1. An Introduction to Linguistics
语言学导论
陈林华

2. Chapter One Linguistics
Definition
Linguistics differs from other sciences in that it both uses languages as the tool and takes languages as its object to study.
3.Philology → Linguistics
(语文学） （语言学）
In the mid of 19th
F.De Saussure (the founder
of general linguistics）

3. 4. Linguistic study
(1) diachronic study 历时性学习
Study the development of language in the course of
time.
研究语言在不同时期的特点。
(2) synchronic study 共时性学习
Study linguistics at a particular point of time (given
linguistic status or stage of a particular language)
研究语言在同一时期的不同阶段。

4. ※ linguistic study: primary synchronic study
※ 研究语言难在：
① language is always changing
② people in the same speech community do
not say the same language
③ features of a language, can’t be replaced
quickly and completely.

5. ※ Parole is the realization of the langue
5. Langue ＆ Parole
langue 语言 ———————————————— parole 言语
↓ ↓
a set of rules or conventions
an abstract linguistic system
in every speaker’s mind
not actually spoken
e. relatively stable
Actual spoken
Specific (concrete)
situational
the use of the rules or
conventions
※ Parole is the realization of the langue

6. 6. Language competence ＆ language performance
LAD → innate (capacity/intuitive to acquire language)
experience→ →Grammar (for a particular language)
↓ ‖
competence → performance ↓
isn’t innate
working
like a
machine
As.
Material → → product

7. ※ competence ① (Grammar) is equal to everybody
② ideal knowledge of language user
performance ① isn’t equal to everybody
② influenced by psychological and social
factors.
※ Performance is the realization of the knowledge
※ Knowledge is the essence of the competence
Behavior is the essence of the performance
※ Communicative Competence Hymes

8. 7. prescriptivism & descriptivism
Set down a kind of form, admit one dialect or variety is more superior than another.
Form grammar, pronunciation, lexicon. Regulate people how to actually use language. How things should be.
Language police
Descriptivism:
Language is live, changing. If one of language is expressive, logical, then it is a good language.
b) observer/ recorder/ of language
how things actually be/ what people actually say.

9. Used for human communication
Chapter Two Language
Definition of language
: a set of rules (eg. Syntactic rules…)
A well-organized system of
arbitrary
: there is no logical and intrinsic connection between objects and symbols.
vocal
: the sound, spoken language, most important medium.
symbols
: people use it to represent objects, ideas, opinions or actions.
Used for human communication
: human specific (人类特有 ）

10. 2. Design features of language
Arbitrariness
Productivity
Duality
Displacement
Cultural transmission
Transferability
Linearity
interchangeability

11. 3. Social functions of language
Communicative means (the most important one)
The means for conceptual thinking and recognition of
the world.
(3) The vehicle and transmitter of culture.
language is cultural-dependant
language mirrors culture

12. 4. Functions of language in communication
Phatic
Directive function
Informative function
Expressive function
Interrogative function
Evocative function
Performative function

13. Chapter Three Phonetics: sound of language
Definition of phonetics: The scientific study of speech sounds, which are used by all human languages or by a particular language to represent meanings.
Branches:
(1) articulatory phonetics (发音（声）语音学) ：The
study of the production of the sound.
(2) accustic phonetics (声学语音学）：concerned with
physical properties of these sounds.

14. (3) Auditory phonetics (听觉语音学）:concerned with the
reception/ perception of the hearer.
3. International Phonetics Association (IPA)
International Phonetics Alphabet (IPA) 国际音标
（1） nasalized 鼻音化 元音
（2） velarized 软腭化
（3） devoiced 轻（弱）音化
（4） dentalized 齿音化
（5） asparated 吐气音

15. Labials /p/ /b/ /m/
Labiodentals /f/ /v/
Alveolars /d/ /t/ /s/ /z/ /n/ /r/ /l/
Velars /g/ /k/ /ŋ/
Interdentals /ð/ /θ/
Palatals /h/ /?/
Labiovelars /w/ /M/

16. Vowels approximants(延续音） non-continuants continuants
╔===╗ ╔=======╗
glides liquids stops/plosive affricates fricatives
w/M l ╔===╗ tʃ ʃ s f θ
j r nasal oral dʒ ʒ z v ð
h m p k t
n b g d sibilants (hissing) ŋ
sonorants obstruents (阻塞音）
(voiced)响声

