文档视界 最新最全的文档下载
当前位置:文档视界 › Chapter 1 Language and Linguistics

Chapter 1 Language and Linguistics

Chapter 1   Language and Linguistics
Chapter 1   Language and Linguistics

Chapter 1 Language and Linguistics

1.1What is language?

1.2The design features of language

1.3The origin of language

1.4What is linguistics

1.5 The scope of linguistics

1.6 A brief history of linguistics

1.6.1 Saussure as the father of modern linguistics

1.6.2 American structuralism

1.6.3 Generative linguistics

1.6.4 Functional linguistics

Chapter 1 Language and Linguistics

1.5What is language?

Language is something that we use almost every day, but we will feel at a loss when asked to define what language is. A most common definition of language might be: Language is a means of human communication. The merit of this definition consists in its brevity and popularity among users of language, yet it does not necessarily follow that it is an adequate definition. For example, it points out only the instrumental aspect of language and does not actually tell us what language is. Suppose someone has never seen a train and asks you what a train is. Do you think he will be satisfied with a simple answer like “a train is a means of transportation”? Furthermore, the term human communication also needs further explanation, because communication can happen in various forms, such as gestures, pictures, smoke signals, traffic lights, noises in the throat, or even occasionally secret codes, but none of them can be regarded as language.

The above-mentioned definition of language is not exhaustive in many other aspects as well.

First of all, we have been talking about “language”, rather than “a language”, “the languages”or “languages”. In other words, we use the word “language”in the singular form without the definite or indefinite article, but the word can certainly be used in other forms. We can talk about languages, because there are several thousand kinds of languages in the world, although the total number of world languages has been decreasing since the 20th century. Thus, the language we use or learn is only a language shared by a certain amount of people.

Second, we can also use the word “language” to refer to some special features of language use by an individual or people in a certain period of history, such as Shakespearean language or

19th century language. Indeed, some radical linguists even argue that everyone’s use of language is unique or that language is changing all the time, which might provide obstacles to communication. That explains why a teacher sometimes may not understand the jargons used among students.

There are many other uses of the word “language”. The Webster’s Dictionary (Third Edition) provides 13 annotations of the word and perhaps this list is still not yet exhaustive. It can be argued that the dictionary definition of a word is not academic enough, but the situation is even more complicated among linguists, who tend to provide definitions of language from their own theoretical perspectives. Or to put it the other way round, the way a linguist defines language indicates the theoretical perspective that the linguist takes. The following definitions of language are quoted from John Lyons’Language and Linguistics (Lyons, 1981: 3-7):

●According to Sapir, “language is a purely human and non-instinctive method of

communicating ideas, emotions and desires by means of voluntarily produced symbols”.

●According to Bloch and Trager, “a language is a system of arbitrary vocal symbols by

means of which a social group co-operates.”

●Hall defines language as “the institution whereby humans communicate and interact with

each other by means of habitually used oral-auditory symbols”.

●Chomsky points out that a language is “a set (finite or infinite) of sentences, each finite

in length and constructed out of a finite set of elements.”

The list of definitions of language can be continued, but we can detect from the above definitions the common aspects of language that linguists generally agree upon and a summary of these common aspects can serve as a definition of language of our own. To begin with, language is a system, which means that language must consist of finite rules observed by the language users to guarantee the success of communication. Second, language is a system of vocal symbols, which suggests that spoken forms are more cardinal to a language than written forms. Illiterate people can communicate with others at ease even though they do not know how to read and write. Third, communication is an important aspect of the function of language though language can also be said to perform other functions. If we look at language from the angle of the relationship between people, we can argue that language is a means of human interaction. If we look into the psychological aspect of language, we will see language as a kind of knowledge that language

speakers share. Fourth, the language we study in linguistics is human language in general, although other forms of communication can also be touched upon and may shed new light on human linguistic communication. Fifth, language is arbitrary in the sense that the relation between speech sounds (form) and the ideas the sounds convey (meaning) is arbitrary.

To sum up, language can be defined as an arbitrary system of vocal symbols used for human communication and interaction.

1.2The design features of language

The structural linguist C. F. Hockett (1958) proposed a set of key properties of human language, which are said to be the design features that distinguish human language from the system of communication in any other species, such as bees’dancing, birds’singing and even music. Hockett identified 13 features, and later linguists differ from each other as to the number, name and perhaps importance of these features. However, most linguists would recognize the following features as most important, that is, arbitrariness, duality, productivity, displacement and cultural transmission.

Arbitrariness refers to the property of language which means that there is no intrinsic relation between sound and meaning. In Saussure’s terms, arbitrainess refers to the arbitrariness of the relation between sound image and concept. As Hudson (1984: 19) puts it, there is no reason why we attach the meaning “animal with a grunt and a curly tail” to the sequence of sounds p-i-g other than the (perfectly good) reason that this is what we found others doing in our particular community when we arrived on the scene, so we are simply following their example. What Juliet says in Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet makes a lot of sense: “What’s in a name? That which we call a rose by any other name would smell as sweet.” From this quotation we can say that what matters is what something is, not what or how it is called. This reveals the truth about the arbitrariness of language. Arbitrariness can also be illustrated by cross-linguistic evidence: different sounds are used to signify the same object in different languages. To put it the other way round, the same meaning is represented by different sounds in different languages.

