The Study of Language

What Is Language?
Why do we study language?
Language makes us uniquely human.
Language reflects one’s self-identity and is indispensable 必不可少的、必需的 for social
interactions in a society.
All Languages are variable, and reflect our individual identity, and social/cultural aspects of a society.
Not only does studying language reveal sth interesting about human society, but there are also
many practical applications of the study of language that can have a significant effect on people’s
daily lives.
How do you know that you know a language?
1. Linguistic Competence & Performance
Know your language → Put into a textbook
Unaware many things: walking, dancing, balance, speed
Language
→ hidden knowledge
→ linguistic competence: unseen potential (mind)
2. Not All Knowledge Is Hidden.
Reveal it through linguistic 語⾔的 performance: produce / comprehend language
Observable realization 實現 (speech & writing)
3. Stumble (Fall Down), Slip of Tongue
Not competence, why?
Dark, uneven, not pay attention
It’s performance.
impaired 受損的
4. Make Performance Errors
Unable to remember a word
Mispronouncing something
Jumbling 混雜 the words in the sentences
Tired, distracted, make a difficult sentence
5. Competence Can’t Be Seen.
Use performance as a basis for making hypotheses 假設, and draw conclusions:
(1) Disregard imperfections 忽略不完美
(2) Focus on consistent patterns
What do we mean by communication?
Other different types of language
Honking a horn on a car (protest)
Drawing a picture (abused child)
Shouting contest
Using semaphore flags 旗語
Morse codes 摩爾斯電碼
braille 盲⼈點字法
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 The key elements of communication system
An information source
A transmitter 媒介
A signal
A receiver
A destination
Can you talk about the communication chain?
Idealization 理想化→ context (receive exactly the idea)
Interference → noise
What is involved in the nine steps of the speech communication chain?
1 Information source Think of what you want to communicate.
2 Information source Pick out words to express the idea. Semantics 語意學
3 Information source Put these words together in a certain order following rules.
Syntax 句法學, Morphology 構詞學
4 Information source Figure out how to pronounce these words. Phonology ⾳韻學
5 Transmitter Send those pronunciations to your vocal anatomy 解剖的構
造. Articulatory phonetics 發⾳語⾳學

6 Signal Speak: Send the sounds through the air.

7 Receiver Perceive: Listener hears the sounds.
8 Decode the signal Decode: Listener interprets sounds as language.
9 Destination (receive the idea) Connect: Listener receives communicated idea.

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The Origins of Language
1. The Divine Source 神源說
View
In most religions there appears to be a divine source that provides humans with language.
To rediscover the origin, they did experiments and got conflicting results.
Hypothesis
If human infants grew up without hearing any language around them, they would
spontaneously begin using the original God-given language.
Experiment: An Egyptian pharaoh
Two newborn babies - two years of isolation except for the company of goats and mute 啞
的 shepherd
→ bekos (bread), but kos ending was added in the Greek version of the story
→ heard what the goats were saying
The children living without access to human language in their early years grow up with no
language.
2. The Natural Sound Source ⾃然聲源說
The divine theory disappears in the scientific time.
The human auditory 聽覺的 system functions before birth and develops into an ability to identify
sounds in the environment, allowing humans to make a connection between a sound and the thing
producing that sound.
Primitive 原始的 words could be imitations of the natural sounds which early human heard around
them.
(1) The “Bow-wow” theory 狗吠理論
Modern language has some words with pronunciations echoing naturally occurring sounds and
could be used to support this theory.
e.g., Onomatopoeia 擬聲詞 words that sound similar to the noises they describe
Soundless things such as low branch?
Abstract concepts such as beauty?
Names for things such as table?
(2) The “Pooh-Pooh” Theory 呸呸理論
View: The original sounds of language may come from instinctive 本能的 sounds in emotional
circumstances (pain, anger and joy).
Example
Pain: Ouch, sudden intakes of breath, hunger: 咕嚕咕嚕
→ Sounds not used in speech production
3. The Social Interaction Source 社會互動來源
The “Yo-He-Ho” Theory 喲嗨理論
The sounds of a person involved in physical effort could be the source of language, especially
when that physical effort involved several people and the interaction had to be coordinated 協
調的.
e.g., create a set of hums 哼, grunts 喃喃地抱怨, groans 呻吟, and curses 咒罵
Hypothesis: It places the development of human language in a social context 脈絡.

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 Groups are a social organization and to maintain organizations, some form of communication is
required, even if it is just grunts and curses. So, human sounds produced must have some principled
合乎原則的 use within the life and social interaction of early human groups.
Apes and other primates 靈⻑類 live in social groups and use grunts and social calls, but do not
develop the capacity for speech.
4. The Physical Adaptation Source ⾝體適應來源
In the study of evolutionary 演化的 development, there are certain physical features (e.g.,
reconstructed 重建的 vocal tract ), best thought of as partial adaptations, which appear to be
relevant for speech.
By themselves, such features wouldn’t guarantee speech, but they are good clues that a creature
with such features probably has the capacity for speech.
View
The types of physical features humans possess (e.g. teeth, lips), especially those that are
distinct 區別 from other creatures, may be able to function (i.e. producing speech sounds)
such as f, v, p, b, m.
b and m sounds are the most widely attested 證實 in the vocalizations 發聲 made by human
infants, whichever language their parents are using.
Teeth, Lips, Mouth, Larynx, and Pharynx

The tongue and closing off the airway through the nose are the facts with more intricate 複雜的
muscle interlacing 交織 in the lips and mouth, capable of a wider range of shapes and a more
rapid and powerful delivery of sounds produced through the shapes.
The pharynx is above the vocal folds and acts as a resonator 共鳴器 for increased range and
clarity of the sounds produced via the larynx and the vocal tract.
Other primates have almost no pharynx and it gives a big advantage in getting this extra vocal
power to outweigh 勝過 the potential disadvantage from choking 噎到.
5. The Tool-making Source 製造⼯具來源
Human manual ⼿動的 gestures may have been a precursor 先驅 of language.

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 Humans had developed preferential 優先的 right-handedness and had become capable of making
stone tools, wood tools, and composite 綜合的 tools.
Tool-making or the outcome of manipulating 操控的 objects and changing them using both hands is
evidence 證據 of a brain at work.
The human brain is lateralized 單側性.
It has specialized functions in each of the two hemispheres.
The motor movements involved in complex vocalization (speaking) and object manipulation
(making or using tools) are controlled in the left hemisphere of the brain.
The area of the motor cortex 運動神經⽪層 that controls the muscles of the arms and hands is
next to the articulatory 發⾳的 muscles of the face, jaw, and tongue.

There may be a connection between the language-using and tool-using abilities of humans and
both are involved in the development of the speaking brain.
Language structure
(1) People develop a naming ability by producing a specific and consistent ⼀致的 noise bEEr for a
special object.
(2) They bring another noise gOOd and combine them into a complex message bEEr gOOd.
(3) Later when people are watching a ball game and drinking beer, they may proclaim 讚揚 “This
beer is good.”
6. The Genetic Source 基因來源
View
Human offspring 後代 are born with a special capacity for language.
Even children who are born deaf become fluent sign language users.
It is innate and it isn’t tied to a specific variety of language.
Hypothesis
Is it possible that it is genetically hard-wired 基因控制的 in the newborn human?
As a solution to the puzzle of the origins of language, this innateness hypothesis 語⾔天賦論
would seem to point to sth in human genetics 基因學, possibly a crucial mutation 重要變化, as
the source.
Our speculations 臆測 about the origins of language move away from fossil 化⽯ evidence or the
physical source of basic human sounds toward analogies 類似 with how computers work (being pre-
programmed 被預先編入程式的 or hard-wired 硬體控制的) and concepts are taken from the study
of genetics.
The investigation of the origins of language then turns into a search of the special “language gene”
that only humans possess.

Animals and Human Language

Communication
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 Communicative Signals Informative Signals
溝通的訊號 給予資訊的訊號

Intentionally communicating sth Unintentionally communicating sth

Using language to tell a person Informing through signals you have sent
I’d like to apply for the position at the Have a cold (sneeze)
cram school. Not at ease (shift around)
愛上你是我的錯……不要讓我⼀錯再錯 Disorganized (unmatched socks)
Foreigner (strange accent)

Humans are capable of producing sounds and syllables ⾳節 in a stream of speech that appears to
have no communicative purpose, as in glossolalia 語意不清, or speaking in tongues, which is
associated with the religious practices of Pentecostal 五旬教的 churches.
With distinctions between human language and animal communication, we are considering in terms
of their potential as means of intentional communication.
Properties of Human Language
Although communication is the primary function of human language, it is not a distinguishing 使出
眾的 feature.
Other creature cannot reflect on 反省 the way they create their communicative messages.
A barking dog can’t say “Hey, you should lower your bark to make it sound more menacing 脅迫的.”
to another barking dog.

Reflexivity 反⾝ People can use language to think and talk I wish the dinosaur judge
性 about language itself. wouldn’t use
= reflexiveness Without the general ability – reflexivity, we unreasonable technical
wouldn’t be able to reflect on or identify terms.
any other other distinct properties of
language.

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Displacement 1. Animals Animals
易境性 When your cat comes home calling A dog can only say GRRR
meow, you understand this message as right now, but not GRRR for
relating to the immediate time and last night or over in the
place. park.
Animal communication seems to be Humans
designed exclusively for this moment, Angels, Santa Claus,
here and now. heaven
→ It cannot be used to relate events that
are far removed in time and place.
2. Humans
Humans can refer to past and future
time.
It allows us to talk about things,
places, and events not present in
the immediate environment.

Arbitrariness There is no ‘‘natural’’ connection between a The water from both ⻑⽩

任意性、專制 linguistic form and its meaning. ⼭ and ⽩頭⼭.
The linguistic form has no natural or Onomatopoeic words
‘‘iconic’’ relationship with the object. Cuckoo, CRASH, slurp,
This aspect of the relationship between squelch 嘎吱聲, whirr 呼呼
linguistic signs and objects in the world is 聲
described as arbitrariness. Animal communication
Onomatopoeic words have a less arbitrary Used in specific
connection. situations
→ They seem to echo the sounds of objects e.g., establishing
or activities. territory 地盤
Animal communication has the quality of Used at particular
arbitrariness. times
→ It consists of a fixed and limited set of e.g., during the
vocal or gestural forms. mating 求偶的

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Productivity 創 Human are continually creating new Trash talk, trashed
造性 expressions and novel utterances by Fixed reference
= creativity manipulating their linguistic resources to Scent-based signaling of a
= open- describe new objects and situations. moth
endedness The potential number of utterances in any
human lg is infinite.
Fixed reference 固定的參考關係
The limiting feature of animal
communication.
Each signal in the system which is fixed
is related to a particular occasion or
purpose.
Cultural The process whereby a language is passed An infant born to Korean
Transmission on from one generation to the parents in Korea, but
文化傳遞 next. brought up from birth by
We do not inherit 繼承 language from Americans in U.S.
parents’ genes. → have physical
We acquire a first language as children in a characteristics inherited
culture with other speakers. from the Korean parents,
The general pattern in animal but speak English.
communication is that creatures are born Human infants, growing
with a set of specific signals that are up in isolation, produce
produced instinctively. no instinctive language.
Duality 雙重性 Human language is organized at two levels n, b, i
= double or layers simultaneously. bin 垃圾桶, nib 筆尖
articulation 清 We can produce individual sound, like n, big, pig, gin
晰發⾳ b, i. Woof ≠ oowf ≠ foow
As individual sounds, none of these
discrete 不同的 forms has any intrinsic
固有的 meaning.
We have distinct sounds (one level) and
meanings (another level).
→ We can produce many sound
combinations (e.g. words) which are distinct
in meaning.

