Introduction 1
1 Linguistics and English linguistics 1
2 Structure of the book 2
Part Ⅰ Language System 3
Overview 3
Chapter One What Is Language? 5
1.1 The nature of language 5
1.1.1 Defining language 5
1.1.2 The design features of language 6
1.2 Distinctions between important concept pairs in linguistic study 10
1.2.1 Synchronic and diachronic 10
1.2.2 Langue and parole 11
1.2.3 Competence and performance 11
1.2.4 Syntagmatic and paradigmatic 11
Summary 12
Suggestions for study 13
Questions and exercises 13
Mini-research project 14
Chapter Two Phonetics 15
2.1 Speech organs 15
2.2 Consonants and vowels 16
2.2.1 The International Phonetic Alphabet 16
2.2.2 Describing the English consonants 17
2.2.3 Describing the English vowels 23
Summary 25
Suggestions for study 26
Questions and exercises 26
Mini-research project 28
Chapter Three Phonology 29
3.1 Important concepts in phonology 29
3.1.1 Phonemes 29
3.1.2 Minimal pairs and sets 30
3.1.3 Phonemes,phones and allophones 30
3.2 Identifying phonemes 32
3.2.1 Environment and distribution 32
3.2.2 Three types of distribution 33
3.3 Sequences of phonemes 35
3.4 Co-articulation effects 36
3.4.1 Assimilation 36
3.4.2 Elision 37
3.5 Supra-segmental features 37
3.5.1 Stress 37
3.5.2 Tone and intonation 38
3.5.3 Juncture 39
Summary 40
Suggestions for study 41
Questions and exercises 41
Mini-research project 43
Chapter Four Morphology 44
4.1 What is morphology? 44
4.2 Morphemes 45
4.3 Classifications of morphemes 46
4.3.1 Roots and affixes 46
4.3.2 Free morphemes and bound morphemes 47
4.3.3 Prefixes,suffixes and infixes 48
4.3.4 Inflectional and derivational affixes 48
4.3.5 Root,base,and stem 50
4.4 Morphemes,morphs and allomorphs 51
4.5 Empty morph and zero morph 52
4.6 Morphemic analysis 54
4.7 The role of morphology in English 57
4.7.1 Grammatical functions of inflectional morphology 57
4.7.2 Derivational morphology and word-formation processes 57
Summary 62
Suggestions for study 63
Questions and exercises 64
Mini-research project 66
Chapter Five Syntax 67
5.1 Structural description of sentences 67
5.1.1 Syntactic relations 67
5.1.1.1 Sequential(syntagmatic)relations 67
5.1.1.2 Substitutional(paradigmatic)relations 68
5.1.1.3 Hierarchical relations 69
5.1.2 Labeled IC analysis and the hierarchical structuring of English sentences 71
5.2 Generation of sentences 74
5.2.1 Surface structure and deep structure 74
5.2.2 A general description of phrase structure rules(PS rules) 77
5.2.2.1 Noun phrases and adjective phrases 78
5.2.2.2 Verb phrases and auxiliary phrases 78
5.2.3 Transformational rules 82
5.2.3.1 T-Affix 83
5.2.3.2 Passivization 84
Summary 86
Suggestions for study 87
Questions and exercises 88
Mini-research project 90
Chapter Six Semantics 91
6.1 What is meaning? 91
6.2 Lexical semantics 93
6.2.1 Componential analysis 93
6.2.1.1 What is componential analysis? 93
6.2.1.2 General and specific semantic features 94
6.2.1.3 Redundant semantic features 94
6.2.1.4 Semantic classes 95
6.2.2 Semantic field 95
6.2.2.1 What is a semantic field? 95
6.2.2.2 Sense relationships 96
6.2.3 Lexical ambiguity 100
6.2.3.1 Polysemy 100
6.2.3.2 Homonymy 100
6.2.4 Collocations in English 101
6.3 Sentence semantics 102
6.3.1 What is essential for determining sentence meaning? 103
6.3.2 Semantic roles 104
6.3.3 Grammatical functions and semantic roles 106
6.3.4 Semantic anomaly 107
Summary 108
Suggestions for study 109
