Semantics
1 What is semantics P68/62
2 Some views concerning the study of meaning
1) The Referential Theory / The Naming Theory P68/62
According to this theory, the meaning of a word or expression is the thing it refers to or stands for in the outside world, since words or expressions are used to refer to or name things.
(既然词语是用来指称事物，为事物命名的，那么词语的意义就是它所指称的对象)
指称理论的核心是一个词语的意义就是它所指向的客观世界的事物，所以“李白”和“天安门”指向特定的人和物，而“演员”和“电冰箱”则指向一类人和物；“红色”“圆形”那样的词语则指向一个或类物体的性质。意义---所指
weakpoints:
a) Sometimes meaning is not equal to reference, e.g
Morning star----Evening star
b) The meanings of many words or expressions have no reference in the world.
fairy, ghost, World War Three
王母娘娘（无所指）
2) The conceptual theory P68/63
According to this theory, there is no direct association between words and the things in the real world (a linguistic form and what it refers to). Their association is realized by means of ―concept‖. In other words, the meaning of a word is the image/concept which is created by the word in the speaker’s or hearer’s mind. (词语的意义是词语在说话人和听话人头脑中所产生的形象或概念)
Weakpoints:
a) It is too concrete to regard meanings as images, for the same word may create different images, e.g
He scratched his head. He is the head of the college.
b) Some words, especially functional words, such as if, or, so, do not create images in people’s mind, but they do have meanings, e.g. if, the
3) contextualism
P69
4) Behaviorism
P70-71
3. Sense and Reference P71-72 / 65-66
Sense and reference are the two terms we often come across in the study of meaning. They are two related but different aspects of meaning.
Sense refers to the inherent meaning of the ling form. It is the collection of all the features of the ling form. It is abstract and de-contextualized. For example, the word ―desk‖ is defined as ― a piece of furniture with a flat top and four legs, at which one reads and writes‖. This meaning is called the sense of the word ―desk‖.
Reference means what a ling form refers to in the real , physical world; it deals with the relationship ling element and the non-ling world of experience. For example, if we say ―The desk is broken‖, we must be talking about a certain desk existing in the situation. The word ―desk‖
refers to a desk known to both the speaker and hearer. This is the reference of the word ―desk‖.
Sense relates to the complex system of relationship that holds between the linguistic elements themselves, and it is concerned only with intra- linguistic relations. While reference is the relationship between the words and the object, action or properties that the words stand for in the objective world. It deals with the extra- linguistic relationships between words and the world they describe.
Obviously, ling forms having the same sense may have different references in different situations, e.g.
a) I was once bitten by a dog.
b) Mind you. There is a dog behind you.
On the other hand, there are also occasions when ling forms with the same reference might diff in sense, e.g.
Morning star---evening star (Venus金星)
“他打我女儿我就打他老婆”
Aristotle was the teacher of Alexander. (sense and reference)
4. Major sense relations
4.1 Synonymy
a kind of semantic relation in which two or more words are exactly the same in essential meaning. In other words, synonyms share a likeness in denotative meaning as well as in part of speech (e.g. end and final are not synonyms).
1) Dialectal synonym
shop---store; film—movie post—mail
洗澡---冲凉；公鸡/母鸡（普通话）---鸡公/鸡婆（湖南话）
2) stylistic synonyms
employer—boss; investigate—look into; difficult---hard
食盐----氯化钠故乡----家乡（语体）
3) in emotive or affective meaning
slim----skinny; stateman--politician
技巧----伎俩团结----勾结
4) collocational synonyms
A big mistake * a large mistake
Many—much
交换（意见/礼物）---- 交流（思想/文化）
5) semantically different synonyms
4.2 polysemy
a word has more than one meanings or a set of different meanings
4.3. Homonymy
Three kinds of homonyms:
perfect homonyms
words identical in sound and spelling but diff in meaning,
You have to lie down ----put oneself in a resting position
Don’t lie, tell me the truth. ----make a statement one knows to be untrue
Still water runs deep. (not moving)
Do you still have her phone number?(up to this particular point of toime)
homophones
words identical in sound but diff in spelling and meaning
son—sun ensure---insure flower—flour night—knight right--write
homographs
words identical in spelling but diff in sound and meaning.
Lead----guide by going in the front
Lead ----a kind of metal which can be easily melted
4.4. hyponymy
Animal
↙↘
Livestock wildlife
↙↓↓↘↙↓↓↘
Cat dog pig cow wolf tiger lion leopard
4.5. Antonymy
1) gradable antonyms
They are words opposite in meaning and they represent two polarities between which there is a continuum. For example, beautiful and ugly are gradable antonyms, in that we can insert adjectives like charmoing, pretty, good-looking,, homely, plain between them along the continuum.
beautiful—charming—pretty—good-looking—homely—plain--ugly
hot—warm—tepid(温)—lukewarm（微温）—cool—cold
rich—well-to-do—moderately wealthy—comfortably off—hard up—poor
The gradable antonyms have three characteristics:
a) they can be used in comparative and superlative degree(faster, fastest)
b) they can be modified by adverbs of degree, very, fairly, quite, rather, etc;
c) they can follow how in questions (How large is the room?)
2) complementary antonyms
They are words whose crucial semantic features are mutually exclusive, or opposite to each other. The positive of one implies the negative of the other. There is no intermediate ground between the two . e.g. dead—alive, male—female.
John neither passed nor failed in the exam.
The weather is neither hot nor cold.
This kind of antonym can not be modified b y adverbs of degree, ―very‖ (very dead, very male). And they do not have comparative or superlative degree forms either. Besides, they cannot appear in questions beginning with how.
