5 the sounds of language研究生英语语言学考研笔记.doc

The origins of language ⅠThe divine source : God created Adam and whatsoever Adam called every living creatrue Following a Hindu tradition , language came from the goddess Sarasvati, wife of Brahma,creator of the universe. The basic hypothesis :if infants were allowed to grow up without hearing any language, then they would spontaneously begin using the original God-given language. Two experiments: An Egyptian pharaoh named Psammetichus tried the experiment with two newborn infants around 600BC.After two years in the company of goats and a mute shepherd, the children were reported to have spontaneously uttered, not an Egyptian word, but Phrygian word bekos, meaning ‘bread’.The pharaoh concluded that Phrygian must be the original language. James IV of Scotland carried out a similar experiment around AD 1500 and the children were reported to have started speaking Hebrew. Conclusion :actually , children living without access to human speech in their early years grow up with no language at all. ⅡThe natural –sound source: ⅰThe bow-wow theory : primitive words could have been imitation of the natural sounds which early men and women heard around them.e.g.when a flying objcet made a CUCKOO sound , that natural sound was adopted to refer to support this theory. The fact that all modern languages have some words with pronunciations which seem to ‘echo ’naturally occuring sounds could be used to support this theory.e.g.some words: splash , bang, boom, rattle, buzz, hiss, screech Onomatopoeic:eching natural sounds ⅱthe pooh-pooh theory: the original sounds of language came from natural cries of emotion , such pain, anger and joy . OUCH →painful connotation other interjections:Ah!,Hey!,Wow!,Yurk! ⅲ 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. ⅢThe oral-gesture source: The “oral-gesture”theory →a connection between physical and oral gesture.