General Linguistics Chapter 1 Introduction
Chapter 1 Introduction
Aims:
To inform the students of the definition, functions and design features of language;
To make the students have a general idea of the concept of linguistics and its main branches;
To make the students have a good understanding of some important distinctions in linguistics.
- What is language?
- Definition of language
- Design features of language
- Functions of language
- What is linguistics?
- Definition of linguistics
- Main branches of linguistics (microlinguistics / general linguistics)
- Macrolinguistics (Applied Linguistics)
- Some important distinctions in linguistics
- What is language?
We use language every day. We live in a world of words. Hardly any moment passes without someone talking, writing, or reading. Indeed, language is most essential to mankind. Language is central to our nature as human beings, for it is the possession of language that distinguishes humans from animals. However, we do not know yet how exactly we acquire language and how it is possible for us to perceive through language; nor do we understand precisely the relationships between language and thought, language and logic, or language and culture; still less do we know how and when language originated. Linguistics is a branch of science which takes language as its object of investigation. It will be proper to have a good idea from the very beginning of this course.
Then what is language? (Ask the students to discuss what language is.)
This may at first sound like a naïve and simple question, yet to this extremely familiar, everyday phenomenon, it is difficult to give a satisfactory definition. You may say “language is a tool for human communication.” But this only tells us what language does, or what it is used for, i.e. its function. As a matter of fact, there are some other systems that can perform the same function, e.g. a secret code, traffic signals, gestures. So this does not distinguishlanguage from other means of human communication.
Alternatively, one might say “language is a set of rules”. Then this tells nothingabout its functions, and there are actually other systems that are also rule-governed.
1.1Definition of language
In our textbook, the author presents us several definitions made by many linguists, e.g. Charles F. Hockett, Edward Sapir, David Crystal and R. H. Robins. But some of them can’t wholly reveal the nature or characters of language and are not totally free from limitation. They also lack completeness.
1.1.1Charles F. Hockett’s view
He attempted to list a number of features which constitute human language, such as interchangeability, productivity, cultural transmission etc. He also compared human language with bee’s dancing.
1.1.2Edward Sapir’s definition
“Language is a purely human and non-instinctive method of communicating ideas, emotions, and desires by means of a system of voluntarily produced symbols.” (语言是人类特有的而非本能的利用任意产生的符号来表达思想、感情和愿望的方法。)
Sapir uses “ideas, emotions and desires” in his definition. No matter how broadly we interpret these words, there is much that is communicated by languagewhich is not covered by any of them; and the word “idea” is particular is imprecise. Then apart from language, there are other systems of “voluntarily produced symbols” that can serve the same purpose, such as secret codes, traffic lights etc.
1.1.3David Crystal’s view
“The discussion may be summarized by referring to language as human vocal noise (or the graphic representation of this noise in writing) used systematically and conventionally by a community for purposes of communication.”
This definition also proposes communication as the principal function of language, but it does not specify what is communicated. And “human vocal noise” is not precise because people’s cries of pain or fear are also vocal noise, but they are not language. So language should be non-instinctive which means that we can choose what to say or whether to say anything at all.
1.1.4R. H. Robins’ definition
“Language is a form of human communication by means of a system of symbols principally transmitted by vocal sounds.”
This definition is better than the above three. It almost touches all the essentials of language. But one point is ignored, that is, the association betweenthe words used and the things that they denote. The relationship between words and things should be arbitrary and conventional. There is no intrinsic and inherent connection between the word “pen” and the thing we use to write with. So Hu’s definition is introduced here.
1.1.5Hu Zhuanglin’s definition(P3)
“Language is a system of arbitraryvocalsymbols used for humancommunication.”
Language must be a system, since elements in it are arranged according to certain rules; they can not be combined at will. In English, “bkli” will not be a possible word; “He table a green” will not be an acceptable sentence. If language were not systematic, it could not be learned or used consistently.
Language is arbitrary in the sense that there is no intrinsic connection between the word and the object. For example, there is no intrinsic /fixed connection between the word pen and the thing we use to write with. The fact that differentlanguages have different words for the same object is a good illustration of the arbitrary nature of language. E.g. dog, chien, 狗. This also explains the symbolic nature of language: Words are associated with objects, actions, ideas by convention, they are just labels or symbols of objects. This is why some people say “A rose by any other name would smell as sweet”. (from Shakespeare’s“Romeo and Julier”)
We say language is vocal because the primary medium is sound for all languages, no matter how well developed are their writing system. All evidence shows that writing systems came much later than the spoken forms. The fact that children also know a language without being able to write indicates that language is primarily vocal. The history of spoken language is much longer than the history of writing system.