Talking to animals
Animals produce a particular action in response to a particular sound-stimulus or ‘‘noise’’, but do
not actually ‘‘understand’’ what the words in the noise mean.
Chimpanzees and Language

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Gua An infant chimpanzee is trained with a baby for three years.
1. Can understand about 100 words, but not ‘say’ any of them
2. Viki can say poor version of mama, papa and cup.
3. Primates 靈⻑類 can communicate with a wide range of vocal calls, but can’t
make human speech sounds.
Washoe A female chimpanzee is trained with ASL for three and a half years.
1. Understand a large number of signs (>100)
2. Have the potential for productivity (two-words: more fruit, open foot-drink,
water bird)
3. Can hold basic conversations (Q-A)
Toy doll dropped in a cup: “baby in my water”– use combinations spontaneously
Sarah Five years of training with plastic shapes (chips 籌碼)
Understand 180 meaning of symbols
Use a set of plastic shapes (vertically) to communicate with humans
Meaning associates 聯想 with objects and actions (arbitrariness)
If Sarah put red on green, Mary give Sarah chocolate.
Lana Trained to use artificial language called Yerkish
Connect symbols on a keyboard to a computer
Need to correctly use word order
Find and press symbols to produce the message

Nim Trained to use American sign language

Chimpsky 2 years→ single word signs and two-word signs (more food, give banana) Most
4 years→ 125 signs
10 years→ 20000 signs, but 80% repeated signs
No meaning of 3-word signs
play me Nim, give orange me, give eat orange
Kanzi A adopted baby is around while training a short chimpanzee to use symbols of
Yerkish
1. Learn by being exposed to and observing a language (Yerkish)
2. Develop a large symbol vocabulary (250)
3. At eight, it can associate symbols with spoken words
4. Understand spoken English about 2.5 year-old child
5. Use a consistently distinct set of ‘‘gentle noises’’ as words to refer to things
such as bananas, grapes, and juice.
6. Can use his symbol system to ask to watch favorite movies.

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 Both Sarah and Lana demonstrated an ability to use what look like word symbols and basic
structures in ways that superficially 表⾯上 resemble the use of language (linguistic skills).
The Controversy
The chimpanzees’ action is viewed as a type of conditioned 制約的 response to cues provided (often
unwittingly 無⼼地) by human trainers.
Chimpanzees are clever creatures who learn to produce a certain type of behavior (signing or symbol
selection) to get rewards and are performing sophisticated 老練的 tricks.

Unlimited Fixed
human chimpanzee

The Gardners argued that chimpanzees did not elicit conditioned responses from Washoe.
It could produce correct signs to identify objects in pictures in the absence of any human.
Another group of chimpanzees used signs with each other and with Washoe, even when there were
no humans present.
Using Language
Different criteria: Chimpanzees can interact by using a symbol system chosen by humans (language-
like signs), but not use human language.
They do not perform linguistically on a level equal to a child about to begin pre-school.
We can describe some key properties of language.
We don’t have an objective and non-controversial 非⽭盾的 definition of what counts as ‘‘using
language’’
Two ways of thinking about what using language means
1. It serves as a type of communication system that can be observed in different situations.
In one situation, the behavior of a two-year-old child interacting with a caregiver is “using
language”.
2. In another situation, the behavior from chimpanzees and bonobos interacting with humans is
also “using language”.
However, underlying the two-year-old’s communicative activity is the capacity to develop a complex
system of sounds and structures, plus computational 計算的 procedures, that will allow the child to
produce extended discourse containing a potentially infinite number of novel utterances.
No other creature has been observed using language in this sense.
It is in this more comprehensive and productive 創造⼒豐富的 sense that we say that language
is uniquely human.

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The Sounds of Language
Phonetic Alphabet ⾳標
A set of symbols that are used to represent both the consonant and vowel sounds of English words.
The English spelling system is not a good phonetic alphabet because:
1. Sometimes the same sound is spelled using different letters.
e.g., the [i] sound in pea, sea, see, scene, receive, thief, machine, and Aesop
2. Sometimes the same letters can stand for different sounds, as in:
(1) sign, pleasure, and resign
(2) charter and character,
(3) father, all, about, apple, any, and age
3. Sometimes a single sound is spelled by a combination of letters.
e.g., lock, that, book, boast, mountain, shop, apple, or special
4. Sometimes a single letter represents a combination of sounds.
e.g., excuse or use
5. Sometimes letters stand for no sound at all.
e.g., know, doubt, though, island, or mouse
Phonetics 語⾳學 : the study of the characteristics of speech sounds

1. Articulatory phonetics 發⾳語⾳學 : The study of how speech sounds are made.
Sounds are usually classified according to the position of the lips and the tongue, how far open
the mouth is, whether or not the vocal cords 聲帶 are vibrating.
2. Acoustic phonetics 聲學語⾳學 : The study of the physical properties of speech.
Sound waves in the air, dealing with the transmission 傳遞 of speech sounds through the air.
When a speech sound is produced, it causes minor air disturbances 擾亂 (sound waves).
Various instruments ⼯具 are used to measure the characteristics of these sound waves.
3. Auditory phonetics (perceptual phonetics) 聽覺語⾳學 : The study of the perception 知覺 , via the
ear, of speech sounds, deals with how speech sounds are perceived 知覺 by the listener.
Differences in aspiration 送氣
e.g. between the aspirated /p/ of [phit] pit and the unaspirated /p/ of [tip] tip.
Other differences in sound quality
e.g. between the ‘‘clear’’ /l/ of [lai] light and the ‘‘dark’’ /l/ of [hil] hill.
In articulatory phonetics, we start with the air pushed out by the lungs up through the trachea
(windpipe) 氣管 to the larynx 喉頭.
Inside the larynx are vocal folds (vocal cords).

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 Voiced 濁⾳
When the vocal cords are drawn
together, the air from the lungs
repeatedly pushes them apart as it
passes through, creating a vibration
effect.
Voiceless 清⾳ Whisper ⽿語
When the vocal cords are spread
apart, the air from the lungs passes
between them is unimpeded 未受阻
礙.

Place of Articulation 發⾳位置

Bilabials 雙唇⾳ Using both (=bi) upper and lower [p] (voiceless)
lips (=labia) [b] and [m] (voiced)
[w] sound at the beginning
Labiodentals 唇齒⾳ The upper teeth and the lower lip [f] (voiceless)
[v] (voiced)
Dentals 齒⾳ The tongue tip behind the upper [θ] (voiceless)
= Interdentals 齒間⾳ front teeth [ð] (voiced)
The tongue tip between (=inter)
the upper and lower teeth
Alveolars 齒齦⾳ The front part of the tongue on the [t] and [s] (voiceless)
alveolar ridge immediately behind [d], [z], [n] (voiced)
and above the upper teeth [l] and [r] sound at the beginning
Palatals 上顎⾳ The tongue and the (hard) palate [∫] and [ tʃ] (voiceless)
硬顎. [ʒ] and [dʒ] (voiced)
[ j ] sound at the beginning
Velars 軟顎⾳ The back of the tongue against the [k] (voiceless)
velum 軟顎(soft palate). [g] (voiced)
[ŋ]: The velum can be lowered to
allow air to flow through the nasal
cavity.

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Glottals 聲⾨、喉⾨⾳ Using the glottis.
Produced without the active use
of the tongue and other parts of
the mouth
[h] (voiceless)
Glottis 聲⾨ : The space between the
vocal cords in the larynx 喉頭 (the
upper part of the windpipe,
containing the vocal cords).

Manner of Articulation 發⾳⽅式

Stops 阻塞⾳ Blocking the airstream 氣流 very briefly [p], [t], [k] (voiceless)
= plosive 爆破⾳ then letting it go abruptly 突然地 [b], [d], [g] (voiced)
Fricatives 摩擦⾳ Blocking the airstream and having the air [f], [h], [θ], [s], [∫]
push through the very narrow gap, (voiceless)
creating a type of friction 摩擦. [v], [ð], [z], [ʒ] (voiced)
Affricates 塞擦⾳ Combining a brief stopping of the [tʃ] (voiceless)
airstream with an obstructed 阻礙的 [dʒ] (voiced)
release 放氣 which causes some friction.
Nasals ⿐⾳ The velum 軟顎 is lowered and the [m], [n], [ŋ] (voiced)
airstream is allowed to flow out through
the nose.
Liquids 流⾳ [l] 舌邊⾳ : letting the airstream flow [l], [r] (voiced)
around the sides of the tongue
[r] 捲舌⾳: formed with the tongue tip
raised and curled 捲 back near the
alveolar ridge
Glides 滑⾳ The tongue in motion 移動 (or ‘‘gliding’’) [w], [j] (voiced)
= semi-vowels 半⺟⾳ to or from the position of a vowel
= approximants 無摩擦延
續⾳

Consonant Sounds Chart ⼦⾳表

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Vowels ⺟⾳
high, mid, low - front, central, back - tense or lax - rounded or unrounded

Front vowels
[i] bead, beef, key, me
[ɪ] bid, myth, women
[ɛ] bed, dead, said
[æ] bad, laugh, wrap
Central vowels
[ə] above, oven, support
[ʌ] butt, blood, dove, tough
Back vowels
[u] boo, move, two, you
[ʊ] book, could, put
[ɔ] born, caught, fall, raw
[ɑ] Bob, cot, swan

Diphthongs
[aɪ] buy, eye, I, my, pie, sigh
[aʊ] bough, doubt, cow
[eɪ] bait, eight, great, late, say
[oʊ] boat, home, owe, throw, toe
[ɔɪ] boy, noise, royal

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The Sound Patterns of Language
Phonology ⾳韻學
the study of the distribution 分布 of sounds in a language and the interactions (交流) between those
different sounds
1. the description of the systems and patterns of speech
2. concerned with the abstract or mental aspect of the sounds in language
Phonology is about the design of each sound type, which serves as the basis of all the variations 變
種 in different physical articulations 發⾳ of that sound type in different contexts.
e.g., [t] sound in the words tar, star, writer, butter and eighth [e t̪ θ] are represented in the same way,
but in actual speech they are different.
All these articulation differences in [t] sounds are less important to us than the distinction between
the [t] sounds in general and the [k] sounds, or the [f] sound, or the [b] sounds, because they are
what make the words tar, car, far, and bar meaningfully distinct.
Phonemes ⾳位
Each one of these meaning-distinguishing sounds in a language is described as a phoneme ⾳素.
When we learn to use alphabetic 字⺟的 writing , we are actually using the concept of the phoneme
as the single stable sound type presented by a single written symbol. e.g., /t/, /f/, /v/, /p/, /k/
The phoneme ⾳素 /t/ is described as a sound type, of which all the different spoken versions of [t]
are tokens 象徵、代幣.

Slash 斜線 marks They are used to indicate a phoneme, such as /t/, an abstract segment (a sound
or a letter). 語段
Square brackets 中括號 They are used for each phonetic or physically produced segment, such as [t].

An essential property 重要特質 of a phoneme is that it functions contrastively 對比.

We know there are two phonemes /f/ and /v/ in English because they are the only basis of the
contrast in meaning between the words bat and vat, or fine and vine.
This contrastive property is the basic operational 操作的 test for determining the phonemes that
exist in a language.
If we substitute 代換 one sound for another in a word and there is a change of meaning, then the
two sounds represent different phonemes.
Natural classes ⾃然語⾳群
/p/ can be characterized as [-voice, +bilabial, +stop] and /k/ as [-voice, +velar, +stop].
Because the two sounds share some features (i.e. both are stops), they are sometimes described as
members of a natural class of phonemes.
Phonemes that have certain features in common tend to behave phonologically ⾳韻上 in some
similar ways. e.g., /v/ has the features [+voice, +labiodental, +fricative] and so cannot be in the same
natural class of sounds as /p/ and /k/.
This feature analysis could lead us to suspect that there may be a good phonological reason why
words beginning with /pl-/ and /kl-/ are common in English, but words beginning with /vl-/ are not.
Could it be that there are some definite sets of features required in a sound in order for it to occur
word-initially before /l/?
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 Phones 單⾳ and Allophones 同位⾳、變⾳
While the phonemes ⾳素 are abstract unit or sound type (in the mind), there are many different
versions 說法 of the sound type (or phoneme) produced in actual speech.
We describe the different versions as phones (單⾳).
Phones are phonetic units and appear in square brackets [ ], such as [t].
When a group of several phones 單⾳ are all versions of one phoneme, we refer to them as
allophones 同位⾳、變⾳ of that phoneme ⾳素. (‘‘allo-’’: one of a closely related set)

Allophones 同位⾳、變⾳
e.g., [tʰ] (aspiration), [D] ,[ʔ], [t̪ ] (dental)
Because these variations 變體 are all part of one set of phones, they are referred to as allophones of
the phoneme ⾳素 /t/.

