Английский язык учебник

Unit XII

LANGUAGE

APPROACHING THE TOPIC

Discuss the following questions.

1.What are the distinctive characteristics of language?

2.What is the difference between communication and language?

VOCABULARY

1.acquire, v – 1. приобретать; 2. достигать, овладевать (навыком и т.п.)

acquisition, n – приобретение, научение acquisitive, a – 1. жадно впитывающий; 2. жадный

2.ancestor, n – предок, прародитель

3.appreciate, v – 1. оценивать, ценить, понимать; 2. ощущать, различать

appreciation, n – оценка

appreciable, a – 1. поддающийся оценке; 2. уместный, ощути мый

4.arbitrary, a – произвольный

5.babble, v – лепетать, бормотать babbling, n – лепетание, бормотание

6.complex, n – комплекс, совокупность complex, a – сложный, комплексный complexity, n – сложность

7.constitute, v – 1. составлять; 2. основывать, учреждать; 3. на значать

8.coo, v – ворковать, говорить воркующим голосом cooing, n – воркование

9.elaborate, v – 1. тщательно разрабатывать; 2. вырабатывать, развивать

elaboration, n – 1. разработка, развитие, уточнение; 2. слож ность

10.enterprise, n – предприимчивость, смелость, инициатива enterprising, a – предприимчивый, инициативный

11.evoke, v – вызывать

evocation, n – 1. вызов (духов); 2. воскрешение в памяти;

3. воплощение (в искусстве)

evocative, a – вызывающий воспоминания; пробуждающий чувства

12.generate, v – 1. порождать, вызывать; 2. производить, гене рировать

generation, n – 1. поколение; 2. род, потомство; 3. порожде ние, зарождение

generative, a – 1. генеративный, порождающий; 2. произво дительный

generic, a – родовой, общий

13.momentous, a – важный, имеющий важное значение

14.perceive, v – воспринимать

perception, n – 1. восприятие, ощущение; 2. понимание, осознание

perceptible, a – воспринимаемый, ощущаемый

perceptive, a – перцептивный, воспринимающий, способный к восприятию

perceptivity, n – восприимчивость, понятливость

15.pragmatics, n – прагматика

16.productive, a – 1. производительный, продуктивный; 2. пло довитый

productivity, n – производительность, продуктивность

17.proper, a – 1. присущий, свойственный; 2. правильный, должный

property, n – свойство, качество

18.referent, n – референт

19.repetitive, a – повторяющийся, скучный

20.resemblance, n – сходство

resemble, v – иметь сходство, походить

21.semanticity, n – семантика

22.share, n – доля, часть

share, v – 1. делиться, распределять; 2. участвовать; 3. разде лять (мнение, вкусы)

23.significance, n – 1. значение; 2. важность; 3. многозначность, выразительность

significant, a – 1. значительный; 2. важный, существенный; 3. выразительный

signification, n – значение, смысл

significative, a – значимый, указывающий на что либо

24.signing, n – обозначение знаками

25.string, v – 1. завязывать, привязывать; 2. натягивать; 3. на низывать <> to string smth together соединять, связывать

26.utility, n – полезность, польза, практичность, выгодность

27.utter, v – 1. произносить, издавать (звук); 2. выражать словами; 3. излагать

utter, a – 1. полный, совершенный, абсолютный; 2. катего ричный

utterance, n – высказывание

28.violate, v – 1. оскорблять; 2. тревожить, мешать; 3. нарушать, преступать; 4. применять насилие

violation, n – 1. оскорбление (чувств); 2. нарушение; 3. наси лие

violence, n – 1. сила, ярость; 2. насилие; 3. оскорбление violent, a – 1. неистовый, яростный; 2. горячий, страстный, вспыльчивый

29.vocalize, v – выражать голосом

vocalization, n – вокализация, применение голоса, выраже ние голосом

vocal, a – 1. голосовой, речевой; 2. устный, словесный; 3. звон кий гласный

vocality, n – речевая способность, вокализация, озвончение

DEVELOPING VOCABULARY

Exercise 1. Translate the following word combina tions into Russian paying attention to your active vocabulary.

To acquire a good reputation, an acquired taste, my most recent acquisitions, acquisitive mind, acquisitive of new ideas; ancestor worship, remote ancestors; to appre ciate music keenly, appreciation of kindness, apprecia tive audience; arbitrary choice, arbitrary signs and sym bols; cognitive complexity; to constitute oneself, to con stitute language; elaborate preparations, elaborate com munication systems, an elaborate excuse; to admire one’s enterprise, man of enterprise, through his enterprise; to evoke a smile, evocative words; a creative, generative process, to generate opposition, generations yet unborn; momentous news; perceptive faculties, organs of percep

tion, keen perception; man of property, language proper ties; repetitive work/actions; no resemblance between them, to resemble somebody; shares!, to share and share alike; to attach significance to something, to be of great significance; to utter a word, public utterance, an infi nite number of utterances; in a violent temper, violent conduct; to use vocalizations.

Exercise 2. Translate the following sentences into Russian paying attention to your active vocabulary.

1.One of the most significant achievements of child hood is the acquisition of language.

2.Language is the most momentous and the most mys terious product of human mind.

3.She is in sincere appreciation of your valuable help. He showed no appreciation of my advice.

4.Babbling speech phonemes are produced in rhythmic, repetitive patterns.

5.He was a complexity far beyond her inadequate be haviour.

6.I am not so constituted that I can accept insults. These facts constituted links in one and the same chain.

7.It’s very enterprising of you to try and start up busi ness like that.

8.This store is an evocation of her past.

9.Prejudices are generated by ignorance.

10.We perceived him to be a man of taste.