A man cannot be neither alive nor dead. The Chinese ―半死不活‖ can only be use d for someone who is still alive.
John is more dead than Peter.
He is more dead than alive
= It is more correct to say he is dead than to say he is alive.
(supporting evidence) He is more mad than stupid.
3) converse antonymy
They are words whose crucial semantic features display a reciprocal relationship. One
member of the pair presupposes the other.
buy---sell husband—wife above—below
X buys something from Y---Y sells something to X
X is the husband of Y---Y is the wife of X
This type of antonyms is typically seen in reciprocal social relation(相互社会角色),kinship relation, temporal and spatial relationship.
5. Sense relations between sentences
1) synonymous
He is too young to go to school.
He is so young that he can not go to school
He is not old enough to go to school
2) inconsistent
3) entailment
(a) John is a bachelor. (b) John is a man.
4) contradiction
My unmarried sister is married to a bachelor.
That bachelor is pregnant.
The spinster’s child is a cat.
5) anomalous
She murdered her husband by accident.
The dog kicked the bucket.
This program is for the oper-lover who don’t like opera.
Mr.White gave birth to a child
6. Analysis of meaning P79 / 72
6.1. Componential analysis
Componential analysis – a way to analyze lexical meaning
Proposed by structural semanticists, this approach is based on the belief that the meaning of a word can be divided into meaning components, which are called semantic features. Plus and minus signs are used to indicate whether a certain semantic feature is present or absent in the meaning of a word, and these feature symbols are usually written in capitalized letters. For example, the word ―man‖ is analyzed as consisting of semantic features of +HUMAN, +ADULT, +ANIMATE, +MALE. One advantage is to show how the words are related in meaning. It is senseless to analyze the meaning of every word by dividing it into its meaning components.
6.2 Predication analysis P80 / 73
a way to analyze sentence meaning
1）The meaning of a sentence is not the sum total of the meanings of all its components.
2）There are two aspects in sentence meaning: grammatical meaning(grammaticality, grammatical well-formedness) and semantic meaning(governed by selectional restrictions, which are constraints on what lexical items can go with what others).
Proposed by British G. Leech, the basic unit in semantic analysis of a sentence is called predication, which is the abstraction of the meaning of a sentence. A predication consists of argument(s)(论元) (logical participant and generally identical with the nominal element) and predicate (谓语) (something that is said about an argument or it states the logical relation linking the arguments). Grammatical form of a sentence does not affect its semantic predication.
Predicate is the main element.
According to the number of arguments contained in a predication, predications may be classified into: two-place predication (containing two arguments), one-place argument (one) and no-place argument (no argument).
Exercise:
T/F
1.Linguistic forms having the same sense may have different references in different situations while linguistic forms with the same reference always have the same sense.
2. The contextualist view of meaning holds that meaning should be studied in terms of the situational context and linguistic context.
3.Of the views concerning the study of semantics, the contextual view, which places the study of meaning in the context in which language is used, is often considered as the initial effort to study meaning in a pragmatic sense.
4.The conceptualist view of meaning holds that there is no direct link between a symbol and reference, i.e. between language and thought.
5. If a word has sense, it must have reference.
6. In semantics，word sets like male/female，married/single，alive/dead，etc. ，can be taken as examples of complementarity.
7.There are words with more or less the same meaning used in different regional dialects.
8. Componential analysis is a way proposed by the structural semanticists to analyze sentence meaning.
9. All the grammatically well-formed sentences are not necessarily semantically well-formed.
10. When the lexeme X contains the semantic components occurring in the meaning of the lexeme
Y, then X is the superordinate of Y.
11. ―He saw a child‖ entails ―He saw a girl‖.
12. Some words are always superordinates while some others are always hyponyms.
13. Entailment is a semantic relation of inclusion; thus the statement ―He is married‖entails―He has a wi fe.‖
14. Pairs of antonyms such as dead and alive, man and woman are called complementary antonyms because the denial of one member of a pair results in the assertion of the other.
15.An important difference between presupposition and entailment is that presupposition, unlike entailment, is not vulnerable to negation. That is to say, if a sentence is negated, the original presupposition is still true.
16. The superordinate term is more inclusive in meaning than its hyponyms.
17. Componential analysis is based on the belief that the meaning of a word cannot be dissected into components, called semantic feature.
18.One merit of componential analysis is that by specifying the semantic features of certain words, it will be possible to show how these words are related in meaning.
19. Two sentences using the same words may mean quite diffeerently.
20. Conceptualists maintain that there is no direct link between linguistic form and what it refers
to. This view can be seen by the Semantic triangle.
Multiple Choice
1. The semantic triangle holds that the meaning of a word ______.
A. is interprepreted through the mediation of concept
B. is related to the thing it refers to
C. is the idea associated with that word in the minds of speakers
D. is the image it is represented in the mind
2. When the truth of sentence (a) quarantees the truth of sentence (b), and the falsity of sentence (b) quarantees the falsity of sentence (a), we can say that ______.
A. sentence (a) presupposes sentence (b)
B. sentence (a) entails sentence (b)
C. sentence (a) is inconsistent with sentence (b)
D. sentence (a) contradicts sentence (b)
3. ―John killed Bill but Bill didn’t die‖ is a(n) ______.
A. entailment
B. presupposition
C. anomaly
D. contradiction
4. The phenomenon that words having different meanings have the same form is called ______.
A. polysemy
B. hyponymy
C. antonymy
D. homonymy
5. The naming theory was proposed by ______.
A. the Greek scholar Plato
B.
C.K. Ogden and I.A. Richards
C. the British linguist J. Firth
D. the American linguist L. Bloomfield
6.Predication analysis is a way to analyze _______ meaning.