17. z alveolar ʒ f fricative Palatal Voiced voiced fricative fricative
voiceless
obstruent
labiodentals
w glide
approximant
sonorant
voiced
labiovelars

18. Vowels
The height of the tongue
high vowels, mid vowels, low vowels
The position of the tongue
front vowels, central vowels, back vowels
lip-rounding
unrounded vowels, rounded vowels
Tenseness of the tongue
tense vowels, lax vowels

19. Rounded vowels: /u:/ /u/ /ou/ /ɔ:/ / ɔ/
Unrounded vowels: /i:/ /i/ /e/ /ei/ /æ/
/ə:/ / ə/
Tense vowels: /i:/ /u:/ /ei/ /ou/ /a:/
/ɔ:/ /ə:/
Lax vowels: /i/ /u/ /e/ /æ/ / ə/ /ʌ/ / ɔ/

20. Chapter Four Phonology
1. Definition: the science or the scientific study of the
system and the patterns of the speech sounds of
languages.
2. Phonetics(语音学）：how the sounds produced,
transmitted, received.
3. Phonemes(音位）：speech sound segments that
can distinguish or contrast words in sound and
meaning are called phonems.

21. Phone: (音素）a phone is a phonetic unit or segment in the
phonetically realization of a phoneme.
ph versions of one phoneme /p/
Phones realization of one phoneme p=
※ The number of allophones (音位变体）is limited.
Allophones: The different phones which represent or derive
from one phoneme are called the allophones
of that phoneme.

22. 一个音位的不同变化形式 音位变体
每一个可以读出的音叫做音素。
一个音如果没有读出叫做音位。
4. Phonetic representation 语音表达 ＆
phonemic representation 音位表达
Phonetic representation：of utterances shows what the
speakers know about the pronunciation of utterances.
Phonemic representation: of the utterances shows what
the Speakers know about the abstract or underlying
phonemic representation of words.

23. 5. Minimal pair: when two different words are identical in
every way except for one phoneme which occurs in the
same place, they are said to form a minimal pair.
6. Phonemic feature: （distinctive feature) 区分特征
when two words are phonetically identical except for one
feature, the phonetic differences is distinctive, as this
difference alone can account for the meaning contrast.
7. Free variations: the different pronunciations of one word
are called free variations.

24. 8. Complementary distribution: when two or more allophones
of one phoneme never occur in the same linguistic
environment, they are said to be in complementary
distribution.
9. Syllables (音节）:a syllable is the smallest structured
sound unit made up of a rule-governed sequence of
phonemes.
peak 音节峰 peak
Syllable onset 节前辅音 [kæn]
coda 音节尾 onset coda

25. /m/ /n/ /l/ /r/ can be peak
※ phonological rules: The rules that determine the occurrence
of phonemes in particular language.
distinctive feature: (phonemic feature) 区分特征（音位特征）
suprasegmental features: pitch 音调 falling tone
( 超切分的音位特征） intonation语调 rising tone
（suprasegmental stress重音 fall-rise tone
phonemes) length音长 rise-fall tone
pause停顿
juncture音渡，连音

26. 10. Phonological rule 音位规则
(1) aspiration rule 吐气规则
(2) Assimilation rule 同化规则
(3) Devoicing rule 轻音化规则
(4) Dentalization rule 齿音化规则
(5) Nasalization rule 鼻音化规则
(6) Homorganic nasal rule 同部位鼻音规则
(7) Deletion rule 省略规则
(8) Vowel schwa rule 非重读元音规则
(9) Metathesis rule 移位规则 （11）dissimilation rule
(10) Epenthesis rule 插音规则 异化规则

27. 11. Formalization of phonological rules
to become
in the environment of
[ ] features
-[ ] before
[ ]- after a sound
# word final / word initial

28. /p/ +consonant +alveolar
/k/ voiced /s/ fricative
/t/ stop consonantal
-vocalic sibilant
-vocalic
+voiced

