第一章What is language?

本章从语言的音、形、义入手，介绍人类语言的定义、识别特征和功能；将语言研究中的几种语法类型和特征进行对比。将人类语言与（非）人类语言进行比较。

●1.1Linguistic knowledge 1

人类语言中包含着音、形、义这三个必要组成部分。人类从婴儿时期就能从环境中识别出与语言相关的声音信息，语言使用者也能凭直觉判断出所使用语言中允许的形式结构和不被允许的结构。而声音与形式的结合则与一定的意义相关联。

●1.2Linguistic knowledge 2

语言的形式和意义之间没有天然的内在关联，也正因如此，每一种语言都需要采用某种惯用形式来表达固定的意义。这体现了语言的任意性。语言的能产性允许使用者创造性地产出和理解不曾使用过的内容。但是语言能力并不等同于语言行为。语言能力是抽象概念，而行为则是每一次对语言的创造性使用。

●1.3What is Grammar？

本小节介绍语言研究中的语法的概念。详细介绍将语法规则凌驾于语言使用之上的规定性语法和对语言使用的真实呈现的描述性语法，并将两者进行对比。本节最后一部分介绍由乔姆斯基提出的关于人类语言机制的普遍语法。

●1.4What is Human Language？

本节通过介绍几种动物和昆虫的交际形式，说明人类语言完全不同于动物交际，从而引出人类语言所具有的普遍性特征，如任意性，能产性，离散性和超越时空性。

第二章Morphology: The Words of Language

词是语言的一个重要组成部分。英语词汇有其自身的形态结构、构词规则和不同的构词法。本章讲述语言学的这一分支学科--形态学，包括形态学的定义、词素、。。。。。

●2.1Morphemes

本节主要介绍形态学的定义、词素的概念及其分类。

●2.2Affix, Root, Stem Morpheme, Morph, Allomorph

本节用大量实例讲述什么是词缀、词根和词干，对比词素、形素和词素变体之间的区别与联系。

●2.3Rules of Word Formation

本节主要讲述英语词汇的构词规则，即单个词素进行组合构成复杂词的相关规则以及规则的能产性。

●2.4The Hierarchical Structure of Words

词素在组合时并非只是线性排序，而是遵循一定的层级顺序。本节用树形图来解析一些例词的层级结构并指出不通的层级结构会产生不同的词义。

●2.5Other Morphological Processes

本节主要介绍除词缀构词法以外的几种构词方式，包括逆构词法、合成法、造词法、混成法、截断法和缩略语，其中着重讲述了合成词的词类判定、拼写方式、词义的非组合性以及重音特点。

第三章The Sentence Patterns of Language

The part of grammar that represents speakers’ knowledge of sentences and their structures is called syntax. The aim of this chapter is to show you what syntactic structures look like and to familiarize you with some of the rules that determine them. Most of the examples will be from the syntax of English, but the principles that account for syntactic structures are universal.

●3.1What the Syntax Rules Do

This section mainly discusses what the syntax rules are and what the syntax rules do. Speakers of a language recognize the grammatical sentences of their language and know how the words in a sentence must be ordered and grouped to convey a certain meaning. This kind of knowledge comes from their knowledge of the rules of syntax.

●3.2Sentence Structure (I)

This section is a brief introduction of the sentence structure. Sentences have structure that can be represented by phrase structure trees containing syntactic categories. Phrase structure trees reflect the speaker’s mental representation of sentences. Ambiguous sentences may have more than one phrase structure tree.

●3.3Sentence Structure (II)

This section further discusses the sentence structure. There are different kinds of syntactic categories: Phrasal categories, such as NP and VP, are composed of other syntactic categories; lexical categories, such as Noun and Verb, and functional categories, such as Det and T, often correspond to individual words.

●3.4Other Structures, TGG Rules & UG Principles and Parameters

This section discusses many grammatical structures which also hold in other languages. This is more or less how the syntax operates. Languages conform to a basic design, and then there are choice points or points of variation.

第四章The Meaning of Language

This chapter provides an introduction to the meaning of language, both static and dynamic, depending on whether or not we take into consideration the role of context.

