[文学]11英语文学学习.ppt

Welcome to Linguistics 2nd Semester 2005-2006 Lecture I Introduction to the Course Why does language provide such a fascinating object of study? Perhaps it is because its unique role in capturing the breadth of human thought and endeavour. We look around us, and are awed by the variety of several thousand languages and dialects, expressing a multiplicity of world views, literatures, and ways of life. We look back at the thoughts of our predecessors, and find we can see only as far as language lets us see. We look forward in time, and find we can plan only through language. We look outward in space, ands end symbols of communication along with our spacecraft, to explain who we are, in case there is anyone there who wants to know. Alongside this, there is the importance we attach to language, as a means of understanding ourselves and our society, and of resolving some of the problems and tensions that arise from human interaction. No sector of society is unaffected, and all can benefit from the study of the linguistic factors that constitute a barrier, as well as a means of communication. But linguistic problems rarely admit simple solutions, and it is this elementary observations that has led to the present work. Or maybe the reason is in fact simple: human beings are always curious in seeking what they don’t know. Consider: What are taken for granted in our course of language use without realizing its wonder? A few Questions under the study of Linguistics --Where does language come from? How? When? --Why is language human-specific? --Why can a child learn his/her mother tongue in a short period of time? --How does language change? --How can people talk orderly? --How can we say one thing but mean another? --Why can a person speak and understand a sentence s/he had never spoken or heard before? Etc. What is linguistics Linguistics, the scientific study of language, concerns itself with all aspects of how people use language and what they must know in orde