Chapter 8 Sociolinguistics

一、定义

1.言语社区Speech Community

It refers to a group of people who form a community and share at least one speech variety as well as similar linguistic norms.

2.社会方言Socialect

A variety of language used by people belonging to a prticular social class.

3.语域Register

A functional speech or language variety that involves degrees of formality depending on the speech situation concerned.

4.标准语Standard Language

A superposed prestigious variety of language of a community or nation,usually based on the speech and writing of educated native speakers of the language.

5.通用语Lingua Franca

A variety of language that serves as a common speech for social contact among groups of people who speak different native languages or dialects.

6.洋泾浜语Pidgin边缘性接触语言=有限的词汇+缩减的语法结构by其他语言的本族语者 

A marginal contact language with a limited vocabulary and reduced grammatical structures,used by native speakers of other languages as a means of business communication.

7.双言现象Diglossia

A sociolinguistic situation in which two very different varieties of language co-exist in a speech community,each serving a particular social function and used for a particular situation.

8.语言禁忌Linguistic taboo

An obscene,profane,or swear word or expression that is prohibited from general use by the educated and “polite”society.

9.委婉语Euphemism

A word or expression that is thought to be mild,indirect,or less offensive and used as a polite substitute for the supposedly harsh and unpleasant word or expression.

10.语码转换Code-Switching

It refers to a bilingual speaker foten uses two languages alternatively during a conversation with another bilingual speaker.人们在交际中根据需要轮流使用不同的语言、方言或其他变体。

11.语言变体Speech Variety

It refers to any distinguishable form of speech used by a speaker or gourp of speakers.the distinctive characteristics of a speech variety may be lexical, phonological, morphological, syntactic,or a combination of linguistic features.

12.双语Bilingualism

It refers to a linguistic situation in which two standard languages are used either by an individual or by a group of speakers.

13.少数民族方言Ethnic Dialect

It refers to a phenomenon that within a society speech variation may come about cos of different ethnic backgrounds.

14.使用域Domain

It refers to a phenomenon that most bilingual communities have one thing in common,that’s, a fairly clear functional diferentiation of the two languages in respect of speech situations,for example, the home Domain,Employment Domain.

15.语言计划Language Planning

It’s certain authorities,such as the government choosees a particular speech variety and spread the use of it,including its pronunciation and spelling systems,across regional boundaries.

16.发音Accent

If refers to a way of pronunciation which tells the listener something about the speaker’s regional or social background.

17.习语Idiolect=Personal dialect

A personal dialect of an individual speaker that combines aspects of all the elements regarding regional,social,and stylistic variation,in one form or another.

18.混合语Creoles

It’s originally a pidgin that has become established as a native language in some speech community.e.g. French-based creoles spoken in Haiti and Louisiana.

19.语言情景Language Situation

A linguistic situation in which two standard language are used either by an individual or by a group of speakers,such as the inhabitants of a particular region or a nation. For example, in Canada, both english and french are official languages.

20.区域变体Regional Variation

Speech variation according to the particular area where a speaker comes from.e.g. American English and British English,ect.

21.语域变体Register Varieties=Situational Dialects

Registers are language varieties appropriate for use in particular speech situations,in contrast to language varieties that are associated with the social or regional grouping of their customary users.

22.称呼术语Address Terms

An address term,or address form refers to the word or words used to address somebody in speech or writing.

23.俚语Slang

It’s a casual use of language that consists of expressive but nonstandard vocabulary,typically of arbitrary,flashy and often ephemeral coinages and figures of speech characterized by spontaneity and sometimes by raciness.

24. 社会语言学Sociolinguistics

It’s the subdiscipline of linguistics that studies language with in socical context.

二、知识点

1.Sociolinguists are concerned with the social singificance of language variation and language use in different speech communities including regional,ethnic and social groups.

2.In sociolinguistic studies,speakers are treated as memebers of social groups.

3.Social groups may be defined in a number of ways besides regionally.it may distinguish itself from rest of the community by its distinct ethnic affiliation.

4.Considered a more neutral term,speech variety is sometimes used intead of standard langauge,vernacular language,dialect,pidgin,creole,ect.

5.语言学家最感兴趣的三个语言变体Regional dialects,sociolects or social dialects and registers.

6.Regional variation of language is the most discernible and definable.

7.Stylistic variation in a person’s speech,or writing,usually ranges on a continuum from casual or colloquial to formal or polite according to the type of communicative situation.

