戴伟栋-新编简明英语语言学教程笔记.doc

PAGE PAGE 37 戴版语言学 Chapter OneIntroduction Part oneWhat is linguistics? 1. Definitionlinguistics 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. Interest of linguists is “what is said” 2. The scopes of linguistics General linguisticsthe study of language as a wholethe core of linguistics Phoneticsthe study of sounds used in linguistic communication. Phonologythe study of how sounds are put together and used to convey meanings in communication. Morphologythe study of the way in which the symbols are arranged and combined to form words. Syntaxthe study of the rules for sentence formation Semanticsthe study of meaning. Pragmaticsthe study of meaning in the context of language use. Above are made up of the core of linguistics Sociolinguisticsthe study of all social aspects of language and its relation with society from the core of the branch. Psycholinguisticsthe study of language processing, comprehending and production, as well as language acquisition. Applied linguisticsthe application of linguistic theories and principles to language teaching , especially the teaching of foreign and second languages. 3. Some important distinctions in linguistics. (1) prescriptive vs. descriptive prescriptivethe linguistic study 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. Descriptivethe linguistic study aims to describe and analyze the language people actually use. Modern linguistics is mostly descriptive. (2) Synchronic vs. diachronic Synchronicthe description of a language at some point of time in history. Diachroni