The distinction between phonemes and allophones is that:

1. substituting one phoneme for another will result in a word with a different meaning and
pronunciation
2. substituting allophones only results in a different pronunciation of the same word
E.g., the pronunciation of /i/ in the words seed and seen
1. seed [i] vs seen [ĩ]
2. the effect of the nasal consonant [n] makes the [i] sound nasalized → nasalization ⿐⾳化 [ĩ]
These two phones [i] and [ĩ] are both allophones of /i/.
Complementary Distribution 互補分布
When we have two different pronunciations (allophones) of a sound type (phoneme), each used in
different places in words, they are said to be in complementary distribution.
1. spat [spæt] and pat [phæt]
2. spool [spul] and pool [phul]
3. speak [spik] and peek [phik]
Mutually exclusive, non-overlapping (which means they are allophones of the same phoneme).
When sounds are in complementary distribution, you can predict where you get each sound.
That is , the [th] pronunciation of the phoneme /t/ with aspiration is used word–initially, as in tar, but
never after another consonant in initial position, as in star.
The places where /t/ occurs with aspiration, and without aspiration, never overlap 部分相同 and so
the different pronunciation are in complementary distribution.
Minimal Pairs 最⼩差異對偶詞
When two words are identical (the same) in form except for a contrast in one phoneme, occurring in
the same position, the two words are described as a minimal pair.

pat, bat fan, van bet, bat site, side 假, 瑕

16
 Minimal Sets 最⼩差異對偶組
When a group of words can be differentiated 區別, each one from the others, by changing one
phoneme (always in the same position in the word), then we have a minimal set.
1. feat, fit, fat, fate, fought, foot
2. big, pig, rig, fig, dig, wig
Phonotactics 語⾳組合法、⾳位配列學
There are definite patterns in the types of sound combinations permitted in a language.
The minimal set such as lig or vig are not English words, but they could be viewed as possible
English words.
Our phonological knowledge of the pattern of sounds in English words would allow us to treat these
forms as acceptable.
[fsɪg] or [rnɪg] do not exist. They have been formed without obeying some constraints 束縛 on the
sequence or position of English phonemes. Such constraints are called the phonotactics (i.e.
permitted arrangements of sounds).
Phonotactic Constraints ⾳位配列限制

Syllables ⾳節
A syllable must contain a vowel (or vowel-like) sound.
The most common type of syllable has a consonant before a vowel and is represented as CV.
The basic elements of the syllable are the onset ⾳節頭 (one or more consonants) and the rhyme 韻
腳.
The rhyme (or ‘‘rime’’) consists of a vowel, which is treated as the nucleus ⾳節核⼼, plus any
following consonant(s), described as the coda. ⾳節尾

open syllables 開放⾳節 Syllables that have an onset and a nucleus, but no coda me, to, no
closed syllables 封閉⾳節 When a coda is present up, cup, at, hat

The basic structure of the kind of syllable found in English words like: green (CCVC), eggs (VCC), and
(VCC), ham (CVC), I (V), do (CV), not (CVC), like (CVC), them (CVC), Sam (CVC), I (V), am (VC).
Consonant clusters ⼦⾳叢

17
 Both the onset and the coda can consist of more than one consonant, known as a consonant
cluster ⼦⾳叢.
The combination /st/ is a consonant cluster (CC) used as onset in the word stop and as coda in the
word post.
e.g., (CC) /st/, /bl/, /br/, /tr/, /tw/, /fl/
Liquids (/l/, /r/) and a glide (/w/) are used in the second position.
English can have larger onset clusters, as in the words stress and splat, consisting of three initial
consonants (CCC).
/s/ + one of the voiceless stops (/p/, /t/, /k/) + one of the liquids or glides (/l/, /r/, /w/)
e.g., (CCC) /str/, /spl/, /spr/, /skr/, /skw/
Co-articulation Effects 共同發⾳成效、連⾳成效
It is noticeable in English that large consonant clusters may be reduced in casual 非正式的
conversational speech, particularly if they occur in the middle of a word.
The process of making one sound almost at the same time as the next sound is called co-
articulation 連⾳.
There are three co-articulation effects: assimilation, nasalization and elision.
Assimilation 同化
When two sound segments ⾳段 occur in sequence 按照順序 and some aspect of one segment is
taken or ‘‘copied’’ by the other, the process is known as assimilation.
In the phrase “I have to go”, we start to say the /t/ sound in to , which is voiceless.
We tend to produce a voiceless version of the preceding sound, resulting in what sounds more like
/f/ than /v/. So we typically say [hæftə].
Nasalization ⿐⾳化
Vowels are also subject to 易受 assimilation. In isolation 隔離, we would typically pronounce [ɪ] and
[æ], but when saying words like pin and pan, the anticipation 預期 of forming the final nasal
consonant will make it easier to go into the nasalized articulation in advance.
This process is known as nasalization and is represented in narrow transcription 發⾳記號的轉換
with a small mark (~), called “tilde’” over the vowel symbol.
The vowel sounds in those words will be in more precise 確實的 transcription, [ĩ] and [æ̃].
This phonological process is a very regular feature of English speakers’ pronunciation.
Any vowel becomes nasal whenever it immediately precedes a nasal such as pin [ĩ], pan [æ̃].
This type of assimilation process occurs in a variety of different contexts.
By itself, the word can may be pronounced as [kæn], but, when we say I can go, the influence of the
following velar [g] in go will almost certainly make the preceding nasal sound come out as [ŋ] (the
velar nasal) rather than [n] (the alveolar nasal).
The most commonly observed conversational version of the phrase is [aɪkəŋ go].
Notice that the vowel in can has also changed to schwa [ə] from the isolated-word version [æ].
In daily talk, the vowel may receive no stress and reduce to schwa → you and me [juənmi]
Elision 省略
In you and me, the [d] sound of the word and was not included in the transcription, because in the
environment of a preceding nasal [n] and a following nasal [m], we don’t devote energy to including
the stop sound [d] to get efficiency 效率. There is no [d] in friendship [frɛnʃɪp], too.
The process of not pronouncing a sound segment that might be present in the deliberately 慎重、故
意 careful pronunciation of a word in isolation is described as elision.

18
 In consonant clusters, esp. in coda position, /t/ is a common casualty in this process, as in the
typical pronunciation [æspɛks] for aspects, or in [himəsbɪ] for the phrase he must be, [wiæstəm] for
we asked him.
Vowels also disappear as in [ɛvrɪ] for every, [ɪntrɪst] for interest, [kæbnət] for cabinet, [kæmrə] for
camera, [prɪznɚ] for prisoner and [spoz] for suppose.
Insertion 插入
Phonological rules of insertion cause a segment not present at the phonemic level to be added to
the phonetic form of a word.
e.g., voiceless stop insertion: strength /strεŋθ/ → [strεŋkθ] (Between a nasal consonant and a
voiceless fricative, a voiceless stop with the same place of articulation as the nasal is inserted.)
Deletion 刪除
Deletion rules eliminate 消除 a sound that was present at the phonemic level.
e.g., He handed his hat. [hi hændəd ɪz hæt]
/h/-deletion: /h/ may be deleted in unstressed 非重⾳的 syllables.
Strengthening 加強
Rules of strengthening (also called fortification) make sounds stronger.
e.g. aspiration 送氣 tap /tæp/ → [tʰæp] (Voiceless stops become aspirated when they occur at the
beginning of a stressed syllable.)
Weakening 減弱
Rules of weakening (also called lenition) cause sounds to become weaker.
e.g., flapping 拍⾳ rider /raɪdɚ/ → [raɪɾɚ] (An alveolar oral stop is realized as [ɾ] when it occurs after a
stressed vowel and before an unstressed vowel.)
Phonological Rules ⾳韻規則
phonemic form → rules → phonetic form
I can ask [ɑɪ kæn æsk] (or [ɑɪ kən æsk])
I can see [ɑɪ kæn si] (or [ɑɪ kən si])
I can bake [ɑɪ kæm beɪk] (or [ɑɪ kəm beɪk])
I can play [ɑɪ kæm pleɪ] (or [ɑɪ kəm pleɪ])
I can go [ɑɪ kæŋ goʊ] (or [ɑɪ kəŋ goʊ])
I can come [ɑɪ kæŋ kʌm] (or [ɑɪ kəŋ kʌm])
We can state this fact about English as a descriptive 敘述 rule: /n/ is pronounced as

1 [m] before a labial consonant [n] → [m] / _ labial consonant

2 [ŋ] before a velar consonant [n] → [ŋ] / _ velar consonant
3 [n] everywhere else. [n] → [n] / everywhere else

Now consider how the phonetic forms of some of the above examples are derived from the
phonemic forms:

phonemic forms /kæn æsk/; /kæn beɪk/

phonological rules kæn æsk; kæn beɪk
phonetic forms [kæn æsk]; [kæm beɪk]
19
 This illustrates what happens in speaking.
In listening, a hearer reverses 逆轉 this process: he or she perceives the phonetic form of an
utterance, then sends it ‘‘backward’’ through the phonological rules, and finally obtains a phonemic
form that matches a form stored in memory.
The rule illustrated above applies not only to /n/, but also to /t/ and /d/:
hat trick [hæt trɪk]
hit batsman [hɪb bætsmn]
night class [nɑɪk klæs]
bad dream [bæd drim]
head band [hɛb bænd]
bad guy [bæg gɑɪ]

Word Formation
Neologism 新詞義
In 1900 a worker Spangler invented an electric suction sweeper 電動吸塵器, which was popular and
could be called a spangler and we could have a word spangling.
But he sold the device to Hoover. Later on a machine hoover was invented and people talk about
hoovering their carpets.
We invented a new word in a language and it is called Neologism.
e.g. spangler, spanglerish, spanglerism
We can very quickly understand a new word in our language and accept the use of different forms of
that new word.
This ability must derive 衍⽣出 in part from the fact that there is a lot of regularity 規律性 in the
word-formation processes in a language.
Borrowing 借⽤法
Borrowing is the taking over of words from other languages.
E.g., dope (French), croissant (French), piano (Italian), sofa (Arabic), yogurt (Turkish), tycoon
(Japanese), tattoo (Tahitian) ⼤溪地語
loan translation or calque 仿造外國詞語詞義借⽤: a special type of borrowing, which is a direct
translation of the elements of a word into the borrowing language.
E.g. gratte-ciel (scrape-sky)(French), wolkenkrabber (cloud scratcher)(Dutch), Wolkenkratzer (cloud
scraper)(German) → calques for skyscraper (English)
Calque 仿譯
20
 A word or phrase borrowed from another language by literal word-for-word or root-for-root
translation.
Calquing includes semantic translation, it does not consist of phonetic matching—i.e., retaining the
approximate sound of the borrowed word by matching it with a similar-sounding pre-existing word
or morpheme in the target language.
Lehnwort (German) → loanword
Le momento de la verdad (Spanish) → moment of truth
Boyfriend → boyifurendo (Japanese) → Nanpengyu (Male friend) (Chinese)
Compounding 合成法
A joining of two separate words to produce a single form. This combining process is known as
compounding.
Example

Nouns bookcase, fingerprint, textbook, wallpaper

Adjectives good-looking, low-paid
Compounds of adjective a fast-food restaurant, a full-time job

Compound words 複合詞

Hmong in South East Asia
Hwj (pot) + kais (spout) = hwjkais (kettle)
Paj (flower) + kws (corn) = Pajkws (popcorn)
Hnabloojtes (bag + cover + hand) = ?
Blending 融接法
The combination of two separate forms to produce a single new term is called blending.
However, blending is accomplished by taking only the beginning of one word and joining it to the
end of the other word. For example:
smoke & fog → smog
breakfast & lunch → brunch
motor & hotel → motel
Chinese & English → Chinglish

Compounding 合成法 Blending 融接法

1. physical change 1. chemical change
2. Nothing is changed. 2. Something is changed.
3. Two words are combined directly and completely. 3. Some part of the words are omitted

21
Clipping 裁剪法
Occurring when a word of more than one syllable is reduced to a shorter form, usu. in the casual
speech. For example:
facsimile → fax
gasoline → gas
advertisement → ad
telephone → phone
airplane → plane
dormitory → dorm

Blending 融接法 Clipping 剪裁法

1. combining “two” separate forms 1. cutting off some part of “one” word
2. produce a single new term 2. reduced to a shorter form

Backformation 回塑作⽤
It is a specialized type of reduction process, which is a word of one type (usually a noun) reduced to
form a word of another type (usually a verb).
E.g. noun → verb
television → televise
babysitter → babysit
editor → edit
peddler → peddle
donation → donate
option → opt
sculptor → sculpt
Hypocorisms 暱稱
It is a particular type of reduction, favored in Australian and British English, which is a longer word
reduced to a single syllable, then –y or –ie is added to the end. For example:
television → telly
barbecue → barbie
bookmaker → bookie
breakfast → brekky
Christmas presents → Chrissy pressies
moving pictures → movie
handkerchief → handkie
toasted sandwich → toastie
Conversion 轉化法
A change in the function of a word, as for example when a noun comes to be used as a verb (without
any reduction), is known as conversion.
Other labels 稱號 are ‘‘category change’’ and ‘‘functional shift’’.

noun → verb verb → noun

22
 Have you buttered the toast? guess → a guess
We bottled the home-brew last night must → a must
Someone has to chair the meeting. spy → a spy
They’re vacationing in Florida. print out → a printout
This event impact their sensibilities. take over → a takeover
Did you dust the room? want to be → a wannabe
I’ll have to glue it together. cheat → He’s a cheat.
Would you water my plants? doubt → They have some doubts.
hand out → I didn’t get a handout.
hire → We have two new hires.