A. phoneme
B. word
C. phrase
D. sentence
7. The classic semantic triangle reflects the ______
A. naming theory
B. conceptual view
C. contextualism
D. behaviourist theory
8. The sentence ―John gave Mary a present‖ contains ______arguments.
A. no
B. one
C. two
D. three
9. The meaning relationship between the two words ― couch‖ and ―table‖ is ____.
A. synonymy
B. polysemy
C. hyponymy
D. co-hyponym
10. The pair of words ―lend‖ and ―borrow‖ are _______.
A) gradable opposites B) relational opposites
C) synonyms D) co-hyponyms
11. ―Words are names or labels for things.‖ This view is called ______ in semantic theory.
A) mentalism B) conceptualism C) naming theory D) contextualism
12._______ are written identically but sound differently.
A) Homographs B) Homophones C) Homonyms D) Synonyms
13.Two words that are opposite in meaning are called ______.
A) synonyms B) homonyms C) antonyms D) homophones
14. ______ deals with the relationship between the linguistic element and non-linguistic world of experience.
A) Sence B) Reference C) Symbol D) Thought
15. ―I bought some roses‖ __________ ―I bought some flowers‖.
A) entails B) presupposes
C) is inconsistent with D) is synonymous with
16.Which of the following two-term sets show the feature of complementarity?
A) single/married B) lend/borrow C) hot/cold D) old/young
17 ―Can I borrow your bike?‖ ____ ―You have a bike.‖
A)is synonymous with B )is inconsistent with
C) entails D) presupposes
18. The semantic features of word ―girl‖ can be expressed as ______.
A) +ANIMTE, -HUMAN, +ADULT, +MALE
B) +ANIMATE, +HUMAN, -ADULT, +MALE
C) +ANIMATE, +HUMAN, +ADULT, -MALE
D)+ANIMATE, +HUMAN, -ADULT, -MALE
19.The semantic components of the word ―gentleman‖ can be expressed as __.
A. [+animate], [+male], [+human], [-adult]
B. [+animate], [+male], [+human], [+adult]
C. [+animate], [-male], [+human], [-adult]
D. [+animate], [-male], [+human], [+adult]
20.If two lexical items consist of the same components, they are ____ .
A) synonymous B) homonymous
C) hyponymous D) antonymous
21. What is the meaning relationship between the two words ―flower/rose‖?
A) Homonymy B) Synonymy C) Polysemy D) Hyponymy
22. When a word is_____, the same form will stand in different sense relationships with different words.
A) hyponymous B) polysemous
C)antonymous D) synonymous
23. What is the meaning relationship between the two words ―vegetable/tomato‖?
A. Polysemy
B. Homonymy
C. Hyponymy
D. Antonymy
24. Which of the following is not true?
A. Sense is concerned with the inherent meaning of the linguistic form.
B. Sense is the collection of all the features of the linguistic form.
C. Sense is abstract and de-contextualized.
D. Sense is the aspect of meaning dictionary compilers are not interested in.
25. ___________ is a way in which the meaning of a word can be dissected into meaning components, called semantic features.
A. Predication analysis
B. Componential analysis
C. Phonemic analysis
D. Grammatical analysis
26. ―alive‖ and ―dead‖ are ______________.
A. gradable antonyms
B. relational opposites
C. complementary antonyms
D. None of the above
27. _________ deals with the relationship between the linguistic element and the non-linguistic world of experience.
A. Reference
B. Concept
C. Semantics
D. Sense
28. ___________ refers to the phenomenon that words having different meanings have the same
form.
A. Polysemy
B. Synonymy
C. Homonymy
D. Hyponymy
29. The words ¨sand, hair, rice, mud, wine〃may be characterized in the lexicon with the semantic feature of
a) [+count] b) [-count] c) [+animate] d) [-animate]
30.The kind of antonymy between "married "and "single" is one of __________
(A) converseness(B) relational opposites
(C) complementarity (D) gradable opposites
31."This orphan has no father" is a case of ________
(A) inconsistency (B) presupposition
(C)semantic anomaly (D) tautology
32. In the study of meaning, ______ holds that there is no direct link between a linguistic form and what it refers to.
A) naming theory B) conceptualist
C) contextualist D) behaviourist
33. Synonyms are classified into several kinds. The kind to whi ch ―girl‖ and ―lass‖ belong is called______ synonyms.
A. stylistic
B. dialectal
C. emotive
D. collocational
34. The words ―baggage‖ and ―luggage‖ are ______.
A. dialectal synonyms
B. synonyms differing in emotive meaning
C. collocationally-restricted synonyms
D. synonyms differing in styles
35. The words ―kid, child, offspring‖ are examples of ______.
A. dialectal synonyms
B. stylistic synonyms
C. emotive synonyms
D.collocational synonyms
36. The theory of semantic triangle is proposed by ______.
A. G. Leech
B. Chomsky
C. Bloomfield
D. Ogden and Richard
37. The relationship between ―plant‖ and ―tree‖ is known as ______.
A. entailment
B. hyponymy
C. homonymy
D. synonymy
38. The relationship between ―begin‖ and ―commence‖ is ______.
A. dialectal synonyms
B. stylistic synonyms
C. collocational synonyms
D. semantically different synonyms
39. The noun ―tear‖ and the verb ―tear‖ are ______.
A. homophones
B. homographs
C. polysemic word
D. complete homonyms
17. ―John hit Peter‖ and ―Peter was hit by John‖ are of the same ______.
A. proposition
B. sentence
C. Utterance
D. Truth
40. The sense relation between the following two sentences is ______.
X: John has given up smoking.
Y: John used to smoke.
