Chapter 1

Language and
Linguistics 2
 What is language?

 A language is a system of arbitrary vocal

symbols by means of which the members
of a speech community communicate,
interact, and transmit their culture.
 What is language?

 Language is a system of arbitrary vocal

symbols for human communication,
interaction and cultural transmission.
system
Sounds, words, grammar …
arbitrary
There is no natural connection between sound
and meaning
vocal
Language is first of all spoken.
symbols
We use symbolic signs to represent meaning, and the
relation between symbol and meaning is arbitrary.
 for
human communication
interaction
cultural transmission
 Summary
 Language has system./ Language is a system.
 Language is vocal.
 Language is arbitrary.
 Language is a human activity.
 Language is noninstinctive.
 Language is a social activity.
 Language is related to culture.
 Language changes.
 Linguistics is the scientific study of language.

 A linguist studies:
– The sound of language: phonetics 语音学
– The sound patterns of language: phonology 音位学
– The word structure of language: morphology 词法学
– The sentence structure of language: syntax 句法学
– The meaning of language: semantics 语义学
– The use of language in context: pragmatics 语用学
– Language above the sentence: discourse analysis 语
篇分析
 A linguist also studies:
– The relation between language and society:
sociolinguistics 社会语言学
– The relation between language and culture:
intercultural communication 跨文化交际
– The relation between language and psychology:
psycholinguistics 心理语言学
– The relation between language and cognition: cognitive
linguistics 认知语言学
– The relation between language and literature: stylistics
文体学
– Language changes through time: historical linguistics
历史语言学
– Language teaching and learning: applied linguistics 应
用语言学
2. Design features of language
 Design features refer to
the defining properties of
human language that
distinguish it from other
communication systems
used by humans or animals.

 Charles Hockett (1916-

2000)

 13 design features
 2.1 Arbitrariness
（任意性）

 There is no intrinsic relation between

sound and meaning.

 Different sounds are used to refer to the same

object in different languages.
 = The same meanings are represented by
different sounds in different languages.
 A rose by any other name
would smell as sweet. (Shakespeare,
Romeo and Juliet)

 There is no reason why we attach the meaning

‘animal with a grunt and a curly tail’ to the
sequence of sounds p-i-g.
 This is what we found others doing in our
particular community when we arrived on the
scene, so we are simply following their example.
 Language is made productive for being
arbitrary.

 It is easy to change, but values of

signs/symbols will be changed.

father son

Let’s eat our table for breakfast today.

 2.2 Duality
（二重性）
 Duality refers to the property of having two
levels of structure.
 Language can be analysed into two levels of
structure/structure:

 1)Sounds: the sounds of language have no

intrinsic meaning, but combine in different ways
to form meanings. (secondary/low level)
 2)Meaning: elements (such as words) that do
convey meaning. (primary/higher level)
 Individual sounds have no meaning in
themselves; combination of sounds
produce meanings.
 Can we have one sound for one meaning?

 Every meaning is expressed by one

sound?

 Possible but not feasible （可能但不可行）

 So many meanings, but limited sounds.

 The advantage of duality
 Users of a language can use or
produce a large number of forms by
combining a relatively small number
of lower-level elements in a variety of
different ways.

 Language is the infinite use of finite means.

( 有限手段的无限运用 )
 2.3 Creativity/productivity
（能产性）

 The property of the language system

which enables native speakers to
produce and understand an
indefinitely large number of
sentences, including sentences they
have never used or heard before.
 Language is productive because it is a
system.

 More important, the creativity of language

is due to the properties of arbitrariness and
duality.

 Infinite use of finite means. (cf. number

system)
 We can use sentences we
have never used before.

 We can understand sentences

we have never heard before.
 2.4 Displacement
（移位性）

 The property of language which makes it

possible for us to refer to objects and
events that are remote in time and place
from the act of utterance itself.

 Linguistic signals are often displaced: we

refer to things when they are not around.
 The property of displacement enables
language users to talk about things absent
from the immediate environment and
handle generalizations and abstractions.

No matter how eloquently a dog may bark,

he cannot tell you that his parents were
poor but honest. (Bertrand Russell)
 Lying is made possible owing to the
property of displacement.

Boss: Why are you late for work?