Adjective → Verb compound nouns → verbs

A dirty floor → to dirty
An empty room → to empty
Some crazy ideas → a crazy
Those nasty people → the nasty
verb → adjective
See-through material
A stand-up comedian
a ball-park 估算的 figure (adj.)
ask sb to ball-park an estimate of the cost (V.)
to carpool, to mastermind, to microwave and to
quarterback (V.)
They’re going to up the price of oil. (V.)
You total 徹底破壞 the car and the insurance
company gives you the runaround. 推卸責任

Coinage 鑄造法
Coinage is the invention of totally new terms, not common in English.
The most typical sources: trade names for commercial products. E.g. aspirin, nylon, vaseline, xerox
kleenex 可麗舒 means “tissue”.
Xerox 全錄牌 means “copy”: The company, XEROX, makes the first copy machine.
Google → google ⼀下
Eponyms 名字被⽤來為某⼀ 國家城市時代命名的⼈
New words based on the name of a person or a place are called
E.g. sandwich, jeans, Teddy bear
Some eponyms are technical terms, based on the names of those who first discovered or invented
things. E.g., a hoover, a spangler, volt 伏特, watt ⽡特
Acronyms 起頭濃縮組合詞
New words formed from the initial letters of a set of other words
Examples whose pronunciation 發⾳ consists of saying each separate letter:
CD = compact disk
ATM = automatic teller machine
Pronounced as new single words NATO, NASA, UNESCO. Some become everyday terms:
laser = light amplification by stimulated emission of radiation
scuba = self-contained underwater breathing apparatus
zip code = zone improvement plan code
Other examples:
GEPT = General English Proficiency Test
23
 TOEIC = Test of English for International Communication
TOEFL = Test of English as a Foreign Language
PIN = personal identification number
Derivation 衍⽣
Derivation is accomplished by means of a large number of small ‘‘bits’’ (affixes 詞綴) of the English
language.
prefix 詞頭詞綴: un-, mis-, pre-
suffix 詞尾詞綴: -ful, -less, -ish, -ism, -ness
Features of derivation
1. the most common word-formation process to be found in the production of new English words
2. not normally given separate listings in dictionaries
Prefixes and Suffixes 詞頭詞綴和詞尾詞綴
Prefixes are affixes which have to be added to the beginning of the word.
E.g. unhappy, misrepresent, prejudge, mislead
Suffixes are affixes which have to be added to the end of the word.
E.g. joyful, careless, boyish, terrorism, sadness, foolishness
All English words formed by this derivational 衍⽣的 process have either prefixes or suffixes, or both.
E.g. disrespectful
Infixes 內接詞綴
Infix is an affix that is incorporated 加入 inside another word, not normally used in English.
E.g. cupsful, spoonsful, passersby
It is used in certain expression , such as in fortuitous 幸運的 or aggravating 加重的 circumstances by
emotionally aroused English speakers.
E.g. Hallebloodylujah, Absogoddamlutely, and unfuckinbelievable!
Expletive 感嘆詞: bloody 該死的
E.g. What a bloody hot day! → Godtripledammit!
Expletive deleted 不雅文字已刪除、傻裡傻氣、糊⾥糊塗
Kamhmu
Kamhmu, a lg spoken in South-East Asia

The infix –rn– is added to verbs to form corresponding 對應的 nouns. So, the Kamhmu noun krnap
‘‘tongs’’ 夾具 → the verb kap ‘‘to grasp with tongs’’
Circumfix 環綴
A circumfix (abbreviated circ)(also confix or ambifix) is an affix which has two parts, one placed at
the start of a word, and the other at the end.
Circumfixes contrast with prefixes, attached to the beginnings of words; suffixes, attached at the
end; and infixes, inserted in the middle.
Circumfixes are common in Malay and Georgian.

24
 East Asian languages
In Japanese, some linguists consider o⟩...⟨ni naru and o⟩...⟨suru to be honorific circumfixes; for
example yomu...→ o⟩yomi⟨ni naru (respectful), o⟩yomi⟨suru (humble).
Multiple Processes 多元⽅式
It is possible to trace the operation 運⽤ of more than one word-formation processes at work in the
certain of a particular word.
1. borrowing & clipping: delicatessen (熟食店 from German) → Deli
Delicatessen : late 19th cent. (originally US, denoting prepared foods for sale): from German
Delikatessen, from Dutch delicatessen, from French délicatesse, ‘‘delicateness’’, from délicat
(see delicate)
2. compounding & conversion: Problems with the project have snowballed.
Children like to throw a snowball.
3. acronyms & backformation: laser 雷射 ‘‘light amplification by stimulated emission of
radiation’’ (n.) → lase (v.)
4. acronyms & suffix: WASP ‘‘white Anglo-Saxon protestant’’ + -ish → waspish
Analogy 類比法
New words are formed to be similar in some way to existing words.
E.g. hippie 嬉痞: sb. opposed to the traditional standards of society who wears unusual clothes, has
long hair, and takes drugs for pleasure
anime: 改編⾃⽇本科幻或暴⼒情⾊漫畫的動畫電影
yippie (young international party) 易比族 yip (dog’s shrilling, barking, grumbling) + ie
yuppie (young urban professional) 雅痞 yup + ie
yappie (young anime people) 雅痞 yap 亂叫 (making shrill noises) + ie
雅痞：英文yuppie⾳譯，指城市中上層男女知識青年，年約25⾄45歲之間，衣著講究，⽣活優
裕，追求名利，住在郊區的⾼級住宅區，此詞流⾏於八⼗年代 ，也作yappie。
Dink (Double Income No Kids) 頂客族 : One of two young people who are married to each other and
who both earn a lot of money, but who have no children.
尼特族（英語：NEET，全稱 Not in Employment, Education or Training, 15~34 years old ）
→ ⽉光族、草莓族

25
Morphology 構詞學、形態學
Similar elements of the whole message can be found in both sentences.

literally means ‘‘the study of forms’’ 形態學

has been used to describe the type of investigation that shows all those basic ‘‘elements’’ (morphemes)
used in a language.
Morphemes 語素
Examples: talks, talker, talked, talking
The above forms consist of morphemes:
one element: talk
other elements: -s, -er, -ed and -ing
All above elements are described as morphemes.
A morpheme is “a minimal unit of meaning or grammatical function.”
e.g., units of grammatical function such as forms used to indicate past tense or plural
How many morphemes does the word consist of?

Two types of morphemes:

1. free morphemes ⾃由語素
Morphemes that can stand by themselves as single words.
e.g. reopened, tourists
2. bound morphemes 規範語素
e.g. reopened, tourists
Morphemes that cannot stand alone and are typically attached to another form.

Free and Bound Morphemes ⾃由語素與規範語素

All affixes (prefixes and suffixes) in English are bound morphemes.
1. Prefixes: -re
2. Suffixes: -ist, -ed, -s
When the free morphemes, which are the set of separate forms (e.g. nouns, adjectives, verbs), are
used with bound morphemes attached, the basic forms are known as stems 詞幹.
26
 Bound stems 規範詞幹: words in which the element treated as the stem is not a free morpheme
e.g., receive, reduce, repeat
re- means ‘again’.
-ceive, -duce and -peat are not free morphemes, i.e. they can’t stand alone.
Free Morphemes ⾃由語素
Two types of free morphemes:
1. lexical morphemes 語詞語素
A set of free morphemes that we think of as the words that carry the ‘‘content’’ of the messages
we convey
girl, house, tiger (nouns)
sad, long, yellow (adjectives)
open, look, break (verbs)
2. functional morphemes 功能語素
A set of free morphemes that consists largely of the functional words in the language.
and, when, because (conjunctions)
on, near, above (prepositions)
the, a, an (articles)
that, it, them (pronouns)
Lexical morphemes are treated as an ‘‘open’’ class of words because new lexical morphemes can
be added to the language easily.
Functional morphemes are described as a ‘‘closed’’ class of words because new functional
morphemes almost cannot be added to the language.
Bound Morphemes 規範語素
Two types of bound morphemes:
1. derivational morphemes 衍⽣詞素
A set of bound morphemes used to make new words or to make words of a different
grammatical category 文法類型 from the stem
prefixes: re-, pre-, ex-, mis-, co-, un-
suffixes: -ness, -ful, -less, -ish, -ly, -ment
Examples (suffixes):

2. inflectional morphemes 屈折詞素、構型語素

In English, all the inflectional morphemes 屈折詞素 are suffixes.
A set of bound morphemes not used to produce new words in the language, but indicate
aspects of the grammatical function 文法作⽤的體系、如進⾏或完成 of a word.
27
 English has only eight inflectional morphemes (or ‘‘inflections’’ 屈折變化)
(1) possessive 所有格
(2) plural
(3) 3rd person singular 第三⼈稱單數
(4) present participle 現在分詞
(5) past tense
(6) past participle
(7) superlative 最⾼級
(8) comparative 比較級

Morphological Description 構詞學的描述

The teacher’s wildness shocked the girls’ parents.
The following chart shows all the different types of morphemes:

derivational vs. inflectional morphemes

28
 Whenever there are a derivational suffix and an inflectional suffix attached to the same word, they
always appear in the order that the derivational 衍⽣詞素 is attached first, and then the inflectional
屈折詞素 is added.

Problems in Morphological Description 構詞學的描述中的問題

A full description of English morphology should take account of both historical influences and the
effect of borrowed elements.

car → cars (O) Allomorphs 詞素變體、同位體 of the inflectional

sheep → sheeps (X) Why? morpheme ‘‘plural’’
man → mans (X) Why?
institutional → institution (O) It depends on whether -al is the derivational
legal → leg (X) Why? suffix or not.
What is the relationship between law (n.) and legal law (borrowed from Old English)
(adj.)? legal (borrowed from Latin)
What is the relationship between mouth (n.) and oral mouth (borrowed from Old English)
(adj.)? oral (borrowed from Latin)

Morphs and Allomorphs 形態與同位體 、詞素變體

Morphs 形態: the actual forms used to realize morphemes 寫實語素
1. The form cars consists of two morphs, car (a lexical morpheme) and -s (an inflectional
morpheme “plural”).
2. The form buses consists of two morphs, bus (a lexical morpheme) and -es (an inflectional
morpheme “plural”).
The above examples show that there are at least two morphs (形態 -s and -es) used to realize the
inflectional morpheme ‘‘plural’’.
So a group of different morphs, all versions of one morpheme can be described as allomorphs 詞素
變體、同位體 (the prefix ‘‘allo-’’ = one of a closely related set) of that morpheme.
E.g. the morpheme ‘‘plural’’

‘cat + plural’ (= cats) ‘bus + plural’ (= buses) ‘sheep + plural’ (= sheep) ‘man + plural’ (= men)
-s (cats) -es (buses) zero-morph 零形態 a vowel change (æ → ɛ)
‘‘irregular’’ 不規則的

These are all allomorphs 詞素變體、同位體 of one morpheme.

