语言研究的八个宏观问题 

1. Is language innate or learned？语言能力是与生俱来的还是后天学会的？

 Noam Chomsky (1928—)  vs.  B. F. Skinner (1904—1990)

Behaviorism and Skinner:

--B. F. Skinner’s name became practically synonymous with the science and philosophy of behaviorism

--Skinner's most notable accomplishment was his work on the theory of operant behavior– related to operate conditioning (操作性条件)

--Stimulus–response–reinforcement(reward/punishment/absence of  reward)–established behavior

--Although Skinner was highly identified with the conditioning of animals such as rats and pigeons (the "Skinnerbox"), his work also led to the development of techniques for modifying human behavior that have found widespread use in psycho-therapy and education.

--In the novel Walden Two, he described a utopian society in which behavior had been engineered to realize positive social values.

Universal grammar and Chomsky:

1）Language is a very complicated sound and meaning system, yet we almost master our native language around the age of three in terms of grammar.

2）Before three, kids don’t usually receive any systematic instruction on grammatical rules.

3）Damage to some parts of our brain will damage our language competence temporary or permanently.

4）  It seems to be more difficult to learn a language after puberty.

5）The language ability is uniform in kids of different nations and ethnic groups.

e.g.  a) John washed himself.

b) John washed him.

c) Bill said that John washed him.

d) Bill said that John washed himself.

e) John is said by Bill to have washed himself.

f) It is said by Bill that John had washed him.

g) His way of speaking makes Bill dislike John.

h) Bill’s absence from John’s birthday party does not mean that he dislikes John.

2. Does animal have language or is language unique to human beings? 动物有语言吗，语言是人类独有的吗？

1) Experiments with chimpanzee – the case of Chomsky

2) Do animals have a communicative system?

3) What are the most outstanding features of human communication: complexity of the system, diversity, hierarchy, or displacement?

4) Is the organization of a society mediated through language?

3. Which is more important to language: the form or the function? 语言的形式与功能哪一个更重要——哪一个应该成为语言研究的主要对象？

-Does a child acquire language mainly by acquiring its structure or its function?

-Basic ideas of structuralism

Structuralism began with publication of the work of Swiss linguist Ferdinand de Saussure in Cours delinguistique générale (1916; Course in General Linguistics, 1959，《普通语言学教程》).

Saussure made a distinction between parole (speech) and langue (language).

According to Saussure, the linguist’s task is to find the underlying rules of a particular language from examples found in speech.

Later scholars drew analogies between language and other forms of human behavior, based on the belief that a shared structure underlies many aspects of a culture. Anthropologists, for example, became interested in a structuralist approach to the interpretation of kinship systems and analysis of myth and religion.

American linguist Leonard Bloomfield promoted structuralism in the United States.

-Three basic principles of functionalism

They regard communication as the primary function of language, which shapes the forms languages take.

They attribute great importance to external (cognitive and sociocultural) factors in explaining linguistic phenomena, e.g. context.

They reject the claim that syntax is autonomous from semantics and pragmatics.

e.g. Colorless green ideas sleep furiously.

4. Is language mainly used for communication or for thinking? 

语言主要用于交际还是用于思维？

--Most time of the day, even during our whole lifetime, we talked to ourselves.

--No knowledge of contextual factors can predict how we say things.

5. What is the relationship between language and thought? 

语言与思维是什么关系？

  Sapir-Whorf Hypothesis

 Relativism vs. determinism

--Benjamin Lee Whorf is best known for his work in developing the ‘Sapir-Whorf’ or ‘linguistic relativity hypothesis’.

--The central claim of the hypothesis is that the structures of language, in addition to providing a vehicle for the expression of thought, also shape thought by casting it in the mold of language-specific  patternings.

--Whorf’s study of American Indian languages convinced him that the grammatical categories of languages structure both perception and conceptualization.

--Wilhelm von Humboldt had similar views.

--Counter-evidence: People of different languages understand each other perfectly well, perhaps after experiencing some initial culture shock?

--And translation is possible across languages.

6. Is language a neutral medium for representing the world, or is it closely related to power and ideology？

语言是一种描述世界的中立媒介还是与权力和意识形态紧密相关？

-Do we often use biased language when we engage in language activities, free talk or institutionalized talk?

-Power refers to social power rather political power.

-Take the sexist language for example.

7. Can Western linguistic theories be used to describe Chinese language with ease? 

西方语言学理论能否用来有效地描述汉语？

—《马氏文通》参照拉丁语语法和英语语法来描述汉语。

—郭绍虞，复旦大学教授，《汉语语法修辞新探》强调按汉语特点研究汉语语法。

—比如量词、虚词、四字结构等汉语独有的特征，它们在西方语法理论的框架内难以得到充分描述。

8. Is language designed on the principle of economy or diversity? 

语言是根据节省原则还是根据多样原则设计？

--Ideational function

-interpersonal function

-stylistic necessity

语言研究的领域

Linguistic proper: the core fields语言学核心领域

1) phonetics: the sound of language语音学

2) phonology: the sound structure of language音系学，音位学

3) morphology: lexical structure形态学

4) syntax: sentence structure句法学

5) semantics: the propositional structure语义学

6) historical linguistics历史比较语言学

Language as a social object

1) socio-linguistics社会语言学

2) pragmatics语用学

3) discourse analysis/discourse studies话语分析/话语研究

4) ethno linguistics/linguistic anthropology民族语言学/语言人类学

Language as a biological object

1) psycho linguistics 心理语言学

2) cognitive linguistics认知语言学

3) neuro linguistics神经语言学

4) first language acquisition第一语言习得

5) second language acquisition第二语言习得

Language as applications

1) applied linguistics (pedagogical study) 应用语言学

2) computational linguistics 计算语言学

3) CALL (computer assisted language learning) 计算机辅助语言教学

4) stylistics (literary studies) 文体学

5) translation studies 翻译研究

6) language of law, education, reading, business, etc.

7) language planning and language policy语言规划与语言政策

7) corpus linguistics语料库语言学