29. Nasalization rule: a vowel is nasalized when it appears
before a nasal.
2. Aspiration rule: /p/ /k/ /t/ appears at the beginning of a
word and before a stressed vowel.
3. Unaspiration rule: /p/ /k/ /t/ appears after /s/ and before
a stressed vowel.
4. Devoicing rule: nasals and liquids when occurring after
voiceless consonants, may become devoiced.
5. Dentalization rule
6. Vowel schwa rule
7. Deletion rule

30. Chapter Five Morphology
1. word: is the smallest meaningful unit which can be used
independently.
(1) ① physically definable unit. (between two pauses)
② the common factor underlying a set of form
③ a grammatical unit
词汇的语法单位 sentence
clause
phrase
word
morpheme

31. (2) Features of words
① stability
② relative uninterruptability
③ minimal free form
(3) Classification of words
open class: whose membership is not limited, fixed, can be
regularly expanded. Eg. Nouns, verbs, adjectives...
closed class: they can’t easily expand their new
membership. eg. Conj, pron. Num, articles…

32. Variable words: ordered and regular series of grammatical
forms. Eg. study---studying---studied---studies
Invariable words: those which have no inflective endings.
eg. Seldom/ always/ often
grammatical words (function words) 虚词：express
grammatical meanings. Eg. Conj, pron, prep…
lexial words (content words) 实词：express lexical
meanings. Eg. Nouns, verbs, adj.,adv….

33. (4) Word class
new classes
① particles 小品词，助词
to---infinitive marker 不定式符号
not---negative marker 否定符号
subordinate: unit of a verbal phrase. Eg. Go on
② auxiliaries 助动词 will, do, have, had
a) inversion form
b) negative form
Auxiliaries are different from verb
Eg. Will ---will not verb don’t

34. ③ proform 代词形式，替代形式
pro-adjectives 代形容词，pro-verb, pro-adverb,
pro-locative 代方位词
eg. My shoes is black, so is hers.
He studies better than I do.
He hopes the exam will be canceled, I hope so.
The broom is there, in the corner.
Proform: a word can take the place of certain words.

35. ④ determiners 限定词
pre-determiners 前限定词：all, both, half, twice, 3 times
central-determiners 中限定词：a, the, this, that, these, those
post-determiners 后限定词：ordinal numerals, 序列词
general ordinals序数词.
Determiners: refers to the words which can be used to modify
the head noun of a noun phrase.

36. 2. Morphology
Definition
Morpheme: is the smallest meaningful linguistic unit.
Morph: each of the phonetic forms or variants is a morph.
allomorph in complementary distribution
features have the same/common meaning
3. occur in parallel formation
hold the same position

37. Types of morpheme
Free morpheme (root) 自由语素：usually carries the basical
meaning, can stand by itself as a word.
Bound morpheme (affix)黏着语素：it always be a part of a
word.
Root 词根
Free root morpheme: root that can be used freely, stand by
itself.
Bound root morpheme: can carry some meaning, but can’t be
used freely.

38. Free and bound root morpheme: can be used both.
Affix: prefix
infix
suffix
Inflectional affix/morpheme: just show grammatical meaning.
eg. Teachers learning
Derivational affix/morpheme: is an affix which is used to
form a derivative.
eg. remarry

39. 3. Word formation
Stem
eg. Friendships
root suffix
stem
distempered
root suffix
Monomorphenic 单语素中 stem=root eg: sang

40. stem is the part that is left after removed all the inflectional
morphemes.
root is the part which is left after all the affixes are removed
inflectional affixes derivational affixes
(2) Ways of word formation
Derivation 派生法（衍生法）：is a way to add affixes
to bases to form new words prefix
derivative 衍生词 infix
eg. understand----understandable suffix
happy----unhappy

41. Word class unchanged
un- happy----unhappy dis like----dislike
b) Word class changed
verb-noun n-verb er / -or/ -ize /-fy
② compounding
Compounds made up of same category
n + n ---- bookstore
adj. + adj white-hot red-hot
prep. + prep into within onto upon
b) Compounds made up of different category