A. X entails Y
B. X presupposes Y
41. Which of the following pairs of words can be categorized as collocational synonyms?
A. touch—flashlight
B. pretty—handsome
C. amaze—astound
D. luggage—baggage
42. The following pairs all belong to ―reversal antonyms‖ except ______.
A. push—pull
B. buy—sell
C. employer—empolyee
D. pass—fail
43. What is the sentential relation between ―He likes skating.‖ And ―He likes sports‖?
A. Presupposition
B. Entailment
C. Contradiction
D. Hyponymy
Questions and answers
1. What is sense and what is reference? How are they related?
Sense and reference are two terms in the study of meaning. (1) Sense is concerned with the inherent meaning of the linguistic form. It is the collection of all the features of the linguistic form; it is abstract and de-contextualized. It is the aspect of meaning that dictionary compilers are interested in. Reference means what a linguistic form refers to in the real, physical world; it deals with the relationship between the linguistic element and the non-linguistic world of experience. (2) Obviously, linguistic forms having the same sense may have different references in different situations. On the other hand, there are less frequent occasions when linguistic forms with the same reference might differ in sense, e.g. ―morning star‖ and ―evening star‖.
2. How many semantic relations are there among sentences? Give examples.
3.What are the semantic relations recognized in the study of lexical meaning? Use examples to show them.
4 In what way is componential analysis similar to the analysis of phonemes into distinctive features?
Componential analysis is a way propsed by the structural semantics to analyze word meaning. It is based on the belief that the meaning of a word can be dissected into meaning components, called semantic features. And the analysis of phonemes also believes that a phoneme can be analyzed into smaller components called distinctive features.
5 What is grammaticality? What might make a grammatically meaningful sentence semantically meaningless?
Grammaticality refers to sa sentence’s grammatical well-formedness and is governed by the grammatical rules of the language. If a sentence is grammatically perfect, yet it voilates selectional restrictions, i.e. constrains on what lexical items can go with others, and it then becomes grammatically meaningless.
6. Try to analyze the following sentences in terms of predication analysis:
1)The man sell ice-cream.
Two-place predication consisting of two arguments: MAN and ICE-CREAM, and the predicate (SELL)
2)Is the baby sleeping?
One-place predication: BABY (SLEEP)
3)It is snowing.
No-place predication: (SNOW)
4)The tree grows well.
One-place predication: TREE (GROW)
7 Study the following pairs of words. What is the basic lexical relation between these pairs of words?
(1) shallow—deep (2) mature—ripe
(3) suite—sweet (4) table—furniture
(5)single—married (6) move—run
(7) roof—room (8)sew—sow
(9) beef—meat (10) sensation--passion
8 State the principal reason why “man” and “boy” are not considered to be synonyms?
The reason could be seen from the semantic components they include respectively. Man: +HUMAN. +MALE, + Adult; while boy: +HUMAN, +MALE, --Adult. Since they do not have the same semantic components, they are not considered to be synonyms.
9 Point out which sense relation between the following sentences
a)Mohan has a brother.
b)Mohan’s parents had more than one child.
c)Mohan exists.
d) Mohan has a male sibling
The relatioship between a) and b) is one of entailment.
The relationship between a) and c) is one of Presupposition.
The relationship between a) and d) is one of assertion/paraphrase
10 Identify the predication in the following sentences
His car is next to my car. (Two-place predication)
He is singing. (One-place predication)
It is raining. (No-place predication)
11.Why do we say that a meaning of a sentence is not the sum total of the meanings
of all its components?
12 For each of the following words, identify what kind of antonym is involved (gradable, complementary, converse)
north/south vacant/occupied literate/illiterate
above/below doctor/patient wide/narrow
poor/rich father/daughter left/right
far/near dark/bright ugly/beautiful
good/bad expensive/cheap parent/offspring
false/true lessor/lessee pass/fail
hot/cold legal/illegal larger/smaller
fast/slow asleep/awake husband/wife
absent/present up/down fair/unfair
moving/stationary aunt/uncle possible/impossible
black/white agree/disagree beneficial/harmful
far/near polite/rude
13. Identify the relations between the following pairs of sentences or the constituents of the same sentence.
1) He likes swimming.
He likes sports.
2) He speaks English.
He speaks a foreign language
3) This animal is a vegetable (contradiction)
4) A. John is the parent of James.
B. James is the child of John.
(A is synonymous with B)
5) A. Lily is standing with a piece of newspaper in her hand.
B. Lily has a piece of newspaper.
(A presupposes B)
6) A. Mary boiled an egg.
B. Mary cooked an egg.
(A entails B)
7) A. Peter is under the table.
B. The table is under Peter.
(inconsistency)
8) A. John is fatter than Michael and Michael is fatter than Jim.
B. John is fatter than Jim.
(A entails B))
9) The stone has a good idea. (anomaly)
10) A. When did he stop beating his wife.
B. He beat his wife
(A presupposes B))
11) Carl was a bachelor all his life.
Carl never married all his life. (paraphrase)
12) This is my first visit to China.
I have been to China before. (inconsistency)
13) Ted bought two magazines.
Ted bought two things (entailment)
14) He has three girls.
He is a father. (presupposition)
15) He has no sister
His younger sister is beautiful.
16) Jane had another date with John.
Jane has had one date wuith John before. (presupposition)
17) My sister will soon be divorced.----My sister is a married woman.
18) John is the parent of James.----James is the child of John.
19) The bachelor is unmarried.
