I. Introduction
1. What is Language
Language is a system of arbitrary vocal symbols used for human communication
2. What is Linguistics（語(yǔ)言學(xué)）Linguistics is the scientific study of language
3.Some Basic Distinctions（區分） in Linguistics
3.1 Speech and WritingOne general principle（原則） of linguistic analysis is the primacy of speech over writing. Writing gives language new scope（范疇） and uses that speech does not have
3.2 Descriptive（描述性） or Prescriptive（說(shuō)明性）A linguistic study is descriptive if it describes and analyses facts observed; it is prescriptive if it tries to lay down rules for "correct" behavior
3.3 Synchronic（共時(shí)） and Diachronic（歷時(shí)） StudiesThe description of a language at some point in time is a synchronic study and The description of a language as it changes through time is a diachronic study
3.4 Langue（語(yǔ)言） and Parole（言語(yǔ)）This is a distinction made by the Swiss linguist F.De Saussure （索緒爾）early last century. Langue refers to the abstract linguistic system shared by all the members of a speech community and parole refers to the actualized（實(shí)際的） language, or realization of langue.
3.5 Competence（能力）and Performance（行為）Competence is the ideal language user's knowledge of the rules of his language. Performance is the actual realization of this knowledge in utterances（發(fā)聲）
4.The Scope of LinguisticsGeneral linguistics is the study of language as a whole Phonetics（語(yǔ)音學(xué)） is the branch of linguistics which studies the characteristics of speech sounds and provides methods for their description, classification and transcription. Phonology（音韻學(xué)） is the branch of linguistics which studies the sound patterns of languages
Morphology（詞法） is the branch of linguistics which studies the form of words
Syntax（句法） is the branch of linguistics which studies the rules governing the combination of words into sentences
Semantics（語(yǔ)義學(xué)） is the branch of linguistics which studies the meaning of language. Applied linguistics（應用語(yǔ)言學(xué)） is the study of the teaching of foreign and second languages
Sociolinguistics is the study of the relationship between language and society
Psycholinguistics is the study of the relationship between language and the mind
Historical Linguistics（歷史語(yǔ)言學(xué)） is the study of language changes
Anthropological linguistics（人文語(yǔ)言學(xué)） uses the theories and methods of anthropology to study language variation and language use in relation to the cultural patterns and beliefs of man
Neurolinguistics（神經(jīng)語(yǔ)言學(xué)） studies the neurological basis of language development and use in human beings
Mathematical linguistics（數學(xué)語(yǔ)言學(xué)） studies the mathematical features of language, often employing models and concepts of mathematics
Computational linguistics（計算語(yǔ)言學(xué)） is an approach to linguistics in which mathematical techniques and concepts（概念） are applied, often with the aid of a computer
II. Phonetics（語(yǔ)音學(xué)）
1. scope of phoneticsSpeech sounds may be studied from different angles, thus we have at least three branches of phonetics:
Articulatory phonetics（發(fā)音語(yǔ)音學(xué)）we may examine the way in which a speech sound is produced to discover which vocal organs are involved and how they coordinate（協(xié)調） in the process
Auditory phonetics （聽(tīng)覺(jué)語(yǔ)音學(xué)）we may look into the impression a speaker makes on the hearer as mediated（調節） by the ear, the auditory nerve（神經(jīng)） and the brain
Acoustic phonetics （聲學(xué)語(yǔ)音學(xué)） we study the physical properties of speech sounds, as transmitted（傳送） between mouth and ear
2. The vocal organs
The vocal organs may be viewed as consisting of three parts, the initiator of the air-stream,（氣流發(fā)生器官） the producer of voice（聲音發(fā)生器官） and the resonating cavities.（聲音共振器官）3. Consonants（輔音）Places of articulation（發(fā)音部位）: bilabial,（雙唇） Labiodentals,（唇齒） dental,（齒） alveolar,（齒齦） retroflex,（卷舌） palate-alveolar,（上齒齦） palatal,（上顎） velar,（軟腭） uvular,（小舌） glottal（聲門(mén)）Manners of articulation: plosive,（暴破） nasal,（鼻音） trill,（顫音） lateral,（邊音） fricative,（摩擦） approximant,（近似音） affricate（破擦）4. Vowels （元音）The classification of vowels: the height of tongue raising （high, mid, low）, the position of the highest part of the tongue（front, central, back）, and the degree of lip rounding（rounded, unrounded）
III. Phonology（音韻學(xué)）
1. phonemes（音素）：a distinctive（有區別的） sound in a language
2. Allophones（音位變體）：The nondistinctive sounds are members of the same phoneme
3. Minimal pairs（最小對立體）： word forms which differ from each other only by one sound
4. Free variation （自由變異）：If two sounds occurring in the same environment（環(huán)境）, they does not produce a different word form, but merely a different pronunciation of the same word
5. Complementary distribution（補充分類(lèi)）：Not all the speech sounds occur in the same environment. When two sounds never occur in the same environment6.Suprasegmental phonology（超音段音位）：the study of phonological properties（性質(zhì)） of units lager than the segment-phoneme. They are syllable（音節）， stress,（重音） word stress, sentence stress. Pitch （音調）and intonation（語(yǔ)調）
IV. Morphology（詞法）
1. inflection（構形法）：the grammatical relationships through the addition of inflectional affixes.（屈折詞綴）
2. Word-formation（構詞）：the processes（過(guò)程） of word variations signaling lexical relationships.（表明詞法關(guān)系） They are compound（合成）and derivation （派生）
3. Morpheme（詞素）： the smallest unit in terms of relationship between expression and content
4. Allomorph（同質(zhì)異象變體）： some morphemes have considerable variation, for instance, alternate shapes or phonetic forms