42. Part of speech of the compound falls to the 2nd element.
eg. Scarecrow 稻草人 n.
v n.
Part of speech of the compound falls to 1st element.
eg. Brother-in law passer-by looker-on
c) The grammatical relationship between the elements of
a compound.
1. coordinative 并列的 bookstore, deaf-mute, classroom
2. qualifier-head 偏正的 reading-room, snow-white
3. subject-predicate 主谓的 man-made, sunrise, spoon-feed
4. verb + object 动宾的 callgirl, playboy

43. d) Spelling of compounds
1. there is no space. Eg. Football
2. there is a hyphen. Eg. Snow-white
3. there is a space. Eg. Red-light district
※ meaning of the compounds isn’t the sum of the meaning
of all the elements. Eg.
red-meat 牛肉，羊肉 white-lie 善意的谎言
Red-cap 空宪兵 blue-stocking 清高女子
Blue-blood 贵族血统 white elephant 大而不实用东西
Jack Robinson 平常人

44. ③ conversion: is the way in which we get new words by
changing their parts of speech.
④ abbreviation (shortening of clipping) : is the way to make
a word shortened or clipped.
1. cut the final part. Eg. Photo---photograph
2. cut the initial part
3. cut both the initial and the final part
eg. Influenza---flu refrigerator---fridge
⑤ Back formation
eg. To burgle (from burglar) to beg (from beggar)
to edit (from editor) to laze (from lazy)

45. ⑥ sentence-condensation
eg. Touch-me-not stay-at-home forget-me-not
⑦ blending
1. initial part of 1st + final part of 2nd
eg. Motel, smog, botle
2. initial part of two words
eg. Digicom digital computer
telex teleprinter exchanger
⑧ onomatopoeia: is the way to form new words by imitating
natural sounds. (imitation & root-creation)

46. ⑨ reduplication: refers to the formation of words by
reduplicating or repeating sounds.
eg. Humpty-dumpty 矮胖的 criss-cross 杂乱的
Acronymization
1. alphabetisms eg. UN
2. words pronounced as common words
eg. Laser (lightwave amplification by stimulated
emission of radiation)
11. Analogical form
co-existence of regular and irregular form (for verbs)

47. Chapter six syntax: structure of sentences
Syntax: is a part of the grammar of a language, dealing with
the structures of sentences and the rules governing them.
Paradigmatic rules: refers to the relationships that hold
among sets of intersubstitutable linguistic elements at a
particular place in s structure.
Parts of speech/ word class/ form class
a) words belong to the same parts of speech have some
differences.
b) one word can belong to different parts of speech.

48. (2) How to judge parts of speech
a) accord to meaning
b) distribution position in a sentence
c) inflection
(3) Grammatical category: grammatical meanings can be
classified into different categories, called grammatical
categories. In other words, a grammatical category is the
classification of grammatical meanings. The commonly
found grammatical categories are person, number, gender
case, tense, aspect, voice, mood and so on.

49. Person
① the first person, the second person, the third person
② the distinction between the three persons may be made
by appropriate subjective pronouns.
2. Number singular + plural
3. Gender masculine + feminine + neuter
4. Case
① nominative 主格 which marks the subject of the sentence
② accusative 宾格 which marks the object of a transitive verb
③ dative 与格which marks the indirect object
④ ablative 离格 which marks the instrument with which sth is done

50. ⑤ genitive 所有格 which marks the possession
⑥ vocative 呼格 which is the case of address
Eg. Madam, I wanted to get him the girl’s book with the card.
vocative nominative dative genitive accusative ablative
How to change case?
Inflectional ending. Eg. teacher --- teacher’s
Distribution/ position. Word order
eg. John bite John. John bite Tom.
3. According to the verb and preposition
eg. I’ll go with the boy.

51. 5. Tense
past present future
6. Aspect
perfect progressive
non-progressive verb= stative verb eg. Know, hate, love,
believe, have
7. Voice
active voice + passive voice
passivization: a) the active subject passive agent
b) the active object passive subject
c) the prep. “by” is introduced before the agent

52. 8. Mood
imperative indicative subjunctive
2. Syntagmatic rules
A sentence is formed according to phonological,
morphological, syntactic and semantic rules.
Phonological rules: used to form meaningful morphemes.
Morphological rules: used to conjoin morphemes into words.
Syntactic rules: used to form phrases, clauses and sentences.
Semantic rules: applied to the making of meaningful
sentences.