8.判断题the standard language is a superposed,socially prestigious dialect of language,it's the langauge employed by the government and the judiciary system,used by the mass media,and taught in educational institutions,including school settings where the langaue is taught as a foreign or second language.

9.Language varieties other han the standard are called nonstandard,or vernacular languages.

10.The standard language of many countries,is also designated as the national or official language.

11.Lingua franca,an italian term literally meaning”frankish language”or”frankish tongue”.

12.The spoken language of modern china普通话embodies thepronunciation of the Beijing dialect, the grammar of Northern chinese dialects, the vocabulary of modern colloquial chinese.

13.通用语Lingua Franca和洋泾浜语Pidgin的区别

⑴Pidgin is used for some practical purposes,such as trading,by groups of people who donot know each other’s langauge.Lingua Franca may have native speakers such as English,

⑵Pidgin is not a native language of a particular region,but simply a marginal language used by people whose cultures are sharply separated and whoes business contact is very specialized.

14.The original Lingua Franca is believed to be an Indian-based pidgin used in Mediterranean ports

15.Most of the historical pidgins have become extinct.

16.The grammatical features such as case,tense,mood and voice are generally absent in pidgins,a pidgin typically lacks inflectional morphemes.

17.English-based pidgins are characterized by an absence of any complex grammatical morphology and a limited vocabulary.

18.Pidgins have strict rules for determining word orders to compensate for the lack of case endings on nouns.

19.Creoles最早来自长在南美洲的西班牙或葡萄牙裔。

20.Diglossia现象存在

⑴mostly in Arabic-speaking counties,

⑵Modern Greek,Swiss German and Haitian Creole.

⑶in Paraguay,spanish as the high variety and local Indian language Guarani as the low variety.

21.Bilingualism现象存在

⑴Canada: English and French

⑵Finland: Finnish and Swedish

⑶Belgium: French and Flemish Dutch

22.Most bilingual communities have one thing in common,that’s a fairly clear functional differentiation of the two languages in respect of speech situation known as domains.

23.An ethnic dialect is spoken mainly by a less priviledged population that has experienced form of social isolation,such as racial discrimination or segregation.

24.The most widespread and most familiar ethnic variety of the english langauge is Black English.

25.教育变体Education varieties Socialect         

年龄变体Age varieties

Social Dialect     性别变体Gender varieties

社会方言        语域变体Register varieties

                称谓术语Address terms

                 俚语    Slang 

 

语言禁语Linguistic taboo

                委婉    Euphemism      from a Greek word

26.当五岁时,syntax is more standard,vocaulary is limited;十岁时,comparatively extensive vocabulary, structure of utterance doesnot differ from adults’speech.            

27.词汇方面，年龄和时代的不同is more noticeable across three generation time span than two-generation time span.

28.Language reflects deep-rooted sexist social attitude toward females by the way neutral terms are interpreted.

29.It’s one way out of the communication dilema is language standardization known as language planning.

30.Standard language is a supposed,socially prestigious dialect of language.

31.One specific aspect of situational use of language is address term usage.

32.委婉语portly,full-figured代fat,inexpensive代cheap,indisposed代sick.

33.The english system of adress terms称谓方法

frist name：Esperanto         last name : Du      title+last name : Mr.Du

title alone : Professor          kin term  : Dad

34.Christains的禁忌语”take the lord’s name in vain”,如hell,darn,

In England,”bloody”is a taboo word which originally referred to the blood of Christ,some”respectable”people consider it a horrid word on a par with obscene or profane language and constantly in the mouths of uneducated speakers.

35.overt thought或subvocal speech（均可用下面定义）

Language and thought may be viewed as indpenedent circles overlapping in some parts,where language and thought are consistent with each other and one never occurs without the other,

When language and thought are identical or closely parallel to each other,we may regard thought  as”subvocal speech”,and speech as”overt thought”.

三、问答题

1.特殊语域的区分how to distinguish a particular register from other registers?

⑴distinctive words

⑵using words or phrases in a particular way.

⑶speical grammatical constructions,such as scientific language,or legal language.

2.双语和双言的区分distinction between Bilingualism and Diglossia.

Bilingualism refers to a linguistic situation in which two standard languages are used in a speech community;in a diglossic community,two varieties of language are used for different situations,one being more standard and higher,and used for more formal matters,the other less prestigious,used for colloquial situations.