Employee: When I got up this morning I
looked in the mirror and I couldn’t see
myself, so I thought I’d gone to work. Two
hours later I found that the mirror glass
had fallen out of the frame.
 2.5 Cultural transmission
（文化传承）

 Language is culturally transmitted. It is

passed on from one generation to the next
through teaching and learning, rather than
by instinct.
 In contrast, animal call systems are
genetically ( 基因 ) transmitted, i.e., animals
are born with the capacity to produce the
set of calls peculiar to their species.
 3. Origins of language
The Danish linguist, Otto
Jespersen (1860-1943)

Mystery

Forbidden topic
 3.1 The divine source
 In the beginning was the word. （ John 1:
1）
 太初有道（《道德经》）
 He brought them to the man to see what he
would call them. Whatever the man called
every living creature, that was its name. The
man gave names to all the cattle, every bird
of the sky, and every animal of the field. But
no suitable helper was found for the man.
（ Genesis 2:19-20 ）
The Tower of Babel
 The whole earth had one language and was of one speech. As they migrated
from the east, it happened that they found a plain in the land of Shinar, and
they settled there. They said one to another, 'Come, let's make bricks, and
bake them thoroughly.' (Genesis 11:1-3 )
Yahweh came down to see the city and the tower
which the sons of mankind were building.
From there Yahweh scattered them abroad across
the face of the earth.
And they stopped building the city.
That is why it was
called Babel, because
there Yahweh confused
the language of all
the earth. From there,
Yahweh scattered them
abroad across face of
the earth.
 3.2 The invention theory
 Language is a human invention.

 The Danish linguist, Otto Jespersen (1860-

1943), grouped commonly held theories
about the origins of language into four
types, and added a fifth of his own. They
are often referred to by nicknames.

 3.2.1 The ‘bow-wow’ theory
 Speech arose through people imitating the
sounds of the environment, especially
animal calls.
 The main evidence would be the use of
onomatopoeic words ( 象 声词 ), but as few of
these exist in a language, and as languages
vary so much in the way they represent
natural sounds, the theory has little support.
 3.2.2 The ‘pooh-pooh’ theory
 Speech arose through people making
instinctive sounds, caused by pain, anger,
or other emotions.

 The main evidence would be the universal

use of sounds as interjections, but no
language contains many of these.
 3.2.3 The ‘ding-dong’ theory
 Speech arose because people reacted to the
stimuli ( 刺 激 ) in the world around them, and
spontaneously ( 自 发 的 ) produced sounds (‘oral
gestures’) which in some way reflected or were
in harmony with the environment.
 The main evidence would be the universal use of
sounds for words of a certain meaning:
 – mama is supposed to reflect the movement of
the lips as the mouth approaches the breast, and
bye-bye or ta-ta show the lips and tongue
respectively ‘waving’ good-bye.
 3.2.4 The ‘yo-he-ho’ theory
 Speech arose because, as people worked
together, their physical efforts produced
communal, rhythmical grunts, which in due
course developed into chants, and thus language.
 The main evidence would be the universal use of
prosodic （ 音 韵 ） features, especially of
rhythm; but the gap between this kind of
expression and what we find in language as a
whole is so immense that an explanation for the
latter would still have to be found.
 3.2.5 The ‘la-la’ theory
 Jespersen himself felt that, if any single
factor was going to initiate human
language, it would arise from the romantic
side of life – sounds associated with love,
play, poetic feeling, perhaps even song.
 But again, the gap between the emotional
and the rational aspects of speech
expression would still have to be
accounted for.
 3.3 The evolution theory
 The evolution theory: language developed
in the course of the evolution of the
human species.

 The evolutionary development of the

speech organs, especially the oral cavity （
口腔） and the pharyngeal cavity （咽腔） .
– For example, the shapes of human teeth, lips and the
tongue evolved in such a way that enables humans to
produce a variety of speech sounds.
 However, some people think that the major
evolutionary step in the development of
language relates to evolutionary changes in
the brain (Fromkin & Rodman, 1983: 28).
 As Yule (1996/2000: 5) puts it, there is an
evolutionary connection between the tool-
using and language-using abilities of
humans, as both are related to the
development of the human brain and are
largely confined to the left hemisphere of
the brain for most humans.
 4. What is Linguistics?
 Definition: the scientific study of human
languages.
– It studies not just one language of
any one society, but the language of
all human beings.
 A linguist, though, does not have to
know and use a large number of
languages, but to investigate how each
language is constructed.
 What is Linguistics?
A linguist is also concerned with how a
language varies from dialect to dialect,
from class to class,
how it changes from century to century,
how children acquire their mother
tongue, and perhaps
how a person learns or should learn a
foreign language.
 What is Linguistics?
 In short, linguistics studies the general
principles whereupon all human
languages are constructed and operated
as systems of communication in their
societies or communities.

