P Chapter 10 Language and Computer
1. Computer Literacy (计算机操作能力)
Computer Literary to refer to those people who have sufficient knowledge and skill in the use of computers and computer software.
2. Computational Linguistics
Computational Linguistics can be seen as a branch of applied linguistics, dealing with computer processing of human language. It includes the analysis of language data so as to establish the order in which learners acquire various grammatical rules or the frequency of occurrence of some particular item (Programmed Instruction 程序教学); it includes electronic production of artificial speech (Speech Synthesis) and the automatic recognition of human speech; it includes research on automatic translation between natural languages; and it also includes text processing and communication between people and computers.
3. CAI/CAL vs. CALL
CALL is an abbreviation of Computer-Assisted Language Learning, which refers to the use of a computer in teaching or learning of a second or foreign language.
CAI is for Computer-Assisted Instruction, we mean the use of a computer in a teaching program.
CAL is for Computer-Assisted Learning, which emphasizes the use of a computer in both teaching and learning in order to help the learner to achieve educational objectives through their own reasoning and practice, a reflection of newly advocated autonomous learning.
4. Machine Translation
Machine Translation (MT) refers to the use of machine to translate texts from one natural language to another. MT can be divided into two types: Unassisted MT and Assisted MT. Unassisted MT takes pieces of text and translates them into output for immediate use with no human involvement. Assisted MT uses a human translator to clean up after, and sometimes before, translation in order to get better quality results.
5. Corpus Linguistics
Corpus, plural corpora. A collection of linguistic data, either compiled as written texts or as a transcription of recorded speech.
The main purpose of a corpus is to verify a hypothesis about language—for example, to determine how the usage of a particular sound, word, or syntactic construction varies.
Corpus linguistics deals with the principles and practice of using corpora in language study.
6. Concordance 词语索引
The computer has the ability to search for a particular word, sequence of words, or perhaps even a part of speech in a text. It can also calculate the number of occurrences of the word so that information on the frequency of the word nay be gathered. We may then be interested in sorting the data in some way—for example, alphabetically. This is usually referred to as Concordance.
7. The Roles of Corpus Data
1) Speech research 2) Lexical studies 3) Semantics 4) Social linguistics 5) Psycholinguistics
8. Computer Mediated Communication
Computer Mediated Communication is distinguished by its focus on language use in computer networked environments, and by its use of methods of discourse analysis to address that focus. Text-based CMC takes a variety of forms (e.g. e-mail, real-time chat, etc). Human-to-human communication via computer networks, or interactive networking, is a recent phenomenon.
9. Emoticons or Smileys
An Emoticon is a sequence of ordinary characters you can find on your computer keyboard. The most popular emoticons are the smiling faces (smileys or smilies) that people use to say “don’t take what I just wrote too seriously”.
P Chapter 12 Theories and schools of modern Linguistic 补充
« Why is Saussure hailed as the father of modern linguistic?
Saussure occupies such an important place in the history of history of linguistics that he is often described as “father of modern linguistics”:
1) The book Course in General Linguistics , which is the most important source of Saussure ‘s ideas, marked the beginning of modern linguistics.
2) Saussure was the first to notice the complexities of language. He believed that language is system of signs, called conventions. He held that the sign is the union of signifier and signified.
3) By providing answers to questions concerning many aspects of language, Saussure made clear the object of study for linguistics as a science. His ideas on the arbitrary nature of sign, on the distinction of langue and parole and of synchronic and diachronic linguistics, etc. pushed linguistics into a brand new stage.
« The Prague School
= What are the three specially important points of ideas developed in the Prague School?
Of the many ideas developed by the Prague School, three points are of special importance. First, it is stressed that the synchronic study of language is fully justified. Secondly, there is an emphasis on the systemic character of language. It is argued that no elements of any language can be satisfactorily analyzed or evaluated in isolation, in other words, elements are held to be in functional contrast or opposition. Thirdly, language is looked on as functional in another sense, that is, as a tool performing a number of essential functions or tasks for the community using it.
= What is the Prague School best known and remembered for?
The Prague School is best known and remembered for its contribution to phonology and the distinction between phonetics and phonology. The name of the most influential scholar in this connection is Trubetzkoy.
Following Saussure’s distinction between langue and parole, he argued that phonetics belonged to parole whereas phonology belonged to langue. On this basis he developed the notion of “phoneme” as an abstract unit of the sound system as distinct from sounds actually produced.
= What is Functional Sentence Perspective (FSP)?