They are all versions (different morphs) 形態 of one morpheme 語素
29
 Allomorphs for the morpheme “past tense”:
Walk + past tense = walked, Go + past tense = went, Be + past tense = was and were
Other Languages

Kanuri 卡努⼒語
Kanuri, a language spoken in Nigeria 奈及利亞.
The prefix nəm- is a derivational morpheme that can be used to derive nouns from adjectives.
E.g. the noun nəmkurugu (length), the adjective kurugu (long)

Ganda 烏⼲達語
Ganda, a language spoken in Uganda, produces inflectional marking on forms.

There is an inflectional prefix omu- used with singular nouns.

There is another inflectional prefix aba- used with the plural of those nouns.
E.g. the plural abalenzi (boys), the singular omulenzi (boy)
Ilocano 伊洛果語
Ilocano, a language of the Philippines 菲律賓, marks plurals in a different way.

There is repetition of the first part of the singular form. The process involved here is known as
reduplication 重疊 ( = repeating all or part of a form). This repetition is a means of inflectional
marking.
E.g. the plural taltálon (fields), the singular tálon (field), 迷迷糊糊
Tagalog 塔加拉族語
Tagalog, another language spoken in the Philippines.

30
If the first form in each column 欄位 is some type of stem, then the second item in each column
is an example of an infix and the third item in each column is an example of reduplication.
E.g. lapit (come here), lumapit (Come here!), lalapit (will come here)

31
Grammar
We can use the phonology ⾳韻學 and morphology 構詞學 to make a phrase.
Consider the following phrases.
(1) the lucky boys *(2) boys the lucky *(3) lucky boys the
Example (1) is a well-formed phrase in English, but (2) and (3) are not.
An asterisk * is used to indicate that a form is unacceptable or ungrammatical 不合文法
From above examples, we can see:
1. English has strict rules for combining words into phrases.
2. This type of grammatical 合文法 phrase must have the sequence:
“article (the) + adjective (lucky) + noun (boys)”.
The process of describing the structure of phrases and sentences in the way that all the sequences in a
language are grammatical can be defined as grammar.
Each language has different ways of forming grammatical phrases and sentences.
Traditional Grammar 傳統文法
Traditional grammar has its origins in the grammars of Latin and Greek which were taken to be the
model for other grammars such as English.
The best-known terms from that tradition are those used in describing the parts of speech and
agreement.
The Parts of Speech 詞類
The parts of speech are illustrated in the following sentence:

Agreement ⼀致
When the categories, including ‘number’, ‘person’, ‘tense’, ‘voice’ and ‘gender’, are considered in
terms of agreement, their roles in describing language structure become clearer.
Example:
The verb loves ‘agrees with’ the noun Cathy in the sentence Cathy loves her dog.
This agreement is based on the following five categories.

32
Grammatical Gender 語法性別
Natural gender vs. Grammatical gender

In languages that use grammatical gender, nouns are classified according to their gender class, and
articles and adjectives have different forms to ‘agree with’ the gender of the noun.
Example 看課本 p.93
This gender distinction is not based on sex. A young girl is biologically female, but the German noun
das Madchen used to talk about her is grammatically neuter.
The French noun in le livre (the book) is grammatically masculine, but it is not a male.
Grammatical gender is an important category for describing Latin, but not English.
Traditional Analysis 傳統分析
Consider the following table which is presented for the English and Latin verb amare (to love)

Each of the Latin verb forms is different, according to the categories of person and number, yet the
English verb forms are (with one exception) the same.
Thus it makes sense, in describing a language such as Latin, to have all those descriptive categories
to characterize verb forms.
But they don’t really describe verb forms in English.
In English, it makes more sense to say the categories can be used to describe different pronouns or
nouns.
The Prescriptive Approach 規定性文法
The view of grammar as a set of rules for the ‘proper’ use of a language can be characterized as the
prescriptive approach.
It was taken by grammarians 文法學家 in 18th century England to claim that the structure of
sentences in English should be like those in Latin.
33
 Examples of prescriptive rules for English sentences:
1. You must not split an infinitive.
2. You must not end a sentence with a preposition.
Someone who makes aware of this ‘linguistic etiquette 語⾔的禮貌’ for the ‘proper’ use of the
language may be considered well-educated if it is a social expectation.
Captain Kirk’s Infinitive 不定詞
The infinitive in English has the form ‘to + the base form of the verb’, and can be used with an adverb.
One of the characters at a televised episode, Captain Kirk, always used the expression To boldly go
…. This is an example of a split 分開的 infinitive.
Captain Kirk’s teacher might have expected him to say To go boldly or Boldly to go, so that the
adverb didn’t split the infinitive.
If Captain Kirk had been a Roman space traveler, speaking Latin, he would have used the
expressions ire (to go) and audacter (boldly).
Now, in saying Ire audacter … in Latin, Captain Kirk would not even have the chance to split his
infinitive (ire), because Latin infinitives are single words and just do not split.
If it is a typical feature of the use of English that speakers and writers regularly produce forms such
as to boldly go, then there are structures in English that differ from those found in Latin.
Those English forms should not be considered ‘bad’ because they break the rule of Latin grammar.
The Descriptive Approach 描述性文法
Using a well-established grammatical description of Latin may be a useful guide for some European
歐洲的 languages (e.g. Spanish), yet less useful for others (e.g. English), and may be absolutely
misleading when trying to describe non-European languages.
Analysts collected samples of the lg they were interested in and attempted to describe the regular
structures of the language as it was used, not according to some view of how it should be used (with
the categories and rules of Latin grammar).
Structural Analysis 結構分析
One type of descriptive approach is called structural analysis and its main concern is to investigate
the distribution 分佈 of forms in a language.
This method involves the use of ‘test-frames 測試架構’ that can be sentences with empty slots in
them.
Example (1): The _____ makes a lot of noise. I heard a _____ yesterday.
Forms that can fit into the slots are examples (e.g. car, radio) of the same grammatical category,
‘noun’.
Example (2): _____ makes a lot of noise. I heard _____ yesterday.
Forms that can fit these test-frames are examples (e.g. it, the dog, an old car) of the same
grammatical category, ‘noun phrase’ 名詞片語.
We can see that it is more accurate to say that pronouns are words used in place of noun phrases,
not just nouns.
e.g. ‘It’ fits in the second set of test-frames, but not in the first set.
Constituent Analysis 構成素分析
A descriptive approach designed to show how small constituents (or components 成分) in sentences
go together to form larger constituents is called constituent analysis.
A basic step is to determine how words go together to form phrases.
Example: Her father brought a shotgun to the wedding.

34
Q1: How many constituents are there at
the word level?
Q2: How do the constituents go together
to form constituents at the phrase level?
Eight.
Answer 2:
(1) noun phrase: Her father, a shotgun, the wedding
(2) prepositional phrase: to the wedding
(3) verb phrase: brought a shotgun

The constituent analysis of the sentence structure can be represented in two types of diagrams.
1. This type of diagram shows the distribution of the constituents at different levels.

2. This kind of diagram shows the types of forms that can be substituted for each other at different
levels of constituent structure.

Subjects and Objects

Adjunct 附件: a prepositional phrase (where, when or how)

Subjects Objects
The first noun phrase The noun phrase after the verb
Controls the verb (singular or plural) No influence on the verb
Often performs the action Often undergoes the action
pronouns: I, he, she, we, they me, him, her, us, them

Word order
The basic linear order of constituents in English is Noun Phrase-Verb-Noun Phrase (NP V NP) and
their typical grammatical functions are Subject-Verb-Object (or SVO).
This type of analysis is traditionally discussed in terms of word order.
Language Typology 類型學
The use of word order patterns such as SVO or VOS to talk about different “types” of LG is part of a
more general area of study known as Language Typology.

35
 This is the study of similarities in the grammatical structures of LGs that allow them to be classified
as members of the same type or group.

A Gaelic 蓋爾語 Sentence

Constituent analysis can be used for analyze the grammatical structure of different lgs.

Scottish 蘇格蘭 Gaelic

English The boy saw the black dog.

The differences between the structure of the Gaelic and English sentence:
1. The verb comes first in the Gaelic sentence.
2. When an adjective is used in the Gaelic sentence, it goes after the noun and not before it.
A labeled and bracketed diagram makes it clear that the Gaelic sentence is organized with a
‘V+NP+NP’ structure, which is different from the ‘NP+V+NP’ structure in the English sentence.

The Aim of the Analysis via Diagrams 圖表分析的⽬的 Why study grammar
1. to make the structure of grammatical sentences in the LG explicit 清楚
2. to describe clearly how English words are put together to form phrases and then sentences
3. to look at similar descriptions of sentences in other LG and see what structural differences exist
4. to help understand why a second LG learner produces incorrect phrases (end)
Determiner 限定詞: a, the, each, some, this, his
Hypercorrection 矯枉過正 They invited my friend and I.

36
Syntax 句法學
When we concentrate on the structure and ordering of components 成分 within a sentence, we are
studying the syntax of a language.
In earlier approaches, they try to accurately describe the sequence or ordering “arrangement” of
elements in the linear structure of the sentence.
In more recent attempts to analyze structure, they focus on the underlying rule system to produce or
“generate” 產生 sentences.
Syntactic Rules 句法規則
When we set out to provide an analysis of the syntax of a language, we try to adhere 遵守 to The ‘all and
only’ criterion 全部且唯有的標準
1. Our analysis must explain all the grammatically correct phrases and sentences and only the
grammatically correct phrases and sentences will be produced.
2. The grammar will generate all the well-formed syntactic structures (e.g. sentences) of the language
and will not generate any ill-formed structures.
e.g., there is a rule Prep + N→ PN, we get Near London or Near tree*, showing an ill-form rule.
We need to revise it into Prep + NP→ PP to produce well-formed structures.
So we can have Near London, with you, near a tree, with the dog.
A generative grammar 生成語法
This rule reflects another goal of syntactic analysis, which is to have a small and finite (limited) set of
rules that will can produce a large and potentially infinite (unlimited) number of well-formed structures.
This small and finite (limited) set of rules is sometimes described as a generative grammar because it
can be used to generate or produce sentence structures and not just describe them.
(prep + NP) In three months
The essential structure of language can be expressed in mathematical terms.
The mathematical perspective 觀點 helps to explain the meaning of the term ‘generative’, 生成的 which
is used to describe this type of grammar.
Example: 3x + 2y
We give x and y the value of any whole number 整數, then that simple algebraic 幾何 expression can
‘generate’ 產生 an endless set of values.
If the sentences of a language can be seen as a comparable 可比較的 set, then there must be a set of
explicit 清楚明確的 rules that can produce all those sentences. Such a set of explicit rules is a
generative grammar.
The grammar is also capable of revealing 透露 the basic of two other phenomena:
1. how some superficially different sentences are closely related
2. how some superficially similar sentences are in fact different
Deep and Surface Structure
Charlie broke the window. active 主動的 - focusing on what Charlie did

The window was broken by Charlie. passive 被動的 - focusing on the window and what happened to it

37
 The distinction between them is a difference in these surface structure.

surface structure 表面結構 deep structure 深層結構

underlying 內存的, conceptual 觀念的, propositional 主
phonological representation 音韻表現
張的 structure

The two sentences have different syntactic

forms as individual English sentences, but
they are very closely related.
e.g., 萬家香肉醬, 內有狼狗勿進
The ‘underlying’ level, where the basic
components (NP + V + NP) shared by the two
sentences can be represented.
An abstract level of structural organization
where all the elements deciding structural
interpretation 解釋結構 are represented.

The same deep structure can be the source of many other surface structures.

