Chapter 1 Invitations to Linguistics1.1Why study language?1.Language is very essential to human beings.2.In language there are many things we should know.3.For further understanding, we need to study language scientifically.1.2What is language?1.3Design features of languageThe features that define our human languages can be called design features which can distinguish human language from any animal system of communication.1.3.1Arbitrariness1.3.2Duality1.3.3CreativityCreativity means that language is resourceful because of its duality and its recursiveness. Recursiveness refers to the rule which can be applied repeatedly without any definite limit. The recursive nature of language provides a theoretical basis for the possibility of creating endless sentences.1.3.4Displacement1.4Origin of language1.The bow-wow theoryIn primitive times people imitated the sounds of the animal calls in the wild environment they lived and speech developed from that.2.The pooh-pooh theoryIn the hard life of our primitive ancestors, they utter instinctive sounds of pains, anger and joy which gradually developed into language.3.The “yo-he-ho” theoryAs primitive people worked together, they produced some rhythmic grunts which gradually developed into chants and then into language.1.5Functions of languageAs is proposed by Jacobson, language has six functions:1.Referential: to convey message and information;2.Poetic: to indulge in language for its own sake;3.Emotive: to express attitudes, feelings and emotions;4.Conative: to persuade and influence others through commands and entreaties;5.Phatic: to establish communion with others;6.Metalingual: to clear up intentions, words and meanings.What is contextualism?“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 spatial-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 words co-occurrence or collocation with another, which forms part of the meaning, and an important factor in communication.Halliday (1994) proposes a theory of metafunctions of language. It means that language has three metafunctions:According to Hu Zhuanglin, language has at least seven functions:1.5.1Informative1.5.2Interpersonal functionThe interpersonal function means people can use language to establish and maintain their status in a society.1.5.3PerformativeThe performative function of language is primarily to change the social status of persons, as in marriage ceremonies, the sentencing of criminals, the blessing of children, the naming of a ship at a launching ceremony, and the cursing of enemies.1.5.4Emotive function1.5.5Phatic communionThe phatic communion means people always use some small, seemingly meaningless expressions such as Good morning, God bless you, Nice day, etc., to maintain a comfortable relationship between people without any factual content.1.5.6Recreational functionThe recreational function means people use language for the sheer joy of using it, such as a babys babbling or a chanters chanting.1.5.7Metalingual functionThe metalingual function means people can use language to talk about itself. E.g. I can use the word “book” to talk about a book, and I can also use the expression “the word book” to talk about the sign “b-o-o-k” itself.1.6What is linguistics?Linguistics is the scientific study of language. It studies not just one language of any one community, but the language of all human beings.1.7Main branches of linguistics1.7.1PhoneticsPhonetics is the study of speech sounds, it includes three main areas: articulatory phonetics, acoustic phonetics, and auditory phonetics.1.7.2PhonologyPhonology studies the rules governing the structure, distribution, and sequencing of speech sounds and the shape of syllables.1.7.3MorphologyMorphology studies the minimal units of meaning morphemes and word-formation processes.1.7.4SyntaxSyntax refers to the rules governing the way words are combined to form sentences in a language, or simply, the study of the formation of sentences. 1.7.5SemanticsSemantics examines how meaning is encoded in a language.1.7.6PragmaticsPragmatics is the study of meaning in context.1.8MacrolinguisticsMacrolinguistics is the study of language in all aspects, distinct from microlinguistics, which dealt solely with the formal aspect of language system.1.8.1PsycholinguisticsPsycholinguistics investigates the interrelation of language and mind, in p