Duality is the property of having two levels of structure or patterning. At the first, higher level, language is analyzed in terms of combinations of meaningful units (such as morphemes or words); at the second, lower level, language is composed of a sequence of segments (phonological

units) which do not have any meaning in themselves. For instance, in the sentence He goes to school, at the first higher level, the sentence consists of meaningful units, he, go, -es (a morpheme indicating third person singular number), to, school. At the lower level, these meaningful units are made up of phonological units, /h/, /i:/, /g/, /? /, etc. Therefore, duality is also termed double articulation. The articulation of words or other meaningful units is the primary articulation, that of phonological units within words the secondary articulation. Duality is a design feature that enables language to be productive, because language users can use or produce a large number of forms by combining a relatively small number of lower-level elements in a variety of different ways.

Productivity, also termed creativity, refers to the creative capacity of language users to produce and understand an infinitely large number of sentences, including sentences they have never used or heard before. Productivity is one of the distinctive features of human language because it allows novel combinations of elements and thus contrasts with the “unproductive”communication systems of animals.

Displacement means that human beings can talk about objects or events which do not belong to the immediate setting in space and time. This is a very normal property of communication in human beings, rarely demonstrated in other species. As Bertrand Russell once said, no matter how eloquently a dog may bark, he cannot tell you that his parents were poor but honest. Human language can be used to talk about real or imagined matters in the past, present, or future. We can write science fictions, tell fairy tales, handle generalizations and abstractions, and even lie and deceive by means of language. This is the chief reason why linguists tend to believe that language is a more distinctive feature of human species than any other features like the use of tools or the size of brain, etc.

Cultural transmission means the transmission of language from one generation to the next through members of a society as opposed to genetic inheritance. In other words, the details of the linguistic system must be learned anew by each speaker. Though the capacity for language in the human being has a genetic basis, the particular language one learns is a cultural fact rather than a genetic one.

1.3The origin of language

Although interest in the origin of language dates back to antiquity, we are still far knowing

when and how language arose. There are three well-known theories concerning the origin of language: the divine-origin theory, the invention theory and the evolution theory.

The divine-origin theory suggests that language is God’s gift to mankind. According to Genesis of the Bible, God created Adam and gave him the power to name all things. Similar stories can be found in many religions of the world about a divine source who provides humans with language.

The invention theory maintains that language is a human invention. This theory is manifested in the five theories summarized by the Danish linguist Otto Jespersen (1922) with the following names:

●The bow-wow theory: Language originated by the imitation of natural sounds such as

animal calls. The evidence for this theory is the existence of onomatopoeic words in language.

●The pooh-pooh theory: Language arose from instinctive cries of emotion, such as pain,

anger, pleasure, fear and surprise. This theory can be supported by the interjections in language.

●The ding-dong theory: Language arose out of people’s responses to the things around then

by sounds. The original sounds people made were supposedly in harmony with the world around them. This can be explained by sound symbolism, which is the phenomenon that vocal sounds suggest meaning. One frequently cited example is the “gl-” words for shiny things: glisten, gleam, glint, glare, glam, glimmer, glaze, glass, glitz, gloss, glory, glow, and glitter. Similar to the ding-dong theory, the oral-gesture theory suggests that language is an oral mirror of physical gestures through the movement of the tongue, lips and other vocal organs. One possible example is the oral gesture (movement of the tongue) in a “goodbye”

message as a vocal mimicry of the physical gesture (waving of the hand or arm).

●The yo-he-ho theory: Language developed out of the rhythmical grunts of humans working

together. Examples supporting this theory are the prosodic features, especially of rhythm in language.

●The la-la theory: Language derived from sounds associated with the romantic aspect of life,

such as song, love, art and poetry.

The evolution theory maintains that language developed in the course of the evolution of the

human species. The development of language is closely related to the evolutionary development of the speech organs, especially the oral cavity and the pharyngeal cavity. For example, the shapes of human teeth, lips and the tongue evolved in such a way that enables humans to produce a variety of speech sounds. However, some people think that the major evolutionary step in the development of language relates to evolutionary changes in the brain (Fromkin & Rodman, 1983: 28). As Yule (1996/2000: 5) puts it, there is an evolutionary connection between the tool-using and language-using abilities of humans, as both are related to the development of the human brain and are largely confined to the left hemisphere of the brain for most humans. The evolution theory seems to provide a better explanation for the origin of language than the divine-origin theory and the invention theory.

1.4What is linguistics

Linguistics is often defined as the science of language or as the scientific study of language. However, people constantly challenge the possibility of rendering linguistics scientific, because it is first and foremost the study of language by means of language and thus people have every reason to suspect whether linguistic theories are simply the result of linguists’play on words. Furthermore, linguistics clearly belongs to the humanities and social sciences, which are obviously different from disciplines like physics, chemistry or biology, whose scientific status is unquestioned.

Linguistics is a science because linguists share the goal of scientific enquiry, which is objective understanding. The primary aim of linguistics is to understand the nature of language and of languages. Linguists attempt to construct theories of language, and to apply theoretical considerations to a description or analysis of language or languages. Objectivity is the most important principle of the scientific method. In order to obtain objectivity in linguistic study, linguists should see and describe a language as it is, not as what they think it ought to be. Language is something that we tend to take for granted, something with which we are familiar from childhood in a practical and unquestioning manner. As a result, there are some biases that we assume to be truth but are actually unjustifiable. For example, people tend to believe that their own language is the easiest to learn, but scientific study shows that learning a foreign language is equally difficult or easy if you like, though there are rare cases of individuals who seem to be

talented for learning new languages. Another deep-rooted bias is that only the standard variety is the pure or correct form of a language, such as the kind of English spoken by BBC and VOA announcers or the kind of Mandarin Chinese spoken by CCTV news broadcasters.

