语言学概论名词解释汇总(英文)

因为有小伙伴快要考试了，先整理了一份文字版的名词解释出来，知识点还是要对照课本学习，本篇仅供名词解释范围复习使用。

1.Definition of language：

Language is a system of vocal (and written) symbols with meaning attached that is used for human communication of thoughts and feelings.

2.Design features of language(语言的普遍特征)：

①.Arbitrariness 任意性：

·arbitrary: the form of the linguistic signs bears no natural relations to their meaning

·iconicity: relationship between the word’s sound and the meaning

②.Duality 二重性：

duality:  the property of having two levels of structures, such as the units of the primary level are composed of the secondary level

③.Creativity 创造性：

Language is resourceful because of its duality and recursiveness.

④.Displacement移位性：

Human languages enable their users to symbolize objects, events and concepts which are not present in time and space at the moment of communication.

3.Functions of language

1)Informative function （referential function）:

to convey the message and information, the sentence just mentions the fact

2)Poetic (Recreation娱乐) function玩语言:

    to indulge in沉溺  language for its own sake

3)Performative (conative施事) function:

to persuade and influence others through command and requests

4)Emotive function :

to express attitudes, feelings and emotions

5)Phatic (寒暄) function :

to establish communion with others

6)Metalingual function（元语言功能）:

     to clear up intentions and meanings

4.Main branches of linguistics：

Main branches of linguistics (microlinguistics微观) and interdisciplinary（跨领域、跨学科）fields of linguistics (macrolinguistics宏观)

1) Main branches of linguistics: 微观

(1) Phonetics 发音学，语音学:

Is the study of the production, transmission and perception of speech sounds. It is concerned with all the speech sounds used in all human language.

(2) Phonology 音位学、语音体系:

Is the study of sound patterns and sound systems of languages. It aims to discover the rules governing the structure, distribution and sequencing (顺序) of speech sounds and the shape of syllables (音节)

(3) Morphology 词法/ Lexicology词汇学：

Studies the minimal units of meaning — morphemes and word formation processes

(4) Syntax句法:

Is about the principles of forming and understanding English sentences

(5) Semantics语义学:

Examines how meaning is encoded in a language

(6) Pragmatics语用学：研究特定情境中的特定话语，在不同的语言交际环境中如何理解和运用语言

Studies the way language is used to communicate rather than internally structured

2) Interdisciplinary fields of linguistics (macrolinguistics):

(1) Psycholinguistics语言心理学: Study of language from the perspective of psychology.

(2) Sociolinguistics社会语言学: Study of language from the perspective of sociology.

(3) Anthropological linguistics人类语言学: Study of language from the perspective of anthropology.

(4) Computational linguistics计算语言学: Study of the use of computers to process or produce human language.

5. Important distinctions in linguistics语言学中的重要区别

1) Prescriptive规定: How language ought to be used

descriptive叙述的: how language is actually used

2) Synchronic共时的:  Study of language from a relatively static (静止) point of view

diachronic历时的: study of language from a developmental point of view

3) Langue语言：abstract linguistic system

parole言语: realization of language in actual use

4) Competence语言能力: A language user’s underlying knowledge about the system of rules

performance语言行为: his actual use of language in concrete situations.

1. Diacritics变音符：

They are symbols or marks used together with the consonant and vowel symbols to indicate the minute difference between variations of the same sound

2. Classification of speech sounds

1)Consonants：

Consonants are sounds, produced with at least two articulators, which have some recognizable obstruction of the air stream sent for the production of the sound

2)Vowels

Vowels are sounds produced with free flow of air stream (no recognizable obstruction), sent for the production of the sound, which is shaped into various forms by the tongue in the oral cavity（口腔）

3. The phoneme音素/音位, allophone音位变体and distinctive features区别

1)Phoneme: is the smallest sound unit in a language that distinguishes meaning of a word from another

2)Minimal pair: when two different forms are identical in every way except for one sound segment which occurs in the same place

3)Phone: the speech individual sounds we use when speaking a language

4)Allophone: different members of the same phone

5)Complementary distribution: a family of sounds which are similar in pronunciation (the combination of allophones)

6)Phonetic similarity语音相似性: the allophones of a phoneme must bear some kind of phonetic resemblance

4.Phonological processes and rules:

1）Assimilation：同化

Assimilation is a process by which one sound takes on some  or all the characteristics of a neighboring sound

2）Epenthesis 增音/ 插音

Epenthesis is a process in which an extra sound (consonant or vowel) is inserted or added between two sounds in a word or between two words.

5.Suprasegmentals (超切分音位)

Suprasegmentals feature : those aspects of speech that involve more than single sound segments(部分)

1)  Syllable:

A syllable is a unit of speech sounds consisting of a vowel or a vowel with one or more than one consonant

Syllable structure: onset节首, nucleus节核, coda节尾

2）Sonority scale响亮

Sonority of a sound is its loudness relative to that of other sounds with the same length, stress and pitch

3)  Stress：重音

Stress means the degree of force used in producing a syllable.

