英语 语言学 名词解释

名词解释

1. Language: language is a system of arbitrary vocal symbols used for human

communication.

2. Design features of language(语言的区别性特征) :

i. Arbitrariness: the forms of linguistic signs bear no natural relationship to their

meaning=language is arbitrary in the sense that there is no intrinsic connection between a

word() and the object it refers to .

ii. Duality: the property of having two levels of structures, such that units of the primary

level are composed of elements of the secondary level. By duality we mean that language

system has two sets of structures, one of sounds and the other of meanings.指拥有两层结构的

这种特性，底层结构是上层结构的组成成分。指语言是声音和意义双重结构组成的系统。

iii. 举例： Sounds > syllables > words > phrases > clauses > sentences> texts/discourses

iv. Productivity： Language can be used to create new meanings because of its duality .

语言可以理解并创造无限数量的新句子，是由双层结构造成的结果（Understand and create

unlimited number with sentences）

v. Displacement：Human languages enable their users to symbolize something which are

not present at the moment of communication.

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vi. Cultural transmission: language is passed on from generation to generation through

teaching and learning rather than instinct.

3. Linguistics is the scientific study of language. It is a scientific study because it is based

on the systematic investigation of linguistic data, conducted with reference to some general

theory of language structure.

4. Psycholinguistics: It is the study of how language is acquired, understood and

produced.

5. Langue: F. de Saussure. Langue refers to the abstract linguistic system shared by all the

members of a speech community. 语言指语言系统的整体，这个整体相对是比较稳定的。（abstract）

6. Parole: the realization of langue in actual use. 言语则指代某个个体在实际语言使用环境中

说出的具体话语。（concrete）

7. Competence: Chomsky. Competence is the ideal user's knowledge of the rules of his

language.

8. Performance: Performance is the actual realization of this knowledge in linguistic

communication.

9. Phoneme(音位）： A phoneme is a phonological unit; it is the smallest unit of sound in

a language, of distinctive value, abstract. It is not any particular sound, but rather it is

represented or realized by a certain phone in a certain context.

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10. Allophones(音位变体）：The non-distinctive sounds are members of the same

phoneme. For example, in English, when the phoneme/p/ occurs at the beginning of words

like

put

and

pair

, it is aspirated; but when /p/ occurs in words like

span

and

spare

, it is

unaspirated。The aspirated and unaspirated /p/ are allophones of the same phoneme.

11. Minimal pairs(最小对立体）：Word forms which differ from each other only by one

sound.

12. For example, in English,

pill

and

bill

are a minimal pair

13. Complementary distribution(互补分布）：Not all the speech sounds occur in the

same environment. When two sounds never occur in the same environment, for example, the

unaspirated/p/ always occurs after /s/ while the aspirated one always occurs in other places.

14. Suprasegmental phonology(超音段音位）：stress（重音） (word stress & sentence

stress), tone （音调）and intonation（语调）.

15. Morphology：It’s the branch of linguistics that studies that internal structure of

words, and the rules by which words are formed.

16. Morpheme(词素）： The minimal unit of meaning, the smallest unit in terms of

relationship between expression and content. PS:Types: roots(词根）affix（词缀）and stem

（词干）.

17. Inflectional affix（屈折词缀）：Inflectional affixes are mostly suffixes(后缀),which are

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always word drums, walks, Mary's)

18. ①limited in number ②not change the part of speech ③indicating grammatical

meaning

④conditioned by the phrase or sentence they attach to

19. derivational affix（派生词缀）: Derivational affixes can be depart, online)

or teacher, workable).

20. ①change the lexical meaning ②might or might not change the part of speech(词性)

21. ③based on simple meaning distinctions ④more productive ⑤can be prefixes or

suffixes

22. Word-formation(构词）： the processes of word variations signaling lexical

relationships. They are compound(合成）and derivation (派生).

23. Syntax：It is a branch of linguistics that studies how words are combined to form

sentences and the rules that govern the formation of sentences.

24. Category(范畴）： It refers to the defining properties of words. E.g. the categories of

the noun and the pronoun are usually said to the categories of number（数）, gender（性）, case

（格）.

25. Syntactical category(句法范畴): A group of linguistic items which fulfill the same or

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similar functions in sentence-formation. （在句子构成中起相同作用的一类语言单位）

Word--lexical category, Phrase--phrasal category, Clause---clausal category, Sentence

26. Simple sentence: It contains a subject and a verb, and it expresses a complete

thought.

27. Coordinate sentence: It contains two independent clauses joined by a

coordinator(并列连词) .

Complex sentence: It has an independent clause joined with one or more dependent

clauses by one or more subordinators(从属连词) such as if, when, because, although.

28. Reference: how language refers to the real physical world (语言指代外部物质世界)

29. Sense: Inherent meaning of the linguistic form. It is abstract and the meaning

dictionary compilers are interested in. (语言形式的内在意义)

30. Homonymy: words having different meanings have the same form, different words

are identical in sound or spelling, or in both.

31. homophones 同音词 (knight and night, piece and peace )

32. homograph 同形词 (tear (v) and tear (n), lead (v) and lead (n) )

33. complete homonyms 同音同形词 (fast (adj) and fast (n) )

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34. 言语行为理论Speech Act Theory: J. Austin, 20世纪50年代末，认为语言不仅可以用来

表述，更可以用来“做事doing things”，即“to do things with words” .