The term “human” in the definition is meant to specify that language is human-specific; that is, it is very different from the communication systems other forms of life possess, such as bird songs and bee dances. Language distinguishes us from animals because it is far more sophisticated than any animal communication system.
1.2Design features of language
Design Features refer to the defining properties of human language that distinguish it from any animal system of communication. The following are the frequently discussed ones. (本质特征指人类语言区别于其它任何动物的交际体系的限定性特征。)
1.2.1. Arbitrariness
As mentioned earlier, language is arbitrary. This means that there is no logical connection between meanings and sounds. A good example is the fact that different sounds are used to refer to the same object in differentlanguages.
There is no intrinsic connection between the word and object.
(1). Arbitrary relationship between the sound of a morpheme and its meaning.
(2). Arbitrariness at the syntactic level. Syntax is less arbitrary than words.
(3). Arbitrariness and convention. The other side of the coin of arbitrariness, namely conventionality.
On the other hand, we should be aware that while language is arbitrary by nature, it is not entirely arbitrary. There are some onomatopoeic words in every language that imitate natural sounds, such as bang, cackle（咯咯）in English and 叮咚，轰隆，叽哩咕噜in Chinese. But in English, totally different words are used to describe the sound. For example, the dog barks wow wow in English but wangwangwang in Chinese.
Besides, some compound words are also not entirely arbitrary. For example while “photo” and “copy” are respectively arbitrary, the compound word “photocopy” is not entirely arbitrary. But, anyway non-arbitrary words make up only a small percentage of thetotal number of words used in a language.
The arbitrary nature of language is a sign of sophistication and it makes it possible for language to have an unlimited source of expressions.
1.2.2. Duality
Language is a system. This system has two sets of structures, one of sounds (lower or basic level) and the other of meaning (higher level). A small number of sounds can be grouped and regrouped into a large number of units of meaning (words), and the units of meaning can be arranged and rearranged into infinite number of sentences. For example, thegrouping of the three sounds /k/, /a:/, and /p/ can mean either a kind of fish (carp), or a public place for rest and amusement (park). This duality of language enables its users to talk about anything within their knowledge.
The advantage of duality: numbers of different units can be formed out of a small number of elements.
1.2.3. Creativity
Users can understand and produce sentences they have never heard before. Everyday we sent messages that have never before been sent and understand novel messages. Much of what we say and hear we say and hear for the first time; yet there seems no problem of understanding. For example, the sentence “A red-eyed elephant is dancing on the hotel bed” must be new to all readers and listeners and does not describe a common happening in his world. Nevertheless, nobody has any difficulty in understanding it. Creativity seems peculiar / unique to human language. The bee dance does have a limited creativity, as it used to communicate about food sources in any direction. But food sources are the only kind of messages that can be sent through the bee dance; bees do not “talk” about themselves, the hives, or wind, let alone about people, animals, hopes or desires.
1.2.4. Displacement
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 place. In other words, language can refer to contexts removed from the immediate situations of the speakers. This property of language provides speakers with an opportunity to talk about a wide range of things, free from the barriers caused by remoteness in time and place. No animal calls are mainly uttered in response to immediate changes of situation. Calls or cries are produced in contact of food, in presence of danger or in pain. Once the danger or pain is over, calls are stopped. In this sense, the bee dance has a component of displacement. But this component is very insignificant. For the bees must communicate about the food immediately on returning to the hive. They do not dance about the food they discovered last month nor do they speculate about future discoveries.
1.2.5 Cultural transmission
Animal call systems are genetically transmitted. That is, animals are born with the capacity to produce the set of calls peculiar to their species. With human beings, things are different: a Chinese speaker and an English speaker are not mutually intelligible. This shows that language is culturally transmitted. That is, it is passed on from one generation to the next by teaching and learning, rather than by instinct. This does not deny that human capacity for language has a genetic basis; in fact only human beings can learn a human language at birth and he has to be exposed to a language in order to acquire it.
1.2.6 Interchangeability (optional)
Interchangeability means that any human being can be both a producer and a receiver of messages.
These are five major “design features” of human language and the co-presence of these features seems to show that language is human-specific.
1.3Functions of language
Language serve various purposes as there are different types of occasions for using it. Language has at least seven basic functions: informative, interpersonal functions, performative, emotive function, phatic, recreational function, metalingual function.
1.3.1Phatic communion (应酬语、寒暄语)
Language used for establishing an atmosphere or maintaining social contact rather than for exchanging information or ideas. Greetings, farewells, and comments on the weather serve this function.