4）Intonation：声调

Intonation is variation of pitch (音高) to distinguish utterance (说话) meaning

5）Tone语调（汉语里面的四个声e.g. yū,yú, yŭ, yù）

The rising, falling, level, or falling-rising inflection of the voice in pronouncing words which serves a phonemic purpose that distinguishes meanings of words

Morphology微观形态学

1. Concept of words

The word is a linguistic unit above the morpheme and below the phrase. It is the minimum free form of a language that has the most stable internal structure.

2.Structure of words—morphemes

(1)·Morpheme: The minimum meaningful grammatical unit of language that has its own meaning

·Allomorph语素变体: Variations of a morpheme

Allomorphs are morphs in complementary distribution互补分布

·Morph: is a physical form representing a certain morpheme in a language

(2)·Free morpheme: A morpheme that can stand independently as a word

·Bound morpheme: A morpheme that cannot stand alone as a word and has to combine with another morpheme or other morphemes into a word

(3)·Affix: the type of formative that can be used only when added to another morpheme

Inflectional affix: a kind of bound morpheme which manifest various grammatical relations

Derivational affix: a kind of bound morpheme added to existing forms to create new words

·Root: The base form of a word that cannot be further analyzed without total loss of identity

·Stem: a morpheme or combination of morphemes to which an inflectional affix may be added

3.Word formation processes

(1)Derivation派生过程：

Derivation refers to the morphological process of forming a lexeme by attaching an affix to an existing lexeme.

(2)Compounding合成

Compounding shows a way of word formation, yielding new lexemes that at least two free roots combine to make a new word.

(3)Minor morphological processes

·Invention

·Blending混成法：is another way of forming a new lexeme, which is a process of combing parts of two lexemes which themselves are not morphemes

·abbreviation剪裁法

·Acronym首字母合成: are words created by combining the first letters of the words of a phase or a name

·Back-formation

·analogical creation类推构词

·class shift词形

·borrowing

Lexicology 词汇学

1.      What is Lexicology?

·Lexicology: The study of the form, meaning and behaviour of words

·Lexeme: is an abstract unit of lexical analysis in linguistics, that roughly corresponds to (相当于) a set of forms taken by a single word.

2.      What is word?

1)     Identification of words

a)Stability: there is little potential rearrangement of its internal structure/constituent (成分) parts.

b)Relative uninterruptibility: new elements are not to be inserted into a word even when there are several parts in a word.

c)A minimum free form: the smallest unit that can constitute a complete utterance by itself

2)     Classification of words

a)variable可语法变化/ invariable无语法变化 words

b)content实词/ function words语法词

c)closed-class/open-class words

3) Word class

·Determiner限定词: all the articles, demonstratives and quantifiers that appear before the noun and its modifiers

1. Syntactic relations句法关系（结构主义层面）

1) Positional relation: It refers to the sequential arrangement of words in a language

2) Relation of substitutability: It refers to the relation in which classes of sets of words can be substituted for each other grammatically in sentences with the same structure.

3) Relation of co-occurrence: It refers to words of different sets of clauses may permit or require, the occurrence of a word of another set or class to form a sentence or a particular part of a sentence.

2. Grammatical construction and its constituents:语法结构及其成分（功能主义）

1) Sentence models模式：Letters used to represent different parts of sentence

S=subject V=verb O=object

O=direct object + indirect object

C=complement A=adverbial

Seven major sentence models exist in English：SVC; SVA; SV; SVO; SVOC; SVOA; SVoO

·Subject: refers to one of the nouns in the nominative case

·Predicate: refers to a major consistent of sentence structure in a binary analysis二元分析 in which all obligatory constituents other than the subject were considered together.

2)Immediate constituent analysis直接成分分析：IC analysis

The method in which a linguistic construction is analyzed into immediate smaller units.

·Constituent: is a term used in structural sentence analysis for every linguistic unit, which is a part of a larger linguistic unit.

3)Endocentric construction向心结构

There is a definable center or head which is functional equivalent of the whole construction.

4) Exocentric construction

Refers to a group of syntactically related words where none of the words is functionally equivalent to the group as a whole, that is, there is no head word in it.

3.Means to extend sentence

1) Conjoining: 结合refers to the process where one clause is coordinated or conjoined with another.

2) Embedding: 嵌入 refers to the means by which one clause is included in the sentence in syntactic subordination.

4.Beyond the sentence—Cohension衔接

It refers to relations of meaning that exist within the text.

It includes: reference, substitution, ellipsis省略, conjunction, lexical collocation词汇搭配.

5.Grammatical categories of number, gender and case

1) Category: refers to a group of linguistic items which fulfill the same or similar functions in a particular language, such as a sentence, a noun phrase or a verb.

2) Number (数)

A grammatical category used for the analysis of word classes displaying such contrasts as singular (单数), dual (双数), plural (复数), etc.

3)Gender (性)

A grammatical category that usually matches the natural sex when referring to human beings and animals, but seems arbitrary when referring to inanimate things.

4) Case (格)

A grammatical category used in the analysis of word classes to identify syntactic relationship between words in a sentence.

It includes “nominative (主格), accusative (宾格), dative (与格), possessive (所有格), etc.”cases. It may be realized by inflection or position of words, or in other ways.