Linguistics is scientific in its methodology. It is concerned with observing facts about language, setting up hypotheses, testing their validity and accepting or rejecting them accordingly. To avoid biases of the kinds mentioned above, modern linguists differ from traditional grammarians in adopting empirical rather than speculative or intuitive approaches in their study. Here follows the first distinction between modern linguistics and traditional grammar. That is, linguistics is descriptive rather than prescriptive. That is, linguists try to make statements which are testable, and take language as it is rather than say how it should be. The empirical approach to language that linguists adopt usually consists of four stages: data collection (usually in the form of a corpus), tentative rule construction, tentative rule examination and rule finalization. Unlike the traditional grammarians, linguists do not believe that there is any absolute standard of correctness concerning language use which school teachers should view as their duty to maintain. Instead, linguists prefer to be observers or recorders of facts.

The second contrast between modern linguistics and traditional grammar is that linguistics regards the spoken language as primary, not the written. Traditional grammar tends to emphasize the importance of the written language and the writings or styles of classical writers are considered the most prestigious (if not the best) form of language that learners should imitate. Linguists, however, give priority to the spoken language, though the written language is also part of linguistic research.

Thirdly, linguistics differs from traditional grammar in that it does not force languages into a Latin-based framework. In the past, Latin was considered the language that provided a universal grammar for all languages and other languages were forced to fit into Latin patterns and categories, especially its case system and tense divisions of past, present and future.

It must be emphasized, however, that linguistics, like any other discipline, builds on the past, not only by challenging and refuting traditional doctrines but also by developing and reformulating them. When criticizing traditional grammar for being unscientific, linguists do not deny altogether the contributions of traditional grammar to the development of modern linguistics.

A balanced view on traditional grammar, therefore, is needed in order to track down the continuity

of Western linguistic theories from the earliest times to the present day (See Chapter 4 for a detailed discussion of traditional grammar).

1.5 The scope of linguistics

Language has been studied from different points of view and different dimensions of linguistics can be distinguished according to the point of view that is adopted or the special emphasis that is laid on certain aspects of language.

The first distinction to be made is between general and descriptive linguistics. General linguistics deals with language, aiming at developing a theory that describes the rules of human language in general. Descriptive linguistics, on the other hand, is the study of particular languages, attempting to construct models that describe the rules of individual languages like Chinese, English and Russian. However, it should be made clear that general linguistics and descriptive linguistics are by no means unrelated. Instead, each depends on the other explicitly or implicitly. For example, general linguistics provides descriptive linguistics with a general framework in which a particular language can be studied.

The second dichotomy to be drawn is between diachronic linguistics and synchronic linguistics. The former is the study of language change, for example the change in grammar from Old English to Modern English; the latter is the study of a language existing in a “state” at one particular point in time, regardless of its historical change, for example, the grammar of Old English or Modern English. In the 19th century, linguists were chiefly concerned with investigating the historical development of particular languages and formulating hypotheses about language change. Such an approach to the historical development of language was termed diachronic description of language by the Swiss linguist Ferdinand de Saussure, who argued that priority should be given to the synchronic description of language, that is, the study of language as it is at some particular point in time.

The third distinction is between theoretical linguistics and applied linguistics. According to Lyons (1981: 35), “theoretical linguistics studies language and languages with a view to constructing a theory of their structure and functions and without regard to any practical applications that the investigation of language and languages might have, whereas applied linguistics has as its concerns the application of the concepts and findings of linguistics to a

variety of practical tasks, including language-teaching.” Two points are especially worthy of note here. First, the distinction between theoretical linguistics and applied linguistics does not entail that there is no theoretical concerns in applied linguistics at all. Instead, hypothesis formulation and confirmation are also of vital importance to applied linguistics. Secondly, in talking about the distinction between theoretical linguistics and applied linguistics, people generally neglect the distinction between theoretical linguistics and general linguistics, just as illustrated by Lyons (1981: 35), “the goal of theoretical linguistics is the formulation of a satisfactory theory of the structure of language in general.”

General linguistics attempts to establish a workable theory of language at all levels. On the basis of the stratification of language and the corresponding foci of study, we can further divide general linguistics into several sub-branches, that is, phonetics, phonology, morphology, syntax, semantics. These areas are traditionally said to form the core of linguistics, because they deal with the mostly formally structured aspects of language. Although the primary object of description for linguists is the structure of language, many linguists study this in relation to its functions and in relation to social and cultural factors. As a result, pragmatics has come to be regarded as a branch of study in general linguistics.

In contrast with the core of linguistics, there are also branches of linguistics often called macrolinguistics where there is an interdisciplinary and applied orientation. Linguists have drawn on recent discoveries or developments from other areas of study and come up with enlightening views on language. This leads to the emergence of studies like psycholinguistics, sociolinguistics, cognitive linguistics, anthropological linguistics, computational linguistics, forensic linguistics, applied linguistics, and so on. Studies in all these aspects contribute from different perspectives to the edifice of linguistics as a whole.

