语言学精简

2024-10-18 来源：威能网

Chapter 1 INTRODUCTION Teaching Objectives:

After studying this chapter, students should be able

1. to have a general idea of what language and linguistics is respectively 2. to understand the design features of language

3. to have a correct attitude towards the theories about the origin of language 4. to understand the implication of the term linguistics 5. to know the branches of linguistics and

6. to understand some important distinctions in linguistics. Key points and difficult points Key points:

1. design features of language 2. main branches of linguistics

3. some important distinctions in linguistics Difficult points:

1. design features of language

2. some important distinctions in linguistics

Teaching time allotment

Chapter 1 is to be finished in three sessions, with the first session covering Steps1-3, the second session Steps 4-5 and the last Steps 6-7.

. Session A

Attendants: Juniors of English major Place: Teaching building No. 1 Duration of Time: 90 min.

Teaching method: oral instruction Pre-class work:

Pre-reading Questions

1. What do you think language is?

2. Do bees communicate in the same way as humans? Library work

Consult dictionaries and other textbooks to find some definitions of language and write them down. Think about the similarities and differences between these definitions.

Teaching Procedures

Step 1 (Whole class) Aim: Class brainstorms the concept of language by the following

questions.

1. Can you give some more views about language that are or had been commonly held

by laymen?

2. In what ways is language useful?

3. What have you found out about the different definitions of language that you had

written down? 4. Do bees communicate like humans? Is language human-specific?

Step 2 (instructor-student interaction) Aim: Students report their findings & instructor

presents the definition of Language on the Bb. Language is a system of arbitrary vocal symbols used for human communication.

Language is a means of verbal communication. It is instrumental in that

communicating by speaking or writing is a purposeful act.

It is social and conventional in that language is a social semiotic and communication

can only take place effectively if all the users share a broad understanding of human interaction including such associated factors as nonverbal cues, motivation, and socio-cultural roles. Language learning and use are determined by the intervention of biological, cognitive, psychosocial, and environmental factors. Other definitions

Language is a symbolic form of communication that involves, on the one hand, the comprehension of words and sentences and, on the other, the expression of feelings, thoughts, and ideas. The basic units of language are phonemes, morphemes, and words.

from Encyclopedia Britannica

Language is the systematic communication by vocal symbols. It is a universal characteristic of the human species. Nothing is known of its origin, although scientists have identified a gene that clearly contributes to the human ability to use language. Scientists generally hold that it has been so long in use that the length of time writing is known to have existed (7,900 years at most) is short by comparison. Just as languages spoken now by peoples of the simplest cultures are as subtle and as intricate as those of the peoples of more complex civilizations, similarly the forms of languages known (or hypothetically reconstructed) from the earliest records show no trace of being more ―primitive‖ than their modern forms.

from The Columbia Electronic Encyclopedia

人类特有的一种符号系统。当作用于人与人的关系的时候，它是表达相互反应的中介；当作用于人和客观世界的关系的时候，它是认知事物的工具；当作用于文化的时候，它是文化信息的载体。

from 《中国大百科全书·语言文字卷》by许国璋

Language is a purely human and non-instinctive method of communicating ideas, emotions and desires by means of voluntarily produced symbols.

from Language (1921) by Sapir

A language is a system of arbitrary vocal symbols by means of which a social group co-operates.

from Outline of Linguistic Analysis (1942) by B Bloch& G L Trager

…a set (finite or infinite) of sentences, each finite in length and constructed out of a finite set of elements.

from Syntactic Structures (1957) by N. Chomsky

Language is the method of human communication using spoken or written words.

from Macmillan English Dictionary

Language is a system of communication consisting of sounds, words and grammar, or the system of communication used by the people of a particular country or profession.

from Cambridge Advanced Learner’s Dictionary

Language is the use of a system of communication which consists of a set of sounds or written symbols.

from Collins COBUILD English Dictionary for Advanced Learners

Language is a system of communication by written or spoken words, which is used by the people of a particular country or area.

from Longman Dictionary of Contemporary English

Language is the use by human beings of voice sounds, and often written symbols representing these sounds, in organized combinations and patterns in order to express and communicate thoughts and feelings.

from The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language

Language is a human and non-instinctive method of communicating ideas, feelings and desires by means of a system of sounds and sound symbols.

from Oxford Advanced Learner’s Dictionary of Current English1984

Step 3 (Students in groups and then instructor summarizes) Aim: Discuss the design features of language

As Bertrand Russell once observed: ―No matter how eloquently a dog may bark, he cannot tell you that his parents were poor but honest.‖ So what makes human language so complicated and flexible, so unrestrained by the immediate context and so capable of creating new meanings, in a word, so distinctive from languages used by other species? The features that define our human languages can by called DFESIGN FEATURES (by Charles F Hockett—originally 12 features). The following are the frequently discussed ones.

arbitrariness duality creativity displacement interchangeability reflectiveness cultural transmission

Instructor presents the Design features of language on the Bb. 1. Arbitrariness

An example: river—江、河—fleuve (into the sea)/eiviere (branch)

The widely accepted meaning of this feature, which was discussed by Saussure, first refers to the fact that the forms of linguistic signs bear no natural relationship to their meaning.

(What‟s in a name? that which we call a rose By any other name would smell as sweet; So Romeo would, were he not Romeo call‟d, Retain that dear perfection which he owes Without that title.)

ROMEO and JULIET SCENE II Act ⅱ

However there seems to be different levels of ARBITRARINESS. §1. Arbitrary relationship between the sound of a morpheme and its meaning

§2. Arbitrariness at the syntactic level

According to systemic-functionalists and American functionalists, language is not arbitrary at the syntactic level. The order of elements in a sentence follows certain rules, and there is a certain degree of correspondence between the sequence of clauses and the real happenings (iconicity). Therefore the functionalists hold that the most strictly arbitrary level of language exists in the distinctive units of sounds by which we distinguish pairs of words like pin and bin, or fish and dish. §3. conventionality

―名无故宜，约之以命，约定俗成谓之宜，异于约则谓之不宜。名无固实，约之以命，约定俗成谓之实名‖《荀子·正名》

The link between a linguistic sign and its meaning is a matter of CONVENTION. Arbitrariness of language makes it potentially creative, and conventionality of language makes learning a language laborious.

2. Duality (of patterning)/ double articulation linguistique (André MARTINET) ―By DUALITY is meant the property of having two levels of structures, such that units of the primary level are composed of elements of the secondary level and each of the two levels has its own principles of organization‖ (Lyons, 1982:20 Language and Linguistics )

The property of duality then only exists in such a system, namely, with both elements (primary units) and units.

Language is hierarchical. The lowest level consists of dozens of bits of meaningless sounds, which occur in chumps that we call syllables. A syllable is the smallest unit that is normally spoken by it. Scores of syllables become the carriers of hundreds of meaningful segments of words that are called morphemes, such as the prefix trans-or the suffix –ism. With thousands of words we associate millions of meanings, and on top of these millions—astronomical number of possible sentences and discourses.

―Stratification—this organization of levels on level—is the physical manifestation of the ‗infinite use of finite means‘, the trait that most distinguishes human communication and that provides its tremendous resourcefulness.‖ (Bollinger and Sears 1981)

3. Creativity/productivity

By creativity we mean language is resourceful because of its duality and its recursiveness. It enables native speakers to construct and understand an infinitely large number of utterances, including utterances that they have never previously encountered. (Colorless green ideas sleep furiously/ A red-eyed elephant is dancing on the small hotel bed with an African gibbon.)

Language is creative in another sense, that is, its potential to create endless sentences. The recursive nature of language provides a theoretical basis for this possibility. (Recursiveness simply means the rule of non-random repetitions of substrings within strings.) e.g.

I know that you know that I know that you know… 4. Displacement

Displacement means that human languages enable their users to symbolize objects, events and concepts, which are not present (in time and space) at the moment of communication.

5. Interchangeability (Lyons: semantics Vol.Ⅰ)

It refers to the fact that man can both produce and receive messages, and his roles as a speaker and a hearer can be exchanged at ease. 6.Reflectiveness/reflexivity (Lyons: semantics Vol.Ⅰ)

By reflectiveness is meant that language can be used to refer to, or describe itself. The language used is called matalanguage. 7. Cultural transmission

While human capacity for language has a generic basis, i.e., we were all born with the ability to acquire language (N. Chomsky called man‘s capacity for language ―language acquisition device‖, or LAD), the details of any language system are not genetically transmitted, but instead have to be taught and learned. Any language is passed on from generation to the next through teaching and learning, rather than by instinct.

Conclusion: language is human specific.

1) First of all, human language has six ―design features‖ which animal communication systems do not have, at least not in the true sense of them.

2) Secondly, linguists have done a lot trying to teach animals such as chimpanzees to speak a human language but have achieved nothing inspiring. Washoe, a female chimpanzee, was brought up like a human child by Beatrix and Alan Gardner. She was taught ―American sign Language‖, and learned a little that made the teachers happy but did mot make the linguistics circle happy, for all experiments with chimpanzees, including the Washoe case, failed to teach them human language. Another example is Nim Chimpsky. The chimpanzee Nim Chimpsky was the subject of a landmark experiment in teaching sign language to apes. Named in a humorous salute to language theorist Noam Chomsky, Nim was raised in a human-like setting and taught sign language by his caretaker Petitto as if he were a human child. Nim learned to use basic signs but, it was generally agreed, did not develop complex language skills.

3) Thirdly, a human child reared among animals cannot speak a human language, not even when he is taken back and taught to do so. Tips:

The most extensive catalog of the world‘s languages, generally taken to be as authoritative as any, is that of the Ethnologue organization(民族语言http://www.ethnologue.com), whose detailed classified list currently includes 6,809 distinct languages.

from http://www.lsadc.org/info/ling-faqs-howmany

Plenary summary

Aim: Instructor summarizes the important points discussed in this session. Chapter 1 Introduction

Session B

Attendants: Juniors of English major Place: Teaching building No. 1 Duration of Time: 90 min.

Teaching method: oral instruction Pre-class work:

Pre-reading Questions

1. What do you think is the origin of language? 2. What functions does language have?

Library work

Consult books or surf the Net to find out some information about R Jakobson and M A K Halliday.

Teaching Procedures

(whole class) Aim: Review

Instructor asks students 1) to define some key concepts and

2) to explain some design features of language

Step 4 (Whole class) Aim: Instructor introduces theories about the origin of language 1. God created language

―In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.‖(The Gospel according to John1:1)

―And the Lord said, the people is one, and they have all one language; and this they begin to do; and now nothing will be restrained from them, which they have imagined to do.‖ (Genesis Chapter11:6)耶和华说，看哪，他们成为一样的人民，都是一样的言语，如今既作起这事来，以后他们所要作的事就没有不成就的了。 2. The bow-wow theory汪汪说

In primitive times people imitated the sounds of the animal calls in the wild environment they lived and speech developed from that. 3. The pooh-pooh theory噗噗说

In the hard life of our primitive ancestors, they utter instinctive sounds of pain, anger and joy.

4. The “yo-he-he” theory哟-嗬-哟说

As primitive people worked together, they produced some rhythmic grunts, which gradually developed into chants and then into language.

One thing we can say for certain is that language evolves within specific historical, social and cultural contexts. Anecdote:

In the seventh century B.C., the Egyptian pharaoh Psammetichus conducted an unusual experiment: he plucked a couple of infants from their mothers and turned them over to a shepherd, to be raised in seclusion and in the absence of any spoken word. The idea was that whatever sounds the babies spontaneously emitted would reveal the oldest, the original human language.

Herodotus: Histories (2)

Step 5 (Instructor) Aim: instructor presents the definition of Linguistics on the Bb. Linguistics is the science of language, or the scientific study of language. Note:

1) The word ―study‖ here does not mean ―learn‖, but means ―examine‖ or ―investigate‖; the word ―scientific‖ refers to the way language is studied. 2) The process of linguistics study:

a. First, certain linguistic facts are observed, which display some similarities, and generalizations are made about them;

b. Based on these generalizations, hypotheses are formulated to account for these facts;

c. Then the hypotheses are tested by further observations;

d. Finally a linguistic theory is constructed about what language is and how it works. 3) The four principles guiding the study of language:

In order to make his analysis scientific, a linguist is usually guided by four principles: exhaustiveness, consistency, Economy and objectivity. Exhaustiveness means he should gather all the materials relevant to the study and give them an adequate explanation, in spite of the complicatedness. He is to leave no linguistic ―stone‖ unturned. Consistency means there should be no contradiction between different parts of the total statement. Economy means a linguist should pursue brevity in the analysis when it is possible. Objectivity implies that since some people may be subjective in the study, a linguist should be (or sound at least) objective, matter-of-face, faithful to reality, so that his work constitutes part of the linguistics research.

Tips: the following is a list of some international linguistic journals. 1. Language 语言(America)

(by the Linguistic Society of America (1924), LSA,

and Bloomfield as one of the founders)

2. Lingua 语言学(the Netherlands) 3.Journal of linguistics 语言学杂志(Britain)

(by the Linguistics Association of Great Britain, LAGB)

4. Applied linguistics 应用语言学(Britain)

5. Journal of pragmatics 语用学杂志(the Netherlands)

6. Linguistic inquiry 语言学研究(America) 7. Computational linguistics 计算语言学(America)

(by the Association for Computational Linguistics) 8. Meta 译者(Canada) 9. Plenary summary

Aim: Instructor summarizes the important points discussed in this session. Homework assignments ⅰ Remember key concepts: functions of language

ⅱ Understand the seven functions of language ⅲ Preview 1.1.

Chapter 1 Introduction

Session C

Attendants: Juniors of English major Place: Teaching building No. 1 Duration of Time: 90 min.

Teaching method: oral instruction Pre-class work:

Pre-reading Questions

1. Linguistics is defined as the scientific study of language. What do you think ―study‖ and ―scientific‖ mean?

2. On what basis do linguists classify the branches of language study?

3. Have you ever heard of F D Saussure, N Chomsky or K Pike? Try to find some information about them.

Library work

Consult books or surf the Net to find out some information about Saussure, Chomsky and Pike.

Teaching Procedures (whole class) Aim: Review

Instructor asks students 1) to define some key concepts and

2) to explain some functions of language

Step 6 (Whole class) Aim: Instructor presents the main branches of linguistics on Bb. 1. Instructor presents the following on Bb. 2. general linguistics vs descriptive linguistics historical linguistics

theoretical linguistics vs applied linguistics microlinguistics vs macrolinguistics

General linguistics is the study of language as a whole. General linguistics attempts to establish general principles for the study of all languages and to determine the characteristics of human language as a phenomenon. It supplies the concepts and categories in terms of which particular languages are to be analyzed. Descriptive linguistics is the description of particular languages. It provides the data which confirm or refute the propositions and theories put forward in general linguistics. Historical linguistics is the study of the historical development of particular languages and with formulating general hypotheses about language change. Theoretical linguistics is the study of language and languages with a view to construction a theory of their structure and functions and without regard to any practical applications that the study might have.

When the findings, method, or theoretical principles of general linguistics are applied to the problems from other areas of experience, this enquiry is called applied linguistics (in the broad sense), in spite of the fact that this term is often restricted to the study of the theory and methodology for foreign language teaching (in the narrow sense). In practice, there is little difference made between the terms ―general linguistics‖ and ―theoretical linguistics‖.

At its narrowest, microlinguistics is concerned solely with the structure of

language systems. At is broadest, macrolinguistics is concerned with everything that pertains in any way at all to language and languages, e.g. language acquisition, the interdependence of language and culture, and the physiological and psychological mechanisms involved in language behavior.

It might be thought that, in view of the acknowledged importance of language to so many disciplines, linguistics ought to take the broadest possible view of its subject matter. There is a sense in which this is true. The problem is that there is not yet, and may never be, a satisfactory theoretical framework within which we can view language simultaneously from psychological, sociological, cultural, aesthetic and neurophysiological points of view. Macrolinguistics are interdisciplinary. Most linguists nowadays would say that it is theoretical synchronic microlinguistics that constitutes the core of their discipline and gives it whatever unity and coherence it has.

Microlinguistics generally includes five parameters, namely, phonologic, morphologic, syntactic, semantic, and pragmatic.

2. Instructor presents the following on Bb.

phonetics phonology morphology syntax semantics pragmatics Phonetics is the study of speech sounds.

four levels of study aim/object anatomy & physiology speech organs & their functions articulatory phonetics classification auditory phonetics how listeners analyze or process a sound wave acoustic phonetics physical properties of speech sounds

(the sub-branches of phonetics are to be discussed in Chapter 2)

Phonology is the study of the sound systems of languages/the study of the rules governing the structure, distribution, and sequencing of speech sounds and the shape of syllables.

Phonetics focuses on chaos of sounds that human voice is capable of creating and phonology focuses on order of a subset of those sounds that can distinguish meaning.

Morphology is the study of the internal structure of words and the rules by which words are formed. Morphology studies morphemes—the minimal unit of meaning.

Languages differ in their degrees of dependence on the morphological components. e.g. Latin uses inflectional morphemes to show the difference between nominative case and accusative case.

Paulus vidit Mariam.= Paulus Mariam vidit.= Vidit Paulus Mariam. = Mariam vidit Paulus.= Mariam Paulus vidit.= Vidit Mariam Paulus.

Syntax is the study of the formation of sentences or the study of the rules governing the way words are combined to form sentences in a language. Sentences show not only linear structure but hierarchical structure. Semantics is the study of meaning (in abstraction). Pragmatics is the study of meaning in context.

Macrolinguistics includes psycholinguistics, sociolinguistics, anthropological linguistics and computational linguistics. Instructor presents the following on Bb.

psycholinguistics sociolinguistics anthropological linguistics computational linguistics cognitive linguistics discourse analysis/text linguistics corpus linguistics

Psycholinguistics is the study of the interrelation of language and mind. Sociolinguistics is the study of the relationship between language and society. Anthropological linguistics is the study of the relationship between language and culture. (Ethnolinguistics is a subdivision of anthropological linguistics concerned with the study of the interrelation between a language and the cultural behaviour of those who speak it.)

Computational linguistics is the study of the use of computers to process or produce human language.

machine translation information retrieval expert systems with natural language interfaces speech synthesis

Cognitive linguistics is the study of language as an instrument for organizing, processing and conveying information. grammaticalization conceptual metaphor etc.)

(categorization,

iconicity,

Discourse analysis/text linguistics is the study of the relationship between language and the contexts in which language is used.

corpus linguistics is the study of language based on the extensive accumulation of naturally occurring language data and its analysis by computers.

Step 7 (Whole class) Aim: Instructor presents the five important distinctions in linguistics on Bb.

descriptive vs prescriptive synchronic vs diachronic langue vs parole competence vs performance etic vs emic

1. Instructor presents descriptive vs prescriptive on Bb.

By “descriptive” is meant a linguistic study describes and analyses the language people actually use.