53. Combination of morphemes into words
compounding, derivation, analogical form, abbreviation,
back-formation, republication, onomatopoeia, blending,
sentence-condensation, acronymization, conversion
b) Basic pattern of combination of words
subject-predicate 主谓 verb-object 动宾
verb-complement 动补 coordinative 并列
modifier-head 偏正
（2）constituent structure

54. Hierarchies: the units and subunits made up of words or
morphemes that go together are called the hierarchies
of combination of grammatical unit or the constituents
of a sentence.
ICA or IC analysis
ICA (immediate constituent analysis)
Definition: a sentence can be segmented into the smallest
meaningful linguistic units, such a method of cutting
sentences or words into their meaningful component parts
is called ICA.

55. IC (immediate constituent): the components resulting from
each division of a unit are termed IC.
Ultimate constituents: the resultant segmentations or minimal
grammatical units are called…
NP: noun phrase (infinitive phrase + gerundial phrase)主谓
VP: verb phrase
PP: prepositional phrase
Modifier 修饰语
AP: adjective phrase

56. How to ICA
Bracket
Tree diagram 树形图
3. Syntactic rules
T-G grammar=transformational-generative grammar
(Universal grammar)
Syntactic component 句法 形
Phonological component 语音 音
Semantic component 语义 义

57. phrase-structure rules: NP, VP
AP, PP
syntactic base lexical insertion rule
component transformations
transformational rules: turn the deep structure
of sentences into the surface structure through
certain special rules, such rules are called…
Syntactic rules: the rules that determine what morphemes and
words are combined into larger grammatical
unit to get intended meanings and how they are
arranged in a sentence.

58. Functions of syntactic rules:
They account for the “grammaticality” of sentences
They determine the ordering of morphemes and words
They reveal structural ambiguities of sentences
They determine the grammatical relations between different
parts of a sentence.

59. phrase-structure deep structure
syntactic base lexical-insertion rules
T component transformational rules affix-hopping
G ( structure形） recursive
Grammar phonological reflexive
component imperative
（sound 音） passive
semantic selectional-restrictional
component strict-subcategorization
（meaning 义） do-movement
wh-movement

60. Lexical insertion rule:
selectional-restriction rules 选择限定规则
vi no VP followed
animate/ inanimate NP following verb
2. Strict subcategorization rules 严格的次范畴化规则
govern the lexical – insertion of verbs restrict the place of
certain items
※ The lexical insertion rules and the strict subcategorization
rules, provide the deep structure with necessary and
appropriate lexical items.

61. ▲ Affix-hopping rule 词缀跳跃规则 （affix-shifting or affix
Transformation rule
▲ recursive rules 循环规则：particular constituent can recur
▲ deflective transformational rule: within a sentence, if there
are two occurrences of identical noun phrases that refer
to the same individual, replace the second with a reflective
pronoun that matches the first in person, number and
gender.
▲ imperative transformation rule：if the subject is the second
person in imperative sentences, the subject can be omitted.

62. ▲ Do-movement
▲ wh-movement
▲ passive transformation rule
▲ Ambiguity: some sentences in the surface structure are
syntactically ambiguous. The ambiguity is not so easy to be
accounted for by the traditional grammar, but can be
accounted for by the T-G grammar. We will see how the
T-G grammar accounts for ambiguity and the grammatical
relations between constituents in a sentence.

63. Ambiguity structure ambiguity
lexical ambiguity
4. Concord and government
Concord: refers to the correspondence in morphological form
or grammatical category of two or more linguistic
items, indicating a specific syntactic relationship.
Government: refers to the determination of the morphological
form of one word by another.