Functional Sentence Perspective (FSP) is a theory of linguistic analysis which refers to an analysis of utterance (or texts) in terms of the information they contain. The known information refers to information that is not new to the reader or hearer, and the new information is what to be transmitted to the reader or hearer. Besides, the subject-predicate distinction is not always the same as the Theme and Rheme contrast.
For example:
(1) Sally stands on the table.
Subject Predicate
Theme Rheme
(2) On the table stands Sally.
Predicate Subject
Theme Rheme
补充：Theme: it is the ground on which the speaker and the hearer meet and it is called the Theme.
Rheme: the goal of discourse presents the very information that is to be imparted to the hearer, and is called the Rheme.
« The London School
The London School refers to the kind of linguistic scholarship in England. J.R. Firth turned linguistics proper into a recognized distinct academic subject in Britain. Firth, under the influence of the anthropologist B. Malinowski, influenced his student M.A.K. Halliday. They all stressed the importance of context of situation and the system aspect of language. Thus, Landon School is known as systemic linguistic and functional linguistics.
= What did Firth inherit from Malinowski’s and Saussure’s views?
Influenced by Malinowski, firth regarded language as a social process, as a means of social life, rather than simply as a set of agreed-upon signals. He held that in order to live, human beings have to learn, and learning language is a means of participation in social activities. Language is a means of doing things and of making others do things. It is a means of acting and living.
Following Saussure, Firth held that language consists of two elements: system and structure. Thus, structure is horizontal and system is longitudinal [lɔndʒiˈtju:dinl].
However, Firth did not fully agree with Saussure on the distinction of langue and parole, nor did Firth agree to the statement that the object of linguistic study is langue.
Besides, Firth did not see language as something wholly inborn or totally acquired. He seemed to adopt a riding-on-the-wall attitude, seeing language as something both inborn and acquired.
= Firth’s prosodic analysis
Firth’s second important contribution to linguistic is his method of Prosodic Analysis, called Prosodic phonology. In order to analyze the functions on various levels, mere phonetic and phonological descriptions are insufficient. So phonematic units are considered which include features such as stress, length, nasalization, palatalisation, and aspiration.
= Can you make a brief introduction to Systemic-Functional (SF) Grammar? (Halliday)
Stemming from firth’s theories in the London School, Halliday’s Systemic-Functional (SF) Grammar is a socially oriented functional linguistic approach. It actually has two components: Systemic Grammar and Functional Grammar. They are two inseparable parts for an integral framework in Halliday’s linguistic inquiry.
Systemic Grammar aims to explain the internal relations in language as a system network, or meaning potential. Functional Grammar aims to reveal that language is a means of social interaction. He holds that language is what it is because it has to serve certain functions. In other words, social demand on language has helped to shape its structure.
Thus, it takes actual uses of language as the object of study, in opposition to Chomsky’s TG Grammar which takes the ideal speaker’s linguistic competence as the object of study.
= Halliday’s seven functions in children’s model of language.
8. The instrumental function (uses to meet his material needs. “I want it”)
9. The regulatory function (uses to other’s behavior. “give me some milk”)
10. The interactional function (uses to communicate with other people. “How do you do?”)
11. The personal function (uses to express his own feelings, interests,etc. “I don’t like it.”)
12. The heuristic function (uses to know about his surroundings. “what’s this?”)
13. The imaginative function (uses to create his own surroundings. “Is he going to leave me alone?”)
14. The informative function (the child uses to provide information to others. “Mama is out.”)
= Halliday’s three metafunctions in adults’ language.
4. The ideational function (convey new information)
5. The interpersonal function (embodies all uses of language to express social and personal relations)
6. The textual function (language has mechanisms to make any stretch of spoken or written discourse into a coherent and unified text and make a living message different from a random list of sentences.)
= The ideational function
The ideational function is to convey new information, to communicate a content that is unknown to the hearer. The ideational function mainly consists of “transitivity” and “voice”.
= The interpersonal function
The interpersonal function embodies all uses of language to express social and personal relations. Because the clause is not confined to the expression of transitivity, there are non-ideational elements in the adult language system.
Interpersonal function is realized by mood and modality.
=The textual function
The textual function refers to the fact that language has mechanism to make any stretch of spoken or written discourse into a coherent and unified text and make a living passage different from a random list of sentences.
= Transitivity
« American Structuralism
= American structuralism
American structuralism is a branch of synchronic linguistics that emerged independently in the United States at the beginning of the twentieth century. It developed differently from that of Europe under the leadership of the anthropologist F.Boas.
The development of American structuralism can be roughly classified into three stages:
(4) Boas and Sapir Period (1911-1932)