1.6 A brief history of linguistics

Linguistics dates back to more than 2000 years ago and scholars from different civilizations have all contributed much to the study of language. For example, linguistics is termed Xiaoxue (The Primary Learning) in ancient China and perhaps Xunzi is the first philosopher in the world who pointed out the arbitrary relationship between Name (名) and Object(实). In the Indian culture, the grammarian Pānini dealt with rules of word formation in the Indian language

systematically, in the form of a set of 4000 aphoristic statements, in the era between 5th and 7th centuries BC. The Western linguistic tradition can be traced back to ancient Greek times around 500 BC. Serious considerations of linguistic issues can be found in Platonic and Aristotelian writings. Modern linguistics evolves from the Western tradition of linguistic study, which is greatly influenced by the pioneering work of Saussure.

1.6.1 Saussure as the father of modern linguistics

Saussure is considered the father of modern linguistics because the book under his name Course in General Linguistics is the first systematic elaboration on linguistic theory. Published in 1916, three years after Saussure’s death, the book was actually a collection of the notes taken by his students during his lectures. Saussure’s central ideas were expressed in the form of pairs of concepts called dichotomy: diachronic versus synchronic, langue versus parole, signifiant versus signifié, and syntagmatic versus paradigmatic.

We have mentioned above the distinction between diachronic and synchronic approaches to language. The former sees language as a continually changing medium; the latter views it as a living whole, existing i n a “state” at a particular moment in time. Saussure’s ideas were revolutionary in this aspect because he called for the priority of synchronic study of language, which was opposed to the 19th century historical linguistic tradition. According to Saussure, it is always necessary to carry out synchronic work: Before we can say how a language changed from State X to State Y, we should know something about X and Y.

Langue and parole are recognized by Saussure to be the two composing aspects of language. Langue is the totality of a language or the abstract language system shared by all the members of a speech community, while parole is the realization of langue in actual use, that is, the concrete act of speaking at a particular time and in a specific situation.

Signifiant and signifiéare the two aspects of meaning in a linguistic sign. Signifiant (signifier) refers to the thing that signifies, and signifié (signified) is the thing or concept signified. The relationship between them is seen by Saussure as arbitrary.

“Syntagmatic” and “paradigmatic” are the contrasting terms employed by Saussure to describe the relationships between linguistic signs of a language. When the signs are seen as a linear sequence, the relationship between them is syntagmatic. A paradigmatic (or “associative”)

relation is a relation between a linguistic sign in an utterance and other signs in the language. These two dimensions of structures can be applied to phonology, vocabulary, or any other aspect of language, rendering the conception of language as a vast network of interrelated structures and mutually defining entities, a linguistic system.

1.6.2 American structuralism

The American linguistic tradition chiefly originates from the American anthropologists’concern to establish adequate description of the American Indian languages and cultures on the brink of extinction. Since the American Indian languages presented drastically different kinds of structure from the European languages, and there were practically no written records to rely on, anthropologists had to develop some efficient and systematic procedures to provide a careful account of the speech patterns of the living languages. Among these anthropologists were scholars like Franz Boas and Edward Sapir, who were pioneering structural linguists as well.

American structuralism flourished from the 1920s to the late 1950s. The structural approach to language description and analysis was synthesized in the book Language (1933) by Leonard Bloomfield. This book dominated linguistic thinking for over 20 years and led to progress not only in the studies of phonetics, phonology, morphology and syntax of the American Indian languages but also in the descriptive studies of grammar and phonology of the English language. The Bloomfieldian approach was termed structuralism chiefly because it employed techniques to identify and classify features of sentence structure, especially the analyses of sentences into constituent parts.

However, the influence of American structuralism diminished in the 1950s, especially after Noam Chomsky put forward the notions of generative linguistics as a reaction against structuralism.

1.6.3 Generative linguistics

In 1957, Noam Chomsky published Syntactic Structures, in which he developed the conception of generative grammar. Chomsky might have intended the book as a challenge to the structuralist tradition in America but the impact of this book has gone beyond its era and later proved to be a milestone in the history of modern linguistics.

Chomsky’s theory on language is termed generative linguistics or grammar because it attempts to describe a native speaker’s tacit grammatical knowledge by a system of rules that can generate the well-formed, or grammatical, sentences of a language while excluding all the ungrammatical, or impossible, sentences. The basic tenets of the Chomskyan view on language in the early days are expressed in a set of terms or hypotheses he proposed, including the dichotomy between competence and performance, universal grammar, deep structure and surface structure, and transformational rules.

To Chomsky, linguistics should discover the mental realities underlying the way people use language and thus he proposed the distinction between competence and performance. Competence refers to an ideal speaker’s knowledge of his language as manifest in his ability to produce and understand a theoretically infinite number of sentences. Performance refers to the actual use of the language by individuals in speech and writing. Chomsky argues that linguistics should be chiefly concerned with the study of competence rather than restrict itself to performance, something characteristic of structuralists, who conducted linguistic research on the basis of samples or collected data. Such samples are inadequate because they might contain many non-fluencies, changes of speech plan, slips of the tongue and other defects.

Chomsky argues that linguistics can not only provide an adequate account of competence in one language, but also establish principles of grammar shared by all languages, that is, the universal grammar, which can in the long term, shed light on the nature of human mind. The ambition that Chomsky cherishes stimulates a wide range of interest from scholars from many disciplines and has substantially influenced academic domains like psychology, pedagogy, computer science, artificial intelligence and even economics.

