A man that is eating a flower is in the garden. Is a man that is eating a flower in the garden? *Is a man that eating a flower is in the garden? Hei asks Tom to take care of himi. He asks Tomi to take care of himselfi. 张三i问李四是否喜欢他ij。 张三i问李四j是否喜欢自己ij。 张三叫李四i要照顾好自己i。 爸爸，你自己在家是否无聊？*无吗？
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What is language?


Knowledge of sentence and non-sentences John kissed the little old lady who owned the shaggy dog. *Who owned the shaggy dog John kissed the little old lady .
What do we know when we know a language? Knowing the sound system of a language The inventory of sounds Which sounds may start a word, end a word, and follow each other. Ex. Nkrumah (The name of the former presedent of Ghana), sink, *nking (not possible for English)
Chapter 1 The origins of language
Lecturer: CAI, Jilang
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I have never met a person who is not interested in language. ——Steven Pinker, The Language Instinct

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Condillac Rousseau Herder
卢梭说需要造就了第一句手语，激情逼出第一句言语。孔狄亚克 认为人创造了言语是为了表达他们的需要，卢梭认为这是站不住脚 的。 他认为，语言起源于精神的需要，也就是激情，激情促使人们 联合，生存之必然性迫使人们互相逃避。逼迫人类说出第一个词的 不是饥渴而是爱、憎、怜悯、愤怒（卢梭，《论语言的起源》）
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What is language?


Knowing how to combine words to form phrases, and phrases to form sentences. This is the house. This is the house that Jack built. This is the house that Jack built. This is malt that lay in the house that Jack built.
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1.2 What is language?


A definition: Language is a means of verbal communication. What else should we know about language?
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What is language?

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The Origins of language

“In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with god, and the Word was God.” (The Gospel according to John 1:1) “And the Lord said, Behold, the people is one, and they have all one language; and this they begin to do; and now nothing will be restrained from them, which they have imagined to do.” (Genesis, Chapter 11:6) God created Adam and “whatsoever Adam called everyliving creature, that was the name thereof”. Alternatively, following a Hindu tradition, language came from Sarasvati, wife of Brahma, creator of the universe. The divine source
赫尔德在他的论文里批驳了神创语言的观点，他指出语言的不完 美性绝不能让我们相信语言是出自完美的上帝之手。他肯定上帝的 存在和万能，但他却指出上帝创造了人的心智，而不是人的语言。 人的语言是由人类的心智创造的。
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The natural-sound source


‘bow-wow‟ theory: primitive words could have been imitationsof the natural sounds which early men and women heard around them. onomatopoeic Problem: soundless & abstract things; a language cannot be only a set of words used as „names‟ for things. natural cries of emotion (The pooh-pooh theory) Problem: sudden intakes of breath (interjections) vs. exhaled breath (normal language). „yo-he-ho‟theory: a set of grunts, groans and curses involved in physical effort Problem: It doesnot, however, answer our question regarding the origins of the sounds produced.
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Goals of the Course
By the end of the course, you may be able to have fun learning about human language; be familiar with some basic concepts of language and the research objects of linguistics get a knowledge of the main theories of modern linguistics; explain some linguistic phenomena with relevant linguistic theories.
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Is possible to do experiments on that?
Experiments on The divine source Egyptian pharaoh Psammetichus (600 BC) Two new born babies; Phrygian word bekos „bread‟ King James the Fourth of Scotland (AD 1500) Hebrew Problem: “It is unfortunate that all other cases of children who have been discovered living inisolation, without coming into contact with human speech, tend not to confirmthe results of these types of „divine-source‟ experiments.” p2
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What is the course about?

This course provides some answers to basic questions about the nature of human language. We will study some core aspects of language in detail, such as the sound of language, the word formation of language, the sentence structure of language, etc. In addition, wee will address a variety of questions, i.e. how language is related to cultures and society, and how language is used in context, etc.
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Requirements


Do the assigned readings before each class meeting; Be an active participant in classroom discussions; Present a team-work report on a certain topic; Good attendance at classes is mandatory; A course paper on a certain linguistic problem is required; A final exam will be covered. Schedule of Class