Questions and exercises 110
Mini-research project 114
Part Ⅱ Language Use 115
Overview 115
Chapter Seven General Principles of Communication 117
7.1 The Cooperative Principle 117
7.1.1 The four maxims of the Cooperative Principle 118
7.1.2 Violation of the maxims and conversational implicature 120
7.2 The Politeness Principle 123
7.3 The Principle of Relevance 125
7.3.1 The basic principle 125
7.3.2 Contextual effects and processing effort 126
7.3.3 Optimal relevance 127
Summary 128
Suggestions for study 129
Questions and exercises 130
Mini-research project 131
Chapter Eight Intercultural Communication 132
8.1 Important concepts 132
8.1.1 What is culture? 132
8.1.2 What is communication? 134
8.1.3 What is intercultural communication? 134
8.2 Language and culture 135
8.2.1 The impact of language on culture 136
8.2.2 The impact of culture on language 137
8.2.2.1 Impact at the lexical level 137
8.2.2.2 Impact at the discourse level 137
8.3 Diverse intercultural communication patterns 138
8.3.1 Low-context and high-context communication 138
8.3.2 Direct and indirect verbal communication 140
8.3.3 Person-oriented and status-oriented verbal communication 141
8.3.4 Self-enhancement and self-effacement communication 141
8.4 Potential problems in intercultural communication 142
8.4.1 Seeking similarities 142
8.4.2 Stereotyping 143
8.4.3 Prejudice 144
8.4.4 Ethnocentrism 144
8.4.5 Culture shock 145
Summary 146
Suggestions for study 147
Questions and exercises 148
Mini-research project 150
Chapter Nine Language Variety 151
9.1 Language—dialect—regional dialect—social dialect 152
9.1.1 Language and dialect 152
9.1.2 Regional dialects 152
9.1.3 Social dialects 153
9.2 Lingua franca—pidgin—creole 154
9.2.1 Lingua franca 154
9.2.2 Pidgin 154
9.2.3 Creole 155
9.3 Style—genre—taboo—euphemism 155
9.3.1 Style 155
9.3.2 Genre 157
9.3.3 Taboo 158
9.3.4 Euphemism 159
9.4 Gender and language use 160
Summary 161
Suggestions for study 162
Questions and exercises 162
Mini-research project 163
Part Ⅲ Language Learning 165
Overview 165
Chapter Ten Major Issues in SLA 167
10.1 Contrastive Analysis Hypothesis 167
10.2 Error Analvsis 168
10.3 The Interlanguage Hypothesis 170
10.4 The Monitor Model 171
10.5 The Output Hypothesis 173
10.6 The Open-Choice Principle and the Idiom Principle 174
Summary 176
Suggestions for study 177
Questions and exercises 177
Mini-research project 178
Chapter Eleven Factors Affecting Second Language Learning 179
11.1 Factors not easily modified by learners 179
11.1.1 Anxiety 179
11.1.2 Inhibition and risk-taking 180
11.1.3 Extroversion/Introversion 181
11.2 Factors easily modified by learners 183
11.2.1 Motivation and attitudes 183
11.2.2 Self-esteem 184
11.2.3 Learner strategies 185
11.2.3.1 Language learning strategies 185
11.2.3.2 Language use strategies 186
11.2.3.3 Differences between effective and inefiective learners 188
Summary 197
Suggestions for study 198
Questions and exercises 198
Mini-research project 199
Chapter Twelve Developing an Intercultural Communicative Competence 200
12.1 A brief review of current models of second language competence 200
12.2 Why are current models inadequate? 201
12.3 A model of intercultural communicative competence 204
12.4 Intercultural competence in communicative language use 205
Summary 207
Suggestions for study 208
Questions and exercises 208
Mini-research project 209
References 210