Another important pair of concept proposed by Chomsky is deep structure and surface structure. The major aim of generative grammar, according to him, is to provide a means of analyzing the process of deriving surface structures from deep structures. In his own practice in analyzing the English language, Chomsky put forward sets of generative rules and transformational rules, and it is precisely for this reason that Chomsky’s theory is also termed Transformational-generative (TG) grammar.

1.6.4 Functional linguistics

Unlike generative linguistics, functional linguistics does not have one unanimously recognized leading figure, nor even generally acknowledged theoretical tenets. What we can be sure of is that early functional linguistics flourished chiefly in Europe, with scholars taking up Saussure’s ideas and developing schools of thought that emphasized the study of functions of language in general, or the study of linguistic features in particular texts or contexts.

The first noteworthy school of functional linguistics is perhaps the Prague School, represented by linguists in Czechoslovakia, who founded the linguistic circle of Prague. Notably, the Prague School linguists emphasized the function of units and applied the idea to the study of phonology. The important concept of phoneme in distinguishing or demarcating words, for instance, is the creation of the Prague School linguists. Leading figures in this school include Nikolais Trubetzkoy, Roman Jacobson and V. Mathesius, etc.

The Copenhagen School is a group of linguists who constituted the Copenhagen Linguistic Circle in the mid-1930s. Led by Louis Hjelmslev, the school developed a philosophical and logical basis for linguistic theory. They developed an approach to linguistics known as Glossematics or neo-Saussurean linguistics.

The London School is represented by the British linguist J. R. Firth and his followers. Distinguished from other theorists of his generation, Firth insisted that language should be studied as part of a social process. A linguist’s data were for him events embedded in specific contexts and therefore he emphasized the importance of context in linguistic studies at all levels. In addition, he argued for the polysystemic principle of study, that is, the principle of analyzing language patterns with different systems at different contextual frameworks. Firth’s influence is widespread and the systemic linguistic school established by his student M. A. K. Halliday has much in common with his notions and thus is sometimes termed the neo-Firthian school.

In America, functional linguistics flourished since 1970s, when formalism still held sway, and became mature in the 1980s and 1990s. However, interest in functional approaches to language in America can be traced back to Franz Boas (1858-1942), Edward Sapir (1884-1939) and Benjamin Lee Whorf (1897-1941). In the 1960s-70s, the contributions made by Dwight Bolinger, Wallace Chafe, Charles Fillmore and Charles Li paved the way for functionalism in America. The major functional approaches include: Tagmemics, Case Grammar, Stratificational Grammar, Discourse Grammar, Role and Reference Grammar, Cognitive Grammar, and so on.

Further Reading

Hudson, R. 1984. Invitation to Linguistics. Oxford: Blackwell.

Lyons, J. 1982. Language and Linguistic s. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

Robins, R. H. 2002. A Short History of Linguistics. 北京:外语教学与研究出版社. Traugott, E. C. & Pratt, M. L. 1980. Linguistics for Students of Literature. New York: Harcourt Brace Jovanovich, INC.

Yule, G. 2000. The Study of Language. 北京:外语教学与研究出版社.

第一章 财务分析导论

?导入案例:股神巴菲特 ?第1章财务分析概论 ?第2章财务分析的信息基础 ?第3章偿债能力分析 ?第4章盈利能力分析 ?第5章资产营运能力分析 ?第6章企业发展能力分析 ?第7章企业财务综合分析 ?第8章风险信用分析与财务预警分析 ?第1章财务分析概论 ? 1.1 财务分析的产生与发展 ? 1.2 财务分析的主体与目的 ? 1.3 财务分析的主要内容与程序 ? 1.4 财务分析的基本方法 ? 1.1 财务分析的产生与发展 ?最早的财务分析开始于银行家 一般认为财务分析产生于19世纪末20世纪初,主要为银行服务的信用分析?资本市场形成后,公司筹资范围扩大,财务分析发展到投资领域。 为股权投资者服务:受托责任分析盈利能力分析 ?随着公司组织的进一步发展,公司经营者也逐步认识到财务分析的重要性, 财务分析延伸至企业内部。 为公司经理决策服务的内部分析 ?现代财务分析领域的扩展 资本市场、企业重组、绩效评价、企业评估等 ?思考:企业并购,不进行财务分析行不行? ?2010年上半年,国内市场上发生了这样一个并购案:上市公司A收购非上市公司B的股权。B公司的基本财务数据:净资产总额1.2亿元,2009年度的净利润为0.3亿元。A公司聘请的资产评估师对B公司评估的结果是:成本法评估的净资产价值为1.6亿元,收益法评估的净资产价值为3亿元。而最终双方股东确定的B公司的净资产价值为3.6亿元。 ?在这个案例中,出现了几个与财务报表、企业价值评估等有关的术语,如净资产、净利润、成本法、收益法等。 ? 1.2 财务分析的主体与目的 ?美国南加州大学教授Water B. Meigs认为,财务分析的本质在于搜集与 决策有关的各种财务信息,并加以分析与解释的一种技术。 ?美国纽约市立大学Leopold A. Bernstein 认为,财务分析是一种判断的 过程,旨在评估企业现在或过去的财务状及经营成果,其主要目的在于对企业未来的状况及经营业绩进行最佳预测。 ?台湾政治大学教授洪国赐认为,财务分析以审慎选择财务信息为起点, 作为探讨的根据;以分析信息为重心,以揭示其相关性;以研究信息的相关性为手段,以评核其结果。 ?引导案例: ?国内某著名旅游公司计划增加几项新的娱乐设施,包括购建垂直过山车道、 U形滑板、四维影院、峡谷漂流设施、露天游泳池以及改进现有基础设施

