- 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 音韵学 morphology: the study of word formation 形态学 syntax: the study of sentence formation 句法；语句结构 semantics: the study of meaning 语义学 pragmatics: the study of language use 语用学 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 -- 干...有没有这麽衰啊... 打到最後一个字，数字二，突然断线！ 喵的，钱都没了 --

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