20) I saw Timothy at the anniversary party
----It was Timothy that I saw at the anniversary party. (paraphrase)
11
Chapter 5 Semantics ?Semantics----the study of language meaning. ?Semantics is defined as the study of meaning. However, it is not the only linguistic discipline that studies meaning. ?Semantics answers the question ―what does this sentence mean‖. In other w ords, it is the analysis of conventional meanings in words and sentences out of context. ?Meaning is central to the study of communication. ?Classification of lexical meanings. Here are G. Leech’s seven types of meaning. ( British linguist) ? 1. Conceptual meaning (also called denotative or cognitive meaning) is the essential and inextricable part of what language is, and is widely regarded as the central factor in verbal communication. It means that the meaning of words may be discussed in terms of what they denote or refer to. ? 2. Connotative meaning – the communicative value an expression has by virtue of what it refers to, embraces the properties of the referent, peripheral ? 3. Social meaning (stylistic meaning) –what is conveyed about the social circumstances of the use of a linguistic expression ? 4. Affective meaning (affected meaning)– what is communicated of the feeling or attitude of the speaker/writer towards what is referred to ? 5. Reflected meaning – what is communicated through association with another sense of the same expression ?Taboos ? 6. Collocative meaning – the associated meaning a word acquires in line with the meaning of words which tend to co-occur with it ?(2, 3, 4, 5, 6 can be together called associative meaning–meaning that hinges on referential meaning, less stable, more culture-specific ) 7. Thematic meaning—what is communicated by the way in which the message is organized in terms of order ?What is meaning?---- Scholars under different scientific backgrounds have different understandings of language meaning. Some views concerning the study of meaning ?Naming theory (Plato) ?The conceptualist view ?Contextualism (Bloomfield) ?Behaviorism Naming theory (Plato): Words are names or labels for things. The linguistic forms or symbols, in other words, the words used in a language are taken to be labels of the objects they stand for; words are just names or labels for things ?Limitations: 1) Applicable to nouns only. 2) There are nouns which denote things that do not exist in the real world, e.g. ghost, dragon, unicorn, phenix… 3) There are nouns that do not refer to physical objects but abstract notions, e.g. joy, impulse, hatred…
英语语言学 一、绪论 语言学的定义 语言学的研究范畴 几对基本概念 语言的定义 语言的甄别特征 What is linguistics? 什么是语言学？ Linguistics is generally defined as the scientific study of language. It studies not any particular language, but languages in general. 语言学是对语言科学地进行研究的学科。语言学所要研究的不是某一种特定的语言，而是人类所有语言的特性。 The scope of linguistics 语言学研究的范畴 Phonetics语音学\Phonology音系学\Morphology形态学\Syntax句法学\Semantics语义学\Pragmatics语用学\Sociolinguistics社会语言学\Psycholinguistics心理语言学\Applied linguistics应用语言学 Prescriptive vs. descriptive 规定性与描述性 Descriptive：a linguistic study describes and analyzes the language people actually use. Prescriptive: it aims lay down rules for “correct” behavior. Modern linguistics is descriptive; its investigations are based on authentic, and mainly spoken data. Traditional grammar is prescriptive; it is based on “high” written language Synchronic vs. diachronic 共时性与历史性 The description of a language at some point in time is a synchronic study The description of a language as it changes through time is a diachronic study In modern linguistics, synchronic study seems to enjoy priority over diachronic study. Speech and writing 口头语与书面语 Speech enjoys priority over writing in modern linguistics study for the following reasons: (1) speech precedes writing in terms of evolution (2) a large amount of communication is carried out in speech tan in writing (3) speech is the form in which infants acquire their native language Language and parole 语言与言语 Language refers to the abstract linguistic system shared by all the members of a speech community Parole refers to the realization of language in actual use Competence and performance 能力与运用 Chomsky defines competence as the ideal users’ knowledge of the rules of his language Performance: the actual realization of this knowledge in linguistic communication What is language? 什么是语言？
Chapter one Introduction 1.1什么是语言学 语言学Linguistics Linguistics is generally defined as the scientific study of language. 必考P2 普通语言学General Linguistics The study of language as a whole is often called General linguistics. The study of sounds, which are used in linguistic communication, is called phonetics.（语音学） The study of how sounds are put together and used in communication is called phonology. （音位学） The study of the way in which morphemes are arranged to form words are called morphology. （形态学） The study of how morphemes and words are combined to form sentences is called syntax（句法学） The study of meaning in language is called semantics. （语义学） The study of meaning in context of use is called pragmatics. （语用学） 1.1.3 Some important distinctions in linguistics 成对的概念辨析差异必考P3 （1）Prescriptive and descriptive 规定与描写 If a linguistic study describes and analyzes the language people actually use, it is said to be descriptive, if it aims to lay down rules to tell people what they should say and what they should not say, it is said to be prescriptive. Modern linguistics differs from traditional grammar. Traditional grammar is prescriptive while modern linguistics is descriptive. The task of linguists is supposed to describe the language people actually use, whether it is “correct” or not. 规定性Prescriptive It aims to lay down rules for ”correct” behavior, to tell people what they should say and what should not say.
