戴伟栋新编简明英语语言学教程笔记..doc

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. Interest of linguists is “what is said” 2. The scopes of linguistics General linguistics----the study of language as a whole-----the core of linguistics Phonetics----the study of sounds used in linguistic communication. Phonology----the study of how sounds are put together and used to convey meanings in communication. Morphology----the study of the way in which the symbols are arranged and combined to form words. Syntax-----the study of the rules for sentence formation Semantics-----the study of meaning. Pragmatics----the study of meaning in the context of language use. 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. Psycholinguistics-----the study of language processing, comprehending and production, as well as language acquisition. Applied linguistics-----the 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 prescriptive----the 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. Descriptive----the linguistic study aims to describe and analyze the language people actually use. Modern linguistics is mostly descriptive. (2) Synchronic vs. diachronic Synchronic----the description