- Language is a finite system of arbitrary symbols combined according to
rules of grammar for the purpose of communication.
If a language is viewed as a specific, individual symbolic system,
English is a language, as is Chinese, Japanese, French, and German.
According to language experts(linguists), a language has its own systematic
and rule-governed structure, which is made up of five aspects:
phonology: the study of speech sound systems and patterns 音韻學
morphology: the study of word formation 形態學
syntax: the study of sentence formation 句法；語句結構
semantics: the study of meaning 語義學
pragmatics: the study of language use 語用學
All the aspects of a language are interrelated, and each can be described
by a set of rules called grammar. When we communicate in a certain language,
we use this structural system to realte the sounds produced and heard to
certain meanings of words and sentences in that language.
When a language is considered as a tool of communication, there are
two common modes of language expression: the spoken language (speaking or
speech) and the written language (writing). The sign language (hand
communication) used by deaf people is another way of language expression.
Of the two major language expression, speech, the spoken form, is used
more frequently to express our meaing on formal and informal occasions. For
most humans, speech is a more natural way of expression thoughts and feelings
than writing. There are approximately 5000 spoken languages in the world
today, but only a few hudred of these lanugages have a standardized writing
system. Obviously, speech is far more usual and natural than writing. The
sounds of English speech to be studied in this book reflect the
characteristics of English phonetics.
Within a nation or the same geographical boundary, a group of people
who speak the same language is called a speech community. For example, in the
United States, American English is spoken by most inhabitants; therefore,
the United States is an American English speech community, Within a speech
community, smaller regional speech communities can also be identified by their
different usage patterns in pronunciation, vocabulary and grammer. These
variants of language usage are called dialects. Most dialects developed by
the language change occurring in different geographical regions are called
regional dialects. Other dialects produced because of social changes are
called class dialects. English is the universal language (a large speech
community in the world), but it has five major regional dialectal groups:
British language, American English, Canadian English, Australian English,
and Irish English.
excerpted AMERICAN ENGLISH PHNETICS p1-2
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幹...有沒有這麼衰啊...
打到最後一個字，數字二，突然斷線！
喵的，錢都沒了
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