By “prescriptive” is meant a linguistic study aims to lay down rules for “correct” behavior, i.e. to tell people what they should say and what they should not say. Modern linguistics is descriptive, not prescriptive.

Linguistic studies before this century were largely prescriptive because many early grammars were based on ―high‖ (literary or religious) written records. 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.

2. Instructor presents synchronic vs diachronic on Bb.

F D Saussure discussed in detain this distinction between synchronic vs diachronic. The description of a language at some point in time (as if it stopped developing) is a synchronic study. It takes a fixed instant (usually, but not necessarily, the present),as its point of observation. Most grammars are of this kind. The description of a language as it changes through time is a diachronic study. An essay entitled ―On the Use of THE‖, for example, may be synchronic, if the author does not recall the past of THE, and it may also be diachronic if he claims to cover a

large range or period of time wherein THE has undergone tremendous alteration. Modern linguistics is mainly a synchronic study.

Synchrony is a fiction because language is always changing and grammar-writing is a lengthy enterprise.

3. Instructor presents langue vs parole on Bb.

The distinction between langue and parole was made by the Swiss linguist Ferdinand de Saussure early last century (Cours de Linguistique Générale/Course in General Linguistics 1916). Langue refers to the abstract linguistic system shared by all the members of a speech community. It is the set of conventions and rules which language users all have to follow. Langue is relatively stable; Langue is abstract in the sense that it is not the language people actually use. Langue is not complete in any speakers, but exists in a collectivity, i.e. in the brains of a group of individuals. It is social and essential. Parole refers to the realization of langue in actual use. Therefore, it is the concrete use of the conventions and the application of the rules. It is individual and accidental. Paroles are the naturally occurring language events. They vary from person to person, and from situation to situation.

Langue is abstract, parole specific to the speaking situation; langue not actually spoken by an individual, parole always a naturally occurring event; langue relatively stable and systematic, parole is a mass of confused facts, thus too varied and confusing and not suitable for systematic investigation. 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.

Saussure‘s Langue is a social product, and a set of conventions for a community. He looks at language from a sociological or sociolinguistic point of view. 4. Instructor presents competence vs performance on Bb.

This distinction between competence and performance was first put forward by N Chomsky in his Aspects of the Theory of Syntax (1965). By competence is meant a language user’s underlying knowledge about the system of rules. By performance is meant the actual use of language in concrete situations.

According to Chomsky, the task of a linguist is to determine from the data of performance the underlying system of rules that has been mastered by the language

user. ―Linguistic theory is concerned primarily with an ideal speaker-listener, in a completely homogeneous speech-community, who knows its language perfectly‖. Chomsky‘s distinction is related to Saussure‘s. But for him, langue should not be seen as a mere systematic inventory of items and competence is closer to German linguist Humboldt‘s conception, i.e. the underlying competence as a system of generative processes. Competence is deemed as a property of the mind of each individual. N. Chomsky approaches language psychologically or psycholinguistically.

Dissatisfied with Chomsky‘s proposition, Dell Hymes approaches language from a socio-cultural viewpoint with the aim of studying the varieties of ways of speaking on the part of the individual and the community. It is found that speakers vary their performance not at random but in a regular way. Dell Hymes put forward communicative competence to include not only Chomsky’s competence (knowledge of grammar) but the pragmatic ability for language use. 5. Instructor presents etic vs emic on Bb.

The distinction between etic(素) and emic(位) was put forward by the American linguist Kenneth Pike at Michigan University in his language theory Tagmemics. Pike coined the terms from the endings of the words, phonemic and phonetic. ―An emic unit is a physical or mental item or system treated by insiders as relevant to their system of behavior and as the same emic unit in spite of etic variability‖. ―…there is etic variation within an emic unit‖. The ―emic‖ view is the perspective of the insider, the participant within a system, or the native; the ―etic‖ view of a unit is the perspective of the outsider or the alien observer. This etic/emic contrast is used by Pike to distinguish between those elements which are crucial, indispensable factors (emic) and those which are incidental, insignificant (etic) in a grammar.

For example, a noncardplayer observing a game of bridge will see different things than a bridge- player will. The noncardplayer, who is an “alien” in this situation, may notice that the cards are handled and passed around, that the players pick up the cards in front of them and carry on a short conversation in cryptic phrases, that one player then puts all of his cards on the table while the other three put theirs down one by one as this player or that puts little piles of cards in front of him . . . What the bridge- player sees as a “native” to the game is a distinct unit called a “hand,” consisting of the deal, the bidding, the play and the scoring. The noncardplayer observes a number of etic facts, some of which fit into the emic categories of the bridge- player and some of which are irrelevant . . . To know which events at the card table are significant for the game, which are not, and how the significant events are related to one another, one must know the rules of the

game--that is, one must know the events emically. 6. Instructor presents speech vs writing on Bb. Language has two media: speech and writing.

One of the general principles of linguistic analysis is the primacy of speech over writing. Speech is primary, because, firstly, it phylogenetically existed long long before writing systems came into being; secondly, (genetically/ontogenetically) children learn to speak before learning to write; thirdly, written forms just represent in this way or that the speech sounds: individual sounds, as in English and French as in Japanese.

In contrast to speech, spoken form of language, writing as written codes, gives language new scope and use that speech does not have. Firstly, messages can be carried through space so that people can write to each other. Secondly, messages can be carried through time thereby, so that people of our time can be carried through time thereby, so that people of our time can read Beowulf, Samuel Johnson, and Edgar A. Poe. Thirdly, oral messages are readily subject to distortion, either intentional or unintentional (causing misunderstanding or malentendu), while written messages allow and encourage repeated unalterable reading.

(3) Most modern linguistic analysis is focused on speech, different from grammarians of the last century and theretofore. Plenary summary

Aim: Instructor summarizes the important points discussed in this session.

Chapter 2 Phonology

Teaching Objectives:

After studying this chapter, students should be able

1. to have a general idea of what phonetics and phonology concern respectively

2. to know what parts of the human body are involved in the production of speech and how they function in producing speech sounds

3. to get familiar with the IPA and know how to transcribe speech sounds 4. to understand how English consonants and vowels are classified 5. to understand some phonological rules 6. to understand the distinctive features and 7. to understand some suprasegmental features. Key points and difficult points Key points:

1. classification of English consonants and vowels 2. phones, phonemes and allophones 3. main branches of linguistics 4. some suprasegmental features

5. the distinction between phones and phonemes Difficult points:

1. phonological analysis and phonological rules 2. allophones

Teaching time allotment

Chapter 2 is to be finished in three sessions, with the first session covering Steps1-3, the second session Steps 4-7 and the last Steps 8-13.

Session A

Attendants: Juniors of English major Place: Teaching building No. 1 Duration of Time: 90 min.

Teaching method: oral instruction Pre-class work:

Pre-reading Questions

1. Can you recall the English speech sounds you‘ve learnt in middle school? What are they?

2. In what ways are they helpful in your English study? Library work

Consult dictionaries and other textbooks to find out the Chinese equivalents for the names of speech organs mentioned in your textbook. Teaching Procedures

Step 1 (Whole class) Aim: Instructor presents the three subdivisions of phonetics. articulatory phonetics acoustic phonetics auditory phonetics

Speech and writing are the two media or substances used by natural languages as vehicles for communication.

Speech sounds are a limited range of sounds that are meaningful in human communication. Speech sounds constitute the phonic medium of language.

The three steps of the processes of speech production and perception are production of speech sounds by a speaker, transmission of sounds by means of sound waves, and perception of speech sound by the hearer.

Accordingly, three areas of the study of sounds are distinguished, each dealing with one of the processes.

Articulatory phonetics is the branch of phonetics that studies the production of speech sounds. It studies sounds from the speaker‘s point of view. Auditory phonetics is the study of the perception of speech sounds It looks at speech sounds from the hearer‘s point of view.

Acoustic phonetics is the study of the physical properties of speech sounds. Step 2 (Whole class) Aim: Instructor introduces the speech organs.

1. Speech organs or vocal organs are those parts of the human body involved in the production of speech. Their primary function is to fulfill the basic biological

needs of breathing and eating. 2. Speech organs

The parts of the human body involved in the production of speech are lungs, trachea/windpipe, throat, nose, and mouth.

Usually, three important cavities are distinguishes: the pharyngeal cavity (throat), the oral cavity (mouth), and the nasal cavity (nose). cavity oral nasal pharyngeal lips, teeth, alveolar ridge, hard palate, soft palate (velum), larynx喉, glottis, uvula, tongue (the naso-pharynx鼻咽 vocal cords, tip, the blade, the pharynx咽 front. the back, the root), mandible下颚 contents 3. Passage of the air stream and various modifications

§1. The directions of the movement of the air stream: outcoming and incoming pulmonic sounds and non-pulmonic

In most circumstances, the air stream coming from the lungs and through the trachea passes through the glottis (which is the first point were sound modification might occur; the greatest sourse of modification of the air stream is in the oral cavity where the tongue is the most flexible and responsible for the most variation of articulation). Sounds produced in this way are called pulmonic sounds.

Among some African languages, the air stream may follow the opposite direction. Sounds made with an air stream which is not supplied by the lungs are called non-pulmonic sounds. In Chinese the interjection啧 is case in point. implosives内爆音, ejectives挤喉音, clicks吸气音

Three types of non-pulmonic consonants are used in languages. Two of these types use a glottal air stream mechanism. Ejectives are produced with an egressive airflow generated by larynx raising. Implosives are made with an ingressive flow generated by lowering the larynx. The third type, clicks, use the velaric ingressive air stream mechanism, produced by rarefying a small volume of air enclosed in the mouth.

•Click: A stop made with an ingressive (the air is sucked in) velaric air stream. Clicks are the suction sounds made in the mouth. Click sounds occur in a number of African languages such as the Xhosa (also Xosa [΄kəusа:]) language and are often used as interjections in other languages—e.g., the sound of disapproval represented in English by tsk, tsk or tut-tut or tsk-tsk.•Ejective: A stop made with an egressive glottal air stream. It is transcribed as an apostrophe placed after a symbol, e.g. [k‘]. •Implosive: A stop made with an ingressive glottal air stream. It is transcribed as a small

hook on the top of the regular symbol. e.g.[ ɓ] and [ɗ]

§2. The two membranes lying across the glottis are the vocal cords, which can be held ♦ apart (free passage of air stream) ♦ close together (the air stream vibrating the vocal cords) ♦ totally closed (no passage of air stream)

Voicing is a quality of speech sounds produced by the vibration of the vocal cords. Voicing is a feature of all vowels and some consonants. voiceless voiced glottal stop nasal

When the vocal cords are wide apart, the air can go thtough without causing vibration. Speech sounds produced in this condition are called voiceless.

When the vocal cords are close together, the air stream causes them to vibrate against each other. Speech sounds produced in this condition are called voiced.

When the vocal cords are totally closed, no air stream can pass between them. This gesture is the glottal stop.［］

When the soft palate is lowered to allow air to pass through the nasal cavity and the oral cavity is at the same time blocked, sounds produced in this way are called nasal sounds.

Some physicals properties of sounds: pitch, intensity, length, and quality Pitch is the rate at which the vibrations are produced. The pitch (frequency) of the sound is determined by the speed of the vibration of the vocal cords. The higher the frequency of the sound, the higher the pitch.

Intensity (amplitude/loudness) depends on the strength, or amplitude, of the vibrations producing the sound. If a piano string is struck forcefully the string swings back and forth in a wider arc. The stronger vibration then produces a louder sound since stronger vibrations compress the molecules of the air more forcefully and gives them greater energy, which is interpreted by our ears as a louder sound. Length is the correlate of duration.

Quality, or timbre, of a sound gives us the possibility to distinguish different sounds from each other.

语音也是音高、音强、音长、音色的统一体。任何一个实际的语音单位，都是这四个要素的统一体。音高是声音的高低。它取决于发音体振动的快慢。发音体振动得快，声音就高，发音体振动得慢，声音就低。物体发音之所以有高低之别，一般说来是和物体的大小、粗细、厚薄、长短、松紧有关。大的、粗的、厚的、长的、松的物体振动慢，声音低，反之则高。人的发音体是声带。不同的人，声带的长短厚薄不同，因而音高也不同。音强指声音的强弱。

它取决于发音体振动幅度的大小，实际上就是发音体振动时离开其平衡位置的距离的大小。发音时用力强，物体振动的幅度就大，声音就强；发音时用力弱，物体振动的幅度就小，声音就弱。音高和音强不是一回事。声音高，那是因为发音体振动频率大的缘故；声音强，那是因为用力大的缘故。声音高不一定声音就强，反之，声音强不一定声音就高。音长指声音的长短。它取决于发音体振动持续时间的久暂。振动时间长，声音就长，反之则短。音色指声音的特色，也可以说是声音的本质，所以又叫“音质”。科学术语有时与日常用语不同。日常生活中，我们有时说某人的声音尖细，实际上是说他的声音比一般人的声音音高要高；说某人的声音高，实际上通常是指他的声音音强比较强。我们能根据声音辨别出说话的人来，是因为说话人的发音器官不完全相同，因而造成了不同的音色。任何语言的任何声音都是音高、音强、音长、音色的统一体。音色是主要的。任何语言中，音色都是最主要的辨义因素。音高、音长和音强的作用要小些。

Step 3. (Whole class) Aim: Instructor introduces the orthographic representation of speech sounds.

1. Instructor initiates the classroom discussion of the divergence between spelling and pronunciation in English.

Reason for the divergence: ♦ more sounds than letters ♦ change of English sounds over time ♦ irregular spellings due to borrowings from other languages 2. Instructor presents segment on the Bb.

The word segment in its linguistic sense first appeared in 1943in Kenneth L Pike‘s Phonetics: A critical analysis of phonetic theory and a technic for the practical description of sounds, which, according to OED, means a phonological or syntactic isolable unit that forms part of a continuous speech or text. 3. Instructor presents IPA on the Bb.

Towards the end of the 19th century, scholars studying speech sounds felt the need for a standard and internationally accepted system to record the sounds, i.e. for transcribing sounds in language.

In 1886, a group of language teachers in France formed the Phonetic Teachers‘

Association, whose aim was to devise a system for transcribing the sounds of speech which was independent of any particular language and applicable to all languages. Its name was changed to INTERNATIONAL PHONETIC ASSOCIATION in 1897.

Although several different symbol systems for transcribing speech sounds have also been devised, the most widely accepted internationally is still the IPA, which was published in 1888 by the Association Phonétique Internationale (the International Phonetic Association). The creation of this system was first proposed by the Danish grammarian Otto Jesperson in 1886 to Paul Passy, a founding member of that association. The system published by Passy and his colleagues in 1888 was based on earlier similar efforts, particularly a system for the transcription of English published by Isaac Pitman and Henry Ellis in 1847. The 1888 IPA (and the “International” nature of that system is the key difference) has been through several revisions and corrections since its first publication. The current system of IPA derives mainly from the system developed by the British phonetician Daniel Jones and his colleagues at University of London.

4. Instructor presents IPA principles on the Bb.

♦ There should be a separate letter for each distinctive sound and the same symbol should be used for that sound in any language in which it appears.

♦ The alphabet is to consist of as many Roman alphabet letters as possible, using new letters and diacritics only when absolutely necessary.

Diacritics are a set of symbols used by the IPA which can be added to its alphabet letters to transcribe the minute difference between variations of the same sound. 5. Instructor presents the IPA‘s two ways of transcribing speech sounds on the Bb.

broad transcription and narrow transcription

In A Handbook of Phonetics (1877), Henry Sweet (British phonetician and one of the founders of modern phonetics) made a distinction between ―narrow‖ and ―broad‖ transcriptions, which he called ―Narrow Romic‖. The former means the transcription of symbolizing all the possible speech sounds, including the most minute shades of pronunciation by using diacritics while Broad Romic or transcription means the transcription indicating only those sounds capable of distinguishing one word from another in a given language.

Plenary summary

Aim: Instructor summarizes the important points discussed in this session.

Chapter 2 Phonology

Session B

Attendants: Juniors of English major Place: Teaching building No. 1 Duration of Time: 90 min.

Teaching method: oral instruction Pre-class work:

Pre-reading Questions

1. How many English consonants and vowels have you learnt? 2. What are they? Library work

Consult available dictionaries to see if they use the same symbols for English sounds. If not, consider how they differ.\\

Teaching Procedures

(whole class) Aim: Review

Instructor asks students 1) to define some key concepts and

2) to explain how phonetics is classified

Step 4 (Whole class) Aim: Class brainstorms the English vowels and consonants. Instructor introduces the classification of speech sounds.

At the initial stage, according to whether the air stream from the lungs meet with obstruction, speech sounds can be grouped into consonants and vowels.

Consonants are the sounds that are produced by constricting or obstructing the vocal tract at some places to divert, impede, or completely shut off the flow of air in the oral cavity.

Vowels are the sounds that are produced without such obstruction so no turbulence or a total stopping of the air can be perceived.

Theoretically, a segment must be either a vowel or a consonant. One problem is that some sounds are midway between the two categories. For such sounds like [w] and [y], the terms ―semi-vowels‖ or ―semi-consonants‖ are often used.

半元音发音的持阻阶段口腔通道只形成很小的阻碍，气流通过时只有极轻微的摩擦，就产生半元音。半元音在性质上接近于元音。如英语中的[w]和[j]的口形与[u]和[i]相同而摩擦轻微得几乎听不到。

Step 5 (Whole class) Aim: Instructor introduces consonants of speech sounds. 1) Instructor introduces the concept of manner of articulation and place of articulation.

In the production of consonants, at least two articulators are involved.

Manner of articulation refers to the actual relationship between the articulators and thus the way in which the air passes through certain parts of the vocal tract/the manner in which obstruction is created.

Place of articulation refers to where in the vocal tract there is approximation, narrowing or the obstruction of air.

2) Instructor introduces manners of articulation.

Three basic ways in manners of articulation—closing off the oral tract, narrowing the space, approaching articulators to modify the shape of the tract §1. stop/plosive

The three phases in its production are the closing phase (成阻), the hold/compression phase (持阻), and the release phase/plosion (除阻).

Nasal stops are produced when the air is stopped in the oral cavity but the soft palate is lowered so that the air stream can go out through the nasal cavity. Otherwise. It’s an oral stop.

Phoneticians have retained the term stop for an oral stop and the term Nasal for a nasal stop.

In English, the sounds [p], [b], [t], [d], [k], and [g] are stops and [m], [n], and [ŋ] are nasals.

In normal case, the three phases flow one another in the production of such English sounds like [p], [b], [t], [d], [k], and []. But when they appear in connected speech, the three stages may be flouted. A case in point. is the so-called loss of plosion (不完全爆破) where the first two stages are followed while the third stage is not completed as in He has a ba(d) col(d) today.

You shoul(d) ta(k)e care of the children. Have you rea(d) the book abou(t) tha(t) child。 Goo(d) night.