Semantics 1 What is semantics P68/62 2 Some views concerning the study of meaning 1) The Referential Theory / The Naming Theory P68/62 According to this theory, the meaning of a word or expression is the thing it refers to or stands for in the outside world, since words or expressions are used to refer to or name things. (既然词语是用来指称事物，为事物命名的，那么词语的意义就是它所指称的对象) 指称理论的核心是一个词语的意义就是它所指向的客观世界的事物，所以“李白”和“天安门”指向特定的人和物，而“演员”和“电冰箱”则指向一类人和物；“红色”“圆形”那样的词语则指向一个或类物体的性质。意义---所指 weakpoints: a) Sometimes meaning is not equal to reference, e.g Morning star----Evening star b) The meanings of many words or expressions have no reference in the world. fairy, ghost, World War Three 王母娘娘（无所指） 2) The conceptual theory P68/63 According to this theory, there is no direct association between words and the things in the real world (a linguistic form and what it refers to). Their association is realized by means of ―concept‖. In other words, the meaning of a word is the image/concept which is created by the word in the speaker’s or hearer’s mind. (词语的意义是词语在说话人和听话人头脑中所产生的形象或概念) Weakpoints: a) It is too concrete to regard meanings as images, for the same word may create different images, e.g He scratched his head. He is the head of the college. b) Some words, especially functional words, such as if, or, so, do not create images in people’s mind, but they do have meanings, e.g. if, the 3) contextualism P69 4) Behaviorism P70-71 3. Sense and Reference P71-72 / 65-66 Sense and reference are the two terms we often come across in the study of meaning. They are two related but different aspects of meaning. Sense refers to the inherent meaning of the ling form. It is the collection of all the features of the ling form. It is abstract and de-contextualized. For example, the word ―desk‖ is defined as ― a piece of furniture with a flat top and four legs, at which one reads and writes‖. This meaning is called the sense of the word ―desk‖. Reference means what a ling form refers to in the real , physical world; it deals with the relationship ling element and the non-ling world of experience. For example, if we say ―The desk is broken‖, we must be talking about a certain desk existing in the situation. The word ―desk‖
戴版语言学 Chapter One----Introduction Part one----What is linguistics? 1. Definition----linguistics is generally defined as the scientific study of language. Scientific means it is based on the systematic investigation of linguistic data, conducted with reference to some general theory of language structure. No Article before language in this definition means that linguistics studies language in general. Linguists‘ task: basically study and understand the general principles upon which all languages are built. I nterest of linguists is ―what is said‖ 2. The scopes of linguistics General linguistics----the study of language as a whole-----the core of linguistics理论语言学Phonetics----the study of sounds used in linguistic communication.语音学 Phonology----the study of how sounds are put together and used to convey meanings in communication.音韵学 Morphology----the study of the way in which the symbols are arranged and combined to form words.形态学 Syntax-----the study of the rules for sentence formation句法学 Semantics-----the study of meaning.语义学 Pragmatics----the study of meaning in the context of language use.语用学 Above are made up of the core of linguistics Sociolinguistics-----the study of all social aspects of language and its relation with society from the core of the branch.社会语言学 Psycholinguistics-----the study of language processing, comprehending and production, as well as language acquisition.心里语言学 Applied linguistics-----the application of linguistic theories and principles to language teaching , especially the teaching of foreign and second languages.应用语言学 3. Some important distinctions in linguistics. (1) prescriptive vs. descriptive prescriptive----the linguistic stud y aims to lay down rules for ―correct and standard‖ behavior in using language, i.e. to tell people what they should say and what they should not say. 规定性Descriptive----the linguistic study aims to describe and analyze the language people actually use. 描写性 Modern linguistics is mostly descriptive. (2) Synchronic vs. diachronic Synchronic----the description of a language at some point of time in history.共时性 Diachronic----the description of a language as it changes through time----the historical development of language over a period of time----another name: historical linguistics.历时性 A synchronic approach enjoys priority over a diachronic one. (3) Speech vs. writing言语和文字 Two major media of linguistic communication Speech is prior to writing:
Chapter 2 Phonetics Contents: 2.1.The phonic medium of language 2.2.1 What is phonetics 2.2.2 Organs of speech oral cavity nasal cavity broad transcription 2.2.3 Orthographic representation of speech sounds narrow transcription vowel 2.2.4 Classification of English speech sounds consonants 2.3 phonology 2.3.1 phonology and phonetics 2.3.2 phone, phoneme, and allophone因素，音位和音位变体 2.3.3 phonemic contrast, complementary distribution, and minimal pair Sequential rules Assimilation rule
Deletion rule stress 2.3.5 Suprasegmental features tone intonation 2.1.The phonic medium of language 2.2.1. What is phonetics Phonetics is defined as the study of the phonic medium of language, it is concerne d with all the sounds that occur in the world’s language. 语音学是指对语言的语音媒介进行的研究,它关注语言世界中的所有语音。 Articulatory phonetics----it studies how a speaker uses his speech organ to articulate the sounds. Acoustic phonetics---- it studies the way sounds travel by looking at the sound waves, the physical means by which sounds are transmitted through the air from one person to another. 发音语音学通过观察声波研究语音的传播方式，即语音经过空气从一 个人到达 另一个人的物理方式。 Auditory phonetics---- it studies how the sounds are perceived by the hearer. 2.2.2 Organs of speech (vocal organs) the pharynx (pharyngeal cavity), the mouth (oral cavity), and the nose (nasal cavity). 2.2.3 Orthographic representation of speech sounds语音的正字法表征 a method of writing down speech sounds in a systematic and consistent way. 2.2. 3.1 IPA (International phonetic Alphabet)