Chapter1会计概论答案

第一章会计透视:会计信息及其使用者▓复习思考题 1.概述会计的性质。 会计是按照会计规范确认、计量、记录一个组织的经济活动,运用特定程序处理加工经济信息,并将处理结果传递给会计信息使用者的信息系统,是组织和总结经济活动信息的主要工具。 会计是一个信息系统,会计处理的各个环节的加工的对象是会计信息。会计信息实际上是一种广义的信息,包含三个层次: 其一,以货币化指标体现的财务信息,它是从动态、静态两个角度,对特定主体经济资源的数量(资产)、归属(负债、所有者权益)、运用效果(收益分配)、增减变化及其结果(财务状况变动及其结果)进行描述; 其二,非货币化的和非数量化的说明性信息,它们不仅仅是对主体的财务状况、经营成果等财务指标的基本说明,而且还包含了大量的主体所处的社会、文化、道德、法律等环境信息,这些信息对于使用者正确判断主体的经营能力、发展前景,往往起到至关重要的作用; 其三,其他用于主体内部管理的信息,这些信息常常由成本会计、管理会计以及内部审计人员提供,主要包括了短期(长期)决策信息、预算信息、责任中心要求及履行情况等情况,虽然与外部性较强的财务会计信息相比,它们更容易为人们所忽略,但在经济管理和财务信息质量控制方面,它们也起了不可低估的作用。不过,在当前的会计报告模式中,所反映的会计信息主要是前两个层次上的信息。 2.企业的获利能力是否为债权人的主要考虑因素? 债权人关心那些影响自己的债权能否得到按期偿还的因素。他们会对公司的获利能力及清偿能力感兴趣。债权人会从获利能力去衡量未来的现金流量,由于企业的获利能力与现金流量并不一定同步产生,所以对短期债权人来说,企业的获利能力不能成为债权人的主要考虑因素,但对相对长期的债权人来说获利能力应该是值得更加关注的因素。 3.财务报表中体现出来的会计信息用以满足不同使用群体的需求,但并不是所有的使用者都能得到相同的满足的。在实践中,外部财务报表使用者诸如股东、供应商、银行等是如何获得有关公司的财务信息的?若要同时满足不同类别的财务报表使用者的信息需求有什么困难? 首先,股东是公司法定的所有者,法律上财务报表是为其制作的。法律规定,公司必须定期编制并发布财务报表,为其股东公布财务信息,我国《公司法》对此也有明确的规定。 其次,供应商与公司是商业伙伴关系,不提供商业信用的供应商,由于是钱货两讫,可通过报媒和网络了解公司公开财务的财务信息,如果供应商对公司提供商业信用,供应商可要求企业提供一定的财务信息,但对这些财务信息的准确性、可靠性需要有一定的分析。

第一章总则概论

第一章总则 第一条为进一步强化财务管理,规范本系统财务收支和会计核算,提高资金使用效益,形成高效廉洁、团结协作的会计群体,促进劳动保障事业的发展,根据《会计法》、《行政事业单位会计制度》、《社会保险基金财务制度》、《社会保险基金会计制度》以及有关地方性财政法规,结合本局实际情况,特制定本制度。 第二条本制度适用于本局机关及直属事业单位,技工学校参照执行。 第三条财务管理的基本原则:贯彻执行国家有关法律、法规和财务规章制度;量入为出、保证重点、兼顾一般,注重资金使用效益;厉行节约,制止奢侈浪费;正确处理事业发展需要和资金供给关系,社会效益和经济效益的关系,国家、集体、个人三者利益关系。 第四条财务管理的基本任务:合理编制部门预算,全面反映单位财务状况;依法积极组织收入,努力节约支出;建立健全内部财务管理制度,并依据制度对本单位的一切收支活动进行控制和监督;对下属事业单位的财务活动进行指导、监督;加强国有资产管理,防止资产流失。 第五条本单位财务机构在单位负责人的领导下,具体对本局和直属事业单位的一切财务活动进行统一管理,任何单位、部门均不得私设“小金库”,搞账外账。

第六条单位负责人对本单位的一切财务经济活动负领导责任,对本单位的会计工作和会计资料的真实性、完整性负责。 第二章财务机构设立及会计岗位职责的划分 第七条本局设立人力资源和社会保障财务管理中心(以下简称财务中心),为单位唯一财务机构,在局长的领导下,统一管理各项财务会计工作。财务中心实行主任负责制,内设经费和基金两个核算组,每个核算组分别配备一名副主任,负责本核算组的日常业务工作,另设总账会计、辅助会计、出纳会计岗位。会计岗位实行定期轮换。 第八条经费核算组岗位职责 经费核算组负责局机关及所属事业单位行政事业经费的会计核算和财务管理工作。 一、出纳会计岗位职责 1、严格执行现金管理制度,根据合法有效的原始凭证,在规定范围内办理现金支付、公务卡结报、转账结算等业务。实行收支两条线管理,不得坐支。妥善保管现金和有价证券,确保资金的安全完整。不得将公款擅自借与他人和挪作他用,不得白条抵库。 2、严格按手续制度办事,做到收支有据,原始凭证有经手人、证明人、审核人、审批人签字,有用途说明。对不