§2. fricative

When the air stream is partially obstructed by the close approximation of two articulators, the air is forced through a narrow passage in the mouth and a turbulent airflow is produced. Sounds produced in this way are called fricatives. In English [f, v, s, z, ,,,,] are fricatives. §3. (median) approximant

Approximants are produced when one articulator is close to another, but without the vocal tract being narrowed to such an extent as to produce a turbulent air stream.

In English [w, j, r] are such sounds. So this category overlaps with that of vowel. §4. lateral (approximant)

When there is an obstruction of the air stream at a point along the center of the oral tract, with incomplete closure between one or both sides of the tongue and the roof of the mouth, the air is allowed to pass through the open stricture at the side(s) without any noise of friction. Sounds produced in this way are called laterals.

In English [l] is the only one lateral. §5. affricate

Affricates are produced when there is a stop followed immediately by a fricative at the same place of articulation. In English [ʧ, ʤ] are affricates. §6. trill, tap/flap

A trill （颤音） or roll (滚音) is produced when an articulator is set vibrating by the air stream. eg. [r] in the Scottish ―rye‖.

A tap（触音） or flap (闪音) is produced when the tongue makes a single tap against the alveolar ridge. e.g.

[t] in ―city‖ and ―letter‖ in the American pronunciation. 3) Instructor introduces places of articulation.

The place may be anywhere between the lips and the vocal folds. IPA contains 11 places of articulations:

§1. bilabial §2. labiodental [p, b. m, w] in English [f,v] in English §3. dental [θ, ð] in English

If the tip of the tongue protrudes between the upper and the lower front teeth, the dentals are called interdental.

§4. alveolar §5.postalveolar/ palato-alveolar [t, d, l, n s, z, r] in English [,, ʧ, ʤ] in English §6.retroflex §7. palatal [r] as in ―red‖ [j] in English §8. velar §9. uvular [k, g, ŋ] in English n.a. in RP §10. pharyngeal §11. glottal

n.a. in RP [,] in English, [] as in ―button‖ and ―beaten‖

place manner bilabial labiodentald ental alveolar palatal postalveolar stop nasal p b m t d n velar palatal k  ()  glottal 25

fricative approximant lateral affricate w f v   s z   r l ʧ ʤ j h Notes:

※ Where sounds occure in pairs, the one appearing on the left is voiceless and the one on the right is voiced.

※ The sounds in bold type are sibilants because they are pronounced with a hissing sound.

4) Instructor introduces RP and GA.

The English consonants listed in Table 2.1 are based on RP.

Received Pronunciation (RP), sometimes referred to as BBC English (as it was traditionally used by the BBC), sometimes known as ―The Queen’s English‖, Oxford English, or Public School Pronunciation (Daniel Jones), is a form of pronunciation of the English language, sometimes defined as the ―educated spoken English of southeastern England‖.

Traditionally, Received Pronunciation is the accent of English which is the everyday speech of families of Southern English persons whose men folk have been educated at the great public boarding schools. For many years, the use of Received Pronunciation was considered a mark of education as historically most of the best educational institutions (Oxford, Cambridge, and many public schools) were located in South East England. RP is spoken by the upper-middle and upper classes throughout England and is the most common model accent in the teaching of English as a foreign language in the UK.

RP speech is non-rhotic, meaning that written r is pronounced only if it is followed by a vowel sound.

The closest equivalent in the United States is General American, which is rhotic rather than non-rhotic.

General American, sometimes called Standard Midwestern, is a notional accent of American English based on speech patterns common in the Midwest of the United States and those used by many American network television broadcasters. Speakers of the General American accent or dialect are perceived as ―accentless‖ by most Americans.

Like the British RP, General American was never the accent of the entire nation. Rather, it was derived from a generalized Midwestern accent and is spoken particularly by many newscasters. The famous news anchor Walter Cronkite popularized this accent. General American is also the accent generally taught to foreigners learning English as a second language in the U.S.

Step 6 (Whole class) Aim: Instructor introduces vowels of speech sounds. 1) Instructor introduces the four criteria by which to describe vowels. In the production of vowels, no obstruction of air occurs. ♦ the part of the tongue that is raised—front, center, or back

♦ the extent to which the tongue rises in the direction of the palate—high, mid (mid-high, mid-low), or low

♦ the kind of opening made at the lips—various degrees of lip rounding or spreading ♦ the position of the soft palate—raised for oral vowels, and lowered for vowels which have been nasalized.

Alternatively, tongue height, according to the way the two lips are rounded (lip-rounding), is close, close-mid, open-mid, or open. 2) Instructor introduces the theory of cardinal vowels.

Cardinal vowels, according to D. Jones, are a set of vowel qualities arbitrarily defined, fixed and unchanging, intended to provide a frame of reference for the description of the actual vowels of existing languages. The idea of such a system was first suggested by A. J. Ellis in 1844 and taken up by A. M. Bell.

The cardinal vowels represent extreme points of a theoretical vowel space—beyond this vowel space would generate consonants. They are put forward as a framework for the description of actually used vowels. All cardinal vowels are monophthongs.

The cardinal vowel diagram (or quadrilateral) is a set of standard reference

points, which is based on the classification of the front, center and back, as well as on the four levels of tongue height (the highest position the tongue can achieve without causing friction, the lowest position the tongue can achieve, the two intermediate levels with equal intervals in between).

According to convention, the eight primary cardinal vowels of the IPA are CV1 [i], CV2 [e], CV3 [ε], CV4 [a], CV5 [] (unrounded), CV6 [], CV7 [o], and CV8 [u] (rounded).

A set of secondary cardinal vowels is obtained by reversing the lip-rounding for a given position.

The neutral vowel [], often called schwa中性元音, weakened pronunciation of any vowel, is neither high nor low, neither front nor back, the cardinal vowels being as remote as possible from this neutral position. The word ―schwa‖ is from the Hebrew word, meaning ―nought‖. Schwa is the most common vowel sound in English.

3) Instructor introduces vowel glides.

Pure vowels (monophthong vowels) are vowels that are produced with their quality remaining constant throughout the articulation.

Vowel glides are vowels that are produced with an audible change of quality.

Diphthongs are produced when a single movement of the tongue is involved. Triphthongs are produced when a double movement of the tongue is involved. Tense vowels are also called long vowels; lax vowels are short. In RP English, the tense vowels have variable length; they can be much longer than the lax vowels, but under certain conditions they become clipped, or shortened to roughly lax vowel length. Tense vowels, then, have more variable length than lax vowels. Tense vowels tend to have the position of the tongue body slightly higher than the corresponding lax vowels.

4) Instructor introduces the vowels of RP.

The description of RP vowels are based on the following four dimensions: ♦ the height of tongue raising (high, mid, low)

♦ the position of the highest part of the tongue (front, central, back) ♦ the length or tenseness of the vowel (tense vs. lax or long vs. short) ♦ lip-rounding (rounded vs. unrounded)

Step 7 (Whole class) Aim: Instructor introduces coarticulation.

Coarticulation is a kind of phonetic process in which simultaneous or overlapping articulations are involved. Coarticulation can be further divided into anticipatory coarticulation (where a sound becomes more like its following sound), and perseverative coarticulation (where a sound displays the influence of its preceding sound).

Anticipatory coarticulation is more common than perseverative coarticulation.

Plenary summary

Aim: Instructor summarizes the important points discussed in this session.

Chapter 2 Phonology

Session C

Attendants: Juniors of English major Place: Teaching building No. 1 Duration of Time: 90 min.

Teaching method: oral instruction Pre-class work:

Pre-reading Questions

1. In English, the sound [p] is usually unaspirated as in the word ―spike‖. If it is pronounced as aspirated, do you think it is still the same word? 2. In Chinese, 拔bá and 罢bà are two different characters; in English, the word ―but‖, whether pronounced as [] or [], is still considered the same word. What do you think causes the difference? Library work

Consult books or surf the Net to find out some information about the Prague School and their contributions to linguistics. Teaching Procedures (whole class) Aim: Review Instructor asks students

1) to define some key concepts and

2) to characterize some English consonants and vowels. Step 8 (Instructor) Aim: instructor presents phonology on the Bb. 1 Difference between phonetics and phonology.

Both phonetics and phonology study speech sounds. There is some overlap between the two studies. Both words contain the combining form ―phon-‖, which came from the Greek word ―phōnē‖ meaning ―sound, voice‖ (logos = word/speech). Even though it‘s not easy to draw a clear boundary between them, there still exist some differences.

Phonetics is the study of all possible speech sounds while phonology studies how speakers of a language systematically use a selection of these sounds in order to express meaning. So, the latter is interested in the system of sounds of a particular language and studies the social function of speech sounds, but the former in all the speech sounds used in all human languages and studies speech sounds as they are.

Phonology has phoneme as its basic unit while phonetics has phone as its unit. 2 Methodology of phonology

A common methodology of phonology is to begin by analyzing an individual language, to determine its PHONOLOGICAL STRUCTURE, i.e. which sound units are used and how they pattern. Then the properties of different sound systems are compared so that hypotheses can be made about the rules underlying the use of sounds in particular groups of languages, and ultimately in all languages.

The phonological system of a language includes 1) an inventory of sounds and their features, and

2) rules which specify how sounds interact with each other.

Phonology is just one of several aspects of language. It is related to other aspects such as phonetics, morphology, syntax, and pragmatics.

Step 9 (Whole class) Aim: Instructor presents phonemes and allophones on Bb. 1. Instructor presents minimal pairs on Bb.

One technique used in phonological analysis is the minimal pairs (a minimal pair is two words that differ in only one sound.) test which is based on the principle that certain sounds cause changes in the meaning of a word whereas other sounds do not. Its limitation is that it is not always possible to find pairs of words illustrating a particular distinction in a language.

The contrasting sounds in minimal pairs have distinctive value, i.e. they distinguish meaning. They are phonemes. Phoneme is a unit of explicit sound contrast: the existence of a minimal pair automatically grants phonemic status to the sounds responsible for the contrasts.

A linguistic system is built on the idea of contrast. Languages differ in the selection of contrastive sounds. 2. Instructor presents the following on Bb. 1) The phoneme theory

The word phoneme came from the Greek word ―phōnēma‖ (meaning ―sound‖) via the French word ―phonème‖. The use of phonemic analysis is ancient but the first

explicit formulation of a phoneme theory was made only in 1870s by Jan. Baudouin de Courtenay and his student Mikolaj Kruszewski at Kazan. In the early part of the 20th century, the idea was developed by many linguists and several theories were put forward. 2) Allophones

§1. phonemic transcription and phonetic transcription

Phonemic transcriptions are placed between slant lines (//) while phonetic transcriptions are placed between square brackets ([]). In phonetic terms, phonemic transcriptions represent the broad transcriptions.

§2. phones, allophones, complementary distribution, allophony, phonetic similarity, free variation, phonemic contrast

Phone—a speech sound or segment considered without reference to its status as a phoneme or an allophone in a language. It‘s a phonetic unit.

NB: (A phone is a phonetic unit or segment. The speech sounds we hear and produce during linguistic communication are all phones. Phones may or may not distinguish meaning. A phoneme is a phonological unit; it is a unit that is of distinctive value. As an abstract unit, a phoneme is not any particular sound, but rather it is represented or realized by a certain phone in a certain phonetic context.)

Allophones—variants of the same phoneme (allo-, coming from the Greek word állos, means other)

Complementary Distribution—the mutually exclusive relationship between two phonetically similar segments. It exists when one segment occurs in an environment where the other segment never occurs, i.e. the segments never occur in the same context.

Allophony/Allophonic variation—the phenomenon of variation in the pronunciation of phonemes in different positions

Phonetic similarity——the allophones of a phoneme must bear some phonetic resemblance.

NB: (Not all the phones in complementary distribution are allophones of the same phoneme. They must be phonetically similar and in complementary distribution.)

Free variation—the interchangeable relationship between two phones, in which the phones may substitute for one another in the same environment without causing a change in meaning.

So a phoneme may sometimes have FREE VARIANTS.

So, phonetically similar sounds/phones are either the allophones of the same phoneme or two distinctive phonemes (which are said to form a phonemic contrast).

Step 10 (Whole class) Aim: Instructor presents From individual phonemes to their combination---some phonological rules on Bb. 1. Instructor presents assimilation on Bb.

Assimilation is synonymous to coarticulation. It is a process by which one sound takes on some or all the characteristics of a neighbouring sound. NASALIZATION, DENTALIZATION, and VELARIZATION are all instances of ASSIMILATION. Assimilation can occur across syllable or word boundaries.

If a following sound is influencing a preceding sound, we call it REGRESSIVE ASSIMILATION; the converse process, in which a preceding sound is influencing a following sound, is known as PROGRESSIVE ASSIMILATION. Devoicing is a process by which voiced sounds become voiceless. 2. Instructor presents liaison on Bb. 3. Instructor presents elision on Bb.

Step 11 (Whole class) Aim: Instructor presents distinctive features on Bb.

Distinctive features are features that can distinguish one phoneme from another in a language.

The term distinctive feature is connected with the Prague school, esp. with the Russian linguist Nikolay Trubetskoy (Principles of Phonology, 1939). They developed distinctive-feature analysis of sounds; by this analysis, each distinctive sound in a language is seen as composed of a set of contrasting features, and any two sounds of a language that are perceived as being distinct will have at least one feature contrast in their compositions. So a phoneme may be defined as a set of simultaneous distinctive features. Note:

Phonemes are the minimal segments of language systems but not their minimal elements because a phoneme can be further analyzed into distinctive features.

Step 12 (Whole class) Aim: Instructor presents syllables on Bb. 1. Instructor presents suprasegmewntal features on Bb.

Suprasegmewntal features are those aspects of speech that involve more than single sound segments. There

are

two

approaches

phonology:

single-line/linear

and

non-linear/multi-level phonology. In the former (represented by Chomsky and Halle‘s The Sound Pattern of English), words are held to consist of sequences or strings of consonants and vowels; non-linear/multi-level phonology is the syllabic theory represented by a tree diagram.

The principal suprasegmental features are syllable, stress, tone, and intonation. 2. The syllable structure

In English a word may be monosyllabic or polysyllabic Monosyllabic—with one syllable Polysyllabic—with more than one syllable

A syllable must have a nucleus/peak, which is often the task of a sonorant (usually a vowel). When a consonant plays the part of a nucleus, it is syllabic. Nucleus is the central part of the syllable, mostly commonly a vowel.

onset rhyme nucleus coda

σ (representing a syllable)=onset + rhyme rhyme= nucleus + coda

A syllable may be divided into rhyme/rime and onset.

A rime consists of a nucleus and a coda. The syllable onset is the sound(s) occurring

before the nucleus, and the syllable coda is the sound(s) occurring after the nucleus.

Generally, every syllable requires a nucleus but not all syllables contain an onset and a coda. A coda-less syllable of the form V, CV, CCV, etc. (i.e. a syllable has no coda) is called an open syllable, while a syllable that has a coda (VC, CVC, CVCC, etc.) is called a closed (or checked) syllable. Almost all languages allow syllables with empty codas (open syllables). 3. Sonority scale

A sonority hierarchy or sonority scale is a ranking of speech sounds (or phones) by how much ―sound‖ they produce. sonority scales

most sonorous 5. vowels (non-high vowels > high vowels)

4. approximants 3. nasals 2. fricatives

least sonorous 1. stops

4. Syllabification and the maximal onset principle

Syllabification is the separation of a polysyllabic word into syllables.

Maximal onset principle stipulates that when there is a choice as to where a consonant, it is put into the onset rather than the coda. Step 13 (Whole class) Aim: Instructor presents stress on Bb. 1. Instructor presents stress on Bb.

Stress refers to the degree of force used in producing a syllable.

In transcription, a raised vertical line [] is used before the stressed syllable. Two kinds of stress: word stress and sentence stress/contrastive stress

Stress is a relative notion. A stressed syllable is more prominent than an unstressed one due to an increase in loudness, length or pitch.

At the word level, the notion applies to polysyllabic words, i.e. only polysyllabic words can be said to have word stress. Some polysyllabic words may have more than one stress, with one syllable being more stressed than the other. The former is the primary stress and the latter the secondary stress. Some languages have fixed word stress while English doesn‘t. But the location of stress in English distinguishes meaning.

In principle, any word may be stressed at the sentence level. Generally, notional words are normally stressed while structural words are not. 2. Instructor presents pitch on Bb.

Pitch is the rate of vibration of the vocal folds. Different rates of vibration produce what is known in acoustic terms different frequencies, and in auditory terms as different pitches.

Pitch variations may be distinctive like phonemes, that is, they may contribute to distinguishing between different words. In this function, pitch variations are called TONES, and languages using tones are called TONE LANGUAGES, of which Chinese is one. The Chinese four tones are level, rise, fall-rise, and fall. In tonal languages, pitch is distinctive. 3. Instructor presents intonation on Bb.

When pitch, stress and length variations are tied to the sentence rather than to the word, they are collectively known as INTONATION.

It has several functions, notably the marking of grammatical structure (e.g. statements with a falling pitch, and questions with a rising pitch), and the expression of speaker attitudes (e.g. surprise, sympathy, irony).

English has four basic types of intonation, known as the four tones: the falling tone, the rising tone, the fall-rise tone, and the rise-fall tone, with the first three as the most frequently used. The same sequence of words may have different meanings when spoken in different tones, giving rise to ambiguities. e.g. Ambiguity 1

Everybody didn‘t enjoy it. (=Nobody enjoyed it.)

Everybody didn‘t enjoy it. (=Not everybody enjoyed it.)

Ambiguity 2

I didn‘t like him because of his good looks. (=I liked him, but not because of his good looks)

I didn‘t like him because of his good looks. (=I did not like him, and the reason was his good looks) Ambiguity 3

He didn‘t go there to enjoy himself. (=e.g. He stayed at home)

●

He didn‘t go there to enjoy himself. (=e.g. He went there to work)

●

Plenary summary

Aim: Instructor summarizes the important points discussed in this session.

Chapter 3 Morphology

Teaching Objectives:

After studying this chapter, students should be able

1. to have a general idea of how to define, identify and classify word

2. to know the major concern of morphology and the types of morphemes 3. to get familiar with the concept of inflection, compounding and derivation 4. to have a general idea of morphophonology

5. to understand the processes of lexical change proper and

6. to understand the changes at the levels of sounds, morphology, syntax, semantics and orthography

Key points and difficult points Key points:

1. senses of ―word‖ and identification of words 2. classification of words

3. morpheme and types of morphemes

4. inflection, compounding, derivation and other processes of word formation

5. sound change, morpho-syntactical change, semantic change, orthographic change Difficult points: 1. senses of ―word‖ 2. allomorph

3. morphophonology

Teaching time allotment

Chapter 3 is to be finished in two sessions, with the first session covering Steps1-4, and the second session Steps 5-6.

Session A

Attendants: Juniors of English major Place: Teaching building No. 1 Duration of Time: 90 min.

