英語语言学笔记(戴伟栋).doc

Chapter 1??What is language?[A] The origins of languageSome speculations of the origins of language:① The divine sourceThe basic hypothesis: if infants were allowed to grow up without hearing any language, then they would spontaneously begin using the original god-given language.Actually, children living without access to human speech in their early years grow up with no language at all.② The natural-sound sourceThe bow-wow theory: the suggestion is that primitive words could have been imitations of the natural sounds which early men and women heard around them.The “Yo-heave-ho” theory: the sounds produced by humans when exerting physical effort, especially when co-operating with other humans, may be the origins of speech sounds.Onomatopoeic sounds③ The oral-gesture sourceIt is claimed that originally a set of physical gestures was developed as a means of communication.The patterns of movement in articulation would be the same as gestural movement; hence waving tongue would develop from waving hand.④ Glossogenetics（言语遗传学）This focuses mainly on the biological basis of the formation and development of human language.Physiological adaptationàdevelop naming abilityàinteractions and transactionsPhysical adaptation:Human teeth are upright and roughly even in height.Human lips have intricate muscle interlacing, thus making them very flexible.The human mouth is small and contains a very flexible tongue.The human larynx is lowered, creating a longer cavity called the pharynx, and making it easier for the human to choke on the pieces of food, but making the sound speech possible.The human brain is lateralized. Those analytic functions (tool-using and language) are largely confined to the left hemisphere of the brain for most humans.Two major functions of language:Interactional: a social function of language.Transactional: a function involving the communication of knowledge and information[B] The properties of languageLanguage is a system of arbitrary