This term refers to communication betweenpeople which is not intended to seek or convey information but has thesocial function of establishing or maintaining social contact. Examples of phatic communication in Englishinclude such expression as How are you? and Nice day, isn’t? (朗文p341)
1.3.2Emotive function
It is the use of language to reveal something about the feelings and attitudes of the speakers. It can also change the emotional status of an audience. It is also discussed under the term expressive function. The expressive function can often be entirely personal and totally without any implication of communication to others. For example, a man may say ouch! after striking a fingernail with a hammer, or he may mutter damn when realizing that he has forgotten an appointment. The simplest examples are ejaculations like good heavens! Man! Oh boy!
1.3.3 Performative （行事话语）
It refers to, in speech act theory, an utterance which performs an act, such as watch out (=a warning), I promise not to be late (=a promise), There is a vicious dog behind you (=an implied warning). Language itself is also used to “do things”, to perform actions.
eg. I name this ship “Elizabeth”.
I bet you five yuan it will rain tomorrow.
I do.
1.3.4 Interpersonal function
People establish and maintain their status / relationships in a society by this function. This function is concerned with the interaction between the addresser and addressee in the discourse situation and the addresser’s attitude toward what he speaks or writes about. For example, the ways in which peopleaddress others and refer to themselves (e.g. Dear Sir, Dear Professor, Johnny, yours, your obedient servant) indicate the various grades of interpersonal relationship.
The interpersonal function is such a broad category that it is often discussed under various other terms in the following performative, emotive, expressive and phatic function of language.
1.3.5 Informative
This function, the major role of language, is to give information about facts, or to reason things out. This function is characterized by the use of declarative sentences and is most often used in all branches of learning.
1.3.6 Recreational function
Recreational function refers to the use of language for the sheer joy, such as a baby’s babbling, a chanter’s chanting or the widespread use of verbal dueling.
If you observe a children’s play, you will find the power of sound. Sometimes even nonsensical lyrics perform a recreational function in the game; the repetitive rhythms help to control the game, and the children plainly take great delight in it. Adults also have their way to appreciate language for its own sake. For instance, poetry writing gives them the pleasure of using language for its sheer beauty.
1.3.7Metalingual function
The language can be used to analyze or describe or talk about itself. For example, in English, the phoneme /b/ is a voiced bilabial stop, is the metalingual function of language. It explains that b-sound in English is made with vibration of the vocal cords and with the two lips stopping the air stream from the lungs.
I can use the word book to talk about a book, and I can also use the expression the word book to talk about the sign ‘book’ itself.
1.4Origins of language
- The divine-origin theory
- The invention theory
3. The evolutionary theory
One thing we can say for certain is that language evolves within specific historical, social and cultural contexts.
2What is linguistics?
2.1Definition of linguistics
Linguistics can be defined as the scientific study of language. The word “language” preceded by the zero article in English implies that linguistic studies not any particular language of any society, such as English, Chinese, Arabic and so on, but the languages of all human societies, language in general. The word “study” does not mean “learn” but “investigate” or “examine”. And the word “scientific” refers to the way in which it is studies.
We can simply say that a scientific study is one which is focused on the systematic investigation of date, conducted with reference to some general theory of language structure.
In linguistics, data and theory stand in a dialectical complementation; that is, a theory without the support of data can hardly claim validity, and data without being explained by some theory remain a muddle mass of things.
As a science, linguistics now has a set of established theories, methods and sub-branches.
2.2Main branches of linguistics (microlinguistics / general linguistics)
2.2.1Phonetics
It studies speech sounds, including the production of speech, that is how speech sounds are actually made, transmitted and received, the sounds of speech, the description and classification of speech sounds, words and connected speech, etc.
The three branches of phonetics are:articulatory phonetics, acoustic (transmitted) phonetics and auditory (received) phonetics. Of the three branches of phonetics, the longest established, and until recently the most highly developed, is articulatory phonetics. We focus on articulatory phonetics.
2.2.2Phonology
It studies the rules governing the structure, distribution and sequence of speech sounds and the shape of syllables. That is, how sounds are put together and used to convey meaning in communication.
Pay attention to the difference between phonetics and phonology. Phonetics is the study of speech sounds that the human voice is capable of creating whereas phonology is the study of a subset of those sounds that constitute language and meaning. The first focuses on chaos while the second focuses on order.
2.2.3Lexicology
It is the study of the vocabulary items (lexemes) of a language, including their meanings and relations, and changes in their form and meaning through time. It deals with the external relationship among words.
2.2.4Morphology
It is concerned with the internal organization of words. It studies the minimal units of meaning—morphemes and word-formation process. Although many people think of words as the basic meaningful elements of a language, many words can be broken down into still smaller units, called morphemes. Morphemes serve different purposes. Some derive new words by changing the meaning or the part of speech, others only refine and give extra grammatical information about the already existing meaning of a word.