35. ●言内行为Locutionary Act：指the utterance of a sentence itself,即“说话”行为本身，

话语表示字面意思literal Meaning

36. ●言外行为Illocutionary Act：指说话时，因为言语本身的一些习惯力量而随之产生了其他

的一些行为，如警告、允诺等；通常表述的是说话者的交流目的或意图

37. ●言后行为 Perlocutionary Act

38. 合作原则The Cooperative Principles: ()

Quantity Maxim: Make it as informative as required, not too much

Quality Maxim：不要说不真实false或者缺乏证据lack adequate evidence的话

Relation Maxim：relevant

Manner Maxim：Avoid obscurity and ambiguity；be brief and orderly

39. 会话含义Conversational Implicature: When any of the maxims is blatantly violated

that the hearer knows that it is being violated, then Conversational Implicatures arise.

40. Speech community（言语社区）: The social group that is singled out for any special

study is called the speech community.

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41. Speech variety / language variety: it refers to any distinguishable form of speech

used by a speaker or a group of speakers.

42. Bilingualism: bilingualism is a situation that two languages are used side by side

with each having a different role to play and language switching occurs when the situation

changes.

43. Context: the notion of context is essential to the pragmatic study of language. It is

generally considered as constituted by the knowledge shared by the speaker and the hearer.

Context determines the speaker's use of language and also the hearer's interpretation of what

is said to him.

44. Regional dialect: A regional dialect is a linguistic variety used by people living in the

same geographical region.

45. Sociolect: it refers to the linguistic variety characteristic of a particular social class.

46. Idiolect: it is a personal dialect of an individual speaker that combines elements

regarding regional, social, gender, and age variations.

47. Register (语域): According to 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. There are three social variables that determine the register: field

of discourse, tenor of discourse, and mode of discourse.

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48. Culture: In a board sense, 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. As culture is so inclusive, it permeates virtually every aspects

of life and influences predominantly people' behavior, including linguistic behavior. In a

narrow sense, culture may refer to a local or specific practice, beliefs or customs, which can be

mostly found in folk culture, enterprises culture or food culture etc.

49. Intercultural communication (跨文化交际): it is communication between people,

whose cultural perceptions and symbols systems are distinct enough to alter the

communication event. It frequently refers to communication between people from different

cultures, which implied a comparison between cultures.

50. Language acquisition: language acquisition refers to the child's acquisition of his

mother tongue, i.e how the child comes to understand and speak the language of his

community.

51. A behaviorist view of language acquisition: Traditional behaviorists view

language as behavior and believe that language learning is simply a matter of imitation and

habit formation.

52. An innatist view of language acquisition: Noam Chomsky claims that human

beings are biologically programmed for language and that the language develops in the child

just as other biological functions such as walking. Originally, he referred to this innate ability

as Language Acquisition Device. Later he prefers this innate endowment as Universal

Grammar.

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53. Universal Grammar: The different languages have a similar level of complexity and

detail, and reflect general abstract properties of the common linguistic system，it is called

Universal Grammar.

54. An interactionist view of language acquisition: Language develops as a result of

the complex interplay between the human characteristics of the child and the environment in

which the child develops. Integrated with the itnnatist view, the interactionist further claims

that the modified language which is suitable for the child’s capability is crucial in his

language acquisition.

55. Motherese/ caretaker talk: adults speak differently when talking to little children.

56. Second language acquisition: the systematic study of how one person acquires a

second language subsequent to his native language.

57. Interlanguage: learners' independent system of the second language which is of

neither the native language nor the second language, but a continuum or approximation from

his native language to the target language.

58. Contrastive Analysis 对比分析: It refers to a comparative procedure used to

establish linguistic differences between two languages so as to predict learning difficulties

caused by interference from the learner’s first language and prepare the type of teaching

materials that will reduce the effects of interference.

59. Error Analysis错误分析: An approach to the study and analysis of the errors made

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by the second language learners which suggests that many learner errors are not due to the

learner’ s mother tongue interference but reflect universal learning strategies such as

over-generalization and simplification of rules. 它指出语言学习者所犯的许多错误不是母语干扰所

致而是体现了一些普遍的学习策略.如概括过度和规则简化。

60. Input Hypothesis: Learners progress along the natural order by understanding

input that contains structures a little bit beyond their current level of competence.

61. Acquisition (习得): It refers to the gradual and subconscious development of ability

in the first language by using it naturally in daily communicative situations.

62. Learning （学习）: It is defined as a conscious process of accumulating knowledge of

a second language usually obtained in school settings.

63. Language Transfer: learners will subconsciously use their L1 knowledge in learning

a second language. This is known as language transfer. Transfer can be positive or negative.

Presumably, positive transfer occurs when an L1 pattern is identical with, or similar to, a target

language pattern. Conversely, negative transfer occurs when an L1 pattern is different from

the counterpart pattern of the target language. Negative transfer is a process more commonly

known as interference.

64. Behaviorist learning theory: it’s a theory of Psychology suggests that the

learner’s verbal behavior is conditioned or reinforced through association between a

stimulus and response when applied to first language acquisition. 源自心理学的理论—行为主

义,它认为儿童的语言行为是与他们所受刺激和随之的反应成相互条件的

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