64. ▲ grammatical unit: a sentence is composed of different
individual unit with grammatical meaning. These that can
be substituted in a certain position of combination of units
are usually taken as….
▲ sentence: is a combination of words well arranged both
syntactically and semantically so as to constitute a
grammatically complete sense unit.
declarative 陈述句 simple
Sentence imperative 祈使句 or compound
interrogative 疑问句 complex
exclamatory 感叹句 compound complex

65. Chapter seven semantics: meaning system of language
The meanings of meaning
Sense and reference
Sense relations of words
1. Some views of meaning
Naming theory: Plato
a word is a name, a label
(2) Conceptualism : Ogden & Richards
semantic triangle

66. (3) Contentualism : Firth
we shall know the word by the company it keeps.
(4) Behaviorism : Bloomfield
2. The meanings of meaning
lexical meaning/ grammatical meanings
Types of lexical meaning: Leech
A 类
Denotative meaning/ conceptual meaning: central factor in
Linguistic communication B类

67. Associated meanings 联想意义
① connotative meaning 内涵意义: refers to emotional
association
② social or stylistic meaning: refers to different social
contexts or circumstances
③ affective/ emotional meaning: expression of feeling and
attitude of person.
commendatory/derogatory meaning
④ collocative meaning
⑤ Thematic meaning : word order, syntactic structure ,
emphasis of information

68. ⑥ reflected meaning: refers to the meaning which is
expressed through the association with another sense of the
same word or expression.
C 类
Grammatical meaning: relationship between the element.
3. Sense
Sense: intra-linguistic relationship abstract properties of an
object
Reference: extra-linguistic relationship object carrying
these properties

69. Every word has a sense, but not every word has a reference
Linguistic forms have same sense, but different reference.
Linguistic forms with the same reference may differ in
sense.
(4)sometimes, some sentences have sense, but no reference.
4. Major sense relations of words.
Synonymy
perfect synonym
partial (relative) synonym

70. The sources of the synonyms
① native element
② variants and dialects
③ foreign element
④ figurative use of words
⑤ euphemisms and vulgarisms
Idioms idiomatic usages set phrase/ fixed phrase
special expression
Eg. as cunning as fox as strong as horse
as easy as ABC as ray of hope
as river of blood

71. Phrasal verb
verb+adverb/prep eg. break down eat up
(2)metaphorical idiom
eg. a river of blood
He was a lion in the battle
(3)similized idiom
eg. as cold as ice as easy as ABC

72. (2) Homonymy 同音 同形 异义（现象）
Definition: is a word which has different meanings, but is
identical both in sound and in spelling with another word
in the same language.
(3) Homophone 同音 异形 异义词：is a word which is
identical only in sound with another word of the same
language, but different from it in both spelling and
meaning.
(4) Homographs 同形 异音 异义词： words which are
identical in spelling, but different in both sound and

73. (5) Antonymy
antonym: contradiction of meaning
complementary antonym
gradable antonym
relational antonym
(6) Hyponymy: major sense relationship of sentences
1. entailment a. He married an American heiress.
b. he married a heiress.
2. preposition a. The girl he married is an American girl.
b. He married a girl

74. 3. implication a. Few Chinese married American girls.
b. Some Chinese married American girls.
4. Synonymity a. The boy kissed the girl.
b. The girl was kissed by the boy.
5. inconsistent a. John is married to Mary
b. John is a bachelor
6. nonsense (contradiction)
eg. Mary is younger than her brother’s only sister.
7. Semantically anomalous
eg. The table has bad intention.

75. Chapter Eight Pragmatics: actual use of language in context
Definition: is generally defined as the study of language
in actual use in linguistic communication.
2. Pragmatics & Semantics
use literal meaning
utterance meaning
pragmatics and semantics are complementary relationship
between them.
semantics is encapsulated in pragmatics
pragmatics is encapsulated in semantics
semantics and pragmatics are complementary

76. 3. context
Definition: refers to the features of the situation or
environment, linguistic and /or extra-linguistic, in relation
to which an utterance or text has meaning.
phonetic context
lexical context
grammatical context
verbal context
non-linguistic context (context of situation)
actual speech situation
sociocultural background

77. Deixis
Definition: which refers to the pragmatic features of functions
of deictic words and expressions to point out,
indicate or specify the speaker, hearer, object, place
or time.
Type: person deixis, time deixis, place deixis, discourse deixis
social deixs
discourse
text

78. Discourse deixis:
eg. A thus B, therefore, however, but, this, that
This is what he has done to me.
He hit me on the nose.
Social deixis: social status
eg. David smith: sir smith, professor smith, Mr. smith, David,
David smith, Dave (close enough to him)
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79. Speech Act Theory
Definition: scientific study of speech acts in communication.
J. Austin Speech Act Theory