语言学教案 - Chapter 1 Invitations to Linguistics (2)What is linguistics?6 What is linguistics?Linguistics is the branch of learning which studies the languages of any and all human It can be defined as the scientific study of In a word， linguistics studies the general principles upon which all languages are constructed and operate as systems of communication in the societies in which they are The guiding principles for linguistic studies:Exhaustiveness---the aim is to specify totally the linguistic contrasts in a set of data， and ultimately in the language as a Consistency---total statements should be logically self-Economy---a criterion requires that， other things being equal， an analysis should aim to be as short and use as few terms as It is a measure which permits one to quantify the number of formal constructs used in arriving at a solution to problem， and has been used， explicitly or implicitly， in most areas of linguistic Objectivity---linguistic analyses should be as objective as Truth should come from 7 Some basic distinctions in 1 speech and writingthe primacy of speech:1) Speech is prior to writing historically2) genetically， children always learn to speak before they learn to The importance of writing:1) space displacement2) time displacement3) a visual recording of a speech
