语言学第一章整理语言学第一章整理.docVIP

Chapter one What is language? Language is a system of arbitrary vocal symbols used for human communication. System means it is rule-governed; arbitrary means there is no logical relationship between language elements and their meaning; vocal means speech is primary; symbols related to arbitrariness, it means language elements are only the symbols for the meaning they express. Human, it means language is uniquely human; communication is the primary function of language. What are the design features of language, give their definitions and examples. Arbitrary: arbitrary is the core feature of language, which means that there is no logical relation between meanings and sounds. Arbitrary is a matter of degree, language is not entirely arbitrary, first, the onomatopoeia are words that sound like the sound they describe, to some extent, they have natural basis. Second, some compounds are not entirely arbitrary either, “snow” and “storm” are arbitrary words, but the compound word “snowstorm” is less so. Thirdly, some surnames, such as Longfellow, Johnson. Examples: a rose by other name would smell as sweet Duality: is meant the property of having two levels of structures, such that units of the primary level are composed of elements of the secondary level and each of the two levels has its own principles of organization .we call sounds secondary units as opposed to primary units as words, since the secondary are meaningless and the primary unit have distinct and identifiable meaning. Creativity: language users can understand and produce new sentences to express new meanings. By creativity, we mean language is resourceful because of its duality and recursiveness. By duality the speaker is able to combine the basic linguistic units to form an infinite set of sentences, most of which are never produced or heard before. Language is creativity in another sense, that is, its potential to create endless sentences. The recursive nature of language provides a theoretical basis of t