Chapter 1  What is language?
[A] The origins of language
Some speculations of the origins of language:
① The divine source
The basic hypothesis: if infants were allowed to grow up without hearing any language, then they would spontaneously begin using the original god-given language.
Actually, children living without access to human speech in their early years grow up with no language at all.
② The natural-sound source
The bow-wow theory: the suggestion is that primitive words could have been imitations of the natural sounds which early men and women heard around them.
The “Yo-heave-ho” theory: the sounds produced by humans when exerting physical effort, especially when co-operating with other humans, may be the origins of speech sounds.
Onomatopoeic sounds
③ The oral-gesture source
It is claimed that originally a set of physical gestures was developed as a means of communication.
The patterns of movement in articulation would be the same as gestural movement; hence waving tongue would develop from waving hand.
④ Glossogenetics（言语遗传学）
This focuses mainly on the biological basis of the formation and development of human language.
Physiological adaptationàdevelop naming abilityàinteractions and transactions
Physical adaptation:
Human teeth are upright and roughly even in height.
Human lips have intricate muscle interlacing, thus making them very flexible.
The human mouth is small and contains a very flexible tongue.
The human larynx is lowered, creating a longer cavity called the pharynx, and making it easier for the human to choke on the pieces of food, but making the sound speech possible.
The human brain is lateralized. Those analytic functions (tool-using and language) are largely confined to the left hemisphere of the brain for most humans.
Two major functions of language:
Interactional: a social function of language.
Transactional: a function involving the communication of knowledge and information
[B] The properties of language
Language is a system of arbitrary vocal symbols used for human communication.
a) System: combined together according to rules
b) Arbitrary: no intrinsic connection between the word “pen” and the thing in the world which it refers to
c) Vocal: the primary medium is sound for all languages
d) Human: language is human-specific（交际性与信息性）
Communicative vs. Informative:
Communicative: intentionally using language to communicate something
Informative: through/via a number of signals that are not intentionally sent
Design features (unique properties): the defining properties of human language that distinguish it from any animal system of communication
① Displacement（跨时空性，移位性）
Language can be used to refer to contexts removed from the immediate situations of the speaker (refer to past and future time and to other locations)
② Arbitrariness（任意性）
There is no logical or natural connection between a linguistic form (either sound or word) and its meaning.
While language is arbitrary by nature, it is not entirely arbitrary.
a) echo of the sounds of objects or activities: onomatopoeic words
b) some compound words
③ Productivity（能产性，创造性）
Language is productive in that it makes possible the construction and interpretation of new signals by its users. (Creativity or open-endedness)
④ Cultural transition（文化传递性）
While human capacity for language has a genetic basis (everyone was born with the ability to acquire a language), the details of any language system are not genetically transmitted, but instead have to be taught and learnt.
⑤ Discreteness（可分离性）
Each sound in the language is treated as discrete.
⑥ Duality（双重结构性，两重性或二元性）
Language is organized at two levels or layers simultaneously. The lower or basic level is a structure of sounds which are meaningless. The higher level is morpheme or word (double articulation)
The above six properties may be taken as the core features of human language.
Vocal-auditory channel, reciprocity, specialization, non-directionality, or rapid fade, these properties are best treated as ways of describing human language, but not as a means of distinguishing it from other systems of communication.
[C] The development of written language
① pictograms & ideograms（象形文字和表意文字）
Pictogram: when some of the pictures came to represent particular images in a consistent way, we can begin to describe the product as a form of picture-writing, or pictograms.
Ideogram: the picture developed as more abstract and used other than its entity is considered to be part of a system of idea-writing, or ideogram
Hieroglyph: 古埃及象形文字
② Logograms（语标书写法）
When symbols come to be used to represent words in a language, they are described as examples of word-writing, or logograms.
“Arbitrariness”—a writing system which was word-based had come into existence.
Cuneiform--楔形文字—the Sumerians (5000 and 6000 years ago)
Chinese is one example of its modern writing system.
Advantages: two different dialects can be based on the same writing system.
Disadvantages: vast number of different written forms.
③ Syllabic writing（音节书写法）
When a writing system employs a set of symbols which represent the pronunciations of syllables, it is described as syllabic writing.
The Phoenicians: the first human beings that applied the full use of a syllabic writing system (ca 1000 BC)
④ Alphabetic writing（字母书写法）
Semitic languages (Arabic and Hebrew): first applied this rule
The Greeks: taking the inherently syllabic system from the Phoenicians via the Romans
Latin alphabet and Cyrillic alphabet (Slavic languages)
⑤ Rebus writing
Robus writing evolves a process whereby the symbol used for an entity comes to be used for the sound of the spoken word used for that entity.

Chapter 2  What is linguistics?
[A] The definition of linguistics
Linguistics is generally defined as the scientific study of language.
Process of linguistic study:
① Certain linguistic facts are observed, generalization are formed;
② Hypotheses are formulated;
③ Hypotheses are tested by further observations;
④ A linguistic theory is constructed.
Language is a system of arbitrary vocal symbols used for human communication.
[B] The scope of linguistics
General linguistics: the study of language as a whole
Phonetics: the general study of the characteristics of speech sounds (or the study of the phonic medium of language) (How speech sounds are produced and classified)
Phonology: is essentially the description of the systems and patterns of speech sounds in a language. (How sounds form systems and function to convey meaning)
Morphology: the study of the way in which morphemes are arranged to form words (how morphemes are combined to form words)
Syntax: the study of those rules that govern the combination of words to form permissible sentences (how morphemes and words are combined to form sentences)
Semantics: the study of meaning in abstraction
Pragmatics: the study of meaning in context of use
Sociolinguistics: the study of language with reference to society
Psycholinguistics: the study of language with reference to the workings of the mind
Applied linguistics: the application of linguistics principles and theories to language teaching and learning
Anthropological linguistics, neurological linguistics; mathematical linguistics; mathematical linguistics; computational linguistics
[C] Some important distinctions in linguistics
① Prescriptive vs. Descriptive
② Synchronic vs. Diachronic
The description of a language at some point in time;