It was Charlie who broke the window.

Different surface structure
Was the window broken by Charlie?

Same deep structure Charlie broke the window.

The grammar will have to be capable of showing a single underlying representation 表現 which can have
different surface structures.
Structural Ambiguity 結構的歧義
There are two distinct deep structures
1. Annie had an umbrella and she bumped into a man with it.
2. Annie bumped into a man and the man happened to be carrying an umbrella.
And they have the same surface structure → Annie bumped into a man with an umbrella.
This sentence provides an example of structural ambiguity.
It has two distinct underlying interpretations that have to be represented differently in deep structure.
Examples
A comedian knew how to have fun with structural ambiguity, saying There are two interpretations
(deep structures) with the same surface structure:
I once shot an elephant in my pajamas. How he got into my pajamas I’ll never know.
1. I once shot an elephant (while I was) in my pajamas.
2. I once shot an elephant (which was) in my pajamas.
‘small boys and girls’ can mean:
1. small boys and (small) girls
2. small boys and (all) girls
Flying planes can be dangerous.
Tree Diagrams 樹狀圖
38
 One of the best ways to create a visual representation of underlying syntactic structure is through tree
diagrams.
We can use the symbols (Art = article, N = noun, NP = noun phrase) to label parts of the tree when we
create a representation of how each part fits into the underlying hierarchical structure of phrases and
sentences.
The information in a labeled and bracketed phrase can be expressed in a tree diagram.

The tree functions as a diagram representing all the grammatical information found in the other analysis
.
There are different levels in the analysis.
A level of analysis of a constituent such as NP that is represented and a different, lower, level of a
constituent such as N that is represented.
A tree diagram can represent the structure of an English verb phrase (VP).
Tree diagram on an English sentence
The structure of a whole sentence can be hierarchically 階層地 organized.
1. Put on the top of the tree diagram with (S) and divide it into two constituents (NP and VP).
2. In turn, the NP constituent is divided into two other constituents (Art and N).
3. Finally, one word is selected that fits the label Art (the) and another that fits N (girl).
4. You can go through the same procedure with the VP branches.

用望遠鏡看這女孩 看到拿望遠鏡的女孩

Symbols Used in Syntactic Analysis 句型分析

“an arrow” An arrow can be interpreted as ‘consists of’ or ‘rewrites as’.
箭頭 → NP (the dog) → Art (the) + N (dog)

Whatever occurs inside, these round brackets will be treated

“a pair of round brackets”
as an optional constituent.
小括號 ( )
NP → Art (Adj) N → the (small) dog

39
 These indicate that only one of the elements enclosed 包含
“curly brackets”
within the curly brackets must be selected.
大括號﹛﹜
NP →﹛Art (adj) N, Pro, PN﹜

Phrase structure rules 片語結構規則

Tree diagrams can be treated in two ways:
1. a static representation of the structure of the sentence shown at the bottom of the diagram.
→ For every single sentence in English, a tree diagram of this type can be drawn.
2. a dynamic format to represent a way of generating not only that one sentence, but also many other
sentences with similar structures.
→ A tree diagram enables us to generate many sentences with a few rules.
These rules are called phrase structure rules.
The structure of a phrase of a specific type will consist of one or more constituents in a particular order.
Phrase structure rules can present the information of the tree diagram in another format.

Rule: A noun phrase rewrites as an article followed by a noun.

S → NP VP Particle 助詞 : Part. {in, on, up, down…}

NP → {Art (Adj) N, Pro, PN} Determiner 定詞 : Det.
VP → V NP (PP)(Adv) Definiteness: the, that, those
VP → be + Adj Indefiniteness: a, an
VP → be + PP Possession: his, my
PP → Prep NP Quantity: any, every, many, three, fifteen, some

Lexical 字彙的 Rules

Phrase structure rules generate structures.
Lexical rules specify which words can be used when we rewrite constituents and turn those structures
into recognizable English.
The first rule in the following set that “a proper noun rewrites as Mary or George.”

We can rely on the rules to generate the grammatical sentences.

As a way to visualize 想像 how the phrase structure rules form the basis of these sentences, we can draw
the tree diagrams for the sentences.

40
Movement Rules 移動規律
Phrase structure rules can be treated as a representation of the underlying deep structures of sentences
in English.
One feature is that they will generate sentences with a fixed word order.
This is convenient for creating declarative 陳述的 forms (you can see it), but not for making
interrogative 疑問的 forms, as used in Qs (Can you see it?).
In making the Q, we move one part of the structure to a different position.
This process is based on a movement rule.
In order to talk about this process, we need to include an auxiliary verb 助動詞 as part of the sentence.
This is illustrated in the first rewrite rule below.
Auxiliary verbs (helping verbs) take different forms in English, but one well-known set can be included
in the basic lexical rule for Aux below.
The examples listed here for Aux, such as can and will, are called “modal 語態的 verbs” and they are
always used with the basic form of the main verb.

The basic forms of some verbs are included in the third rewrite rule here.
1. S → NP Aux VP
2. Aux → {can, could, should, will, would}
3. V → {follow, help, see…}
With these components, we can specify a simple movement rule involved in the creation of one basic
type of Q in English.
NP Aux VP ⇒ Aux NP VP
This rule states that if we have one structure of the type You (NP) + can (Aux) + see it (VP), then we can
turn it into a different structure by moving the Aux component to the first position in the sequence in
order to create Can you see it?.
41
 Similarly, if we start with You will help Mary, we can use the Aux-movement rule to produce Will you help
Mary?
Note that this type of rule has a special symbol ⇒ and can be illustrated in the process of one tree, on
the right, being derived from the tree on the left, as bellow.

Using this simple rule, we can also generate these other Qs:
Can you see the dog?
Should Mary follow you?
Could the boy see it?
Would George help Mary?
These are all surface structure variations of a single underlying structure.
We need to identify rules and concepts involved in the analysis of syntax.
Extra
Rule: NP VP Adv ⇒ Adv NP VP
Mary saw George recently.
Recently Mary saw George.
Rule: NP Aux VP NP ⇒ What Aux NP VP
How do you make Susan will do something into ⇒ What will Susan do?

Recursion 再現
Recursive (‘repeatable any number of times’) rules can be applied more than once in generating a
structure.
A sentence can have another sentence inside it or that a phrase can be repeated as often as required.
Example (1): prepositional phrases 介系詞片語
The gun was on the table.
→ The gun was on the table near the window.
→ The gun was on the table near the window in the bedroom.
Example (2): sentences
Mary helped George.
→ Cathy knew that Mary helped George.
→ John believed that Cathy knew that Mary helped George.
42
 We know that Mary helped George is a sentence.
We can put this sentence in another sentence beginning Cathy knew that [Mary helped George].
And, we can put this sentence inside another sentence beginning John believed that [Cathy knew
that Mary helped George].
Complement Phrases 補語片語
Complementizer 引導補語子句的詞 (C): that
The role of that as a complementizer is to introduce a complement phrase (CP).
The rule of recursion: CP → C S
A complement phrase rewrites as a complement and a sentence.
The rule allows us to create an endless sentence containing other sentence structures.

Tasks A
a person’s internalized 內化的 grammar of a language, ability to understand and
Competence
produce sentences, including memory, mood, intentions and speech mechanism

Performance a person’s actual ability to use language

The use of structure trees in the study of syntax can help to explain the differences between the deep
and surface structure, the structural ambiguity, recursion, complement phrases, and movement rules.
They show that people have the competence, but they may not show and just hide their ability to make
the endless sentences on the performance.
What Can A Phrase Structure Tree Tell Us?
1. It illustrates the structural relationship between constituents.
2. It illustrates the different structures of structurally ambiguous sentences.
3. It explains the potential position of the S-adverb and VP-adverb in a sentence.
4. It demonstrates the recursive 再現的 nature of human language.
5. It explains why some words in some position can be contracted 縮短的 whereas the same words in
other position cannot.
6. It demonstrates the nature of structure dependency 結構依賴性原則, which is universal to all possible
languages.
Ex. want to or wanna
43
 Who do you want to or wanna visit?
: Do you want to visit whom?
Who do you want to (*wanna) win the game?
: Do you want whom to win the game?
trace ⇏ want to
Interrogative 疑問的 Structures
One example of a universal principle is structure dependency.
When a child learns interrogative sentences 疑問句, it learns to place the finite 限定的 verb in sentence
initial position:

(11a.) The doll that is gone is pretty.

(9a.) The doll is pretty (10a.) The doll is gone
(11b.) *Is the doll that (0) gone is pretty?
(9b.) Is the doll pretty? (10b.) Is the doll gone?
(11c.) Is the doll that is gone (0) pretty?

If children lacked insight into structure dependency, they should make errors such as (11b.), since they
would not know that the doll is pretty is the sentence to be put in the interrogative form.
But children do not seem to produce incorrect sentences such as (11b), so nativist 天賦論者 linguists
conclude that insight into structure dependency must be innate.
Ex.
Which sentence is the main clause, A or B?
A. You have ordered the new book. (NP + VP)
B. The price of the new book will be really expensive. (NP + VP)
Will the price of the new book be really expensive?
(Move the auxiliary verb (Aux) to the initial position of the sentence)
Will the price of the new book (that you have ordered) be really expensive?

Semantics 語意學
Semantics is the study of the objective and general meaning of words, phrases and sentences, focusing
on what the words conventionally 傳統上 mean.
Doing semantics is attempting to spell out what it is we all know when we behave as if we share
knowledge of the meaning.
Distinguishing two kinds of meaning
referential meaning covers those basic essential components of meaning conveyed by the literal use
指稱意義、概念意義 of a word (denotation 本意) (dictionary meaning)

associative meaning different people might have different associations (connotation 引申詞意)
聯想語意 attached to a word.

Example
What does ‘needle’ mean?
1. conceptual meaning: ‘thin, sharp, steel instrument’
2. associative meaning: ‘pain’, or ‘illness’, or ‘blood’, or ‘drugs’, or ‘thread’, or ‘knitting’, or ‘hard to find’
44
 What does ‘low-calorie ’ mean?
1. conceptual meaning: ‘producing a small amount of heat or energy’
2. associative meaning: ‘healthy’
Semantic Features 語意特徵
The study of basic conceptual meaning might be helpful as a means of explaining the oddness of this
sentence.
NP V NP
The hamburger ate the boy.
This sentence is syntactically (structure) good, but semantically (meaning) odd.
The crucial element or feature of meaning that any noun must have to be used as the subject of the
verb ate is “animate being”.
Semantic features (SF)
We can use this idea (SF) to describe part of the meaning of words as having either plus (+) or minus
(-) that particular feature.
SF can be treated as the basic elements involved in differentiating 區別 the meaning of each word
in a language from every other word.
Example
1. the noun boy → ‘+ animate’
the noun hamburger → ‘－ animate’
2.

