语言对立体

Linguistic Pairs(Synopsis)

我们把语言理论和语言现象中两两相关的概念、形式和意义统称为语言对立体,其对应关系必要时用“∶”号表示。例如“语言”∶“言语”、“单数”∶“复数”、“作者”∶“读者”等等。传统语言学注重语言的形式;现代语言学把语言分为形式和意义。本文主要讨论语言各层次中及各层次间的种种对应关系,其中主要包括语言的形式与意义的对立、形式与形式的对立、意义与意义的对立。形式与意义的关系比较复杂,

One needs no careful eyes to see the frequent pheno-mina oflinguistic symmetry in a language.This paper,investigating thesephenomina somewhat systematically,intends to present a new patternlinguistic observation.The notion“linguistic pair”here refers tothose symmetrically related linguistic concepts,language forms,as well as the signifying meanings of these forms.All living lang-uages can be studied on different levels,mainly phonetics,grammar,and semantics.Our discussion centers around the possible counterpartson each level or between two specific levels.We highlight the corre-lation between:1.form and meaning,2.form and form,3.meaning andmeaning.The first,which is one of the focuses of modern linguisticattention,appears much more complicated than the other two.Tho re-lation between a language form and its signifying meaning,grammaticalor semantic,cannot be corresponding in all cases,a certain form mayhave several meanings;and,conversely,the same or similar meaningcan sometimes be signified by more than one form;and,finally,formsand meanings may overlap occasionally.Language instruction,freqeuntly resorts to these linguistic pairs.Known as the“contrastive teaching,” it helps to save time in class-room activities.By presenting closely-related teaching items in pairs,the contrast is so striking and self-evident that a teacher's verbalexplanations are simply uncalled-for.