Teaching method: oral instruction Pre-class work:

Pre-reading Questions

1. Can you list the traditional parts of speech in English? What are they? 2. Before reading this chapter, what, based on your intuition, is word? Library work

Consult dictionaries and other textbooks to find out in Chinese how many parts of speech there are and how ―word‖ is defined. Teaching Procedures

Step 1 (Whole class) Aim: Brainstorm the different notions of ―word‖. Instructor presents the three senses of “word” on Bb. 1. What is lexicon?

Lexicon, also called lexis, in its most general sense, is synonymous with vocabulary. In its technical sense here, lexicon deals with the analysis and creation of words, idioms and collocations.

Lexicology is the study of the lexicon of language. It deals with the history, form, and meaning of words.

Lexicography is the science or practice of compiling dictionaries. 2. What is word?

“Word” is a unit of expression which has universal intuitive recognition by native-speakers, whether it is expressed in spoken or written form. 3. Three senses of ―word‖

This definition is perhaps a little vague. Nonetheless it is universally agreed that the following three senses are involved in the definition of ―word‖, none of which, though, is expected to cope with all the situations: §1. a physically definable unit; §2. the common factor underlying a set of forms; §3. a grammatical unit that lies between morpheme and word group (look at (1) again; every word plays a grammatical part in the sentence).

Step 2 (Whole class) Aim: Instructor introduces identification of words.

To identify a word, we may have other factors to help us—the common features of words: §1. stability (no great change of orthographic features); §2. relative uninterruptibility (we can hardly insert anything between two parts of a word or between the letters); §3. a minimum free form. NB:

§1.Words are the most stable of all linguistic units in respect of their internal structure. §3. According to Leonard Bloomfield, a word is a minimum free form, the smallest unit that can constitute, by itself, a complete utterance. (Compare: a sentence is a maximum free form, according to Bloomfield). \\

Step 3. (Whole class) Aim: Instructor introduces classification of words.

1. Apart from the common features of words, various words may differ from each other in different dimensions.

To make the category clearer we can subclassify words into a few types: §1 variable and invariable words—according to variability(the former take on different inflective endings while the latter do not.) §2 grammatical/function/form and lexical/content/notional/full words—according the meaning expressed (the former express grammatical meanings, the latter lexical meanings or words that carry a semantic content); §3 closed-class and open-class words—according to the finiteness of numbers (the number of the former is fixed or limited while the latter infinite or unlimited.). 2. Word class/form class

Word class is close to the notion of parts of speech in traditional grammar. The Latin tradition established 8-9 classes.

Some new categories are particles, auxiliaries, pro-form and determiners. Step4. (Whole class) Aim: Instructor introduces classification of words. 1. What is morpheme and morphology?

Morphology is the branch of grammar which studies the internal structure of words, and the rules by which words are formed.

Two sub-fields: inflectional morphology—the study of inflections and derivational/lexical morphology—the study of word-formation

Morpheme is the smallest unit in terms of relationship between expression and content, a unit which cannot be divided without destroying or drastically altering the meaning, whether it is lexical or grammatical. (the minimal unit of meaning)

2. Instructor presents the types of morphemes on the Bb.

free free root

root morpheme bound root bound inflectional prefix affix infix derivational suffix

Free morphemes: morphemes which may constitute words by themselves.

Bound morphemes: morphemes which can not be used by themselves, but must be combined with other morphemes to form words.

Inflectional morpheme: a kind of bound morphemes which manifest various grammatical relations or grammatical categories such as number, tense, degree and case.

Derivational morpheme: a kind of bound morphemes , added to existing forms to

create new words. There are three kinds according to position: prefix, suffix and infix.

prefix: change meaning suffix: change part of speech

infix: some languages also have infixes, affix morphemes that are inserted into root

or stem morphemes to divide them into two parts. tatawa ―a person who will laugh‖

tumatawa ―a person who is laughing‖ (Tagalog)

3. Instructor presents inflection and word formation on the Bb.

Morphology includes two sub-fields: inflectional morphology (the study of inflection) and lexical morphology/derivational morphology (the study of word-formation).

§1. inflection/inflexion: is the manifestation of grammatical relationships through the addition of inflectional affixes, such as number, person, finiteness, aspect, and case, which does not change the grammatical class of the items to which they are attached.

§2. word-formation: in its restricted sense, is the process of word variations signaling lexical relationships. In is subclassified into the compositional type (compound) and the derivational type (derivation).

♦compound: words that consists of more than one lexical morpheme, or the way to join two separate words to produce a single form. Compounds can be divided into the endocentric compound and the exocentric compound . ♦ derivation: shows the relation between roots and affixes.

4. Instructor presents the counterpoint of phonology and morphology on the Bb. §1. morpheme and phoneme

There is not necessarily a one-to-one correspondence between morpheme and phoneme.

§2. morphemic structure and phonological structure There

not

necessarily

one-to-one

correspondence

between

the

syllabic/phonological structure and the morphemic/grammatical structure of a word. §3. allomorph

A morpheme may have alternate shapes or phonetic forms. The variant forms of

the same morpheme are called its allomorphs.

According to American structuralists, morpheme is an abstract unit or a concept. It needs to be represented in certain phonological forms. Those forms are called morphs. So morpheme consists of a sequence of classes of phonemes and has either lexical or grammatical meaning.

In morphemic transcription, morphemes in the abstract notion are put between braces like ｛｝.

§4. morphophonology or morphophonemics

Morphophonology (morphonology) or morphophonemics (morphonemics) is a branch of linguistics referring to the analysis and classification of the phonological factors that affect the appearance of morphemes, and correspondingly, the grammatical factors that affect the appearance of phonemes. (the study of the interrelationships between phonology and morphology) ♦ phonologically conditioned

dissimilation: the process by which one sound segment is influenced by a neighbouring sound so that the two sounds become less alike or different, or one of them even disappears entirely.

Because r’s in successive syllables are particularly difficult to pronounce, they frequently dissimilate. One historical example of dissimilation is marble, from French marbre. In this case the second r has dissimilated to l in order to prevent a repetition of the r and ease articulation. The word ―pilgrim‖ (French pèlerin) derives ultimately from the Latin peregrinus; the l sound results from dissimilation of the first r under the influence of the second r. ♦ morphologically conditioned Plenary summary

Aim: Instructor summarizes the important points discussed in this session.

Chapter 3 Morphology

Session B

Attendants: Juniors of English major Place: Teaching building No. 1 Duration of Time: 90 min.

Teaching method: oral instruction Pre-class work:

Pre-reading Questions

1. How many ways are there in English for forming new words?

2. What are they? Library work

Randomly select some English words and consult available dictionaries with etymology to find out where these words originally came from. Teaching Procedures (whole class) Aim: Review

Instructor asks students 1) to define some key concepts and

2) to exemplify the types of morphemes learnt in the previous

cession.

Step 5. (Whole class) Aim: Instructor introduces lexical change. 1. Lexical change proper

Major ways to create new words: e.g.

hippies(60s嬉皮士←hip=fashionable), yippies(70s易皮士Youth International Party, activist hippies who were often engaged in politics), yuppies(80s雅皮士=young urban professionals) buppies(80s黑人雅皮士=black urban professionals)

compounding, derivation, coinage/invention, blending, abbreviation, acronym, back-formation, analogical creation, borrowing coinage/invention:

blending: a form of compounding, in which two words are blended by joining the

initial part of the first word and the final part of the second word, or by joining the initial parts of the two words.

abbreviation/clipping: a process in which a new word is created by cutting the final

part of another word or by cutting its initial part or by cutting both.

acronym: a word created by combining the initial letters of a number of words.

NATO UNESCO Aids

IELTS(International English Language Testing System) TOEFL(Test Of English as a Foreign Language)

initialism: a kind of abbreviation made up of the initial letters of the phrase that has been abbreviated, where the letters are pronounced separately (that is, they are not pronounced as a word, which would be an acronym).

VOA BBC WTO KKK(Ku Klux Klan)

ESL(English as a Second Language) EFL(English as a Foreign Language) ESOL(English to Speakers of Other Languages) GRE(Graduate Record Examination)

GMAT(Graduate Management Admission Test国外工商管理硕士MBA入学考试)

back-formation: a process in which a new word is formed by deleting an imagined

affix from a longer form already in the language.

televise (from television) donate (from donation) enthuse (from enthusiasm)

analogical creation: a process in which a new word or phrase is coined by analogy

between a newly created one and an existing one.

borrowing: §1.loanwords: words formed by the process in which both form and meaning are

borrowed with only a slight adaptation to the phonological system of the new language that they enter.

§2. loanblend: words formed by the process in which part of the form is native and

part is borrowed, but the meaning is fully borrowed.

§3. loanshift: words formed by the process in which the meaning is borrowed, but the

form is native.

§4. loan translation: words formed by the process in which each morpheme or word

is translated in the equivalent morpheme or word in another language.

calque: Another name for a loan translation, which means a compound/phrase/sentence formed by the literal translation of each element of the compound/phrase/sentence from another language. e.g. superman and black humour. Superman is from the German word Übermensch, coined by Nietzsche from German über ―above‖ and Mensch ―man‖. black humour is from French humour noir. A normal borrowing would simply take the German word into English in its German form; a calque translates the elements. Words from Chinese

china, Sino-, japan日本漆, hong洋行,商行, yamen, hutung, silk, li, chiao角(钱), chinchin(请请)客套话,寒暄, cumshaw感谢, kowtow/kotow, sycee银锭, chaa茶叶, tea, bohea武夷红茶, pekoe上等红茶,白毫, congou工夫茶, hyson熙春绿茶, souchong/soochong小种红茶, chop suey, mien/mee面条, tofu, bok choy白菜, ketchup番茄酱, galingale良姜, ginseng, litchi, whanghee黄竹, loquat枇杷, longan龙眼, wampee黄皮(树), tung桐油树, oolong, kylin麒麟, tong堂,帮会, nankeen本色棉布, serge哔叽, sampan, kaolin高岭土, bonze和尚, kwailo, pongee茧绸, cheongsam(长衫)旗袍, Mao suit中山装, running dog走狗, kungfu, Maoism, mao-tai, pinyin, Shih Tzu狮子狗, Peking duck北京鸭, shanghai拐骗, tai chi chuan, yanko, mahjong, wok, typhoon, Confucius, Mencius, Motzu, Laotzu, Tao, yin, yang，Boxer, brainwashing, Hundred Flowers百花齐放, big leap forward大跃进, Red Guard, long time no see

2. Phonological change

Phonological change refers to changes in sounds leading to changes in form. vowel sound change: Great Vowel Shift in history

§1. sound loss: the disappearance of the very sound as a phoneme in the

phonological system or in utterances at the expense of some unstressed vowels.

§2 sound addition

§3. metathesis: a process involving an alternation in the sequence of sounds. §4. assimilation:

contact/contiguous assimilation vs. distant/non-contiguous assimilation 3. Morpho-syntactical change

§1. Morphological change (inflectional change) §2. Syntactical change 4. Semantic change

Three kinds of semantic change

§1. broadening/extension/generalization: a process in which the originally

specific meaning of a word is extended or elevated to a relatively general one. e.g.

(drink-)straw稻草,麦秸→吸管 holiday神圣之日→假日 arrive到岸→到达 place宽大的路→地方

cafeteria(源于西班牙语cafetera: coffee pot) →咖啡馆→餐馆，饭店→自助餐馆 ―江河‖长江黄河→河流 “墨水”黑色→任何颜色

§2. narrowing/specialization: a process in which the original meaning of a word is

narrowed or restricted to a specific sense. e.g.

meat食物→肉 wife女人→妻子 hound狗→猎狗 corn谷粒→玉米

―吃‖吃喝→吃 ―臭‖气味→臭味 ―丈人‖老人→岳父

§3. meaning shift/transfer: in its narrow sense, a process in which the meaning of

a word departs from its original domain as a result of its metaphorical usage. In its broad sense, it refers to any semantic change. e.g.

book山毛榉→书 pen羽毛→笔 “兵”兵器→士兵 “涕”眼泪→鼻涕

class shift/conversion/zero-derivation: a process in which the meaning of a

word is changed from a concrete entity or notion to a process or attribution, or vice versa, by shifting the word class.

folk etymology: a change in form of a word or phrase, resulting from an

incorrect popular notion of the origin of meaning of the term or from the influence of more familiar terms mistakenly taken to be analogous.

Elevation and degradation

degradation/pejoration: a process whereby words of good origin fall into ill

reputation or non-affective words come to be used in derogatory sense.

villain: villager→evil person or scoundrel knave: boy, male servant→scoundral silly: happy→innocent→foolish admiration: astonishment→respect homely: homelike, cozy→plain

elevation/ameliration: the opposite of semantic degradation

nice: foolish→pleasant fond: foolish→loving minister: servant→high official

black (pejoration, before 1960s)→Negro/nigger (pejoration) →black (neutral) 5. Orthographic change

Summary: language change may occur at different levels of it. See an example of the speech of a curate at a wedding ceremony:

Curate: Wilt thou have this woman to thy wedded wife, to live together after God‘s

ordinance in the holy estate of Matrimony? Wilt thou love her, comfort her,

honour, and keep her in sickness and in health: and, forsaking all other, keep thee only unto her, so long as ye both shall live?

Man: I will.

Step 6 Plenary summary

Aim: Instructor summarizes the important points discussed in this session.

Chapter 5 Semantics

Teaching Objectives:

After studying this chapter, students should be able 1. to understand what meaning is

2. to understand the different meaning theories

3. to understand the relation between sense and reference

4. to understand sense relations between words and those between sentences 5. to understand componential analysis 6. to understand predication analysis

7. to get a rough idea of logical semantics Key points and difficult points Key points:

1. sense and reference 2. sense relations

3. componential analysis and predication analysis Difficult points:

1. Different meaning theories 2. Logical semantics

Teaching time allotment

Chapter 5 is to be finished in three sessions, with the first session covering Steps1-3, the second session covering Steps 4-5 and the last covering Steps 6-8. .

Session A

Attendants: Juniors of English major Place: Teaching building No. 1 Duration of Time: 90 min.

Teaching method: oral instruction Pre-class work:

Pre-reading Questions

1. What do you think is the relation between word and meaning? Library work

Consult references to find some comments on the relation between name and meaning by ancient Chinese scholars. Teaching Procedures

Step 1 (Whole class) Aim: Class recalls the definition of semantics. Instructor presents the definition of semantics on Bb. what is meaning?

What is the meaning of ―desk‖?√ I didn‘t mean to hurt you. (intend)

Life without faith has no meaning. (value) It was John I mean not Harry (refer to ) √ Dog means ―a domesticated canine mammal‖ √

Semantics to philosophers: the relation between linguistic expression and what they refer to in the real world and evaluation of the truth value of it.

Semantics to psychologists: understanding the working of human mind through language.

Semantics (more specifically, linguistic semantics) is the study of meaning. History of semantics—long tradition of meaning study Semantics is an old and young branch.

1893 French philologist Michel Breal coined ―semantique‖ 1897 Breal first used it as the science of meaning 1900 its English version came out

1980s semantics began to be introduced into China ―Cinderella of linguistics‖ (Kempson)

In ancient Greece, Plato and Aristotle had discussed the problem of meaning. (realism vs. nominalism)

In ancient China, Lao Zi said: ―道，可道，非常道；名，可名，非常名。‖; zhuang Zi also proposed―言不尽意‖and―得意忘言‖; Confucius emphasized ―正名‖; Mo Zi upheld

―以名举实‖.

Step 2 (instructor-student interaction) Aim: Instructor presents the various meaning theories on the Bb.

§1. Meaning theories 1. The naming theory

According to Plato, the linguistic forms or symbols(the words) used in a language are simply labels of the objects they stand for. So words are just names or labels for things.

2. Conceptualism/mentalism/referential theory

This conceptualist view has been held by some philosophers and linguists from ancient times. This view holds that there is no direct link between a linguistic form and what it refers to, i.e., between language and the real world; rather, in the interpretation of meaning they are linked through the mediation of concepts in the mind.

Following F. De Saussure‘s sign theory, the linguistic sign is said to consist of a signifier and signified, i.e., a sound image and a concept, linked by a psychological associative bond.

The classic semantic/semiotic triangle or triangle of significance suggested by Ogden and Richards in The Meaning of Meaning (1923).

thought or reference/concept

symbol/word/form referent/thing

They saw the relationship between the word and the thing it refers to is not direct. It‘s mediated by concept. In this diagram, the symbol or form refers to linguistic elements (words, phrases), the referent refers to the things in the real world, and thought or reference refers to ―concept‖. Thus, the symbol of a word signifies thing by virtue of the concept associated with the form of the word in the mind of the speaker of a language, and the concept looked at from this point of view is the meaning of the word.

3. Contextualism

A representative of this approach was J.R. Firth, the leading British linguist of the period. He held the view that ―We shall know a word by the company it keeps,‖ and that ―By regarding words as acts, events, habits, we limit our inquiry to what is objective in the group life of our fellows.‖ Firth had been influenced by the works of Malinowski, a Polish anthropologist and of Wittgenstein, a German philosopher. They believed respectively that ―language should be treated as a mode of action, not an instrument of reflection‖ and that ―For a large class of cases ... the meaning of a word is its use in the language.‖

They hold that meaning should be studied in terms of situation, use, context —elements closely linked with language behavior.

Contextualism is based on the presumption that one can derive meaning from, or reduce it to, observable context: the ―situational context‖ and the ―linguistic context‖. Every utterance occurs in a particular spatio-temporal situation, as the following factors are related to the situational context: (1) the speaker and the hearer; (2) the actions they are performing at the time; (3) various external objects and events; (4) deictic features.

The ―linguistic context‖ is another aspect of contextualism. It considers the probability of one word‘s co-occurrence or collocation with another, which forms part of the meaning, and an important factor in communication. 4. Behaviorism

Meaning is ―the situation in which the speaker utters it (form) and the response it calls forth in the hearer.‖ (Bloomfield)

Meaning can be reduced to stimulus and response.

S → r…………s → R

speech (r,s) practical event (R, S)

S stands for external practical stimulus, r stands for the reaction of speech, s stands for the stimulus of speech, and R stands for external practical reaction. 5. functionalism

Functionalists as represented by the Prague school linguists and neo-Firthian linguists, approach the problem from an entirely new orientation. They argue that meaning could only be interpreted from its use or function in social life.

§2. Classification of meaning

1. G. Leech’s 7 types of meaning (P159)

Concept/notion the impression of objects in people’s mind. denotation and connotation

In philosophy/logic, the words ―denotation‖ and ―connotation‖: Denotation/extension: the class of objects referred to by the word. Connotation/intension: the properties of the entity a word denotes. In linguistics, the words ―denotation‖ and ―connotation‖:

Denotation: the core sense of a word or a phrase that relates it to phenomena in the real world. (reference)

Connotation: some additional, esp. emotive meaning. (sense) 2. Grammatical/structural meaning and lexical meaning

C.C.Fries(1952) makes a traditional distinction between lexical meaning and structural meaning.