50
 5. History of linguistics
 Long tradition, going back to the Classical
Greeks of about 500 BC.
 For various reasons the Greeks were very
interested in their language and developed
a sophisticated analysis of it which later
acted as the model for analyses of Latin
and then of all the languages known to the
Europeans influenced by Greco-Roman
culture. (Greek-Roman) (Hudson 1984)
 5.1 Early history
 The Greeks
– The earliest surviving
linguistic debate is found in
Cratylus of Plato (c. 427-
347 BC), a dialogue about
the origins of language and
nature of meaning.

– Aristotle (384-322 BC)

carried on the study of
grammatical classes and the
category of ‘gender’ and
‘tense’ in Greek.
 The Romans
– The Romans followed Greek
traditions and introduced a
speculative approach to language.
思辨的

– The most influential work of this

period: Latin grammar by Marcus
Teretius Varro (116-27 BC) under
the headings of etymology,
morphology, and syntax.

– In the field of grammar and

rhetoric: Cicero (106-43 BC) on
style, and Quintilian (1st century
AD) on usage and public
speaking.
 The Indians
A descriptive tradition

– Pānini, a famous grammarian during the 5 th

and 7th centuries BC.
– Grammar

– Rules of word formation

 The Middle ages

– Medieval learning was founded on seven

‘arts’, of which three are related to the study of
language.

– trivium ( 三艺 ) ： grammar, dialectics( 辩证

法 ), and rhetoric.
– Grammar was seen as the foundation for the
whole of learning.
 The Renaissance 文艺复兴

– The Chinese linguistic traditions were

discovered.

– Arabic and Hebrew studies progressed, the latter

especially in relation to the Bible.

– More systematic study of European languages,

especially of the Romance family.
 5.2 Modern linguistics
4.2.1 Ferdinand de Saussure
 Modern linguistics began
from the Swiss linguist
Ferdinand de Saussure
(1857-1913), father of
modern linguistics.
 The study of the principles
governing the structure of
living languages.
 1916: Course de
Linguistique Générale
(Course in General
索绪尔
Linguistics)
5.2.2 The Prague School 布拉格学派

 The linguistic Circle of Prague,

founded in 1926 by V. Mathesius
(1882-1946)

 The analysis of language as a system of

functionally related units.
 It led to the distinction between the phonetic and
phonological analysis of sounds, the analysis of
phoneme into distinctive features.
 Development in syntax, semantics and stylistics
 Functional sentence perspective
 Roman Jakobson, Jan Firbas (1921-2000),
5.2.3 The Copenhagen School 哥本哈根学派

 A group of linguists who

constituted the Copenhagen
Linguistic Circle in the mid-
1930s, and who developed an
approach to linguistics
known as glossematics. 语符
学
 Led by Louis Hjelmslev
(1899-1965), the school
developed a philosophical
and logical basis for
linguistic theory.
5.2.4 The London School

 The London School is

represented by J. R. Firth
(1890-1960), the first
professor of General
Linguistics in Britain, and a
key figure in the
development of British
linguistics.
The London School stresses the
importance of context, system and
function in the study of language.
 Firth was influenced by the
anthropologist B. Malinowski
(1884-1942). 人类学家

Malinowski with Trobriand Islanders in 1918

 Firth has a great influence on M. A. K. Halliday,
who is well-known for his systemic functional
grammar. 系统功能语法
5.2.5 American structuralism 美国结构主义

 American structuralism refers to the

Bloomfieldian emphasis on the processes of
segmenting and classifying the physical features
of utterance, with little reference to the
underlying structures.