双言现象是一个社区有两种标准语，双言社区中，两种语言变体被用作不同的情景。一个较为标准，处于高层次；另一个较为口语化，声望不高。

3. 黑人英语的特点

⑴ one of the most prominent phonological features of black english is the simplification of a consonant cluster at the end of a word dropping the word-final phoneme.e.g.”desk”pronounced as/des/,“told” pronounced as /tou/;

音系特征，通过去掉词尾的音素简化位于词尾辅音连缀。

⑵one of the syntactic feature of black english is the absence of the copula,such as “they mine”,“you crazy”. Copula deletion as such occurs in some other english dialects,as well as in language like Arabic,Russian and chinese;

语法特征，经常缺失系词.

⑶the double negation construction with sentence like”I donot know nobody”.

语法特征，双重否定结构.

黑人英语的disinctive feature persis not for racial,but for social,educationa and economic reasons.

4.列举女性言语和男性言语相异的方面

List several ways of speech of women and men differ from each other.

⑴Women tend to use more presigious forms,more polite and indirect language,and more specific color terms than their male counterparts.

⑵Women use more questions than declarative statements than males.

5.Why is productivity unique to langauge?

⑴The productivity of language is the property which enables its users to construct and understand an indefinitely large number of utterances,including the novel utterances that they have never said heard before,

⑵The feature is unique to human langauge because most animal communication system appear to be highly restricted with respect to the number of different signals that their users can send and receive.

⑶For example,bee dancing is used only to indicate nectar sources,which is the only kind of message that can be sent through the meaning.

6.Why is syntax regarded as a system of rules?

As a major component of grammar,syntax consists of a set of abstract rules that allow words to be combined with other words to form grammatical setences.A sentence is considered grammatical when it conforms to the grammatical knowledge in the mind of native speakers.if,on the other hand,a sentence violates a rule according to which words are organized,then native speakers will judge it to be an impossible sentence of that langauge.

Universally found in the grammars of all human languages,syntactic rules comprise the system of internalized linguistic knowledge of a langauge speaker.

For any natural language,it's the set of rules that makes it possible for the speakers to produce,comprehend and memorize the vase number of sentences of their native language

Chapter 9 Psycholinguistics

一、定义

1.大脑皮层Cerebral Cortex

The outside surface of the brain which receives messages from all the sensory organs and where human cognitive abilities reside.

接受所有感觉器官传来的信息，是人的认知能力所存在的区域。

2.大脑侧化Brain Lateralization

The localization of cognitive and perceptual functions in a particular hemisphere of the brain.

认知机能和感知机能位于大脑的某一半球。

3.语言侧化Linguistic lateralization

Hemispheric specialization or dominance for language.

4.两耳分听Dichotic Listening

A research technique which has been used to study how the brain controls hearing and language, with which subjects wear earphones and simultaneously receive different sounds in the right and left ear, and are then asked to repeat what they hear.

5.关键期the critical period

An early period of one’s life extending to the age of puberty, during which the human brain is most ready to acquire language naturally and effortlessly, a period that coincides with the period of brain laterlization for language functions.

6. The Sapir-Whorf Hypothesis假设

A theory put forward by the American anthropological linguists Sapir and Whorf which states that the way people view the world is determined wholly or partly by the structure of their native language.

人们看世界的方式完全或部分地由他们母语的结构决定，

7.自我交际Interpersonal communication

The process of using language within the individual to facilitate one’s own thought and aid the formulation and manipulation of concepts.

语言使用者本人用语言促进自己的思维和帮助形成和使用概念的过程。

8.无声言语Subvocal Speech

A term used to refer to thought when thought and language are identical or closely parallel to each other.

用于指语言和思维是同一或近乎相同的.

9.神经元Neurons

Lying under the skull, the human brain contains an average of ten billion nerve cells called Neurons.

10.脑半球Hemispheres

The brain is divided into two roughly symmetrical halves, called hemisphere.

11.Broca’s area                French Surgeon: Paul Broca

The language centre in the frontal lobe in the left cerebral hemisphere is know as Broca’s area.

12.语言决定论Linguistic determinism

Whorf proposed that all higher levels of thinking are dependent on language, or put it more bluntly, language determines thought, hence the strong notion of linguistic determinism.

13.语言相对论Linguistic relativism

It refers to the belief that speakers of different languages perceive and experience the world differently, that is, relative to their linguistic background.

It’s hypothesis proposed by an American linguist Benjamin Lee Whorf concerning language and thought.

二、知识点

1.Three areas of the left hemisphere are vital to language:

 Broca’s area.     =Expression 

 Wernicke’s area=Understanding

Angular gyrus.    =converting a visual stimulus into an auditory form, vice versa

2.The human brain is the most complicated organ of the body.