The former is expressed by those ―meaningful‖ parts of speech, such as nouns, verbs, adjectives, and adverbs, and is given in the dictionary associated with grammar. It is constant in all the content words within or without context, e.g. forget, forgets, and forgot, forgotten, forgetting have the same lexical meaning but different grammatical meanings.

The latter refers to that part of the meaning of the word which indicates grammatical concept or relationships such as part of speech of words (nouns, verbs, adj, adv. etc.), singular and plural meaning of nouns, tense meaning of verbs and their inflectional forms (forget, forgets, forgot, forgotten, forgetting), and the difference between statements, questions and requests. Different lexical items may have the same grammatical meaning, e.g. tables, men, oxen, potatoes (the same plural meaning) and taught, worked, forgave (the same tense meaning) and cleverer, cleverest, good, better, best, more careful, most careful (the same comparative and superlative meaning). On the other hand, the same word may have different grammatical meanings such as shown in forget, forgets, forgot, forgotten, forgetting. In a word, ―the total linguistic meaning of any utterance consists of the lexical meaning of the separate words plus such structural meaning…‖

3. sentence meaning and utterance meaning

F.R.Palmer(1981) and J.Lyons(1977) suggest we draw a distinction between sentence meaning and utterance meaning, the former being directly predictable from the grammatical and lexical features of the sentence, while the latter includes all the various types of meaning not necessarily associated thereto.

Step 3 (Students discuss in groups and then instructor summarizes) Aim: Instructor presents sense and reference on the Bb.

Sense and reference are the two terms often encountered in the study of word meaning. They are two related but different aspects of meaning.

Sense—the semantic relations between one linguistic unit and another.

It is the inherent meaning of the linguistic form. It is the collection of all the features of the linguistic form; It‘s abstract and de-contextualized. It‘s the aspect of meaning dictionary compilers are interested in. It is concerned with the intra-linguistic relations.

Reference—the relation between a linguistic unit and a non-linguistic entity it refers to.

It is what a linguistic form refers to in the real, physical world; it deals with the relationship between the linguistic elements and the non-linguistic world of experience. It is the word-object relationship.

To some extent, we can say every word has a sense, i.e. some conceptual content. But not every word has a reference. Linguistic forms having the same sense may have different references in different situations. Sometimes linguistic forms with the same reference might differ in sense. e.g. ―morning star‖ and ― evening star‖ can refer to the same star ―Venus‖. Plenary summary

Aim: Instructor summarizes the important points discussed in this session.

Chapter 5 Semantics

Session B

Attendants: Juniors of English major Place: Teaching building No. 1 Duration of Time: 90 min.

Teaching method: oral instruction Pre-class work:

Pre-reading Questions

1. If A is not dead, then A is alive. But if A is not tall, is A necessarily short? Library work

Consult books or surf the Net to find out some information about the semantic field theory.

Teaching Procedures

(whole class) Aim: Review

Instructor asks students 1) to define some key concepts and

2) to explain the relation between sense and reference

Step 4 (Whole class) Aim: Instructor introduces sense relations §1. General introduction

Words are in different sense relations with each other. The sense of a word may be seen as the network of its sense relations with others.

Based on this fact, Trier constructed (semantic) field theory in the early 1930s. He

believed that a word does not exist in isolation, but forms a structured set together with other words. Therefore, the meaning of a word depends on the rest of the words in the same lexical or conceptual field. An individual lexical field is structured like a mosaic with no gaps in between, and the whole set of lexical fields of a language reflects a self-contained picture of reality. If a word undergoes a change in meaning, the entire structure of the lexical field changes.

There are generally 3 kinds of sense relations: sameness relation, oppositeness relation and inclusiveness relation. §2. Synonymy

Synonymy: the sameness or close similarity of meaning Synonyms: words that are close in meaning

Absolute/complete/total/perfect synonyms are words which are identical in meaning in every aspect. They are very rare.

Relative/partial synonyms/near-synonyms are similar or nearly the same in denotation, but different in their connotative, stylistic, affective and collocative meanings. Types of Synonyms

1. Dialectal synonyms—synonyms used in different regional dialects.

2. Stylistic synonyms —synonyms differing in style. Words having the same meaning may differ in style, or degree of formality. e.g.

steed (poetic) horse (neutral) nag (slang) gee-gee (baby talk) erudite (formal) learned (core) brainy (informal) cast (literary/biblical) throw (core) chunk (slang)

domicile (official document/law) abode (poetic) residence (formal) home (core) pad (slang)

Pete‘s old woman hit the roof when he came home with that doll from the disco.(familiar)

Peter‘s wife was very angry when he came home with the girl from the discotheque.(common core)

Anglo-Saxon/native(colloquial) French(written) Latin/Greek(grandiose) answer reply respond ask question interrogate rise mount ascend time age epoch fast firm secure

holy sacred consecrated fire flame conflagration small/little petite diminutive eat dine ingest fear terror trepidation

Note: A single verb is usually more formal than the phrasal verb which has a similar meaning with the verb. E.g.

come across=encounter investigate=look into tolerate=put up with

3. Emotive or evaluative synonyms—words that bear the same meaning but express

different emotions of the user, indicating the attitude of the user toward what he is talking about. e.g.

laudatory (purr words) neutral pejorative (snarl words) ―portly overweight tubby slim underweight skinny‖

thinking day-dreaming writing scribbling smile smirk

A purr word is a word with positive connotations and a snarl word is a word with negative connotations. (Hayakawa: Language in Thought and Action)

4. Collocational synonyms—synonyms differing in their collocation, i.e., in the words they go together with. This is a matter of usage. e.g.

―accuse, charge‖ ―make/push/thread/shoulder/elbow one‘s way through‖ ―best/worst one‘s opponent击败对手‖ ―sb. is happy vs. sb. is glad at/about‖ ―bare (predicate use), naked(attrib. & predicate use)‖

5. Semantically different synonyms—synonyms that differ slightly in what they mean. Difference in denotation/nuance: Synonyms may differ in the range, the shade and intensity of meaning. e.g.

“extend/increase/expand” (enlargement) The company increased its sales by ten per cent. The owner of extended the kitchen by ten feet. Metal will expand if heated.

―nonsense, gobbledygook, gibberish, claptrap, garbage, officialese‖ (obscure, meaningless, empty word空话，废话)

nonsense, gobbledygook浮夸、罗嗦而费解的话 claptrap目的在于博得赞美的话 garbage下流或无聊的话(slang) officialese官话,官样文章

gibberish急促不清、莫名其妙的话” ―cold, cool, chilly, frigid, frosty‖ (cold) cool›cold›frosty›frigid Sources of English synonyms 1. native words

2. words borrowed from Latin and Scandinavian/Norse —Old English period

3. words borrowed from French (in politics, law, religion, cooking, costume)—after 1066

4. words borrowed from Latin and Greek—Renaissance

5. words from other languages—overseas expansion and colonization, culture contact §3. Antonymy

antonymy: oppositeness of meaning antonyms: words that are opposite

There are three sub-types of antonymy: gradable/polar/relative antonymy, complementary/absolute antonymy, and converse/telational antonymy.

1. Gradable antonyms/Contraries 互逆反义词(in logic sense)—the commonest type

Three characteristics of gradable antonyms:

a. They are gradable. That is, the members of a pair differ in terms of degree. The denial of one is not necessarily the assertion of the other. There are often intermediate forms between them. e.g. hot warm tepid lukewarm cool cold

freezing chilly fresh brisk mild scorching boiling sweltering

b. Gradable antonyms are graded against different norms. The criterion differs with the object described.

c. One member of the pair, usually the term for the higher degree, serves as the cover/unmarked term. e.g. old/young, dog/bitch, cow/bull, well/badly

How well does he speak Russian? Very poorly. (no implication of speaking well or badly)

How badly does he speak Russian? *Like a native. (implication of speaking badly) 2. Complementary antonyms/Complementaries /contradictories (in logic sense)/ binary antonyms 互补反义词

Three characteristics of complementary antonyms:

a. They are complementary to each other. That is, they divide up the whole of a semantic field completely. The denial of one member of the pair implies the assertion of the other and the assertion of one means the denial of the other. In other words, it is not a matter of degree between two extremes, but a matter of either one or the other.

b. The norm in this type is absolute.

c. There is no cover term for the two members of a pair. 3. Converse antonyms

The members of a pair show the reversal of a relationship between two entities with one presupposing the other. i.e. they represent a reciprocal relationship that one of them cannot be used without suggesting the other. The relationship may be symmetrical, asymmetrical or neither of the cases. e.g.

John is married to/near Susan←→Susan is married to/near John. symmetrical John is parent of Susan.←→Susan is child of John. asymmetrical John loves Susan.←→Susan loves John. neither The relational may be transitive or intransitive e.g.

A is taller than B & B is taller than C→A is taller than C. transitive Other types of opposition (Lyons: 1977)

Directional opposites e.g. up-down, come-go

Non-binary contrasts/hierarchical opposition (Leech) e.g. days of the week, months of the year, 1/2/3, metals

Inverse opposition(Leech)倒置对立e.g. all/some, possible/necessary, allow/compel, still/already (Some boys are not tall.= Not all boys are tall.

We were compelled to be non-smokers= We were not allowed to be smokers.) Discussion: Use of synonymy and antonymy 1. Idioms:

hand and foot share weal and woe here and there back and forth on and off through thick and thin/fair and foul up and down man and wife life and death right and wrong to and fro give and take平等交换 far and near Hope for the best and prepare for the worst. Art is long, life is short.

hearth and home pure and simple(完全) spick-and-span lo and behold one and the same toil and moil by leaps and bounds迅速地 toss and turn well and good也好 over and above as and when each and every kith and kin fair and square safe and sound aches and pains ways and means dead and gone 2. Antithesis:

It was the best of times, it was the worst of times, it was the age of wisdom, it was the age of foolishness, it was the epoch of belief, it was the epoch of incredulity, it was the season of light, it was the season of darkness, it was the spring of hope, it was the winter of despair, we had everything before us, we had nothing before us…

Dickens A Tale of Two Cities

3. Parallelism:

But, in a larger sense, we cannot dedicate, we cannot consecrate, we cannot hallow this ground.

Lincoln Gettysburg Address

3. Oxymoron:

a victorious defeat, cruel kindness, an open secret §4. Hyponymy/lexical taxonomy/folk taxonomy (the relationship of semantic inclusion): the meaning of a more specific word is included in that of another more general word (opp. hypernymy)

superordinate: the word which is more general in meaning

hyponym/taxonomy: the more specific word in the hyponymy relation co-hyponyms/co-taxonomy: hyponyms of the same superordinate auto-hyponym: a word is a hyponym of itself

The status of a word either as superordinate or subordinate is relative to other terms. e.g.

fish

goldfish carp trout whale

break snap burst shatter crack splitter

? (lexical gap)

black white colored

red green blue

meronymy (part to whole relation): semantic relation that holds between a part and the whole.

X is a meronym of Y if Xs are parts of Ys

For example, ―finger‖ is a meronym of ―hand‖ because a finger is part of a hand and ―wheel‖ is a meronym of ―auto‖.

Meronymy is the opposite of holonymy (whole to part relation). §5. Polysemy and homonymy

Polysemy: a word has more than one meaning.

Homonymy: a form has several meanings (including homograph and homophone) Homonyms: Different words that are spelled and pronounced identically. Homographs/heteronym: Different words that are spelled identically Homophones: Different words that are pronounced identically Tips:

Attention should be paid to lexical ambiguity caused by homonymy e.g.

I‘ll meet you at the bank.

Summary of sense relations:

relation between form and meaning—synonymy (more than one form with the same meaning) and polysymy (more than one meaning with the same form)

relation between meanings —hyponymy (meaning inclusion) and incompatibility (meaning exclusion)

Step 5 (Whole class) Aim: Instructor introduces componential analysis §1. Componential analysis—an approach first originated with American anthropologist F Lounsbury and later adopted by structural semanticists in describing the meaning of words or phrases, this approach is based on the belief that the total meaning of a word can be analyzed in terms of a set of elements or meaning components (called semantic features/semes/sememes)

Semantic features may be thought of as atomic, and the sense of a word as molecular concepts. Lexical items, like phonemes, are made up out of a number of component parts. Componential analysis is often seen as a process aiming at breaking down the meaning of a word into its minimal distinctive features or properties, which are also called components by some linguists. One way of describing the components of a word is to use feature symbols, which are usually written in capitalized letters, with ―+‖ ―-‖ before them, plus sign indicates the presence of a certain property, and minus sign indicates the absence of it. e.g.

man : + HUMAN+ ADULT+ MALE woman: + HUMAN+ ADULT- MALE

boy: + HUMAN- ADULT+ MALE girl: + HUMAN- ADULT- MALE

Words like father, mother, daughter and son, which involves a relation between two entities, may be shown as follows:

father = PARENT (X,Y) & MALE (X) mother = PARENT (X,Y) & MALE (X) Verbs can also be analyzed in this way:

take = CAUSE (X, (HAVE (X,Y)) give= CAUSE (X, (HAVE (X,Y)))

§2. Advantages and disadvantages of componential analysis Advantages

By specifying the semantic features of certain words, we may better account for sense relations:

Synonymy ---- having the same semantic components Antonymy ----- having a contrasting component

Hyponymy-----having all semantic components of another Disadvantages

1. Many words are polysemous, and will have different sets of semantic components. 2. It is based on binary taxonomy, so it is difficult to deal with non-binary oppositions or those with no clear-cut dividing lines.

3. Dubious status of theoretical basis of componential analysis: are the features universal and applicable to every language?

4. The features are presented meta-language, which in turn needs explaining. Plenary summary

Aim: Instructor summarizes the important points discussed in this session. Chapter 5 Semantics

Session C

Attendants: Juniors of English major Place: Teaching building No. 1 Duration of Time: 90 min.

Teaching method: oral instruction Pre-class work:

Pre-reading Questions

1. What is the relation between ―I like flowers‖ and ―I like roses‖? 2. Can you guess the ambiguities of ―everyone loves someone‖? Library work

Consult references to get some basic idea about logic.

Teaching Procedures

(whole class) Aim: Review

Instructor asks students 1) to define some key concepts and

2) to explain componential analysis

Step 6 (Whole class) Aim: Instructor introduces sense relations between sentences. Sense relationships also exist between sentences. §1. A entails B (A is an entailment of B)

A: John entered a castle. B: John entered a building.

A entails B. Entailment is a relation of inclusion. If x entails y, the meaning of x is included in y. In terms of truth value: If x is true, y is necessarily true; If x is false, y may be true or false; If y is true, x may be true or false, If Y is false, x is false. In formula: A→B

¬B→¬A but in:

A: John entered the(this/that) castle. B: John entered the(this/that) building.

A does not necessarily entails B because ―the castle‖ and ―the building‖ do not necessarily co-refer in particular context, which is caused by the determiner ―the‖. §2. Presupposition (A presupposes B)

A: The queen of England is old. B: England has a queen.

It refers to the kind of meaning which the speaker doesn‘t assert but assumes the hearer can identify form the sentence.

In terms of truth value: If A is true, B must be true. If A is false, B is still true; If B is true, A is either true or false. If B is false, no truth value can be said about A. In formula: A→B

¬A→B

§3. A is inconsistent with B

A: John is married. B: John is a bachelor.

In terms of truth value: If A is true, B is false and if A is false, B is true. In formula: A→¬B

¬A→B

§4. A is synonymous with B

A: John is a bachelor. B: John is an unmarried man.

§5. A is a contradiction

My unmarried sister is married to a bachelor. §6. A is semantically anomalous

The table has bad intentions.

Step 7 (Whole class) Aim: Instructor introduces the analysis of sentence meaning. §1. General induction

The meaning of a sentence is not the sum total of the meanings of all its components. Rather, it includes grammatical meaning and semantic meaning. The Principle of Compositionality

The meaning of a sentence depends on the meanings of the constituent words and the way they are combined. §2. Predication analysis (proposed by the British linguist G. Leech)

It is an approach to sentential meaning analysis. Predication is usually considered an important common category shared by propositions, questions, commands, etc. Predication analysis is to break down the sentence into their smaller constituents: argument (logical participant) and predicate (relation element) i.e, a predication consists of arguments and predicate. An argument is a logical participant in a predication, largely identical with the nominal elements in a sentence. A predicate is something said about an argument or it states the logical relation linking the arguments in a sentence. The predicate is the major or pivotal element governing the argument for it determines the number and the nature of the arguments.

We may distinguish a two-place predicate (which governs two arguments, e.g., subject and object), a one-place predicate (which governs one argument, i.e., subject) and a no-place predicate that has no argument (no real subject or object). 1. One-place predicate (containing one argument) e.g. Tom smokes. 2. Two-place predicate (containing two arguments) e.g. Kids like apples. 3. No-place predicate (containing no arguments) e.g. It is hot. An example (利奇，1985：177-186): A man is in front of a woman.

two-place predication: (a→P.b) ―a man in front of a woman‖ (tense is not considered here)

(a →p b)

HUMAN →DIRECTION HUMAN ADULT +HORIZONTAL ADULT MALE -LATERAL -MALE SINGULAR SINGULAR

―a man in front of a woman‖\\ §3. An integrated theory of linguistic description

Based on TG, Katz and Fodor proposed the integrated theory of linguistic description in 1964:

A semantic theory consists of two parts—a dictionary and a set of projection rules. The dictionary provides grammatical classification of words, i.e., grammatical markers/syntactic markers like Vtr and Nc; it also provides semantic information of

words, including semantic markers like (MALE) or (HUMAN), which is the more systematic part of semantic information and distinguishers like [who has never married], which is more idiosyncratic.

The projection rules are responsible for combining the meanings of words together. Step 8 (Whole class) Aim: Instructor introduces logical semantics. §1. prepositional logic/prepositional calculus/sentential calculus

Prepositional logic is the study of the truth conditions for propositions. It studies how the truth value of a composite proposition is determined by the truth value of its constituent propositions and the connections between them.

For simplicity, a proposition is equated with a declarative sentence. Every proposition has a truth value; it is either truth or false. The truth value of a composite proposition is the function of, or is determined by, the truth values of its component proposition and the logical connectives used in it.

Logicians distinguish two main types of implication, material (which was coined by B Russell) and strict (proposed by C. I. Lewis). Proposition p (the antecedent) materially implies proposition q (the consequent) iff p → q or p ⊃ q (read ―if p then q‖) is true. A proposition of the form p ⊃ q is false when p is true and q is false; it is true in the other three possible cases (i.e., p true and q true; p false and q true; p false and q false). It follows that when p is false, p ⊃ q is automatically true: this is a peculiarity that makes the material conditional inadequate as an interpretation of the meaning of conditional sentences in ordinary English. On the other hand, proposition p strictly implies proposition q iff it is impossible for p to be true without q also being true (i.e., if the conjunction of p and not-q is impossible).

Material implication produces the so-called paradox of material implication: A false statement implies any statement, and any statement implies a true statement. Prepositional logic treats a simple proposition as an unanalyzed whole, without considering its internal structure.

