Modern Linguistics A Concise Course

chapter 1 introduction .

1 what is linguistics?

1.1 definition

1.2 the scope of linguistics

1.3 some importafit distinctions in linguistics

2 what is language?

2.1 definitions of language

2.2 design features

review questions

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chapter 2 phonology

1 the phonic medium of language

2 phonetics

2.1 what is phonetics?

2.2 organs of speech

2.3 orthographic representation of speech sounds

2.4 classification of english speech sounds

3 phonology

3.1 phonology and phonetics

3.2 phone, phoneme, and allophone

.3.3 phonemic contrast, complementary distribution, and minimal pair

3.4 some rules in phonology

3.5 suprasegmental features -- stress, tone, intonation

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chapter 3 morphology

1 definition

2 morpheme

2.1 morpheme: the smallest meaningful unit of language

2.2 types of morphemes

3 compounding

3.1 types of compound words

3.2 features of compounds

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chapter 4 syntax

1 syntax as a system of rules

2 sentence structure

2.1 the basic components of a sentence

2.2 types of sentences

2.3 the linear and hierarchical structures of sentences

3 syntactic categories

3.1 lexical categories

3.2 phrasal categories

4 grammatical relations

5 combinational rules

5.1 phrase structure rules

5.2 x-bar theory

6 syntactic movement and movement rules

6.1 np-movement

6.2 wh-movement

6.3 aux-movement

6.4 d-structure and s-structure

6.5 move a -- a general movement rule

7 toward a theory of universal grammar

7.1 the general principles of universal grammar

7.2 the parameters of universal grammar

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chapter 5 semantics

1 what is semantics?

2 some views concerning the study of meaning

2.1 the naming theory

2.2 the conceptualist view

2.3 the contextualist view

2.4 the behaviorist view

3 lexical meaning

3.1 sense and reference

3.2 major sense relations

4 sense relations between sentences

5 analysis of meaning

5.1 componential analysis -- a way to analyze lexical meaning

5.2 predication analysis -- a way to analyze sentence meaning

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chapter 6 pragmatics

1 what is pragmatics?

1.1 definition

1.2 pragmatics vs. semantics

1.3 context

1.4 sentence meaning vs. utterance meaning

2 speech act theory

3 principle of conversation

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chapter 7 historical linguistics

1 the purpose and significance of the historical study of language

2 the nature of language change

3 the historical development of english

3.1 major periods in the history of english

3.2 linguistic change of english

4 language family

4.1 classifying genetically related languages

4.2 the indo-european language family

5 the causes of language change

5.1 sound assimilation

5.2 rule simplification and regularization

5.3 internal borrowing

5.4 elaboration

5.5 sociological triggers

5.6 cultural transmission

5.7 children's approximation toward the adult grammar

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chapter 8 sociolinguistics

1 language variation

1.1 speech community

1.2 speech variety

1.3 regional variation

1.4 social variation

1.5 stylistic variation

1.6 idiolectal variation

2 standard and nonstandard language

2.1 the nature of standard and nonstandard language

2.2 lingua franca

2.3 pidgin

2.4 creole

3 diglossia and bilingualism

3.1 diglossia

3.2 bilingualism

4 ethnic dialect

5 social dialect

5.1 education varieties

5.2 age varieties

5.3 gender varieties

5.4 sexist language

5.5 register varieties

5.6 address terms

5.7 slang

5.8 linguistic taboo

5.9 euphemism

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chapter 9 psycholinguistics

1 the biological foundations of language

1.1 the human brain

1.2 brain lateralization

2 linguistic lateralization

2.1 left hemispheric dominance for language

2.2 dichotic listening research

3 the language centers

3.1 broca's area

3.2 wernicke's area

3.3 the angular gyrus

3.4 language perception, comprehension and production

4 the critical period for language acquisition

5 language and thought

5.1 early views on language and thought

5.2 the sapir-whorf hypothesis

5.3 arguments against the sapir-whorf hypothesis

5.4 understanding the relationship of language and thought

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chapter 10 language acquisition

1 first language acquisition

1.1 the biological basis of language acquisition

1.2 language acquisition as the acquisition of grammatical rules

1.3 the role of input and interaction

1.4 the role of instruction

1.5 the role of correction and reinforcement

1.6 the role of imitation

2 stages of first language acquisition

2.1 the prelinguistic stage

2.2 the one-word stage

2.3 the two-word stage

2.4 the multiword stage

3 the development of the grammatical system

3.1 the development of phonology

3.2 the development of syntax

3.3 the development of morphology

3.4 the development of vocabulary and semantics

4 second language acquisition

4.1 acquisition versus learning

4.2 transfer and interference

4.3 error analysis and the natural route of sla development

4.4 interlanguage and fossilization

4.5 the role of input

4.6 the role of formal instruction

4.7 individual learner factors

review questions

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model test a

model test a -- suggested answers

model test b

model test b -- suggested answers

an english-chinese glossary ...