1.1 Linguistics is generally defined as the scientific study of language . The study of language as a whole if often called general linguistics . phonetics(语音学): the study of sounds phonology(音位学): how sounds are put together and used to convey meaning Lexicon / morphology(形态学): how morphemes(词素) are arranged and combined to form words syntax(句法学): the study of rules that govern the combination of words to form grammatically permissible sentences semantics(语义学): the study of meaning pragmatics(语用学): the study of meaning in the context of language use interdisciplinary branches: sociolinguistics(社会语言学), psycholinguistics(心理语言学), applied linguistics(应用语言学) Important distinctions in linguistics prescriptive(规定性 old linguistics) vs. descriptive(描述性 modern linguistics) synchronic(共时性) vs. diachronic(历时性) 1.2 Language is a system of arbitrary vocal symbols used for human communication. Arbitrariness (任意性): Different sounds are used to refer to the same object in different languages. Productivity/creativity (能产性): Construction and interpretation of new signals are possible, so that large number of sentences can be produced. Duality (双层性): Two levels enable people to talk about anything within their knowledge. lower level(sounds)---higher level(words) Displacement(移位性): enable people to talk about a wide range of things, free from barriers caused by separation in time or place. Cultural transmission(文化传承): We are born with the ability to acquire language, the details of language system have to be taught and learned. Phonetics （语音学）（定义） Phonetics: the study of the phonic medium of language: it is concerned with all the sounds that occur in the world’s languages.（是指对语言的语音媒介进行的研究，它关注语言世界中的所有语音） Three branches of phonetics: articulatory phonetics （发音）auditory phonetics （听觉）acoustic phonetics （声学） Orthographic representation of speech sounds ：Broad transcription and Narrow transcription A standardized and internationally accepted system of phonetic transcription is the International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA). The basic principle of the IPA is using one letter to represent one speech sound. Phonetics & phonology ：（定义，区别） Both are concerned with the same aspect of language: the speech sounds. But they differ in their approach and focus. Phonetics is of a general nature; it is interested in all the speech sounds used in all human languages; (it aims to answer questions like: how they are produced, how they differ from each other, what phonetic features they have, how they can be classified, etc.) Phonology aims to discover how speech sounds in a language form patterns and how these sounds are used to convey meaning in linguistic communication. Phone （音素）Phoneme （音位）Allophone （音位变体）: （定义） Phone: a phone is a phonetic unit or segment （音素是一个语音单位或者说语音段） The speech sounds we hear and produce during linguistic communication are all phones. Phones do not necessarily distinguish meaning, some do, and some don’t Phoneme: a phoneme is a phonological unit ; it is a unit of distinctive value, it is an abstract unit.（音位是一个音位学的单位，而且是一个有区别意义的单位，是一个抽象的单位） Allophones: the different phones that can represent a phoneme in different phonetic environments are called the allophones of that phoneme.（在不同的语音环境下代表某个音位的音素） vowels (the air stream meets with no obstruction) and consonants(obstructed) stops(塞音), fricatives(擦音), affricates(塞擦音), liquids(流音), nasals, glides, bilabial(双唇音), laviodental(唇齿音), dental(齿音), alveolar(齿龈音), palatal(腭音), velar(软腭音), glottal(喉音) close vowels, semi-close vowels, semi-open vowels, open vowels(openness) unrounded vowels, rounded vowels(shape of the lips) long/tense vowels----short/lax vowels monophthongs(单元音), diphthongs(双元音) (single or combined) 2.3 Phonology and phonetics differ in their approach and focus. phonology: how speech sounds form patterns and are used to convey meaning concerned with sound system of a particular language phonetics: of a general nature, interested in all the speech sounds stress(重音)---word stress and sentence stress The location of stress in English distinguishes meaning. E.g. ‘import (n.) im’port (v.) // blackbird vs. black bird tone(语调)---pitch variation(音高变体) distinguish meaning E.g. 汉语四声 Intonation(音调)---English tones: falling tone, rising tone, fall-rise tone, rise-fall tone E.g. That’s not the book he wants. ? Minimal pair----when two different forms are identical (the same) in every way except for one sound segment which occurs in the same place in the strings, the two sound combinations are said to form a minimal pair. When the phonetically similar sounds never occur in the same environment, they are in complementary distribution . ? The syllable consists of three parts: the ONSET （节首）, the PEAK （韵峰）, the CODA （韵尾） ? Sentence stress----the relative force given to the components of a sentence. Generally, nouns, main verbs, adjectives, adverbs, numerals and demonstrative pronouns are stressed. Other categories like articles, person pronouns, auxiliary verbs prepositions and conjunctions are usually not stressed. 3.3 Word is the smallest free form found in language. Morphemes are the minimal units of meaning. Free and bound morphemes(自由词素can be a word by itself 粘着词素must be attached to another one---affix) 3.4 V----teach N Af----er Root （词根）Stem （词干）affix(词缀）（定义，会用，选择） Root: A root is that part of the word left when all the affixes (inflectional & derivational) are removed, e.g. “desire” in “desirable”, “care” in “ca refully ”. Affix:is the collective term for the type of formative that can be used only when added to another morpheme 3.5 Derivational and inflectional morphemes(派生词素和屈折词素) Free morphemes Bound morphemes Root Root Affix dog, cat -ceive Prefix Suffix grammar -vert Derivational Derivational Inflectional … -mit un-, dis- -ment -s, -ing, -‘s, -er ● Derivational morphemes ---- the morphemes which change the category, or grammatical class of words, e.g. modern---modernize, length---lengthen, fool---foolish, etc. ● Inflectional morphemes ---- the morphemes which are for the most part purely grammatical markers, signifying such concepts as tense, number, case and so on; they never change their syntactic category, never add any lexical meaning, e.g. a) number: tables apples cars b) person, finiteness and aspect: talk/talks/talking/talked c) case: John/John’s Syntax （句法学）（定义） Syntax: A branch of linguistics that studies how words are combined to form sentences and the rules that govern the formation of sentences. （句法学是研究词是如何组成句子以及如何支配句子构成规则的一个语言学分支） Phrase categories and their structures Phrase