Part of the meaning of the word girl in English involves the elements [+human, +female, -adult].
We can characterize the feature required in a noun to appear as the subject of a particular verb,
supplementing the syntactic analysis with semantic features.
We can predict which nouns (e.g., table, horse, hamburger) would make the sentence semantically odd.
The N (+human) is reading the newspaper.
Words as containers of meaning
For many words in a language it may not be as easy to come up with neat (clear) components of
meaning. e.g., advice, threat, and warning
The problem is that we treat words as some sort of containers that carry meaning components, but
words have some other features.
Semantic Roles (= Thematic Roles) 語意角色
Instead of thinking of words as “containers” of meaning, we can look at the “roles” they fulfill within the
situation described by a sentence.
If the situation is a simple event, as in The boy kicked the ball, then the verb described an action (kick).
The noun phrases in the sentence describe the roles of entities, such as people and things, involved in
the action.
We can identify a small number of semantic roles (also called “thematic 主題的 role”) for these noun
phrases.
45
 agent and theme

agent the entity that performs the action The boy kicked the ball.
1. the entity that is involved in or affected by the
theme action The boy kicked the ball.
(=patient) 2. an entity that is simply being described (i.e. The ball was red.
not performing an action)

Although agents are typically human (The boy), they can also be non-human entities that
cause actions.
e.g. The wind blew the cap away.
As in noun phrases denoting a natural force (The wind), a machine (A car), or a creature (The
dog), all of which affect the ball or cap as theme.
e.g. The car hit a dog.
The same physical entity can appear in two different semantic roles in a sentence.
e.g. The boy cut himself. → Here The boy is agent and himself is theme.
instrument and experiencer

another entity is used by an agent in order to perform The boy cut the rope withan old
instrument
an action razor.

experience a noun phrase is used to designate an entity as the

The boy feels sad.
r person who has a feeling, perception or state

location, source and goal

location where an entity which is in the description of an event is John hid the letter under the bed.

where the entity which is in the description of an event We drove from Chicago to New
source
moves from Orleans.

where an entity which is in the description of an event We drove from Chicago to New
goal
moves to Orleans.

benefactive 受益者
the entity that benefits from the action expressed by the predicate 述語
e.g. John bought some flowers for Mary.
Lexical Relations 字彙關係
Not only can words be treated as “containers” of meaning, or as fulfilling “roles” in events, they can also
have “relationships” with each other.
We are characterizing the meaning of each word, not in terms of its component features, but in terms of
its relationship to other words.
This approach is used in the semantic description of lg and treated as the analysis of lexical relations.
synonymy 同義字
Two or more words with very closely related meanings are called synonyms.
46
What was his answer? or What was his reply?
almost/nearly, big/large, broad/wide, buy/purchase, cab/taxi, car/automobile, couch/sofa, freedom/liberty

Sandy had only one answer correct on the test.

In broad agreement, in the whole wide world
candy, chips, diaper, gasoline (A) ≠ sweets, crisps, nappy, petrol (B)

The idea of ‘sameness’ of meaning used in discussing synonymy is not necessarily ‘total
sameness’.
The sentence My father purchased a large automobile is similar with My dad bought a big car,
with four synonymous replacements, but the second version sounds much more casual or
informal than the first.
antonymy 反義字
Two forms with opposite meanings are called antonyms.

alive/dead, big/small, fast/slow, happy/sad, hot/cold, long/short, male/female, married/single, old/new,

rich/poor, true/false

Antonyms are divided into two main types

opposites along a scale; can be used in comparative

constructions
The negative of one member of a gradable pair does big/small, wet/dry,
‘gradable’
not necessarily imply the other. hot/cold
antonyms
My car isn’t old. ≠ My car is new. → used easy/hard, love/hate,
可分等級的
She is not old. ≠ She is young. → middle-aged I’m busier than you.
Damp means something like between being wet
and being dry.

‘non-gradable’ alive/dead,
antonyms direct opposites; comparative constructions are not married/single,
不可分等級的 normally used true/false,
= The negative of one member of a non-gradable pair male/female,
complementary does imply the other. win/lose, compound
pairs 互補成對 She isn’t dead. = She is alive. word, 左右上下
= binary 兩極的 → abstract meaning,

lend/borrow,
relational have to do with two opposing points of view; for one send/receive,
antonyms member of the pair to have reference, the other must over/under, parent/
= reciprocal 互相 exist as well. child, buy/sell,
的 antonyms have a distinct relationship that is not found with teacher/student,
= converse other opposites employer/employee,
逆向相反之物 If X is above Y, then Y is necessarily below X. above/below,
brother/sister
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 enter/exit,
ascent/descent,
lengthen/shorten,
come/ go,
pairs of words that suggest some kind of movement, raise/lower,
reversives
where one word in the pair suggests movement and undress/dress,
回復字
the “undone” movement suggested by the other. pack/unpack,
恢復原貌
→ Undress doesn’t mean ‘not dress’, but actually left/right,
反向詞
means ‘do the reverse of dress’. inside/outside,
tie/untie,
put together/take
apart,
expand/contract

hyponymy 下位詞
When the meaning of one form is included in the meaning of another, the relationship is
described as hyponymy.→ Rose is a hyponym of flower.
animal/dog, dog/poodle, vegetable/carrot, flower/rose, tree/banyan
Hyponyms: If the sense of A is included in the sense of B, then A is the hyponym of B.
Piglet is a hyponym of pig.
Fry, boil, and bake are hyponyms of cook.
When we consider hyponymous connections, we are essentially looking at the meaning of
words in some type of hierarchical 階級的 relationship.
Two or more words that share the same superordinate terms are co-hyponyms 同下位詞
The relation of hyponymy captures the concept of “is a kind of,’ as when we give the meaning
of a word by saying, “A pineapple is a kind of fruit.”
Words such as punch, shoot, and stab, describing “actions’” can all be treated as co-hyponyms
of the superordinate term injure.

Prototypes 典型
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 While the words canary, dove, flamingo, duck, parrot, and robin are all equally co-hyponyms of the
superordinate bird, they are not all considered to be equally good examples of the category “bird.”
Some researchers considered the most characteristic instance of the category “bird” is robin.
The idea of ‘the characteristic instance’ of a category is known as the prototype 典型.
The concept of a prototype helps explain the meaning of certain words in terms of resemblance to the
clearest example.
bird → sparrow, furniture → chair, clothing → shirt
There is some general pattern to the categorization process involved in prototypes and individual
experience can lead to substantial variation in interpretation of word meaning.
Avocado or tomato as fruit or vegetable are treated as co-hyponyms of both fruit and vegetable in
different contexts.
Homophones and Homonyms
meat/meet, right/write, to/too/two
homophones two or more different (written) forms
[ㄐㄧ 少 ----]?
同音異形異義字 have the same pronunciation
Mom’s words

bank (of a river/financial

one form (written or spoken) has two institution)
homonyms
or more unrelated meanings as they race (contest of speed/ethnic
同音同形異義字
have separate histories. group)
can, pen, bear 熊/忍耐

lead 鉛/引導ㄝ, tear眼淚/撕

Homograph
Heteronym 異音同形異義字 read/ read, wind/ wind
異音同形異義字
行走/ 銀行, 著作/穿著

Homonyms can sometimes but not always result in lexical ambiguity 歧義

Examples
She cannot bear children.
There is a bug in the room.
I will wait for you by the bank.
Polysemy 多義字
Two or more words with the same form and related meanings are known as polysemy 多義字.
It can be defined as one form having multiple meanings that are all related by extension.
Examples
head (the object on top of your body/ the person at the top of a company)
foot (of a person/ of the mountain)
Homonymy vs. Polysemy
Both homonymy and polysemy are words that have the same form with two or more meanings, so what
is the difference between homonymy and polysemy?

Homonyms words that have separate histories and meanings, but have accidentally come to
同音同形意義字 have exactly the same form.
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 Polysemy can be defined as one form (written or spoken) having multiple meanings that are all
多義字 related by extension 擴展

How was your date?

The word date ( a thing we can eat) and date (a
point in time) are homonyms.
However, the “point in time” kind of date is
polysemous in terms of
1. a particular day and month (on a letter)
2. an arranged meeting time (an appointment)
3. a social meeting (with somebody we like)
4. a person (that person we like)

In order to be sure whether a single word is homonymy or polysemy, we can check it in a dictionary.
If the word has multiple meanings (i.e. it’s polysemous), then there will be a single entry, with a
numbered list of the different meanings of that word.
e.g., face, foot, get, head, run
If two words are treated as homonyms, they will typically have two separate entries.
e.g., bat, mail, mole, sole
Word Play 文字遊戲
Homophones, homonyms and polysemy are the basis of word plays.
Word play is usually for humorous effect.
Examples
Mary had a little lamb.
Why is 6 afraid of 7? Because 7 ate 9.
Metonymy 轉喻、換喻
The relationship between words, based simply on a close connection (contiguity) 接近 in everyday
experience.
Using one of the words with a close connection to refer to the other is an example of metonymy.
That close connection can be based on:
1. a container-contents relation e.g. bottle/water, can/juice
2. a whole-part relation e.g. car/wheels, house/roof
3. a representative-symbol relationship e.g. king/crown, the president/the White House
It is our familiarity with metonymy that makes it possible for us to understand he drank the whole bottle.
We use metonymy when we talk about filling up the car, answering the door, boiling a kettle, giving sb a
hand, or needing some wheels. Get your butt over here.
Making sense of such expressions often depends on context, background knowledge and inference 推
論.

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 A subtype of metonymy involving the use of
Synecdoche a word or phrase in which a part of sth synecdoche: part of the whole
提喻法 represents the whole, often illustrated by the metonymy: closely related
use of wheels to talk about a car.

In some senses, when sentences are

My new car is a lemon.
ambiguous and non-literal interpretations 非
Metaphor 字面上的解釋 are got, we call them
He has a heart of stone.
暗喻、隱喻 水深火熱
metaphor.
Walls have ears.
It is based on the similarity of objects.

A phrase that describes sth by comparing it

Simile to sth else using the word ‘like’ or ‘as’ is
He eats like a pig.
明喻 He has a heart as hard as stone.
simile.

The meanings of fixed, frozen phrases can’t

Idioms be inferred from the meanings of the
I don’t buy your story.
片語 和尚打傘
individual words, we call them idioms

Collocation 搭配詞組
One way to organize our knowledge of words is simply on the basis of collocation or frequently
occurring together.
hammer—nail, butter—bread, Needle—thread, salt—pepper
keep a diary, raise a kid, heavy smoker, Do not ___ things.

The study of which words occur together and their frequency of co-occurrence has received a lot more
attention in corpus linguistics 語料庫語言學.
A corpus is a large collection of texts, spoken or written, typically stored as a database in a computer.
Database: a large amount of information stored in a computer in an organized way that allows
individual pieces of information to be found quickly
Those doing corpus linguistics can use the database to find out how often specific words or phrases
occur and what types of collocations are most common.
Some of the most common collocations are actually everyday phrases which may consist of several
words frequently used together, as in I don’t know what to do, you know what I mean.
+ our true feelings → give the meaning of reluctance to express deeply felt emotions
Research of this type provides more evidence that our understanding of what words and phrases mean
is tied to the contexts in which they are typically used.
Meaning of sentences
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 1. Paraphrase 同義覆述
She is too tired to walk.
She is so tired that she can’t walk.
2. Contradiction 矛盾關係
Peter is a bachelor.
Peter is married.
3. Entailment 語意包含、蘊含
If the set of truth conditions for one sentence A includes all the truth conditions for a second
sentence B, then sentence A entails 包含 sentence B.
The tree is not short. → The tree is tall.
The bathtub is not empty. → There is a plastic duck in the bathtub.
John ate the apple. → John ate something.
John killed Bill. → Bill died.
Truth of sentences 語句的真實性
Grammarians emphasize the grammaticality, but ignore the situation whether the meaning may match
the truth condition or not.
Semantics scholars consider it illogical.
Examples
He is two years older than his mother.
The baby is sleeping. (O)
A unicorn named Charlie bought one dozen red roses. (X)
Unmarked words 無標記的、自然語字
They are generally used in normal English rather than being formal or informal.
How old are you? not How young are you?
How tall are you? not How short are you?
Transferred epithet 轉移的、調動的形容詞 or hypallage 代換法
A quiet cup of coffee, A sleepless night
Apply the wound to water = apply water to the wound
the crafty 狡猾的 Ulysses, Richard the Lion-Hearted 總裁獅子心

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Pragmatics 語用學
Besides conceptual meaning and the relationships between words, there are other aspects of
meaning that depend more on context and the communicative intentions of speakers.
The study of what speakers mean, or ‘speaker meaning’, is called pragmatics.
Invisible Meaning
Pragmatics is the study of ‘invisible’ meaning.
In order to recognize what is meant even when it isn’t actually said or written, speakers (or writers)
must be able to depend on a lot of shared assumptions 假設 and expectations when they try to
communicate.
Examples: Heated Attendant Parking, Baby & Toddler Sale
We must use the meanings of the words, the context 脈絡情境 in which they occur, and some pre-
existing knowledge of what would be a likely message as we work toward a reasonable
interpretation of what the producer of the sign intended it to convey.
Context 脈絡、上下文
The context is our mental representation of those aspects of what is physically
physical context out there where we encounter words and phrases that we use in arriving at an
interpretation.

linguistic
The co-text of a word is the set of other words used in the same phrases or
context
sentences.
= co-text

We usually know which meaning is intended in a particular sentence/place on the basis of

linguistic/physical context.
Deixis 替代指示詞
There are some very common words in our lg that can’t be interpreted at all if we don’t know the
context.
Some sentences of English are virtually impossible to understand if we don’t know who is
speaking, about whom, where and when.
It contains a large number of expressions that rely on knowledge of the local context for their
interpretation.