§2. Predicate logic/predicate calculus—the study of the internal structure of simple propositions

proposition=argument/name/individual + predicate 1. Syllogism

A syllogism is an argument consisting of three parts, a major premise, a minor premise, and a conclusion. e.g.

All men are mortal (major term) (Major premise) Socrates (minor term) is a man (middle term) (Minor premise) Therefore, Socrates is mortal (Conclusion) or

No Greeks are black, Some men are Greeks,

Therefore, some men are not black.

Aristotle‘s doctrine of the syllogism was the beginning of formal logic. He thought that by setting out any suggested argument in syllogistic form, it should be possible to avoid all fallacies.

A syllogism contains precisely three terms (项): the major term (大项), which is the predicate of the conclusion; the minor term(小项), the subject of the conclusion; and the middle term(中项), which appears in both premises but not in the conclusion. The premises containing the major and minor terms are named the major and minor premises, respectively.

2. Argument and predicate

Argument is a term which refers to some entity about which a statement is being made. (divided into constants expressed by proper nouns and variables not referring to any particular entity)

Predicate is a term which ascribes some property, or relation, to the entity, or entities, referred to. (one-place, two-place, and three-place predicates) 3. Representation of predicate logic P(a)=1 (true) P(b)=0 (false)

4. Universal quantifier and existential quantifier Universal quantifier (―all‖): x existential quantifier (―some‖): x

Propositional logic may meet difficulty in dealing with some inferences. e.g. a. Daphne is beautiful. b. You will marry Daphne.

c. Therefore, you will marry someone beautiful. but a. Someone is beautiful. b. You will marry someone.

c. Therefore, you will marry someone beautiful. x (P (x)) x (P (x)) Plenary summary

Aim: Instructor summarizes the important points discussed in this session.

Chapter 6 Pragmatics

Teaching Objectives:

After studying this chapter, students should be able 1. to have a general idea of what pragmatics is 2. to understand the speech act theory

3. to understand the theory of conversational implicature 4. to know the relevance theory

5. to know other Post-Gricean theories Key points and difficult points

Key points:

1. connotation of pragmatics 2. speech act theory

3. theory of conversational implicature Difficult points:

1. different between pragmatics and semantics 2. theory of conversational implicature

Teaching time allotment

Chapter 6 is to be finished in three sessions, with the first session covering Steps1-3, the second session covering Steps 4-5 and the last covering Steps 6-8.

Session A

Attendants: Juniors of English major Place: Teaching building No. 1 Duration of Time: 90 min.

Teaching method: oral instruction Pre-class work:

Pre-reading Questions

1. Can you think of as many situations as possible where the sentence ―it‘s hot in here‖ can be uttered? And the purposes of uttering it?

Library work

Consult references to find some information about J Austin. Teaching Procedures

Step 1 (Whole class) Aim: Class recalls the definition of sense. Instructor presents the definition of pragmatics on Bb.

Pragmatics is the study of language in use/the study of meaning of language in context.

Pragmatics is a comparatively new branch of study in the area of linguistics. It developed in the 1960s and 1970s.

Morris first proposed the word ―pragmatics‖ in his Foundations of the Theory of Signs (1971), where he said that the study of semiotics includes three parts: syntax (sign—sign); semantics (sign—word); pragmatics (sign—its user).

Step 2 (instructor-student interaction) Aim: Instructor presents the comparison and contrast between pragmatics and semantics on the Bb.

1. Sentence meaning vs. utterance meaning pragmatics=meaning - semantics

sentence meaning (based on) speaker‘s/utterance/contextual meaningconceptual/literal meaning of a sentence intended meaning of a speaker decontextualized, abstract concrete, context-dependent morpheme, word, sentence utterance, text

static meaning dynamic meaning

having a dyadic relation as in having a triadic relation as in What does X mean? What do you mean by X? For example: You are a fool!

What does ‗a fool‘ mean? What do you mean by ‗a fool‘? 语义学：言内之意，弦上之音语用学：言外之意，弦外之音 2. Context

语言知识（对所用语言的掌握、对交际上文的了解）

语境

语言外知识（背景知识、情景知识、双方的相互知识）

(何兆熊，新编语用学概要：21)

Pragmatics can be divided into micropragmatics(reference, deixis, anaphor, presupposition) and macropragmatics.

Step 3 (Students in groups and then instructor summarizes) Aim: Instructor presents the speech act theory on the Bb. §1. Introduction

The theory originated with the Oxford philosopher John Austin (Br.) in the 50‘s of the 20th century and developed by John R. Searle (Am.). According to this theory, we are performing various kinds of acts when we are speaking, thus linguistic communication is composed of a succession of acts. So, to say something is to do something; or SAYING IS DOING.

John Austin was a prominent figure in what became known as Ordinary Language Philosophy and the initiator of speech act theory. His series of lectures given at Oxford was also delivered at Harvard known as the William James Lectures in 1955. After his sudden death in 1960, Austin‘s lectures were published in a book form entitled How to Do Things with Words.《论言有所为》 §2. First model—Performatives and constatives

Austin modified his position considerably as the lectures progressed. One of his points in the lectures was the theory of performative sentences(施为句) 1. Performatives

Not all indicative sentences function as reporting or constating. Some of them are simply actions the moment they are uttered: I name this ship the Red Star. I apologize.

I advise you to give up smoking. So there are

two

types of sentences: constatives

表述句 and

performativesPerformatives are utterances which perform acts. Such verbs are

called performative verbs.

Constatives are utterances which are intended for narration, description etc. They

assert something that‘s either true or false, such as ―It‘s raining‖ or ―The cat is in the

room‖.

2. How to differentiate performatives from non-performatives? 1) The word ―hereby‖(by saying or doing this特此) can be inserted: I (hereby) promise to pay you $5. ? I hereby run a race. ? I hereby know him.

2) It can fit into a formula: I „X‟ → I was „X-ing‟ e.I promise→I was promising. but

? I teach →I was teaching.

3. Three features of performatives

1) Acts are performed in saying something说话本身就是做了某事

2) They cannot be performed unless language is uttered不使用语言说出来就不能做某事

3) They are indicative sentences with a performative as the main verb on the present tense, active voice, and first person subject施为句是一个肯定的陈述句, 句子要有施为动词作为它的主要动词, 这个主要动词必须是第一人称,现在时,主动语态, 从而清楚地表明说话人在说这句话的过程中意图完成一个什么样的行为. 4. Explicit and implicit performatives显性施为句和隐性施为句 Explicit: there is a performative verb in the utterance. e.g. I congratulate you on your fine performance. Implicit: do not contain the performative verbs to show the act. Get out of here! (= I order you to get out of here.)

I will be there. (= I promise/ predict/ declare to be there.)

Implicit performatives look like constatives, or they are constatives. §3. Later model—a theory of the illocutionary act

Later, Austin realized that such distinction is not scientific, because all sentences can be used to do things. Constatives are merely one kind of speech act, which can be regarded as implicit performatives in appropriate context. e.g.

The cat is on the mat. (implicit performatives)

I tell you that the cat is on the mat. (explicit performatives) I‘ll come tomorrow. (implicit performatives) I promise to come tomorrow. (explicit performatives)

Based on the findings above, Austin holds that a speaker is in most cases performing 3 acts simultaneously while making an utterance and any speech act comprises three sub-acts which he calls the locutionary, illocutionary, and perlocutionary acts. Locutionary acts – acts of saying sth.以言指事/言内行为 conveying literal meaning by means of syntax, lexicon and phonology.

Illocutionary acts – acts performed in saying sth. 以言行事/言中行为with the speaker‘s intention, or so-called the illocutionary force(用意/言外之意in them. Following the formula In saying X I was doing Y, we have In saying ―I will come tomorrow‖ I was making a promise.Perlocutionary acts – acts performed as a result

of saying sth. 以言成事/取效行为the results or effects that are produced by means of saying sth.

Following the formula By saying X and doing Y, I did Z, we have By saying ―I will come tomorrow‖ and (thus) making a promise, I reassured sb.

Illocutionary force: the intention or purpose underlying the act of saying sth. (speaker‘s meaning) e.g. You have left the door wide open. locutionary: utterance of all the words

illocutionary: expressing his intention of speaking—asking sb. to close the door. or making a complaint

perlocutionary: the hearer close the door or his refusal to comply with the request. §4. Searle’s classification of speech/illocutionary acts

Speech acts theory aroused great interest among scholars in the 1960‘s and 1970‘s. One of those who made notable contribution to it is the American philosopher linguist John Searle. He made classification of illocutionary acts. According to Searle, speech acts fall into five general categories.

Representatives/assertives断言类: stating or describing, saying what the speaker believes to be true.

Directives指令类: trying to get the hearer to do sth.

Commisives承诺类: committing the speaker himself to some future course of action. Expressives表达类: expressing feelings or attitude towards an existing state. Declarations宣告类: bring about immediate changes by saying sth.

All the acts that belong to the same category share the same purpose but differ in their force or strength. e.g.

Close the door Will you close the door? Do you mind closing the door?

I would be very grateful if you could close the door! The door is open! The door please!

§5. Searle’s theory of Indirect Speech Acts Can you open the door for me?

The utterance performs two illocutionary acts: the direct one – a question, and the indirect one – a request. As to the function of the utterance, its illocutionary force is not as a question about the hearer‘s ability to do sth. It is typically used as a request. Indirect speech acts: one illocutionary act is performed indirectly by way of performing another.Indirect illocutionary forces, or indirect speech acts, can be worked out through inference based on shared background information.

Plenary summary

Aim: Instructor summarizes the important points discussed in this session.

Chapter 8 Pragmatics

Session B

Attendants: Juniors of English major Place: Teaching building No. 1 Duration of Time: 90 min.

Teaching method: oral instruction Pre-class work:

Pre-reading Questions

1. In the perspective of semantics, the following sentences are tautologous. Yet they are still ―meaningful‖. Then what meanings are conveyed? War is war. Boys will be boys. Library work

Consult books or surf the Net to find out some information about H P Grice and his CP.

Teaching Procedures

(whole class) Aim: Review

Instructor asks students 1) to define some key concepts and

2) to explain the statement ―saying is doing‖

Step 4 (Whole class) Aim: Instructor introduces the theory of conversational implicature. 1. General survey

As the objective of pragmatic study is to explain how language is used to effect successful communication, conversation, as the most common and natural form of communication, has drawn the attention of many scholars.

The theory was proposed by another Oxford philosopher H. P. Grice, in his lectures under the title of Logic and conversation.

Grice noticed that in daily conversation people do not usually say things directly but tend to imply them. He coined the term ―implicature‖ to refer to such implied meaning. And he explored the question how people manage to convey implicature, which is not explicitly expressed.

According to Grice, in making conversation, the participants must be willing to cooperate, i.e. both the speaker and the hearer should cooperate to express each other‘s intention. People seem to follow some principle like the following:

“Make your conversational contribution such as is required, at the stage at which it occurs, by the accepted purpose or direction of the talk exchange in which you are engaged”

This general principle is called the Cooperative Principle, abbreviated as CP. If the response violates the cooperation, this violation is actually another way to observe the cooperation. If the speaker seems to violate the CP, the hearer must try to make out the underlying cooperation, with the belief that the speaker does follow the CP. The meaning of the underlying cooperation is the conversational implicature. 2. CP

To specify the CP further, Grice introduced four categories of maxims. (conversational maxims)

1) The maxim of quantity

ⅰMake your contribution as informative as is required (for the current purposes of the exchange).

ⅱDo not make your contribution more informative than is required. 2) The maxim of quality

Try to make your contribution one that is true.

ⅰ Do not say what you believe to be false.

ⅱ Do not say that for which you lack adequate evidence. 3) The maxim of relation Be relevant.

4) The maxim of manner Be perspicuous.

ⅰ Avoid obscurity of expression. ⅱ Avoid ambiguity. ⅲ Be brief. ⅳ Be orderly.

It‘s interesting and important to note that those maxims are not always strictly observed. Rather, for various reasons they are often violated or ―flouted‖, to use Grice‘s term. Some of these violations give rise to ―conversational implicatures‖. Step 5 (Whole class) Aim: Instructor introduces violations of the maxims. 1. Violations of the maxims

According to Grice, if one tells a lie, i.e. the speaker violates the CP deliberately without making the hearer realize it, then the lie is not implicature proper. Another case is that the speaker tells the hearer that he is unwilling to cooperate, e.g. —What‘s your name? —Don‘t wanna tell you!

In most cases where the maxims are blatantly or apparently violated, however, the CP can still be thought to be upheld. a. Violation of quality e.g.

(A professor was asked to write a letter of reference for a poor and dull student who wants to go to study abroad):

Miss Li is doing linguistics at this university and now she wants to study abroad. I believe she might be given some support. Thank you.

(implicature: she is not entitled to be admitted.)This woman is made of iron. (implicature: she has a strong character.) b. Violation of quantity

—We‟ll all miss Bill and Agatha, won‟t we? —Well, we‟ll all miss BILL. (implicature: we didn‘t miss Agatha.) War is war.

(implicature: War is cruel.)

c. Violation of relation —What is the time now?

—The afternoon news report has just started.

(implicature: the afternoon new report begins at 1 p.m., so it is 1 o‘clock now.) —How do you like my painting?

—I don‟t have an eye for beauty, I‟m afraid. (implicature: I don‘t like it at all) d. Violation of manner —Where is your mother?

—She‟s either in the house or at the market.

(implicature: I don‘t now exactly where) —Lets get the kids something.

—Okay, but I veto c-h-o-c-o-l-a-t-e.(implicature: I agree, but I don‘t want you to buy them chocolate.)2. Characteristics of implicature

a. Calculability 可推导性—Implicature is calculable. Even if the utterance violates the CP, the meaning has to be inferred.

b. Cancellability/defeasibility可取消性—Implicature can be cancelled by adding something contrary to it.

甲：最近股市跌心里烦，睡眠质量严重下降！你怎么样？乙：还行，像婴儿般的睡眠！！

甲：羡慕死你了。

乙：睡1小时就醒了，然后哭1小时，然后再睡1小时，起来再哭1小时。

—Do you want some coffee?

—Coffee would keep me awake. (And I want to stay awake) c. Non-detachability不可分离性

Conversational implicatures are generated from the semantic content by assuming the cooperative principle. So they are attached to the semantic content rather than the linguistic form, or in other words, it is not possible to get rid of the implicatures by substituting words with synonyms.Compare the conversational

impicatures with some other implications which are detachable from the content by substituting the words with synonyms in the sentence.

An exception: conversational implicatures related to the manner maxims don‘t hold this characteristic.

d. Non-conventionality 非规约性—implicatures aren‘t part of the literal meaning; they derive from it and varies with the context. Implicature is indeterminate. An utterance with a single meaning can produce different implicatures. Summary:

CONVERSATIONAL IMPLICATURE is a type of implied meaning, which is deduced on the basis of the conventional meaning of words together with the context, under the guidance of the CP and its maxims. In this sense, implicature is comparable to illocutionary force in speech act theory in that they are both concerned with the contextual side of meaning, or 言外之意 in Chinese. And these two theories differ only in the mechanisms they offer for explaining the generation of contextual meaning.

Plenary summary

Aim: Instructor summarizes the important points discussed in this session.

Chapter 8 Pragmatics

Session C

Attendants: Juniors of English major Place: Teaching building No. 1 Duration of Time: 90 min.

Teaching method: oral instruction Pre-class work:

Pre-reading Questions

1. How will a Chinese and a westerner react to 你唱得真好/you sing beautifully? Why?

Library work

Consult Chinese references to get some basic idea about new development in pragmatics.

Teaching Procedures

(whole class) Aim: Review

Instructor asks students 1) to define some key concepts and

2) to explain conversational implicatures of some utterances.

Step 6 (Whole class) Aim: Instructor introduces politeness principle/PP.

There are some problems in the theory of cooperative principle and inadequacy in explaining some linguistic phenomenon; therefore, linguists of the post-Gricean

period have developed some theories around the conversational implicature. Among them, Relevance Theory, the Q- and R-principles, and the Q-, I- and M-principles are prominent.

Step 7 (Whole class) Aim: Instructor introduces Relevance Theory. Relevance theory

An assumption is relevant in a context iff it has some contextual effect in that context.

§1. The three types of contextual effect

a. Contextual implication e.g.

A: Could you have a quick look at my printer––it‘s not working right. B: I have got an appointment at eleven o‘clock. a. There are only five minutes until eleven o‘clock.

b. The printer problem is not an obvious one, but will require opening it up. c. Opening the printer will take more than five minutes. A is not able to have a look at the printer now.

b. Strengthening/confirmation of contextual assumption A: I have a hunch that Gill is looking for a new job.

B: Yeah, she is studying job ads whenever she‘s got a spare minute. Someone reading job ads is probably looking for a new job. c. Elimination of a previously held assumption

A: We have to call another meeting. I don‘t think that Christine is going to come, so we‘ll be one person short of a quorum.

B: No need for cancellation, I see Christine just coming up the drive.

Step 8 (Whole class) Aim: Instructor introduces the Q- and R-principles. Plenary summary

Aim: Instructor summarizes the important points discussed in this session.

Chapter 7 Language, Culture and Society

Teaching Objectives:

After studying this chapter, students should be able

1. to have a general idea of the relation between language, culture and society 2. to understand the Sapir-Whorf hypothesis

3. to understand language universals in terms of color terms 4. to understand the varieties of language

5. to know the importance of culture teaching in language teaching Key points and difficult points Key points:

1. relation between language, culture and society 2. Sapir-Whorf hypothesis 3. varieties of language Difficult points:

1. Sapir-Whorf hypothesis 2. varieties of language

Teaching time allotment

Chapter 7 is to be finished in three sessions, with the first session covering Steps1-3, the second session covering Steps 4-5 and the last covering Steps 6-8.

Session A

Attendants: Juniors of English major Place: Teaching building No. 1 Duration of Time: 90 min.

Teaching method: oral instruction Pre-class work:

Pre-reading Questions

1. Can you illustrate the different images invoked by the word ―dog‖ when heard by a Chinese and an American? Why are there differences? Library work

Consult references to find out what is involved in culture. Teaching Procedures

Step 1 (Whole class) Aim: Class discusses the pre-reading question. Instructor presents the definition of culture on Bb. 1. culture

What is culture?

In a broad sense, it means the total way of life of a people, including the patterns of belief, customs, objects, institutions, techniques, and language that characterizes the life of the human community.

In a narrow sense, culture may refer to local or specific practice, beliefs or customs, which can be mostly found in folk culture, enterprise culture or food culture etc. Culture changes slowly with the development of the society. Subdivision of culture a. material and spiritual

b. ecological/linguistic/religious/material/social culture (Eugene Nida) 2. The relationship between language and culture

Does language shape culture or does culture shape language? ―Language is a mirror, in front of which culture is reflected.‖ Language determines culture (linguistic determinism) Culture determines language (culture determinism)

(1) Culture is a wider system that completely includes language as a subsystem. The relation of language to culture is that of part to whole. (2) Language both expresses and embodies cultural reality. Language expresses cultural reality.