11.These objects resembled each other in shape but not in colour.

12.She shared my troubles as well as my joys. He has a large share of self esteem.

13.He gave utterance to his rage.

14.Chimpanzees do have elaborate communication sys tems. They use vocalizations and gestures to com municate messages.

Exercise 3. Translate the following sentences into English using the indicated words from

resemblance11. Произвольная символическая ссылка

READING

LANGUAGE

Language is a social process, a means of communica tion, which reflects a marvelously complex cognitive activity. The philosopher Suzanne Langer put it this way:

Language is, without doubt, the most momentous and at the same time the most mysterious product of the hu man mind. Between the most clear animal call of love or warning or anger, and a man’s least trivial word, there lies a whole day of Creation or in modern phrase, a whole chapter of evolution. (1951).

How will we characterize this mysterious product of the human mind called language? Language is a large collection of arbitrary symbols that have a shared sig nificance for a language using community and that fol low certain rules of combination (Morris, 1946). We need to make a clear distinction between communication and language. Communication is the act of transferring in formation from one point to another. Language, on the other hand, is a specific means of communication. You may find yourself arguing with someone who insists that animals (e.g. chimpanzees, dolphins, bees) use language. They don’t. They do have elaborate commu nication systems. For example, chimpanzees use vo calizations and gestures to communicate messages. However, this and other animal communication sys tems do not qualify as a language. As we explore the definition of language and examine its properties, you will see why animal communication systems don’t qualify as true languages.

Language consists of a large number of symbols that can be combined in an infinite number of ways to pro duce an infinite number of utterances. The symbols that constitute language are commonly referred to as words labels we have assigned to concepts, or our mental rep

resentations. When we use the word chair as a symbol, we don’t use it to label just one specific instance of a chair. We use the word as a symbol to represent our con cept of chairs. As symbols, words need not stand for real things in the real world. We have words to de scribe objects or events that cannot be perceived, such as ghost or, for that matter, mind. With language we can communicate about owls and pussycats in teacups and a four dimensional, time warped hyperspace. Words stand for concepts, and we have a great num ber of them.

One property of all true languages is arbitrary sym bolic reference (Gluckburg & Danks, 1975), which means that there need be no resemblance between a word and its referent. In other words, there is no requirement for using the particular symbol for a given object. You call what you are reading a book (or a textbook, to use more specific symbol). We have all agreed (in English) that book is the appropriate symbol for what you are reading. But we don’t have to. The symbols of a language are ar bitrary, but once established by common use or tradi tion, they become part of one’s language and must be learned and applied consistently by each new language user.

To be part of a language, at least in a practical sense, language symbols need to have shared signifi cance for a language using community. That is, peop le have to agree on both the symbols used in a language and what those symbols mean. This refers to the prop erty of language known as semanticity which refers to the meaning that words take on in language. Be cause language has semanticity it can be used as a so cial enterprise.

The final part of our definition tells us that the sym bols of a language must follow certain rules of communi cation. What this means is that language is structured or rule governed. It is used to communicate ideas and to

share our thoughts and feelings with others. Of course, there are ways of communicating that do not involve lan guage. What makes language use a special form of com munication is the fact that it is governed by rules of com bination. For one thing, there are rules about how we can and cannot string symbols together in language. In English we say, “The small boy slept late.” We do not say, “Slept boy late small the.” Well, we could say it, but no one will know for sure exactly what we mean by it. The utterance violates the rules of combination in En glish. When the rules of language are violated, utter ances lose their meaning, and the value of language as a means of communication is lost.

Even with this complex definition of language, a few points are left out. For one, using language is a remark ably creative, generative process. This refers to the prop erty of language known as productivity. Productivity means that with a limited number of language symbols, we can express an infinite number of ideas. Nearly ev erything we say is something we’ve never said before. It’s unlikely, for example, that you have ever before read a sentence just like this one. Almost every time we use language, we use it in a new and creative way, which em phasizes the importance of the underlying rules, or struc ture, of language. Another property of language is dis placement, the ability to communicate about “the not here and the not now.” We can use language to talk about yesterday’s lunch and tomorrow’s class schedule. We can talk about things that are not here, never were, and nev er will be. Language is the only form of communication that allows us to do so.

Finally, language and speech are not synonymous terms. Speech is one way in which language is expressed as behaviour. There are others, including writing, cod ing (as in Morse code), or signing (as in American Sign Language).

The properties of language we have reviewed give language its unique qualities and set language apart from

animal communication systems. No animal communica tion system known has the properties of language we just described. For example, chimpanzee vocalizations and gestures have specific meaning (not arbitrary symbolic reference). They also cannot be combined to express an infinite number of ideas (they lack productivity), and they refer only to the here and not there (there is no ca pacity for displacement). Thus, although animals com municate with one another, they do not have true lan guage.

Psychology: An Introduction. Gerow J., Bor dens K., Carrollton, USA, 2000, pp. 296–298

COMPREHENSION CHECK

Exercise 1. Say whether these statements are true (T) or false (F), and if they are false, say why.

Exercise 2. Read the text again, divide it into logical parts, and give names to each of them.

Exercise 3. Make up questions to the following answers.

1.

Language is a means of communication.

2.

Communication is the act of transferring infor mation from one point to another.

3.

Chimpanzees use vocalization and gestures to communicate messages.

4.

These are utterances.

5.

No, there is no requirement for using a particu lar symbol for a given object.

6.

The symbols of a language are arbitrary.

7.

Semanticity refers to the meaning that words take on in language.

8.

Language is structured or rule governed.

9.

Utterances lose their meaning.

10.

The properties of language give language its unique qualities and set it apart from animal com munication systems.