successful performance of an act of this type brings about the

                             correspondence between the propositional content and reality.

3. perlocutionary act         C. The constative utterance is verifiable and it is either true or false.
4. representatives            D. The performative utterance is used o perform an action and has

                              no true value.

5. directives                E. Commissives are those illocutionary acts whose point is to

                              commit the speaker to some future course of action.

6. Commisives              F. A locutionary act is the act of saying something; it is the act of

                              conveying literal meaning.

7. expressives               G.The illocutionary point of the representatives is to commit the

                             speaker to something’s being the are, to the truth of the

                             expressed proposition.

8. Declarations              H. A perlocutionary act is the act performed by or resulting from

                             saying something; it is the consequence of, or the change

                             brought about by the utterance.

9. constative utterance         I. Directives are attempts by the speaker to get the hearer to do

                             something.

10. performative utterance      J. An illocutionary act is the act performed in saying something; its

                             force is identical with the speaker’s intention.

2.  Explain each of the following terms in no more than 50 words:

1. pragmatics                  2. utterance meaning             3. representatives

4. expressives                  5. commissives                 6. politeness principle

7. locutionary act               8. Illocutionary act               9. Perlocutionary act

III. Develop one of the following topics into a 200-word essay:  

1. Austin’s speech act theory.
2. Cooperative principle.

VIII. Language Change 语言的变化

本章的学习目的要求

   本章学习的中心内容是语言的变化。全章含研究语言变化的目的与意义、语言变化的本质、英语的历史发展、语系和语言变化的原因等五部分。本章的学习目的是让学生了解语言的发展史及其变迁规律。通过学习本章，学生可以从历史发展的角度来深刻认识语言的过去、现在和未来之间的关系，掌握语言历史演变的成因和规律，了解语言群体在其历史变迁中所形成的旁系与直系关系。

语言变化的基本知识

1. Introduction 引言

It is a fact that all languages change through time, though they do so rather slowly. Where languages have written records, it is possible to see the actual changes that have taken place.

2. Sound Change 语音变化

Sound changes tend to be systematic; it is possible to see a regular pattern of pronunciation changes throughout the language. For example,

      Words          Middle English             Modern English

      Mice           [mi:s]                     [mais]

      Mouse          [mu:s]                    [maus]

3. Morphological and Syntactic Change 形态和句法变化

Morphological and syntactic changes also take place in progress, for example, change in “agreement” rule, in negation rule, process of simplification, loss of inflections, etc.

4. Vocabulary Change 词汇变化

Vocabulary change can include: addition of new words, loss of words and changes in the meaning of words.

1. Addition of New Words 增加新词

1. Coinage 创新词

A new word can be coined or invented outright to fit some purpose, e.g.

   dacron       koda       xerox

2. Clipped Words 缩略词

Clipping refers to the abbreviation of longer words or phrases, e.g.

  gym (gymnastics)    fridge (refrigerator)   disco (discotheque)

3. Blending 紧缩法

A blend is a word formed by combining parts of other words, e.g.

   smog (smoke+fog)   motel (motor+hotel)   flurry (flutter+hurry)

4. Acronyms 词首字母缩略词

Acronyms are words derived from the initials of several words, e.g.

 Radar (Radio detecting and ranging)   U.S.A (the United States of America)

5. Back-formation 逆生成法

New words may be coined from already existing words by “subtracting” an affix thought to be part of the old word, e.g.

  Edit (derived from editor)

6. Functional Shift 功能转移

Words may shift from one part of speech to another without the addition of affixes, e.g.

7. Borrowing 借用

When cultures come into contact, words are often “borrowed” from one language to another, e.g.

education (from Latin)   cycle (from Greek)    question (from French)

1. Loss of Words 词的消失

The loss of words takes place gradually over the course of several generations. One of the most common causes for the loss of lexical items is the discontinuation of the object they name.

1. Widening of Meaning 词义的扩大

When the meaning of a word becomes broader, that word means everything it used to mean, and then some more, e.g.

  holiday     holy day [specific]           any rest day [general]

  tail        the tail of a horse [specific]    the tail of any animal [general]

1. Narrowing of Meaning 词义的缩小

In the course of several generations, semantic change has narrowed the meaning of a word to what it is in Modern English, e.g.

  deer        any animal [general]         a particular species [specific]

  meat        food [general]             edible part of an animal [specific]

5. Some Recent Trends 最近变化的趋势
   1. Moving towards Greater Informality 倾向非正式化

Since the last war there has been a trend towards much greater informality of expression. Most people will agree that this trend towards greater informality in the use of the written word is to be welcomed rather than deplored.