 American descriptive linguistics or descriptivism

before Chomsky’s generative linguistics of the
late 1950s.
Early Period
 American anthropologists, who were concerned to
establish good descriptions of the American Indian
languages and cultures before they disappeared.
 The approach was to provide a careful account of the
speech patterns of the living languages.
 Franz Boas (1858-1942): Handbook of American Indian
Languages (1911)
 Edward Sapir (1884-1939): Language (1921)
Bloomfieldian Era
 L. Bloomfield (1887-1949), a landmark figure in
the history of American linguistics, and the
period between 1933 and 1950 is known as
Bloofieldian Era.

 Behaviourism
行为主义
Post-Bloomfieldian linguistics
 Post-Bloomfieldian linguistics focused on direct
observation: a grammar is discovered through the
performing of certain operations on a corpus
data, i.e., through discovery procedures.
 Z. Harris (1909-)
 C. Hockett (1916-2000)
 K. Pike (1912-2000)
5.2.6 Transformational-Generative Grammar

 Noam Chomsky (1928-)

 Generative grammar is
a set of formal rules
which projects a finite
set of sentences upon
the potentially infinite
set of sentences that
constitute the language
as a whole, and it does
this in an explicit
manner, assigning to
each a set of structural
descriptions.
 6. How linguists approach
language
Differences in the way linguists approach
language: Some important distinctions

 Time: synchrony and diachrony

 Correctness: descriptive and prescriptive
 Levels of abstraction/generality: langue and
parole
 Mode of language: speech and writing
 Structure or relation: syntagmatic and
paradigmatic
6.1 Synchrony and diachrony 共时与历
时

 Diachronic linguistics sees language as a

continually changing medium.
 Synchronic linguistics sees language as a living
whole, existing as a ‘state’ at a particular
moment in time.
6.2 Correctness: descriptive and prescriptive
描写与规定

 Modern linguistics is descriptive rather than

prescriptive.

 Descriptive studies aim to describe and analyze

the language people use.
 Prescriptive studies attempt to lay down rules of
correctness as to how language should be used.
6.3 Levels of abstraction/generality: langue and
parole 抽象性 / 概括度：语言与言语

 Langue is the abstract language system shared

by all the members of a speech community.

 Parole is the act of speaking, the realization of

langue in actual use.
 Competence and performance (Chomsky)
能力与运用

 Competence is a native speaker’s

unconscious, implicit knowledge of rules
that underlie his or her judgements of
grammaticality and meaning.

 Performance is the actual events of

language production and comprehension.
6.4 Mode of language: speech and writing

 Speech and writing are the two major media of

linguistic communication.

 Spoken language is the natural or the primary

medium of human language.
 From the point of view of linguistic evolution,
speech is prior to writing.
 From the point of view of language
development, speech is usually learned before
writing.
6.5 Syntagmatic and paradigmatic
relations 组合关系与聚合关系

 The relationships between linguistic signs

of a language.
– Syntagmatic relation: the signs are seen as a
linear sequence( 线性序列 ) . Horizontal
– Paradigmatic relation: the relation between a
linguistic sign in an utterance and other signs
in the language. Vertical
 smaller
shorter
John is taller than Tom. (horizontal /Syntagmatic)

smarter
happier

(vertical/ Paradigmatic)
 Some important distinctions

 Review questions:
 1. What is the difference between prescriptive
and descriptive?
 2. Give some examples to show the differences
between synchronic and diachronic?
 3. Find out the differences between langue and
parole?
 4. What is the major difference between
competence and performance?

76
 1.9.1 Descriptive vs. Prescriptive
 1. If a linguistic study aims to describe
and analyze the language people actually
use, it is said to be descriptive.
 2. If the linguistic study aims to lay down
rules for correct and standard behavior
in using language, i.e. to tell people what
they should say and what they should
not say, it is said to be prescriptive.

77
 Descriptive Prescriptive
To describe To lay down
the linguistic facts rules for “correct”
observed linguistic behavior
1) what is in language 1) What should be in
(describe actual language (lay down
speech behaviors) rules for…)
2) What people 2) What people should
actually say (traditional
say (modern linguistic) linguistics)


Descriptive vs. Prescriptive

 Descriptive vs. Prescriptive
Linguistic studies before this
century were largely prescriptive
because many early grammars
were based on “high” (literary or
religious) written records.

