Chapter 1 An Overview of Language and Linguistics 1
1.1 What Is General Linguistics? 1
1.1.1 Defining Linguistics 1
1.1.2 Principles of Linguistic Science 1
1.1.3 A Natural Science or a Social Science? 3
1.1.4 What Is Meant by"General"? 4
1.1.5 Some Basic Distinctions in Linguistics 6
1.1.6 What Is the Use of Linguistics? 8
1.2 What Is Language? 10
1.2.1 Defining Language 10
1.2.2 Design Features of Language 14
1.2.3 Functions of Language 18
Chapter 2 Phonetics 25
2.1 Aim of Phonetics 25
2.2 Different Types of Phonetics 25
2.3 Vocal Organs 26
2.4 Two Major Types of Speech Sounds 28
2.4.1 Consonants 28
2.4.2 Vowels 33
2.4.3 Cardinal Vowel System 35
Chapter 3 Phonology 39
3.1 Aim of Phonology 39
3.2 Phonemes and Allophones 39
3.3 Minimal Pair 42
3.4 Three Criteria for Grouping Phones into Phonemes 43
3.4.1 Free Variation 43
3.4.2 Complementary Distribution 44
3.4.3 Phonetic Similarity 45
3.5 Distinctive Features and Natural Classes 46
3.6 Phonological Processes 50
3.6.1 Co-articulation Effects 50
3.6.2 Elision 50
3.6.3 Assimilation 50
3.7 Phonological Rules of English 52
3.7.1 Nasalization 53
3.7.2 Nasal Assimilation 54
3.7.3 Aspiration Rule 54
3.7.4 Rule Ordering 55
3.8 Syllable and Stress 56
Chapter 4 Morphology 61
4.1 Aim of Morphology 61
4.2 Word and Morpheme 61
4.2.1 What Is a Word? 61
4.2.2 Classifications of Words 62
4.2.3 What Is a Morpheme? 63
4.3 Morpheme and Allomorph 68
4.3.1 phonetically Conditioned Allomorphs 68
4.3.2 Lexically or Grammatically Conditioned Allomorphs 70
4.4 Relation between Morpheme and Phoneme 70
4.5 Word Formation 72
4.5.1 Compound 72
4.5.2 Derivation 72
Chapter 5 Syntax 76
5.1 What Is Syntax? 76
5.2 The Traditional Grammar 78
5.2.1 The History of the Traditional Grammar 78
5.2.2 Syntactic Elements and Their Defining Properties 80
5.2.3 Syntactic Relations Between Words 85
5.2.4 The Ways Words are Organized Into Sentences 86
5.3 The Structural Grammar 88
5.3.1 Saussure and His Linguistic Theory 88
5.3.2 American Structuralist Linguistics 89
5.4 The Generative Linguistics 92
5.4.1 Chomsky and Generative Linguistics:What"Generative"Means 92
5.4.2 Five Stages of Generative Linguistics 94
5.4.3 The C1assical Theory(1957—1965) 95
5.4.4 The Standard Theory(1965—1972) 97
5.4.5 The Extended Standard Theory Model(1972—1981) 99
5.4.6 The Government and Binding Theory Model(1981—1993) 101
5.4.7 The Minimalist Program Model(1993—) 104
Chapter 6 Semantics 109
6.1 An Overview of Semantics 109
6.1.1 Aim of Semantics 109
6.1.2 Semantics at Different Levels 109
6.1.3 Difficulty of Semantics 111
6.2 Some Semantic Theories 112
6.2.1 Referential Theory 112
6.2.2 Mentalist Theory 113
6.2.3 "Use"Theory 114
6.3 Classification of Meaning 115
6.3.1 Seven Types of Meaning Proposed by Leech 115
6.3.2 Sense,Reference,and Denotation 117
6.4 Sense Relations 120
6.4.1 Synonymy 120
6.4.2 Antonymy 122
6.4.3 Hyponymy 126
6.5 Simple Logic and Semantics 127
6.5.1 Simplified Form of Predicate Calculi 127
6.5.2 Simple Propositional Logic 130
6.6 Ambiguity 134
Chapter 7 Pragmatics 140
7.1 Defining Pragmatics 140
7.2 Pragmatics:Past and Present 141
7.2.1 Focus on Change:Three Stages of Development 141
7.2.2 Tasks in Hand:Two Components of Pragmatics 142
7.3 Critical Concepts and Theories in Pragmatics 143
7.3.1 Between Semantics and Pragmatics 144
7.3.2 Beyond Semantics 149
7.4 Pragmatics in Development 156
7.4.1 Relevance Theory 157
7.4.2 Horn's Bipartite System and Levinson's Tripartite System 159
Chapter 8 Language and Society 165
8.1 The Relatedness between Language and Society 165
8.1.1 Possible Relations between Language and Society 165
8.1.2 Sociolinguistics 166
8.2 Variable，Variant and Variation 168
8.3 Regional Dialect and Its Semantic Extension 169
8.4 Language Use and Social Factors 171
8.4.1 Sociolect 171
8.4.2 Genderlect 173
8.4.3 Agelect 176
8.4.4 Ethnic Dialect 177
8.5 Language Change 178
8.5.1 Language Change in Progress 179
8.5.2 Forms of Language Change 179
Chapter 9 Language,Culture and Thought 187
9.1 The Relations between Language,Culture and Thought 187
9.1.1 Language and Culture 187
9.1.2 Language and Thought 188
9.1.3 Sapir-Whorf Hypothesis 188
9.2 Some Cultural Items 192
9.2.1 Politeness and Cross-cultural Communication 192
9.2.2 Greetings 193
9.2.3 Taboo and Euphemism 195
9.2.4 Address Terms 195
Chapter 10 Language Acquisition 200
10.1 First Language Acquisition 200
10.1.1 Three Views on First Language Acquisition 200
10.1.2 Characteristics of First Language Acquisition 202
10.1.3 Stages of First Language Acquisition 203
10.2 Second Language Learning 208
10.2.1 First Language Acquisition versus Second Language Learning 209
10.2.2 Contrasts between First Language Acquisition and Second Language Learning 210
10.2.3 Stages of Second Language Learning 216
Appendix 220
Index 230