保险学概论第一章课后答案

第一章风险与保险 思考练习 一、术语解释 风险——风险是指损失的不确定性。 风险因素——风险因素是指引起或增加风险事故发生的机会或扩大损失幅度的原因和条件。它是风险事故发生的潜在原因,是造成损失的内在的或间接的原因。 风险事故——风险事故又称风险事件,是造成生命财产损失的偶发事件。也就是说,风险事故是损失的媒介,是造成损失的直接的或外在原因。 损失——在风险管理中,损失是指非故意的、非预期的和非计划的经济价值的减少。 纯粹风险——纯粹风险是指那些只有损失机会而无获利可能的风险。 投机风险——投机风险是指那些既有损失机会,又有获利可能的风险。 静态风险——静态风险是指由于自然力的不规则作用,或者由于人们的错误或失当行为而招致的风险。 动态风险——动态风险是指以社会经济的变动为直接原因的风险,通常由人们欲望的变化、生产方式和生产技术以及产业组织的变化等所引起。 责任风险——责任风险是指由于社会个体(经济单位)的侵权行为造成他人财产损失或人身伤亡,依照法律负有经济赔偿责任,以及无法履行合同致使对方受损而应负的合同责任,所形成的风险。 信用风险——信用风险是指在经济交往中,权利人与义务人之间,由于一方违约或违法行为给对方造成经济损失的风险。 可保风险——可保风险是指可被保险人接受的风险,或可以向保险人转移的风险。 保险——保险是集合具有同类风险的众多单位或个人,以合理计算分担金的形式,实现对少数成员因约定风险事故所致经济损失或由此而引起的经济需要进行补偿或给付的行为。 自愿保险——自愿保险是指投保人和保险人在平等自愿的基础上,通过签订保险合同而建立保险关系的保险。 强制保险——强制保险又称法定保险,是指国家对一定的对象以法律、法令或条例规定其必须投保的一种保险。 风险管理——风险管理是指经济单位通过对风险的识别和衡量,采用合理的经济和技术手段对风险加以处理,以最小的成本获得最大安全保障的一种管理行为。 二、思考题 1.什么是风险?风险有哪些特征? 答:风险是指损失发生的不确定性。风险具有客观性、普遍性、不确定性、可测性和可变性的特征。 2.简述风险的构成要素及其相互之间的关系。

第一章 保险概论

第一章保险概论 第一节保险的要素与特征 一、保险的含义 保险作为分散风险、消化损失的一种经济补偿制度,可以从不同的角度揭示其含义。 从经济角度看,保险是分摊意外损失、提供经济保障的一种财务安排。投保人交纳保险费购买保险,实际上是将其面临的不确定的大额损失转变为确定性的小额支出,将未来大额的或持续的支出转变成目前的固定性的支出。通过保险,提髙了投保人的资金效益,因而被认为是一种有效的财务安排。人寿保险中,保险作为一种财务安排的特性表现得尤为明显。因为人寿保险还具有储蓄和投资的作用,具有理财的特征。正是从这个意义上说,保险公司属于金融中介机构,保险业是金融业的一个重要组成部分。 从法律角度看,保险是一种合同行为。保险合同当事人双方在法律地位平等的基础上,签订合同,承担各自的义务,享受各自的权利。《中国人民共和国保险法》(以下简称《保险法》)规定:“本法所称保险,是指投保人根据合同约定,向保险人支付保险费,保险人对于合同约定的可能发生的事故因其发生所造成的财产损失承担赔偿保险金责任,或者当被保险人死亡、伤残、疾病或者达到合冋约定的年龄、期限等条件时承担给付保险金责任的商业保险行为。” 从风险管理角度看,保险是风险管理的一种力法,或风险转移的一种机制。通过保险,将众多的单位和个人结合起来,变个体对付风险为大家共同对付风险,从而提高对风险损失的承受能力。保险的作用在于集散风险、分摊损失。 二、保险的要素 保险的要素是指进行保险经济活动所应具备的基本条件。现代商业保险的要素包括五个方面的内容。 (一)可保风险的存在 可保风险也称可保危险或保险危险,是指符合保险人承保条件的特定风险。理想的可保风险应具备六个基本条件: 1.风险应当是纯粹风险。纯粹风险是一种只有损失机会,没有获利可能的风险。具体地说,风险事故发生以后,保险关系双方亊人面临的只有损失机会,

《保险财务会计》第一章 保险公司会计理论课后练习

《保险财务会计》 第一章保险公司会计理论课后练习 一、单项选择题共7 题 1、保险会计的基本特征是()。 A . 风险计量 B . 实物计量 C . 劳动计量 D . 货币计量 参考答案:D 2、某一年度中可以用于当年赔款支出的保费收入可以称为()。 A . 入账保费 B . 未赚取保费 C . 已赚取保费 D . 预收保费 参考答案:C 3、坏账准备计提方法一经确定,不得随意变更,这种做法体现了()。 A . 客观性原则 B . 可比性原则 C . 历史成本计价 D . 谨慎性原则 参考答案:B 4、提取未到期责任准备金的时间是()。 A . 月末