5. Types of morphemes: They are roots,（詞根） affix（詞綴） and stem（詞干）
6. Lexicon（語(yǔ)言詞匯）：in its most general sense, is synonymous with vocabulary
7. Closed-class words（封閉性） and open-class words（開(kāi)放性）：the former whose membership is fixed or limited and the latter whose membership is in principle（實(shí)際上） indefinite or unlimited
8. Word class（詞性）：It displays a wider range of more precisely defined classes
9. Lexeme（詞位）：the smallest unit in the meaning system of a language that can be distinguished from other smaller units
10. Idiom（習語(yǔ)，成語(yǔ)）：Most phrasal lexemes are idioms. It is especially true for a sequence of words（詞序） which is semantically（語(yǔ)義上） and often syntactically（句法上） restricted.（限制）11. Collocation（搭配）： the habitual（習慣的） co-occurrences （同時(shí)出現）of individual lexical items
V. Syntax （句法）
1. Positional relation or word order（詞序）：the sequential（順序） arrangement of words in a language
2. Construction or constituent （句子結構）： the overall process of internal （內部）organization of a grammatical unit
3. Syntactic function（句法功能）： the relationship between a linguistic form and other parts of the linguistic pattern in which it is used. The names of functions are expressed in terms of subjects, objects, predicates, modifiers,（修飾語(yǔ)） complements（補語(yǔ)）, etc
4. Category（范疇）：It refers to classes and functions in its narrow sense, e.g. noun, verb, subject, predicate, noun phrase, verb phrase, etc. The categories of the noun include number, gender, case and countability
5. Phrase: a single element of structure containing more than one word, and lacking the subject-predicate structure typical of clause
6. Clause: a group of words with its own subject and predicate, if it is included in a larger sentence
7. Sentence: It is the minimum part of language that expresses a complete thought
VI. Semantics
1. Conceptualism or mentalism （概念主義）：Following F. De Saussure（索學(xué)爾）'s "sign" theory, the linguistic sign is said to consist of a signifier （所指）and signified（被指）, i.e., a sound image and a concept, liked by a psychological（心理的） "associative" bond.（相關(guān)聯(lián)系）
2. Mechanism（機械主義）：Some linguists, Bloomfield,（布魯費爾德） for example, turned to science to counter（反）-act the precious theories and this leads to what call the mechanistic approach（方法）. The nature of this theory has nothing to do with the scientific study of mental phenomena.（智力現象）
3. Contextualism （語(yǔ)境主義）：It is based on the presumption（假定） that one can derive meaning from or reduce it to observable context
4. Behaviorism （行為主義）：Behaviourists attempt to define （定義）the meaning of a language form as "the situation（情景） in which the speaker utters（說(shuō)話(huà)） it and the response（反應） it calls forth in the hearer."
5. functionalism （功能主義）：Functionalists as represented （代表）by the Prague school（布拉格學(xué)派） linguists and neo-Firthian （新弗斯）linguists, approach the problem from an entirely new orientation（方法）. They argue（爭辯） that meaning could only be interpreted（解釋?zhuān)?from its use or function in social life
6. Sense relationships: While reference deals with the relationship between the linguistic elements, words, sentences, etc.,and the non-linguistic world of experience, sense relates to the complex system of relationships that hold between the linguistic elements themselves. They include synonymy（同義詞），antonymy（反義詞）,hyponymy（下層次）Polysemy（一詞多義）and Homonymy （同音異義詞）
7. Semantic analysis: It includes
1） componential（成分） analysis which defines the meaning of a lexical element in terms of semantic components.（意義成分）
2） predication （表述）analysis in which the meaning of a sentence is not merely the sum of the meanings of the words which compose it.
3） relational components in which the semantic analysis of some words presents a complicated picture, because they show relations between two and perhaps more terms.
VII. Language Variation （語(yǔ)言變化）
1. Lexical change（詞匯的變化）：changes in lexis
2. Invention: （新造詞）new entities
3. Compounding:（合成詞）New words are sometimes constructed by combining two old words
4. Blending: （混合詞）：It is a relatively complex form of compounding, in which two roots are blended by joining the initial part of the first root and the final part of the second root, or by joining the initial parts of the two roots
5. Abbreviation or clipping:（縮寫(xiě)）A new word is created by cutting the final part or cutting the initial part
6. acronym:（取首字母的縮寫(xiě)詞）It is made up from the first letters of the name of an organization, which has a heavily modified （修飾） headword
7. Metanalysis:（再分化）It refers to a process through which a division is made where there were note before
8. Back-formation:（逆構詞） It refers to an abnormal（非正常） type of word-formation where a shorter word is derived by deleting（去掉） an imagined affix from a longer form already present in the language.
9. Analogical creation:（類(lèi)比造詞）It can account for（說(shuō)明） the co-existence of two forms, regular and irregular, in the conjugation（結合） of some English verbs
10. Borrowing（借用）：English in its development has managed to widen her vocabulary by borrowing words from other languages
11. Phonological change（音變）：It is related to language variation in the phonological system of language. It includes loss,（省音） addition,（加音） assimilation,（ 同化）dissimilation.（異化）
12. Grammatical change: Changes in both morphology（詞法） and syntax（句法） are listed under this heading
13. Semantic change:（語(yǔ)義變化）It includes broadening,（語(yǔ)義擴大） narrowing,（語(yǔ)義縮?。?meaning shift,（意義轉化） class shift（詞性轉換） and folk etymology.（詞源變化）
14. Orthographic change ：（正字法）Changes can also be found at the graphetic level