79
 Descriptive vs. Prescriptive
 Modern linguistics is mostly descriptive,
however. It (the latter) believes that
whatever occurs in natural speech
(hesitation, incomplete utterance,
misunderstanding, etc.) should be
described in the analysis, and not be
marked as incorrect, abnormal, corrupt,
or lousy.

80
 Examples of Prescriptive
grammar: traditional
1. (A) It is I.
(B) It is me.
You should say A instead of B
because “be” should be followed by
the nominative case, not the
accusative according to the rules in
Latin.
 Examples of Prescriptive
grammar: traditional
2. (A) Who did you speak to?
(B) Whom did you speak to?
You should say B instead of A
because Whom is used in formal
speech and in writing; Who is more
acceptable in informal speech.

82
 1.9.2 Synchronic vs. diachronic
A synchronic ( 共时的 ) description, the
description of a language at some
point in time, takes a fixed instant as
its point of observation (static state).
Most grammars are of this kind.
◦ A Grammar of Modern Greek;
◦ The Structure of Shakespeare’s English

83
 1.9.2 Synchronic vs. diachronic
 Diachronic ( 历时的 ): the
description of a language as it
changes through time. (dynamic
state)

84
 1.9.3 Langue & parole
Proposed by Swiss linguist
F. de Saussure (sociological)
 Langue (language): the
abstract linguistic system
shared by all the members of
a speech community
( 说话者的语言能力 )
 Parole (speaking): the
Saussure realization of langue in actual
use ( 语言上的实际表现 )
85
 Differences between langue and
parole
Langue Parole
abstract specific to the speaking
situation
not actually spoken always a naturally occurring
by an individual event
relatively stable a mass of confused facts,
and systematic thus not suitable for
systematic investigation

86
 Differences between langue
and parole
 What a linguist ought to do,
according to Saussure, is to abstract
langue from instances of parole, i. e.
to discover the regularities
governing all instances of parole
and make them the subject of
linguistics.

87
Langue(language) Parole(speaking)

 the generalized  the application of

rules of language rules
1) abstract (system 1) concrete(use of
of rules) langue)
2)shared (by all 2) specific (to
members of a individual persons/
speech community) contexts)
3) relatively stable 3) changeable
1.9.4 Competence and performance

Proposed by the American linguist

N. Chomsky (psychological)
 Competence: the ideal
user’s knowledge of the
rules of his language ( 语
言能力 )
 Performance: the actual
use of language in
concrete situations ( 语言 Chomsky
运用 ) 89
 Relations b/t competence &
performance
 1) Competence enables us to
produce unlimited sentences/ to
recognize grammatical errors and
ambiguities.
 So competence is the prerequisite for
performances.
 Relations b/t competence &
performance
 2) A speaker’s competence is relatively
stable, performances are changeable
influenced by many factors.
 Performances: related factors
 social factors: addressee/ environment/
time
 psychological factors:
pressure/distress/anxiety/
embarrassment/fear/ interest/ confidence
 Relations b/t competence &
performance
 3) A speaker’s competence might be
perfect, but his performances can’t
avoid imperfection.
 Eg.: Imperfect performance
 a slip of tongue 口误
 false starts 头起错了
 unnecessary pauses
 hesitation , mouth fillers 语塞
 Differences between
competence and performance
Competence Performance
It enables a speaker to produce Performance is
and understand an indefinite often influenced
number of sentences and to by psychological
recognize grammatical mistakes and social
and ambiguities; It is stable. factors; it is not
stable.
 Chomsky believes that linguists ought to study
competence, rather than performance. In other
words, they should discover what an ideal
speaker knows of his native language.
93
 Saussure Vs. Chomsky
 Not exactly the same, though similar.
Langue-parole Comp-performance
Langue is a social product Competence is
and a set of conventions for deemed as a property
a community of the mind of each
individual
Saussure looks at language N. Chomsky deals
from a sociological or with his issues in
sociolinguistic point of mind/brain
view (psychologically or
psycholinguistically)
 Assignment
 “No matter how eloquently a dog may bark,
he cannot tell you that his parents were
poor but honest” (Bertrand Russell). What
does this quotation tell us about the nature
of language?
Email: wenhaotao2011@163.com
Email Title:
Name(Chinese)+assignment-2+human language
Time: Within one week(Delayed assignment
is NOT accepted ) ； 100-200 words