A language not only expresses facts, ideas, or events which represent similar world knowledge by its people, but also reflects the people‘s attitudes, beliefs, world outlooks etc.

Language embodies cultural identity. e.g.

When a child acquires his mother tongue, he also acquires a language-specific culture and becomes socialized in certain ways. (he is easily recognized not as a member of

the local community group but a newcomer from the ways he uses his language) Language symbolizes cultural identity.

Language may be viewed as a symbol of social identity, and people are identified via their use of language.

(3) Language plays a major role in perpetuating culture (or consolidating it over time), esp. in print form.

(4) Culture affects language.

Culture universals and biological universals lead to linguistic universals, e.g. the seven days of a week; color word system.(P230)

Different cultural features (environmental, material or social) produce different linguistic features.

Conclusion: On the one hand, language as an integral part of human being, permeates his thinking and way of viewing the world, language both expresses and embodies cultural reality. On the other hand, language, as a product of culture, helps perpetuate the culture, and the changes in language uses reflect the cultural changes in return. Step 2 (instructor-student interaction) Aim: Instructor presents linguistic evidence of cultural differences on the Bb.

1. At lexical level

Color words: green (envy or jealousy) green with env绿 Numbers:4, 6, 8, 9, 11. Animal words:

Owl—owlish(wise), 猫头鹰—bad luck; Cricket—as merry as a cricket; 螅蟀（秋虫）—signifying the coming of autumn, a feeling of sadness 2. At pragmatic level

(1) Greeting: Hello/hi/Good morning/good afternoon/good day/How do you do?/How are you?

你好/你早/吃了吗/上哪去some other situational comments (2) Addresses: Mr./Mrs/Miss/Ms/Sir/Madam

同志(for all people)/小姐/先生/师傅(to show respect for strangers) 王经理/赵主席/王老师/贾处长(indicating people‘s status) 李奶奶、张叔叔、王阿姨、冯爷爷(kinship terms extended as honorific titles for senior people)

(3) Thanks and compliments: accept or not (4) Privacy and taboo 3. At discoursal level

The Chinese seem to have a preference for the inductive because of their reluctance to impose.

Westerners tend to think we Chinese like to communicate in an indirect way.

(The deductive pattern: from the general to the specific. The inductive pattern: from the specific to the general) 4. At stylistic level

The preference for four-word phrases in Chinese The tendency to use a lot of epithets

Step 3 (Students in groups and then instructor summarizes) Aim: Instructor presents the Sapir-Whorf hypothesis on the Bb.

Edward Sapir and his student Benjamin Whorf are credited with developing the most relevant explanation outlining the relationship between thought and language, the Sapir-Whorf Hypothesis (P227). The hypothesis consists of two parts, linguistic relativity and linguistic determinism.

The Sapir-Whorf hypothesis has two major components: 1. Linguistic determinism —the strong version

It refers to the idea that LANGUAGE DETERMINES PEOPLE‘S THINKING PATTERNS, i.e. the language we use determines the way in which we view and think about the world around us; People in different cultures think differently because of differences in their language

Humboldt viewed thought as being impossible without language, language as completely determining thought.

2. Linguistic Relativity — the weak version

The structure of language influences people‘s thinking, i.e. similarities between languages is relative, the greater their structural differentiation is, the more diverse their conceptualization of the world will be. ―There is no limit to the structural diversity of languages‖ Whorf suggests that we perceive the world in categories imposed by our language. 3. Evidence for SWH

(1) If one imagines the colour spectrum, it is a continuum, each colour gradually blending into the next; there are no sharp boundaries. But we impose boundaries: such as red, orange, yellow, green, blue, indigo, and violet. These discriminations are arbitrary —and indeed in other languages the boundaries are different, e.g. In neither Spanish, Italian nor Russian is there a word that corresponds to the English meaning of ―blue‖, and likewise in Spanish there are two words ―esquina‖ and ―rincon‖.

(2) In English it is necessary to mark the verb to indicate the time of occurrence of an event you are speaking about: It‟s raining; It rained; and so forth.

(3) In Turkish, however, like many American Indian languages, there is more than one past tense, depending on one‘s source of knowledge of the event. Thus, if you were out in the rain last night, you will say, ―It rained last night‖ using the past-tense form that indicates that you were a witness to the rain; but if you wake up in the morning and see the wet street and garden, you are obliged to use the other past-tense form—the one that indicates that you were not a witness to the rain itself.

(4) Americans use only a handful of terms to describe snow: snow, sleet, freezing rain, and a few others. Eskimos have many words to describe snow (Hayes et al. 96): Snow that is falling, snow on the ground, snow in blocks, and snow that makes wavy patterns. Each is explained through the use of separate words (Hayes et al. 96). Snow is a central feature in Eskimo culture, thus it is essential that sufficient vocabulary exists to specifically describe it. Whorf argues that this language for snow allows the Eskimo people to ―see‖ snow differently than speakers of other languages who do not have as many words for snow. That is, Eskimo people see subtle differences in snow that other people do not.

(5) Whorf argued that because Hopi speakers do not talk about time in the same way as English speakers do, they do not perceive time in the same way, and it is not as important to them. English-speakers speak of time in spatial metaphors (―a long time‖)

English speakers think of time as countable units (―4 days ago‖) English divides time into past, present, future, Hopi does not. English uses a monetary metaphor (―time is money‖)

Hopi speaks of events as continuously unfolding, rather than happening in x number of days.

4. Evidence Against SWH

(1) World views are capable of changing much more rapidly than language.

If language greatly shapes thought and perception, then worldview should change at roughly the same rate as language. But English has changed little in last 150 years compared to changes in our worldview.

(2) Religions such as Christianity, Islam, Mormonism have expanded far from their original linguistic homes.

(3) If the strong version is true, we should find the cultural similarities between speakers of related languages to be consistently greater than the cultural similarities between languages of less closely related languages. But often this is not true.

People sharing a common culture may have very different languages. Native American languages, for e.g., are very diverse (about 1800). Similarly, with advancements in technology, there are many English-speaking communities all over the world.

In transnational couples with different mother tongues, the cultural similarity between spouses may be greater than the similarity between either their own grandparents or great-grandparents who speak the same language.

(4) Languages differ in how they divide the spectrum up, but the physiology of our eyes is essentially the same. People all over the world can see subtle gradations of color and can comprehend other ways of dividing up the spectrum of visible light. People have a common evolutionary process for color words.

As a society‘s economy and technology increase in complexity, the number of color terms usually also increases (as we need to talk about more colors, we invent more words to talk about them.10 Basic color terms: white, black, red, yellow, blue, green, brown, pink, orange, purple).

(5) There are gender differences in our color terms. Colors like salmon（浅橙色）, rust（铁锈红）, peach（桃色）, beige（米色）, teal（凫fu蓝）, mauve（/mEuv/淡紫色）, cranberry（曼越橘色）, dusky orange （暗橙色）aren‘t in the vocabulary of most American men, but they are in the vocabulary of women. But they weren‘t in women‘s vocabulary 50 years ago—the growth of the fashion and cosmetic industries makes the difference.

5. Language Influences thought or thought Influences language?

(1) The absence of words in Hopi does not necessarily mean that the Hopi people have different cognitive abilities or perceive the world differently. English has only one word for ―snow‖ [perhaps two if we include ―sleet‖], but Eskimo has several, a

point first raised by Boas, but this lack can be improvised（临时拼凑）with appropriate adjectives – ―wet snow‖, ―powdery snow‖, etc. English has three words for ―insect‖, ―aeroplane‖, and ―aviator‖. But Hopi has only one word for all three: ―masajtaka‖ because these things do not matter that much to them. It does not mean Hopi people cannot easily distinguish these three different things. This suggests an opposite direction of influence, i.e., not from language to thought, but thought to language. (2) The problem of over-literal translation (Over-literal translation is structurally faithful, but semantically misleading.)

Whorf cited the ―day-counting‖ example repeatedly to show the difference of conceiving time between the Hopi and English speakers. But this suffers a serious problem of over-literal translation.

English Hopi

four days dayness the fourth time/the fourth dayness Ten days is greater than nine days. The tenth day is later than the ninth.

English Chinese

He is really something. 他真是个人物。（他真是某物） What a despicable creature he is! 他真不是个东西! (He is not a thing or object.) (3) Conclusion

It is merely a hypothesis and still controversial.

It is not helped by the fact that neither Sapir nor Whorf made any explicit statement as to whether they subscribed to a strong or weak version of the hypothesis. The debate and published work in this area are largely interpretive of the original ideas put forward by Sapir and Whorf.

Language is the dress of thought.—Samuel Johnson Plenary summary

Aim: Instructor summarizes the important points discussed in this session.

Chapter 7 Language, Culture and Society

Session B

Attendants: Juniors of English major Place: Teaching building No. 1 Duration of Time: 90 min.

Teaching method: oral instruction Pre-class work:

Pre-reading Questions

1. Do you talk with your teacher in the same way as with your classmates? Why or why not?

2. What social factors can influence you choice of language? Library work

Consult Chinese sociological textbooks to find some information concerning the

social hierarchies and relations.

Teaching Procedures

(whole class) Aim: Review

Instructor asks students 1) to define some key concepts and

2) to explain the Spir-Whorf hypothesis.

Step 4 (Whole class) Aim: Instructor introduces sociolinguistics.

Sociolinguistics is the sub-field of linguistics that studies the relation between language and society, between the uses of language and the social structures in which the users of language live.

1. The relatedness between language and society

It‘s obvious that certain linguistic phenomena cannot be accounted for unless they are placed in the general context of society. In other words, social factors cannot be excluded from our description of language and language use.

While language is principally used to communicate meaning, it is also used to establish and maintain social relationships (phatic communion).

Users of the same language in a sense all speak differently. The kind of language each of them chooses to use is in part determined by his social background. And language, in its turn, reveals information about its speaker. When we speak, we cannot avoid giving clues to our listeners about ourselves.—―You are what you say‖.

To some extent, language, especially the structure of its lexicon, reflects both the physical and the social environments of a society. For example while there is only one word in English for ―snow‖, there are several in Eskimo. This is a reflection of the need for the Eskimos to make distinctions between various kinds of snow in their snowy living environment.

Summary: As a social phenomenon language is closely related to the structure of the society in which it is used, and the evaluation of a linguistic form is entirely social. To a linguist, all language forms and accents are equally good as far as they call fulfill the communicative functions they are expected to fulfill.

2. two approaches to sociolinguistic studies—macro-socioliguistics and micro-sociolinguisticsMacro-socioliguistics/sociology of language

Macro-socioliguistics, or sociology of language, is the study of society in relation to language, the bird’s eye view. The goal is to discover how social structure can be better understood through the study of language. e.g. bilingualism or multilingualism, language attitudes, language choice, language maintenance and shift, language planning and standardization, vernacular language education, to name some important ones.

Sociolinguistics/micro-sociolinguisticsSociolinguistics, or micro-sociolinguistics, is the study of language in relation to society, the worm’s eye view, i.e. we want to know about some linguistic variations in language use by turning to potential socio-cultural factors for a description and explanation. The goal is to better understand the structure of language and how languages function in communication. e.g. structural variants, address forms, gender differences, discourse analysis, Pidgin and Creole languages, and other more language related issues.

3. Speech community and speech variety (1). speech community

For general linguistics, a speech community is a group of people who form a community and share the same language or a particular variety of a language. However, sociolinguists would define speech community as a group of people who do in fact have the opportunity to interact with each other and who share not just at single language with its related varieties but also attitudes toward linguistic norms. (2). Social groups

Within a speech community there exist various social groups. Social groups are defined in a number of ways besides the geographical background of the speakers. A social group may be distinguished from the rest of the community by the educational background, the occupation, the gender, the age, or the ethnic affiliation of its members.

(3). Speech variety/language variety

Speech variety, or language variety, refers to any distinguishable form of speech used by a speaker or a group of speakers. (Variety is considered a more neutral term than terms such as standard or non-standard language and dialects.)

In what follows, discussion will be focused on two types of variety, i.e. dialect, and register.

Step 5 (Whole class) Aim: Instructor introduces dialects.

1. Speakers of the same language do not speak the language in the same manner and the language used by the same individual varies as the circumstances of communication varies. Thus the notion of a language is not monolithic and there exist types or varieties of the same language. Varieties related to the user are normally known as dialects and varieties related to use as registers.

Generally, two main types of dialect or dialectal varieties are distinguished: regional dialect and social dialect/sociolect.

2. Regional dialect

A regional dialect is a linguistic variety used by people living in the same geographical region.

It has been found that regional dialect boundaries often coincide with geographical barriers such as mountains, rivers, or swamps. The geographical variation in language is decreasing due to the following reasons: there is a marked increase in communication brought about by mass media and by the development of modern transport; young people are less likely to speak their local dialect all the time and are more likely to be influenced by the language spoken on radio and TV.

To a laymen, the term dialect itself stands in contrast to standard language, and gives them a sense of inferiority since they use it to refer to an informal, local or lower-class of language variety in the real world. Sociolinguists have made many attempts toward a reasonable explanation of it. One account is made in terms of size and prestige. That is, a language is larger than a dialect, so that a language can

contain more dialects. For example, the Chinese language has seven (or eight) dialects: Northern, Wu, Xiang, Gan, Min, Yue, and Kejia dialects. The term ―language‖ also implies social prestige, for it is written as well as spoken, whereas dialectal varieties are generally not used in formal writing, thus is not comparable with more socially valuable language. A definition of dialect from Akmajian is quite clear-cut, yet not without problems: ―A dialect is a distinct form of a language (or other communication system) that differs from other forms of that language in specific linguistic features (pronunciation, vocabulary, and/or grammar), possibly associated with some regional, social, or ethnic group, but that is nevertheless mutually intelligible with them‖. (Akmajian 1995: 550).

To assume the truth of this definition, how should we explain the fact that

Mandarin, the standard variety of Chinese, and Cantonese, which are mutually unintelligible, are considered to be different dialects of the same language? Hindi and Urdu are syntactically similar, speakers of them are able to communicate with each other without difficulty, nevertheless, they are two separate languages. It seems obvious that some social and political factors are involved in deciding whether a variety is called a language or dialect.

Regional dialect is named in accordance with their geographical distributions, so that Chinese Northern dialect is associated with the northern areas of China; Yue dialect is the main speech variety in Guangdong Province, which is epi`thetically( 根据地区特征)named Yue. In England, English can also be divided into varieties of Yorkshire, Northumbria, Lincolnshire, Somerset and so on. Regional dialects seem to be based on the different geographical locations in which each is the main means of daily communication.

Manifestations of differences between regional dialects at different levels of language

Of course, there are some phonological or phonetic features, which are salient within regional dialects and they are conventionally referred to as different accents. Everyone has his/her own accent.

In regional dialects, vocabulary and syntax may also vary from one another, sometimes causing mutual unintelligibility.

In vocabulary, Americans in different regions name road construction as ―freeway, thruway, parkway, expressway, or turnpike‖. Chinese speakers address their female spouse differently, such as Laopo（老婆） in Northern dialect, Jia Zhu Po( 家主婆) in Wu dialect, Tang Ke（堂客） in Xiang dialect.

The use of varied syntactic patterns in regional dialects is just as confusing. The following is a comparison of syntactic differences in Chinese regional dialects:

Dialects Chinese English translation Northern 你先走。 You first go. Yue 你行在先。 You go first.

Min 汝行在先。 You go in the first. Wu 你走开先。 You go away first. 3. Sociodialect

Social-class dialect, or sociolect, refers to the linguistic variety characteristic of a particular social class.

Linguistic variations are not only caused by regional factors, but also by social factors. Human beings are living in stratified social communities; the way we use language reflects our differences in age, social status, social class, sex, career and profession, and the ethnic group associated with us. Two people who were born and brought up in the same geographical region and speak the same regional dialect may speak differently because of a number of social factors. Consciously or unconsciously, their social backgrounds influence their choice of linguistic forms, and the linguistic features of the language they use reveal their identities. Therefore these factors become important social factors, which sociolinguists take into serious consideration when they study the relationship between different speech features and speakers‘ social background.

2. Social factors that influence language behavior in a social context

Some social factors that are believed to influence our language behavior in a social context. Among these factors, some major ones include 1 )class; 2)gender; 3)age; 4)ethnic identity; 5)education background, 6)occupation, and 7) religious belief.

Modern sociolinguists pioneer in the study of language in respect of its relationship with various social factors. In the middle of 1960s, William Labov, a famous sociolinguist, conducted a survey at several departments in the City of New York. The objective for having this sociollnguistic investigation was to examine the relationship between speakers‘ social status and their phonological VARIATIONS. The results of this investigation were reported in The Social Stratification of English in New York City (1966), which has now become a classical work in sociolinguistics. (1). Language and age

It has been noticed that in many communities the language used by the old generation differs from that used by the younger generation in certain ways. Certain linguistic features occur more frequently in the speech of one generation than that of the other.

The most striking difference is found at the lexical level. Lexical variation is more noticeable across three-generation time span than two-generation time span.

Besides, it is easy for us to distinguish the voices of an adult and a child on the telephone. It usually enables listeners to identify the voices of young children, over the telephone, whose pitch is usually high and undistinguishable between sexes. When they grow older, their general pitch becomes lower and can function to differentiate men‘s voices from those of women‘s.

The causes of such differentiation are complex. The root cause is that society is changing, and this causes difference in social attitudes, value judgments, etc. between the two generations. In general, old people tend to be more conservative than the younger generation in their speech habits; and feel more at home using old words, and less ready to incorporate new terms into their vocabulary. (2). Language and gender/sex

The language used by men and women have some special features of their own. It has been observed by linguists that women are usually more status-conscious than men in the English-speaking world; therefore, their speech closely approaches the

standard variety than the speech of men. Gender differences are manifested by the different linguistic features between male and female. Linguistic sexism is the discrimination (usually against women) manifested in language. A. Intonations

The female speakers tend to have a wider range in their intonation; this makes their speech sound somewhat affected. And female speakers are heard to use the low-rise intonation with statements much more frequently than male speakers. B. Vocabulary

Some adjectives of evaluation are used more frequently by females than by males, such as ―nice, lovely, cute, fantastic‖ and also some intensifiers, such as ―awfully, terribly‖.

C. Hypothesis of women register —the hypotheses concerning the linguistic behavior of females in the American society put forward by Robin Lakoff in her article Language and Woman‘s Place (1973).

What these hypotheses suggest is that there exists a woman register in the language that takes on the following features:1) women use more ―fancy‖ color terms

such as mauve(紫红色) and beige(米色).

2) women use milder expletives/less powerful curse words; 3) women use more intensifiers such as ―terrible‖ 4) women use more tag questions;

5) women use more statement questions like \"Dinner at seven o'clock?\" (with a rising intonation at the end);

6) women‘s linguistic behavior is more indirect and, hence, more polite than men‘ s.