Expressions such as tomorrow and here are technically known as deictic expressions which
means ‘pointing’ via lg.

53
 Study questions 1, 2
Tasks D

Reference 所指
We define reference as an act by which a speaker (or writer) uses lg to enable a listener (or reader)
to identify something.
We sometimes assume that these words identify sb or sth uniquely, but it is more accurate to say
that, for each word or phrase, there is a “range of reference.”
The words Jennifer or friend or she can be used to refer to many entities in the world. They are
senses.
We can also refer to things when we’re not sure what to call them.
e.g., the blue thing, the dirty thing, that icky stuff

one reference, one expression/senses Pitera is “Pitera”.

many references, one expression/senses problems on the face

one reference, many expressions/senses a president/a father/a husband → Obama

Inference 推論
A successful act of inference depends more on the listener/reader’s ability to recognize what the
speaker/writer means than on the listener’s ‘dictionary’ knowledge of a word that is used.
We can use names associated with things to refer to people, and use names of people to refer to
things.
An inference is additional information used by the listener to create a connection between what is
said and what must be meant.
Study questions 3
Anaphora
We must make a distinction between introducing new referents 指涉物 and referring back to them.
The second (or subsequent) referring expression is an example of anaphora (‘referring back’).
The first mention is called the antecedent. 先行詞

Study questions 4, 5

54
 There is a much less common pattern, called cataphora, which reverses the antecedent-anaphora
relationship by beginning with a pronoun (It), then later revealing more specific information.
The connection between antecedents and anaphoric expressions is often based on inference.
We found a house to rent, but the kitchen was very small.
I got on a bus and asked the driver if it went near the downtown area.
The victim was shot twice, but the gun was never recovered.
We have used the term “inference” here to describe what the listener (or reader) does.
When we talk about an assumption made by the speaker (or writer), we usually talk about a
“presupposition.”
Presupposition
When we use a referring expression like this, he or Shakespeare, we usually assume that our
listeners can recognize which referent is intended.
What a speaker (or writer) assumes is true or known by a listener (or reader) can be described as a
presupposition.
Study questions 6
Tasks G
Anaphora is the more common pattern and can be defined as subsequent reference to an already
introduced entity.
Mostly we use anaphora in texts to maintain reference.
‘constancy under negation’ 否定不變性 test
A test used to check for the presuppositions underlying sentences involves negating a
sentence with a particular presupposition and checking if the presupposition remains true.
The sentences have opposite meanings, but the underlying presupposition remains true.
1. My car is a wreck.
My car is not a wreck.
→ Presupposition: I have a car.
2. I used to regret marrying him, but I don’t regret marrying him now.
→ Presupposition: I married him.
Speech Acts
We can usually recognize the type of ‘action’ performed by a speaker with the utterance.
We use the term speech act to describe actions
requesting, commanding, questioning, informing

Direct and Indirect Speech Acts

55
 direct speech act indirect speech act
make a question make a request

an interrogative structure used to

a declarative structure used to make a
make a Q
request
a declarative structure used to make a
considered to be more gentle or more polite
statement
not ask a Q about sb’s ability, but make
Did you…? , Are they…? , Can
a request
we…?
Can you pass the salt?
Can you ride a bicycle?
May I have your attention?
Please pay attention.

Study questions 9, 10
Tasks I
Pragmatic Markers
Function: to mark the speaker’s attitude. → lack of knowledge, hesitation or uncertainty
You know: indicates shared knowledge
I mean: self-correct or clarify something
Well: make a shift of ideas
I don’t know: indicate
Study questions 7
Politeness
Your face 面子, in pragmatics, is your public self-image.
Face is the emotional and social sense of self that everyone has and expects everyone else to
recognize.
Politeness can be defined as showing awareness of and consideration for another person’s face.

Something that represents a threat to another person’s self-image.

face-threatening act
direct speech act: Give me that paper!

Something that lessens the possible threat to another’s face.

face-saving act Removes the assumption of social power.
indirect speech act: Could you pass me that paper?

negative face the need to be independent and free from imposition

positive face the need to be connected, to belong, to be a member of the group.

A face-saving act that emphasizes a person’s negative face will show concern about imposition.
I’m sorry to bother you…
I know you’re busy, but…

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 A face-saving act that emphasizes a person’s positive face will show solidarity and draw attention
to a common goal.
Let’s do this together…
How about…?
You and I have the same problem, so…
Study questions 8
performative utterances 實行句
Performative Verbs
The type of verbs are used to make performative utterances.
The propositional 陳述的 content of the utterance functions as a complement 補語 of the
performative verb.
Performative verbs are verbs that describe actions carried out by speakers.
They are used in 1st person singular, simple present, indicative, active.
They can be combined with hereby.
Tasks E
To show 口頭答應、保證、警告、訓誡
I warn you, I bet you, I resign, I promise, I agree.
metapragmatics 後設語用學（元語用學）
Lg that characterizes or describes the pragmatic function of some speech.

Discourse Analysis
Discourse analysis asks how to
make sense of what we read
recognize well-constructed texts as opposed to those that are jumbled 混亂的 or incoherent
understand what speakers mean
take part in that complex activity called conversation
The word ‘discourse’ is usually defined as ‘language beyond the sentence’ and the analysis of
discourse is typically concerned with the study of language in text and conversation.
As lg-users, we can recognize correct versus incorrect forms and structures.
Examples: Train collide, two die and No shoes, no service
→ We have the ability to create complex discourse interpretation of fragmentary linguistic
messages.
Interpreting Discourse
To arrive at an interpretation, and to make our messages interpretable, we certainly rely on what
we know about linguistic form and structure.
As lg-users, we have more knowledge than that.
Cohesion 連結性
Texts must have a certain structure that depends on factors different from those required in the
structure of a single sentence.

57
 Some of those factors are described in terms of cohesion, or the ties and connections that exist
within texts.
A number of those types are cohesive ties in the following paragraph.
Analysis of cohesive ties within a text shows:
how writers structure what they want to say crucial factors in readers’ judgments on whether
sth is well written or not
Conventions 傳統手法 of cohesive structure differ from one language to the next.
The ‘connectedness’ 連結 we experience in our interpretation of normal texts is not simply based
on connections between the words.
There must be some other factor, ‘coherence’ 連貫性, that leads us to distinguish connected texts
that make sense from those that do not.
Coherence 連貫性
The concept of coherence:
means everything fitting together well
Is something that exists in people who ‘make sense’ of what they read and hear
People try to arrive at an interpretation that is in line with their experience of the way the
world is.
You would have to create meaningful connections that are not actually expressed by the words
and sentences.
Lg-users must have much knowledge of how conversation works that is not simply ‘linguistic’
knowledge.
Conversation Analysis
For the most part, participants wait until one speaker indicates that he or she has finished, usually
by signaling a completion point 完結點.
Speakers can mark their turns as complete many ways.
by asking a Q
by pausing at the end of a completed syntactic structure like a phrase or sentence
Other participants can indicate that they want to take the speaking turn in many ways.
start to make short sounds, usually repeated (or something , you know, uhm)
use body shifts or facial expressions
Turn-taking
If the normal expectation is that completion points are marked by the end of a sentence and a
pause, then one way to ‘keep the turn’ is to avoid having those two markers occur together.
Don’t pause at the end of sentences.
Make your sentences run on by using connections like and, and then, so, but
Place your pauses at points where the message is clearly incomplete
Preferably ‘fill’ the pause with hesitation markers such as er, em, uh, ah, you know
→ filled pauses / filler
Adjacency Pairs 毗鄰應對
1. a question-answer sequence

58
 2. a thanking-response sequence
3. a request-accept sequence

Insertion Sequence
An insertion sequence is one adjacency pair within another.
A two-part sequence comes between the first and second parts of another sequence in
conversation

The Co-operative Principle

An underlying assumption in most conversational exchanges seems to be that the participants are
co-operating with each other.
The co-operative principle is stated:
“Make your conversational contribution such as is required, at the state at which it occurs, by the
accepted purpose or direction of the talk exchange in which you are engaged.”
The co-operative principle includes four maxims 言行準則, often called the ‘Gricean maxims’.
1. The quantity maxim 數量準則
Make your contribution as informative as is required, but not more, or less, than is
required.
Doesn’t seem to be informative and would appear to be a tautology 同語反覆.
2. The quality maxim 品質準則
Do not say that which you believe to be false.
Do not say that for which you lack adequate evidence.
3. The relation maxim 相關準則 Be relevant.
4. The manner maxim 儀態準則
Avoid obscurity 不明確、晦澀難解 of expression
Avoid ambiguity 模稜兩可、含糊不清
Be clear, brief and orderly.
Hedges
Types of expressions, called hedges, are used to show that people are concerned about following
the maxims while being co-operating participants in conversation.

59
 Hedges can be defined as words or phrases used to indicate that we’re not really sure that what
we’re saying is sufficiently correct or complete.
We can use sort of or kind of as hedges on the accuracy of our statements.
Examples
1. His hair was kind of long.
2. The book cover is sort of yellow.
3. As far as I know…,
4. Now, correct me if I’m wrong, but…
5. I’m not absolutely sure, but…
Using hedges indicates that what we report is sth we think or feel (not know), is possible or likely
(not certain), and may or could (not must) happen.
That is, we don’t have enough evidence for the statement.
Entailment 蘊涵
“John knows that Tom is American.” entails “Tom is American.”
“John eats” entails “John eats something.”
“John ate an apple.” entails “There exists an apple that John ate.”
Implicatures 真正涵義、隱涵
When we try to analyze how hedges work, we usually talk about speakers implying something that
is not said.
Somebody is ‘implying’ something in conversation.
It is not simply a statement.
It contains an additional conveyed meaning.
Background knowledge
In order to describe the conversational implicature, we had to appeal to some background
knowledge that must be shared by the conversational participants.
Investigating how we use our background knowledge to arrive at interpretations of what we hear
and read is a critical part of doing discourse analysis.
Inference 推論
A piece of information is not directly stated in the text.
Some are derived from our conventional knowledge in our culture.
We actually create what the text is about, based on our expectations of what normally happens,
e.g., schema or script.
Three references of discourse: ellipsis 省略or substitution, conjunction, and reference 參照點.
1. anaphoric reference 回朔指涉
2. exophoric reference 外向指涉
3. cataphoric reference 前瞻指涉

60
Schemas 基模
A schema is a general term for a conventional knowledge structure that exists in memory.
We have many schemas (or schemata) used in the interpretation of what we experience and what
we hear or read about.
Scripts 腳本、劇本
A script is essentially a dynamic schema 動態.
That is, instead of the set of typical fixed features in a schema, a script has a series of conventional
actions that take place.
Our understanding of what we read is not only based on what words and sentences are on the
page (language structures), but also the interpretations we create, in our minds, of what we read
(knowledge structures) as we go about making sense of discourse.
Intertextuality 互文性
borrowing and transformation 改造 of a prior text or a reader’s referencing of one text in reading
another.
The shaping of text meanings by other texts.
Intermingle 混合 while weaving a way of accounting for the role of literary and extra literary
materials
stylistics 文體學
Stylistics is the study and interpretation of texts in regard to their linguistic and tonal style.
As a discipline, it links literary criticism to linguistics.
It does not function as an autonomous domain on its own, and can be applied to an
understanding of literature and journalism as well as linguistics.
Sources of study in stylistics may range from canonical 標準的 works of writing to popular texts,
and from advertising copy to news, non-fiction, and popular culture, as well as to political and
religious discourse.
Examples
Borrowing: bagel
Parody 詼諧的改編詩文 He was lying so obviously, you could almost see his nose growing.
Pastiche 模仿作品 He’s asking her to the prom. It’s like a happy version of Romeo and Juliet.
Allusion 引喻 It’s hard being an adult! Peter Pan had the right idea.
Translation

61