecansay"arbitrariness^isamatterofdegree・1.4.Whatisduality?Linguistsrefe
8、r"duality”(ofstmeture)tothefactthatinalllanguagessofarinvestigated,onefindstwolevelsofstructureorpatterning.Atthefirs