3.The most important part of the brain is the outside surface of the brain---Cerebral cortex.

4.The Cortex is the decision-making organ of the body, receiving messages from all the sensory organs and initiating all voluntary actions

5.大脑侧化for major mental functions under control of each hemisphere

Left hemisphere  Right hemisphere

语言和言语

language ＆ speech  非语言声音的感知

perception of nonlinguistic sounds

分析性推理

analytic reasoning  整体性推理

holistic reasoning

时间安排

Temporal ordering  视觉和空间技能

visual ＆ spatial skills

读和写

reading ＆ writing  图案识别

recognition of patterns

计算和联想

calculation ＆associative thought  音乐旋律的识别

recognition of musical melodies

6.The process of lateralization is believed to be maturational.

7.Most individuals, the left hemisphere is dominant for language, regardless of handiness.

8.Evidence in support of lateralization for language in left hemisphere comes from researches in Dichotic listening tasks.两耳分听证明了左半球的侧化。

9.Righ hear advantage shows the left hemisphere is not superior for processing all sounds, but only for those that are linguistic in nature, thus providing evidence in support of view that the left side of the brain is specialized for language and that's where language centers reside.

右耳优势证明了大脑左半球并不是处理所有声音时都有优势，只是处理本质上是语言的声音时有优势：大脑左侧负责语言，语言中枢就位于这一部分。

10.法国外科医生Broca是第一个证明damage to a specific area of the brain results in a speech production deficit.

11.德国内科医生Carl Wernicke在1874发表的论文假设there was more than one language area in the left brain.

12.Angular gyrus lies behind Wernicke’s area.this area is crucial for the matching of a spoken form with a perceived object, for the naming of objects, for the comprehension of written language and require connections between visual and speech organs.

13.When we listen,the word is heard and comprehended via Wernicke’s area.

14.The critical period hypothesis refers to a period in one’s life extending from about two to puberty.   定义！！

15.Lenneberg的推断，推出了Cerebral plasticity.

16.判断题 A safe conclusion from Genie’s case for the moment is that the language faculty of an average human degenerates after the critical period and consequently, most linguistic skills cannot develop.

17. 早期学者针对语言和思想的观点

⑴Plato suggested that thought was the soul’s discourse with itself.

柏拉图认为语言和思想相互统一的。

⑵Aristotle, who argued that mankind could not have the same languages and that languages were but signs of psychological experiences.

亚里士多德认为语言只是人类体现的符号。

The debate between them, one being mentalist, other empiricist.

两个人的观点向背。一个是心灵主义，另一个是经验主义。

⑶Watson, thinking involved the same motor activities used in speaking, Bloomfield, thinking was a system of movements that had been reduced from actual speech to the point where they were no longer visible.

美国的Watson承袭了Plato的观点，Bloomfield提出了近似的观点。

18.填空The relationship between the name and the meaning of a word is quite arbitrary. !!!!

19.Language as a conventional coding system to express thought.

20.we recognize that language doesn’t so much determine the way we think as it influences the way we perceive the world and recall things, and affects the ease with which we perform mental tasks.

21.Major functions of language

⑴ a means of interpersonal communication.人际交流

⑵ a means of intrapersonal communication.自我交流

22.Sapir-Whorf hypothesis

他的假设证明了语言决定思想

   Sapir-Whorf hypothesis proposes that the language we speak determines the way we perceive the world and so the nature of thought.

三、问答题

1.in what cortical regions are speech and language thought to be localized?

In what have come to be known as Broca’s area, Wernicke’s area and angular gyrus, all located in the left hemisphere of the brain.

2.how In your opinion does language relate thought and culture?

Language doesn’t determine the way the speaker perceives the world, but largely functions as a means by which information can be stored and received, by which a culture transmits its belief, values and norms, and by which the speaker interacts other members of the cultures.

3.Describe the processes of language perception, comprehension and production.

It’s been proposed that the brain activity involved in hearing, understanding and then saying a word would follow a definite pattern,

when we listen, the word is heard and comprehended via Wernicke’s area, this signal is then transferred to Broca’s area where preparations are made to produce it. A signal is then sent to the motor area controlling the vocal tract to physically articulate the word.

When we speak, words are drawn from Wernicke’s area and sent to Broca’s area which determines the details of their form and pronunciation. The appropriate instructions are then sent to the motor area.