1.1 What is a word?
To many people the most obvious feature of a language isthat it consists of words.If we write English,we recognizewords on the page -they have a space on either side;welearn to spell them, play games with them like Scrabble,and look them up in dictionaries.It ought not to be difficultto know what a word is and how to describe it.
Yet when we look a little more closely,a word turnsout to be far from the simple and obvious matter weimagine it to be. Even if we are literate English-speakingadults,we are often unsure where a word begins andends.Is English-speaking one word or two?How do wedecide about sequences like lunchtime (lunch-time,lunch time),dinner-time, breakfast time?How manywords in isn't,pick-me-up,CD?Children who cannot yetread have little awareness of word boundaries,and often learn about them through word games,like Tm thinkingof a word that rhymes with...'.
世界图书出版公司是国内*早通过版权贸易出版影印海外科技图书和期刊的出版机构,为我国的教学和科研作出了重要的贡献。作为读者,我自己也是得益于这项工作的人之一。现在世界图书出版公司北京公司打算引进出版一套“西方语言学视野”系列丛书,一定也会受到广大研究语言、教学语言的人士的欢迎。
世界图书出版公司的宗旨是,把中国介绍给世界,把世界介绍给中国。我认为,从总体上讲,在今后相当长一段时间内,把世界介绍给中国这项任务还是主要的。西方的语言学在过去几十年里的发展和变化是很快的,新理论、新方法、新成果很多,特别是在语言学和其他学科的交叉方面。跟我们的近邻日本相比,据我所知,我们翻译、引进西方语言学著作无论在速度还是数量上都是有差距的。不错,从《马氏文通》开始,我们就在不断地引进和学习西方的语言学理论和方法,有人会问,这样的引进和学习还要继续到哪**?其实,世界范围内各种学术传统的碰撞、交流和交融是永恒的,我们既要有奋起直追的勇气、独立创新的精神,也要有宽广平和的心态。要使我们的语言研究领先于世界,除了要继承我们传统中的**部分,还必须将别人先进的东西学到手,至少学到一个合格的程度,然后再加上我们自己的创新。