14-15-1 Chapter 1 Invitations-新.ppt

Welcome to General Modern Linguistics ---- An IntroductionHu Min 胡 敏 What is linguistics about? Questions What is language? What are the defining properties of language? How did language come into existence? What are the functions of language? How to study language? What are the main branches of language study? Course Description An elective course offered to English majors. It is intended to develop the students’ analytical ability in examining various linguistic phenomena, and investigating rules governing language structures and human linguistic behaviours through a brief but systematic introduction to general modern linguistics. The Goals for this Course To get a scientific view on language; To understand some basic theories on linguistics; To understand the applications of the linguistic theories, especially in the fields of language teaching learning (SLA or TEFL), and in cross-cultural communication; To prepare for the future research work. Why “General”? General Physics Dynamics Thermology / thermotics Acoustics Photology / Photics /Optics Electricity Electronics Magnetics … Why “Modern”? First, linguistics is descriptive while traditional grammar is prescriptive. A linguist is interested in what is said, not in what he thinks ought to be said. He describes language in all its aspects, but does not prescribe rules of correctness. He does not believe that there is some absolute standard of correctness concerning language use which linguists or school teachers should view as their duty to maintain. Instead, he would prefer to be an observer and recorder of facts, but not a judge. He might recognize that one type of speech appears to be socially more acceptable than others because of the influence of fashion. But this will not make him think that the socially more acceptable variety can replace all the other varieties, or the old words are always better than the new ones, or vice versa. He will regard the changes in language and language u