●4.1An Overview of Semantics

本节讲述语义学的研究范围，意义与所指的区别与关联以及Leech的语义分类。

●4.2Semantic Relations

本节主要讲述语义之间的关系，词汇语义的关系涉及同义关系、反义关系、同音/形异义关系、一词多义和上下义关系等；句子意义关系涉及同义关系、包含关系、自相矛盾等。

●4.3Analysis of Meaning

本节从介绍语义成分入手，讲述进行词汇意义分析的成分分析和进行句子意义分析的述谓结构分析

●4.4The Cooperative Principle

People cooperate in language communication by following a set of rules. When they decide not to cooperate, things could be otherwise.

●4.5Speech Acts

Language can be used to do things. When we say something, we are not simply saying it for the sake of saying.

第五章Phonetics: The Sounds of Language

Chapter 5 contains four sessions. It aims to introduce the nature of phonetics and sets out key concepts and major classifications involved in this field. This chapter is also concerned with some critical issues such as how does phonetics relate to phonology and how consonants and vowels could be described, etc. The chapter is valuable to understand phonetics including the speech organs, the classification of consonants and vowels and some prosodic features.

●5.1Morphemes

Sessions 1 introduce briefly the definition of phonetics and how it may be classified. It also gives a detailed illustration of the speech organs by many specific examples. The last part of this session discusses how phonetic transcription is standardized, and why it should be.

●5.2Classification of English Consonants

Session 2 examines how English consonants can be classified in terms of manner of articulation and place of articulation. It also aims to help students understand how speech organs and sounds are worked to produce these sounds.

●5.3Classification of English Vowels

Session 3 deals with English vowels. It reveals the features of vowels and explains how vowels can be described.

●5.4Phonetic Classes and Prosodic Features

Session 4 presents phonetic classes with specific examples. It also sets out issues concerning prosodic features including length, pitch and stress with examples.

第六章Phonology: The Sound Patterns of Language

In this chapter, the sound patterns of language and relevant phonological rules will be introduced. There are thousands of languages, but only hundreds of speech sounds, some of which we examined in the previous chapter. Even more remarkable, only a few dozen features, such as voicing and bilabial, are needed to describe every speech sound that occurs in every human language.

●6.1The Pronunciation of Morphemes and Phonological Units

This section briefly introduces how we pronounce words and the parts of words we call morphemes and the way of describing their variation with (usually unconscious) phonological rules. We begin with some examples from English, and then move on to examples from other languages.

●6.2Distinctive Features of Phonemes

This section further discusses what distinctive features are and how we distinguish different phonemes depending on their phonetic features. When a feature distinguishes one phoneme from another, hence one word from another, it is a distinctive feature or, equivalently, a phonemic feature.

●6.3The Rules of Phonology

This section is a detailed introduction of phonological rules which are part of a speaker’s knowledge of the language. The specific rules of phonology differ from language to language, the kinds of rules, what they do, and the natural classes they refer to are universal. Phonological rules exist to ensure that the phonetic forms of words do not violate the phonotactic constraints of the language.

●6.4Prosodic Phonology and Phonological AnalysisProsodic Phonology and Phonological Analysis

This section further discusses some concepts of phonology in the aspect of prosody and also how to carry out a phonological analysis in practical cases with relevant phonological rules. To do a phonological analysis, the words to be analyzed must be transcribed in great phonetic detail, because we do not know in advance which phonetic features are distinctive and which are not.

第七章Language in Society

This chapter provides an introduction to how language interacts with society. Language cannot be studied without considering its social aspects.

●7.1Sociolinguistics：An Introduction

Language varies across geographical regions, societies, and individual speakers. Language variation is the norm.

●7.2Language Contact

No language stays alone without any contact with other languages. The result of contact leads us to a kaleidoscopic view toward human languages.

第八章Language Change: The Syllables of Time

在人类的历史长河中，一切事物都在不断的发生着变化，那么语言的发展经历了哪些变化呢？人类语言的发展是伴随社会发展而产生的，不同的语言变化阶段也对应着不同的历史发展阶段，就让我们翻开这本历史的故事书，读一读语言的历史，以英语为例，探寻语言变化的奥秘。

●8.1Language Change and the History of English.