More importantly, it is argued that these differences in language use are brought about by nothing less than women‘s place in society.

The underlying point for this argument is rather meaningful. Suppose that we are not satisfied with some practices in language use, say, LINGUISTIC SEXISM, and want to reform the language. Then, the first thing we need do is to try to change the society.

(3). Ethnic dialect/language and ethnic group or race

An ethnic dialect, a social dialect of a language, is mainly spoken by a less privileged population that has experienced some form of social isolation such as racial discrimination or segregation.

Black English/AAVE (African American Vernacular English), for example, an ethnic dialect of English, is the kind of English spoken mostly by a large section of non-middle-class American Blacks. Black English often impresses people as ―bad‖ or ―poor‖ or ―uneducated‖ speech. Like other varieties of English, Black English has its own features at the phonological, morphological, syntactic, and lexical level. E.g.

American Black English American Standard English He be nice. He is nice sometimes. He ain‘t got it. He hasn‘t got it.

I ain‘t seen nobody. I haven‘t seen anybody. It was her what said it. It was her that said it.

I done it yesterday. I did it yesterday.

(4). Language and social class membership

Accent is an important marker of sociolect. e.g. ―Received Pronunciation‖ (RP) in British English, which had become characteristic of upper class speech.

Labov believed that the [r] pronunciation after vowels (e.g. guard, ear) was being reintroduced into New York speech from above; it was a feature of speech of younger people rather than of older people; it was more likely to occur as the formality level in speech increased, and it would be more likely at the ends of words (floor) than before consonants (fourth).

He set out to test these hypotheses by walking around three New York City department stores (Saks, Macy‘s, S. Klein) which are rather clearly demarcated by the social class groups to which they cater (high, middle, and low, respectively), and asking the location of departments he knew to be situated on the fourth floor. When the shop assistant answered, Labov would seek a careful repetition of ―fourth floor‖ by pretending not to hear the initial response.

The result shows that the amount of r use increases by social class and by formality of style. Class and style were two major factors influencing the speakers‘ choice of one phonological variant over another.

The existence of social dialects does not mean each social class has their own ―language‖, it only shows that there is class imprint in the use of language that is shared by all the members of the speech community.(5). Idiolect

Idiolect is a personal dialect of an individual speaker that combines elements regarding regional, social, gender, and age variations. It also includes such factors as voice quality, pitch and speech tempo and rhythm.

(6). Standard dialect/standardized dialect/standard language

The standard dialect is a particular variety of a language, which is not related to any particular group of language users. It has the following features:

Based on a selected variety of the language (usu. the local speech of an area considered the speech community‘s political and commercial center), it is a dialect supported by institutions. Such institutional support may include government recognition or designation, thus it becomes a superimposed variety; presentation as being the ―correct‖ form of a language and being taught in schools; codified grammar and vocabulary, and textbooks that set forth a ―correct‖ spoken and written form; and use in print, by educated speakers, for news broadcasts, official documents and publications, and on formal occations. There may be multiple standard dialects associated with a language. For example, Standard American English, Standard British English, and Standard Indian English may all be said to be standard dialects of the English language. Plenary summary

Aim: Instructor summarizes the important points discussed in this session.

Chapter 7 Language, Culture and Society

Session C

Attendants: Juniors of English major Place: Teaching building No. 1 Duration of Time: 90 min.

Teaching method: oral instruction Pre-class work:

Pre-reading Questions

1. What is the difference between ―They chucked a stone at the cops, and then did a bunk with the boot‖ and ―After casting a stone at the police，they absconded with the money‖?

2. Is ―Passengers are requested not to communicate with the driver while the vehicle is in motion‖ any different from ―Please do not speak to the driver while he is driving‖?

Library work

Consult dictionaries and references to distinguish between die, decease, perish, go, exit, pass away, expire and pass away.

Teaching Procedures

(whole class) Aim: Review

Instructor asks students 1) to define some key concepts and

2) to exemplify some social factors‘ influence on language

behavior.

Step 6 (Whole class) Aim: Instructor introduces register.

1. Language varies with the user and it also varies with the circumstances under which it is used.

In any speech community there is hardly any speaker who sticks to one style of speaking all the time. A competent native speaker of a language is in possession of a variety of ways in using the language. The totality of linguistic varieties possessed by an individual constitutes his linguistic repertoire (―every set of linguistic varieties that a speaker commands and employs in specific contexts.‖).

There are many social constraints that come into play in controlling which variety from the linguistic repertoire of a speaker is to be used on a particular occasion. The speaker usually employs different styles of speaking according to, first, the contexts, in which the linguistic activity is conducted; second, the addressees and their related social, economic and educational background; and lastly, the task of verbal behavior.

2. Halliday’s register theory

A story—a plumber once wrote to a research bureau saying that he had used hydrochloric acid to clean out sewer pipes and inquired, ―Was there any possible harm?‖ The first reply was as follows: ―The efficacy of hydrochloric acid is indisputable, but the corrosive residue is incompatible with metallic permanence.‖ (盐

酸的这一功效是毋庸置疑的。但是，腐蚀性残留物与金属的耐久性是不能共存的) The plumber then thanked them for the information approving his procedure. The dismayed research bureau tried again, saying, ―We cannot assume responsibility for the production of toxic and noxious residue with hydrochloric acid and suggest you use an alternative procedure.‖(对于盐酸产生的有毒有害残留物，我们不负责任，建议你使用可供选择的其他做法) Once more the plumber thanked them for their approval. Finally, the bureau, worried about the New York sewers, called in a third scientist who wrote: ―Don‘t use hydrochloric acid. It eats hell out of the pipes.‖(不要使用盐酸，盐酸会把管道烧出窟窿的)

According to M.A.K.Halliday, ―Language varies as its function varies; it differs in different situations.‖ The type of language which is selected as appropriate to the type of situation is a register.

Halliday thought that there are three social variables that determine the register. He generalized the social context of language use in terms of three factors: field of discourse, tenor of discourse, and manner of discourse.

Halliday pointed out that any change in the three factors will lead to variations in register. The term ―register‖ preferred by British linguists is virtually similar to the term ―style‖ preferred by American linguists. field of discourse

Field of discourse refers to what is going on: to the area of operation of the language activity. It is concerned with the purpose and subject-matter of communication, it answers the questions of ―why‖ and ―about what‖ communication takes place.

field of discourse

technical non-technical

e.g. legal

medical social formulas personal relationship computer e.g. greetings e.g. abuse

cocktail parties quarrelling

reception gossiping

family jokes

The field of discourse includes both professional and non-professional, or technical and non-technical social activities.

The field of a register determines to a great extent the vocabulary to be used in communication and it also determines the phonological and grammatical features of the language.

tenor of discourse

The tenor of discourse refers to the relationship between the participants and the intention of the speaker in the exchange of message and meaning with other speakers.

Tenor of discourse refers to the role of relationship in the situation in question: who the participants in the communication groups are and in what relationship they stand to each other.

It answers the question of ―to whom‖ the speaker is communicating.

This dimension to a great extent determines the level of formality and the level of technicality of the language we use. mode of discourse

The mode of discourse refers to the means/vehicle and channel of communication; or the way language is organized to deliver information, eg. written or oral style of speech. It is concerned with ―how‖ communication is carried out. An example

A lecture on biology in a technical college could be identified as Field: scientific (biological)

Tenor: teacher - students (formal, polite) Mode: oral (academic lecturing)

The three variables are the features of the context of situation which determine the features of language appropriate to the situation, i.e. register. And they determine the register collectively, not piecemeal.

3. Style of discourse—degree of formality

Language used on different occasions differs in the degree of formality, which is determined by the social variables, e.g. who we are talking with and what we are talking about.

The American linguist Martin Joos, distinguishes five stages of formality, namely, (1) intimate, (2) casual, (3) consultative, (4) formal, and (5) frozen. e.g.

Frozen: Visitors would make their way at once to the upper floor by way of the staircase.

Formal: Visitors should go up the stairs at once.

Consultative: Would you mind going upstairs right away, please? Casual: Time you all went upstairs now. Intimate: Up you go, chaps!

Different styles of the same language can be characterized through differences at three levels, namely, syntactic, lexical and phonological. e.g.

Please don‘t spit!=Expectoration is forbidden!

严禁践踏草坪！请勿践踏草坪。爱护花草！请脚下留情。别把花草弄疼了。

It has been noted with concern that the stock of books in the library has been declining alarmingly. Students are asked to remind themselves of the rules for the borrowing and return of books, and to bear in mind the needs of other students. Penalties for overdue books will in the future be strictly enforces. (impersonal)

The number of books in the library has going down. Please make sure that you know the rules for borrowing, and don‟t forget that the library is for everyone‟s convenience. So from now on, we‟re going to enforce the rules strictly. You have been warned. (plain)

Is this place of abomination consecrated ground? (=Is this horrible place a graveyard)—Bleak House (C Dickens)

Step 7 (Whole class) Aim: Instructor introduces macro-socioliguistics.

1. Language planningAs there are various languages in a country as well as dialects, society needs a systematic attempt to solve the communication problem of its people

by studying the various languages or dialects it uses and developing a realistic policy concerning the proper selection and appropriate use of these languages and varieties.This kind of deliberate, official and collective activities is called language planning, the linguistic study of which is called institutional linguistics.

(1) The standard languageWhen a country abounds with languages and dialects of a particular language, a prestige dialect or a prestige language will be accepted by Society as the foundation of the STANDARD LANGUAGE. Therefore, the standard language finds its source in a dialect but is more ―elevated‖ than the dialect concerned. The standard dialect or language is able to cut across area differences, provide a mutually accepted means of communication and serve an institutionalized norm for mass media and language education. However, it is not proper to label linguistic forms or dialects other than the standard form as ―sub-standard‖ or ―non-standard‖, because the criteria of being ―standard‖ exist only in its social value and have nothing to do with the language system itself.Most of the major European languages were standardized at the time of the Renaissance. Two academies in Italy, namely, the Florentine Academy (1540) and Academia Della Cruses (1582) were influential in establishing Tuscan as the standard dialect of Italy. Their successes resulted in similar activities carried out by the French Academy in 1630, the Spanish Academy in 1713 and the Swedish Academy in 1786.

However, the attempts in England (around 17i2) and the United States (1821) were failures, because the speech communities concerned had a distaste for this kind of official regulation. Dictionaries and/or grammars came to help in the movement of standardization in the latter two countries, with Samuel Johnson and Noah Webster as the pioneers respectively.

(2) The national languageWhile the imposition of a dialect as the standard language is executed more in informal ways than through government intervention, it is not the case for the imposition of the national language onto a newly-liberated country or a multinational one, which needs greater efforts on the part of the government or public institutions.

National languages can be created or established in several ways. A. Invention B. Restoration

C. Imposing a prestige language

D. Preserving the former ruler‘s language.

(3) The official language The official language is similar to the Standard language or the national language, but it is by no means synonymous to the latter. The former is used under formal, official situations (or in mass media) and so distinction lies in its social function.

2. Functional language choice—diglossia and bilingualism (1) Diglossia (Ferguson)

In many speech communities two or more varieties of the same language exist side by side throughout the community, with each used to play a definite role under different conditions. This is known as diglossia. The most familiar pattern is the standard language (known as the H variety) and the regional dialect (known as the L

variety). e.g. Arabic, Modern Greek.

For example, in several Arabic-speaking countries, they use classical Arabic in public affairs but the vernacular Arabic at home, with the former as the high language and the latter the low language.

Country Language High Low

Arabic countries Arabic classical colloquial Greece Greek Katharevousa Dhimotiki

One of the most important features of diglossia is the specialization of function for H and L. e.g.

In sermons in church the H variety is used while in a personal letter the L variety is used.

(2) Bilingualism and multilingualism

In some countries, two or three languages are all recognized as standard languages. That is called compound bilingualism.e.g. Canada English, French

Singapore Chinese, English, Malay, Tamil Switzerland German, French, Italian, Romansch Belgium Flemish, French

Somali English, ItalianIn its broad sense, bilingualism refers to the situation in which members of a speech community can speak, bilingually with one language being the national language. This gives us the term of subordinate bilingualism.

As a result of great influx of migrants from other countries, bilingualism had been witnessed in the United States as a social fact, but bilingual education was in 1968.3. Language varieties in multilingual communities (1) code-switching and code-mixing

Code-switching refers to the phenomenon that a bilingual or multilingual

speaker switches between varieties of a language or languages during a conversation.

Code-mixing (also called conversational code switching by some linguists) is

different from code switching in that it refers to ―a mixing of two codes or languages, usually without a change of topic‖ and it ―can involve various levels of language, e.g. phonology, morphology, grammatical structures or lexical items‖(Richards, et al. 2000:71).

(2) lingua franca通用语

Lingua franca is any language that is used as a means of communication by groups who have no other language in common and who do not themselves normally speak that language. (本来lingua franca是指古时候地中海东岸的一种混合语言，由法语，意大利语，西班牙语，阿拉伯语，土耳其语等混合而成)

Examples are English and French for diplomatic purposes, Swahili in eastern Africa, Hindi and English in India. The term lingua franca (from Italian ―Frankish tongue‖) was perhaps first applied to a jargon or pidgin based on southern French and Italian, developed by crusaders and traders for use in the eastern Mediterranean during the Middle Ages. It was the mixture of French, Italian, Spanish, Greek, Turkish, and

Arabic, which was spoken around the Mediterranean from the time of the Crusades until the 18th century.(3) pidgin and creole

Pidgin

A pidgin is a special variety that has been formed by mixing or blending languages to provide a means of communication between people who have no common language.

A pidgin is an auxiliary language, one that has no native speakers.

A pidgin is usu. European language-based, from which some of its grammar and vocabulary is derived, but it usually gets rid of the difficult or unusual parts of a language, for example, the omission of verbs and the loss of inflections. e.g. You out the game.

He fast in everything he do.On the other hand, it also has useful refinements that a Standard language lacks. e.g. the use of ―be‖ to signify a stable condition in a sentence like:

Some of them be big.He working. (He is busy right now) He be working. (He has a steady job) Creole

A pidgin may or may not die out. It may survive time and as its speakers‘ children acquire it as their native language, it becomes a Creole. The word ―creole‖ seems to have come from the Portuguese crioule, meaning a house-slave. When a pidgin (English, French or Portuguese) becomes the primary language of a speech community and is acquired by the children of that speech community as their native language, it is a Creole. The structure of the pidgin is expanded and the vocabulary is vastly enriched. e.g.

English-based Creole of Jamaica, French-based Creole of Haiti.(4) euphemism

Euphemism is an inoffensive expression used to replace another that is considered offensive or rude. (pasteurizer of language)

Euphemisms may be formed in a number of ways: periphrasis/circumlocution, taboo deformation, doublespeak.

Periphrasis/circumlocution is one of the most common— to ―speak around‖ a given word, implying it without saying it.

Taboo deformation is to alter the pronunciation or spelling of a taboo word (There are an astonishing number of taboo deformations in English, of which many refer to the infamous four-letter words —a set of English words written with four letters which are considered profane, such as fuck, cunt, damn, piss, and shit— e.g. in American English, fuck, may be represented by deformations such as freak) to form a euphemism.

Doublespeak(欺人之谈,假话) expressions are coined by bureaucracies such as the military and large corporations to describe objectionable actions in terms that seem

neutral or inoffensive. Militaries at war frequently do kill people, sometimes deliberately and sometimes by mistake; in doublespeak, the first may be called neutralizing the target and the second collateral damage. e.g.

crippled →handicapped →disabled →differently-abled

poor people →negative savers/the disadvantaged/the underprivileged old people →senior citizens/mature people/pensioners barber →hair stylist hair dresser →beautician

garbage collector →sanitation engineer servant →domestic engineer

undertaker →mortician/funeral director illegitimate child/bastard →love child slum →sub-standard housing/culturally deprived environment

strike →industrial action genocide →ethnic cleansing killing →servicing a target invasion →intervention assassination →executive action surprise attack preemptive strikes death or injury →casualty

civilian casualties →collateral damage second-hand car →pre-owned car backward/undeveloped (country) →less developed/emergent

adult → sexually oriented/pornographic(e.g. adult film=pornographic movie, adult actress/adult actor=porn star) stripper → erotic dancer/exotic dancer trial marriage →free love

lie →somewhat retort the fact/have done oneself some wrong/show difficulty in distinguishing between imaginary and factual material

steal →need help in leaning to respect the property rights of others

pregnant →big/great/heavy, big/great/heavy with child, in the family way, in an interesting condition, expecting/expectant/anticipating

death →pass away, be no more, be gone, breathe one‘s last, go west, fall asleep in the Lord, leave this world, go to one‘s eternal reward, lifeless, join the great/silent majority, go the way of all flesh, be gathered to one‘s fathers, the deceased, the departed, the late Mr. so- and-so.

lavatory →toilet, bathrooms, men‘s/women‘s room, the little boy‘s/girl‘s room, restroom, comfort room, power room, cloakroom, water closet, the john (the inventor of the flushing toilet was named John Crapper), loo,

go to the toilet→ May I be excused? wash one‘s hands, go to the

restroom/…./somewhere, relieve oneself, powder her nose, answer the call of nature urine/urinate →gypsies kiss, jimmy (riddle), number one, pee, tinkle, take a leak, relieve oneself No pissing → Commit no nuisance feces/defecation →number two, bowel movement/bm, poo

God/God damn →goldarn, golly, gosh, gawd, doggone, gad, dog (an anagram for God used mostly in the phrase Oh my dog!)/Oh My Feicking Dog(in the internet world as OMD or OMFD)

damn/damnation →darn, drat, dang, tarnation

hell →H-E-double-toothpicks (or -hockey-sticks), heck, Sam Hill (Samuel希伯來上帝之名), infernal, The hot place

Jesus/Jesus Christ →gee, jeez/geez, gee whiz, golly gee, cheesus, jeepers, jeepers creepers (Jesus Christ)

the Devil →the dark one, the deuce, the dickens (in use before the era of Charles Dickens), Old Nick, Old Scratch

Step 8 (Whole class) Aim: Instructor introduces implications form sociolinguistics. 1. In language classrooms

It has attracted teachers‘ attention on training their students as active and successful language users in a real language context.

It has contributed to a change of emphasis in content of language teaching.

It has also contributed to innovations in materials and activities for the classroom. 2. In law courts (application of sociolinguistic findings to some more practical issues in society)

Linguists analyze language data gathered as evidence in law courts.

The joint work by sociolinguists and legislators in the preparation of some legal documents is proven to be helpful to increase the readability of this text and thus appreciated.

Investigations of language use in a law court background also reveal some interesting results which, in turn, greatly enrich our understanding of the relationship between the concept of power and language in use. 3. In clinic settings

The analysis of dialogues between doctors and patients in a hospital context

Plenary summary Aim: Instructor summarizes the important points discussed in this session.

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