categories----the syntactic units that are built around a certain word category are called phrase categories, such as noun phrase: NP (N), verb phrase: VP (V), adjective phrase: AP (A), and prepositional: PP (P). The structure: specifier + head + complement Head （中心语）---- the word around which a phrase is formed Specifier （标志成分）---- the words on the left side of the heads Complement （补足成分）---- the words on the right side of the heads Phrase structure rules: The grammatical mechanism that regulates the arrangement of elements that make up a phrase is called a phrase structure rule, such as: NP (Det 限定词) + N + (PP)……e.g. those people, the fish on the plate, pretty girls. VP (Qual 修饰词) + V + (NP)……e.g. always play games, finish assignments. AP (Deg 程度词) + A + (PP)……very handsome, very pessimistic, familiar with, very close to PP (Deg) + P + (NP)……on the shelf, in the boat, quite near the station S→NP VP (A sentence consists of, or is rewritten as, a noun phrase and a verb phrase) Do insertion: Insert interrogative do into an empty Infl position. Semantics （语义学）（定义） Semantics: the study of meaning from the linguistic point of view （对意义的研究） Behaviorism→ Bloomfield 行为主义论 based on contextualist view S: stimulus r: response Jill Jack S---------r………s ---------R (The small letters r, sàspeech) (The capitalized letter R, Sàpractical events) Pragmatics （语用学）（问答，辨析，定义） Pragmatics: the study of language in use or language communication; the study of the use of context to make inference about meaning. The study of how speakers of a language use sentences to effect successful communication. (book) Pragmatics vs. semantics Semantics: is the study of the literal meaning of a sentence (without taking context into consideration). Pragmatics: the study of the intended meaning of a speaker (taking context into consideration), e.g. “Today is Sunday”, semantically, it means that today is the first day of the week; pragmatically, you can mean a lot by saying this, all depending on the context and the intention of the speaker, say, making a suggestion or giving an invitation… Context: a basic concept in the study of pragmatics. It is generally considered as constituted knowledge shared by the speaker and the hearer, such as cultural background, situation(time, place, manner, etc.), the relationship between the speaker and the hearer,etc. Sentence meaning vs. utterance meaning 句子意义和话语意义 Sentence meaning: Abstract and context-independent meaning; literal meaning of a sentence; utterance meaning: concrete and context-dependent meaning; intended meaning of a speaker; linguistic items which fulfill the same or similar functions in a particular language such as a sentence, a noun phrase or a verb. Syntactic categories —word-level categories: major lexical categories (often assumed as the heads around which phrases are built) ---Noun (N) Verb (V) Adjective (A) Preposition (P) minor lexical categories---Determiner (Det) Degree words (Deg) Qualifier (Qual) Auxiliary (Aux) Conjunction (Con) Three criteria(条件) determining a word’s category: meaning, inflection (变形) and distribution (分布) A word’s category can be determined only by all three criteria. Phrase category is determined by the word category around which the phrase is built. noun phrase (NP), verb phrase (VP), adjective phrase (AP), prepositional phrase (PP) phrases that are formed of more than one word usually contain : head, specifier, complement 4.3 Phrase structure rule---special type of grammatical mechanism regulating the arrangement of elements that make up a phrase NP→(Det) N (PP) an NP consists of a determiner, an N head, and a PP complement VP→(Qual) V (NP) a VP consists of a qualifier, a V head, and an NP complement AP→(Deg) A (PP) …… PP→(Deg) P (NP) …… XP rule: XP→(specifier) X (complement) Coordination rule: coordinate structures (consist a conjunction “and”/”or”) X→X *Con X Either an X or an XP can be coordinated; one or more categories can occur to the left of the Con. 5.3 Sense and reference are two terms often encountered in the study of word meaning, which are related but different aspects of meaning. Sense: e.g. “dog”---a domesticated mammal... refer to any animal that meets the features described Reference: “dog”---A said to B:” The dog’s barking.” refer to a certain dog known to both A&B Major sense relations: Synonymy (近义词）---words that are close in meaning dialectal syn.(autumn in BE & fall in AE), stylistic syn.(daddy & father), polysemy (一词多义）one word may have more than one meaning) homonymy (同音形异义）homophones--- two words same in sound, homographs---same in spelling, complete homonyms---same in both sound and spelling)feet 、fete meat/meet site/sight hyponymy (上下层关系）relation between a general word —superordinate, and a specific word--hyponyms) flower , rose, Lily antonymy (反义）words that are opposite in meaning) gradable ant.---e.g. hot vs. cold complementary ant.---e.g. male vs. female married. / John’s a bachelor. X, T—Y, F; X, F —Y, T X entails Y. E.g. He’s been to France. / He’s been to Europe. X, T—Y, T; X, F —Y, may be T or F X presupposes Y. E.g. John’s bike needs repairing. / John has a bike. X, T —Y, T; X, F —Y, T X is a contradiction. E.g. My unmarried sister married a bachelor. X is always false. X is semantically anomalous. (absurd in the sense) 5.5 componential analysis----lexical meaning E.g. man---+HUMAN, +ADULT, +ANIMATE, +MALE predication(谓项) analysis---sentence meaning E.g. The kids like apples. ---KID, APPLE (LIKE) Tom smokes. ---TOM (SMOKE) It is hot. --- (BE HOT) Pragmatics studies how speakers of a language use sentences to effect successful communication (meaning in a certain context). Clause —a group of words which form a grammatical unit and which contain a subject and a finite verb. A clause forms a sentence or part of a sentence and often functions as a noun, adjective or adverb. “IC analysis” is a new approach of sentence study that cuts a sentence into two (or more) segments. ? Componential analysis---- a way to analyze lexical meaning. The approach is based on the belief that the meaning of a word can be dissected into meaning components, called semantic features. For example, ? Man: [+HUMAN, +ADULT, +ANIMATE, +MALE] Cooperative principle (CP)---- According to Grice, in making conversation, there is a general principle which all participants are expected to observe.