1. The Influence of American English 美国英语的影响

For many years American English has been assaulting the British Isles with ever-increasing weight and persistence, through films, magazines, radio and television.

1. The Influence of Science and Technology 科学与技术的影响

As science and technology develop, they use new words to express new concepts and new techniques as well as new inventions; and they have developed more rapidly during the last 30 years.

Exercises

1. Match each of the following terms in column A with one of the appropriate definitions in column B:

    Column A                        Column B

1. Coinage                A. New words may be coined from already existing words by

                           “subtracting” an affix thought to be part of the old word

2. Blending                B. Clipping refers to the abbreviation of longer words or phrases.
3. back-formation           C. Acronyms are words derived from the initials of several words.
4. borrowing               D. When cultures come into contact, words are often “borrowed” from

                            one language to another.

5. clipping                 E. A new word can be coined or invented outright to fit some purpose.
6. acronyms               F. A blend is a word formed by combining parts of other words.
7. functional shift           G. Words may shift from one part of speech to another without the

                            addition of affixes

2. Explain each of the following terms in no more than 50 words:

1. semantic change          2. Sound change         3. Vocabulary change

III.Develop the topic into a 200-word essay:

1. Some recent trends of language change

VIII. Language and Society 语言与社会

本章的学习目标要求

   本章学习的中心内容是社会语境中的语言主。全章含语言变异与语用情景、方言及方言的社会功能、双言与双语现象、少数民族方言、社会方言等部分。

   本章的学习目的是弄清语言与社会的关系。通过对本章的学习，要求学生认识语言使用的社会属性，了解语言在社会语境中作为一种交际工具的多样性，明确交际场境中各种社会因素对语言使用所产生的影响。

语言与社会基本知识

1. The Scope of Sociolinguistics 社会语言学的范围
   1. Indications of Relatedness between Language and Society 语言与社会关系的标示

Certain linguistic phenomena cannot be accounted for unless they are related to society. In other words, social factors cannot be excluded in our description of language.

An obvious indication of the inter-relationship between language and society is the fact that language is not always used to exchange information as is generally assumed, but rather it is sometimes used to fulfil an important social function-to maintain social relationship between people.

Another indication is that users of the same language in a sense all speak differently. The kind of language each of them chooses to use is in part determined by his social background.

To some extent, language, especially the structure of its lexicon, reflects both the physical and the social environments of a society.

As a social phenomenon language is closely related to the structure of the society in which it is used, and the evaluation of a linguistic form is entirely social.

1. Sociolinguistics vs. Traditional Linguistic Studies 社会语言学与传统语言学研究

Sociolinguistics relates linguistics study to society.

Traditionally linguistic study emphasizes the study of the rules which govern the formation of language. Its aim is to discover the structure of language.

Saussure proposed the classic distinction between langue and parole. “Parole” is the realization of the language system in speech.

Chomsky proposed the theory of competence and performance. Competence is an ideal language user’s knowledge of his language, and performance is the actual realization of this knowledge in utterances.

1. Two Approaches in Sociolinguistics 社会语言学的两种研究方法

1. Macro-sociolinguistics 宏观社会语言学

We can look at society as a whole and consider how language functions in it and how it reflects the social differentiations.

2. Micro-sociolinguistics 微观社会语言学

   The other approach is to look at society from the point of view of an individual member within it.

2. Varieties of Language 语言的变体

It is an obvious fact that people who claim to be users of the same language do not speak the language in the same manner. The language used by the same individual varies as circumstances vary. The varieties of a language are actual manifestations of the general notion of the language and they are assumed to be related both to the language user and to the use to which language is put. Varieties related to the user are known as dialects and varieties related to use as registers.

1. Varieties of Language Related to the User 与语言使用者有关的变体

1. Regional dialect 地域方言

Regional dialects are linguistic varieties used by people living in different regions. Regional dialect boundaries often coincide with geographical barriers such as mountains, rivers, or swamps.

2. Social-class Dialect 社会阶级方言

Just as regional dialect is associated with separation caused by physical conditions, social dialect has to do with separation brought about by different social conditions. Social-class dialect, or sociolect, refers to the linguistic variety characteristic of a particular social class.