语言是人类文明的重要标志，语言的变化与发展也是人类了解自身发展史的重要途经之一，以英语为例，在语言的历史发展中摸索总结英语的变化规律。

●8.2Classification of Language Change

当我们开始描述语言的变化时，应该从哪几个方面入手呢？这一章将向大家展示语言变化的语言学阐释角度。

第九章Language Acquisition

Chapter 9 comprises two sessions. It is designed to help students understand the complex of language learning. Specifically, it covers issues associated with first and second language acquisition from a theoretical perspective although examples are also given to help better understanding.

●9.1The linguistic Capacity of Children/First Language Acquisition

Session 1 explores how child acquires the first language from a theoretical perspective. It critically examines three important theories including a behaviourist view, an innatist view and an interactionist view. The aim of this session is not only to introduce these theories, but also to help students understand the nature of language acquisition.

●9.2Second Language Acquisition

Session 2 introduces second language (L2) acquisition. It discusses some challenging issues involving the connection between the first and second language acquisition, the role of the mother tonguage in second language learning, and if there is a critical period in L2 learning.

第十章Language Processing and the Human Brain

本章从主要心理语言学的视角介绍语言理解加工和言语产出心理过程。涉及心理语言学的实验、研究范式、相关概念和具体的加工步骤及模型。

●10.1Language Comprehension

本节主要介绍在人们在理解语言信息时从声音信号的感知，词汇识别，句法加工到意义识解的语言加工过程。通过引入心理语言学的实验，介绍常用概念，展示具体的识别、加工方式。

●10.2Speech Production

本节首先介绍了在语言加工时所采用的自上而下和自下而上的两种加工方式。通过引入心理语言学模型，介绍言语产出的具体步骤。还分析了口误现象和言语产出前的“计划“步骤。

第十一章Computer Processing of Human Language

In this chapter, another interesting topic in linguistics —— computational linguistics, will be discussed. Today, it is common for computers to process language. Computational linguistics is a subfield of linguistics and computer science that is concerned with the interactions of human language and computers. Computational linguistics includes the analysis of written texts and spoken discourse, the translation of text and speech from one language to another, the use of human (not computer) languages for communication between computers and people, and the modeling and testing of linguistic theories.

●11.1Computational Linguistics：An Introduction

This section is a brief introduction of the definition and the scope of computational linguistics. Computational linguistics is concerned with the interaction between language and computers in all dimensions, from phonetics to pragmatics, from producing speech to comprehending speech, from spoken (or signed) utterances to written forms.

●11.2Applications of Computational Linguistics

This section discusses some of the more common application areas, ranging from the use of computers to test a linguist’s grammar for faithfulness to the actual language, to the use of computers to solve language crimes—the field of computational forensic linguistics.

第十二章Writing: The ABCs of Language

语言的书写系统是语言重要的表征手段之一，人类语言发展至今，书写系统也在经历着不断的变化，符号、文字、图像都是人类记录语言的大胆尝试，如何忠实高效的记录语言是一直以来思考的问题，在这一章我们将为各位同学展示语言书写的发展征途。

●12.1The History of Writing

本节主要讲述历史中人们尝试表征口头语言各不同阶段

●12.2Modern Writing Systems

本节主要介绍现代不同的现代书写系统及其使用情况

第十三章The Schools of Linguistics

语言学流派是语言学研究发展史的总结及归类，不同的语言学流派代表了不同时期学者们研究语言的视角、方法以及结果，本章将介绍学界基本公认的四大流派，事实证明语言学研究的内涵在不断加深，外延在不断扩展中，人类探索语言奥秘的脚步从未停滞。

●13.1Structuralism and Formalism

本节主要介绍结构主义和功能主义的重要观点、代表人物及贡献。

●13.2Functionalism and Cognitivism

本节主要介绍了形式主义和认知学派的重要观点，代表人物及其贡献。