B . 发生保险事故的当期 C . 年末 D . 确认保费收入的当期 参考答案:D 5、保险会计的基本职能是()。 A . 投资和理财 B . 管理和控制 C . 实现股东价值最大化 D . 核算和监督 参考答案:D 6、某公司期初负债总额为65 000元,所有者权益总额为82 000元,现发生一笔收回外单位欠款4000元保费的经济业务,该业务发生后该公司的资产总额为()。 A . 151 000 B . 147 000 C . 155 000 D . 143 000 参考答案:B 7、下列属于所有者权益的是()。 A . 短期借款 B . 库存现金 C . 保费收入 D . 一般风险准备金 参考答案:D

二、多项选择题共 5 题 1、保险公司特殊性体现在哪些方面() A . 会计核算 B . 会计监督 C . 会计计量 D . 财务分析 参考答案:ABD 2、保险会计的分类是() A . 财产保险 B . 人寿保险 C . 再保险 D . 意外保险 参考答案:AB 3、保险会计基本假设() A . 会计主体 B . 持续经营 C . 会计假设 D . 会计分期 参考答案:ABD 4、会计的计量属性() A . 历史成本 B . 重置成本

保险会计练习题1

练习题 习题一 一、目的:练习非寿险原保险合同保费收入的核算。 二、资料:保险公司发生下列经济业务: 1.业务部门交来家财险保费日报表和保费收据存根,以及现金50000元,该业务是保单生效时收到全部保费。 2.收到业务部门交来的某企业货运险保费曰报表、保费收据存根以及银行收账通知,共计1 000 000元。该业务自下月10日起,保险公司承担保险责任。 3. 10日,上述业务保险责任开始生效。保费收入共计5 000 000元,又收到现款(由银行转账)3,140,000元;余款尚未收到。 4.某厂投保企业财产险,保费120000元,约定一个月后缴付。 5.公司收到上述保费120000元。 6.某厂投保企财险半年后,因特殊情况退保,应退5500元,但该厂尚有应收保费4300元未收。 7.某企业投保财产综合险,与公司签订保险单,双方约定保费为200 000 元?分期付款。首期已收到40 000元,其余保费分8期,每期20 000元收取。 8.某集团公司为其管理职员100人投保一年期团体人身意外伤害险,保险金额为50 000元,每人每年缴保费80元,合计8 000元。该笔保费已收妥入账。 9.某中学为在校学生3000人投保一年期学生团体平安险,保险金额为5 000元,按规定每人每年缴保费10元,合计30 000元,经特别约定分两次缴清,投保时支付80%,两个月后支付20%。 三、要求:根据上述资料,编制有关会计分录。

习题二 一、目的:练习非寿险原保险合同准备金的核算。 二、资料:保险公司发生下列经济业务: 1.某公司货物运输保险全年一年期直接承保的保费收入为80000 000元,试按1/2法计算该公司年末未到期责任准备金的数额。 2.某公司财产保险综合险一年期保单订立于第二季度和第四季度,其保费收入分别为120万元、150万元?试按1/8法计算该公司年末未到期责任准备金的数额。 3.某公司机动车辆保险一年期保单订立于2月、4月、7月、9月,其保费收入分别为80万元、60万元、100万元、110万元,试按1/24法计算该公司9月末和12月末未到期责任准备金的数额。 4.某公司财产保险合同当期保费收入1200 000元,根据保险精算计算结果,本期提取未到期责任准备金320 000元。年末,按保险精算重新计算确定的结果未到期责任准备金余额应为250 000元。 5.某一财产保险合同提前解除,该合同已提取未到期责任准备金18 000 元。 6.某公司2007年6月已决赔款累计数为450 000元,2006年6月已决赔款累计数为495 000元,业务部门提供未决赔款清单上已报案的未决赔款金额为940 000元,根据保险精算计算结果,本期应提取已发生已报案未决赔款准备金320 000元,已发生未报案未决赔款准备金72 500元,理赔费用准备13 000元。

《保险会计》习题及标准答案

《保险会计》习题及答案

————————————————————————————————作者:————————————————————————————————日期:

第一章总论 (4) 第二章保险会计基本核算方法 (6) 第三章原保险业务的核算(上) (9) 第四章原保险业务的核算(下) (11) 第五章再保险业务的核算 (14) 第六章保险公司投资业务核算 (16) 第七章固定资产和无形资产的核算 (19) 第八章保险公司负债的核算 (22) 第九章所有者权益的核算 (25) 第十章收入、费用和利润的核算 (28) 第十一章保险公司财务报告 (31) 保险会计综合实验 (33)

第一章总论 一、填空题 1、保险公司会计具有一般会计的共性,既是一个信息系统,又是一种(管理活动)。 2、保险会计的基本前提,主要包括(会计主体)、持续经营、会计分期和(货币计量)。 3、反映保险公司财务状况的会计要素包括资产、(负债)和所有者权益,反映保险公司经营成果的会计要素包括收入、(费用)和(利润)。 4、保险公司的利润由(营业利润)和营业外收支净额两部分组成。 5、保险会计信息质量要求具体包括可靠性、(相关性)、可理解性、(可比性)、实质重于形式、(重要性)、谨慎性和及时性。 二、判断题 ( V )1、保险公司年终决算的重点是正确估算负债。 ( X )2、会计分期是指假设企业的经营活动将无限期地持续下去。 ( X )3、保险公司的负债主要项目是各种责任准备金,且具体的债务人及债务金额和偿还时间较为确定。 ( V )4、保险公司所有者权益中除实收资本、资本公积、盈利公积和未分配利润外,还包括计提的总准备金。 ( V )5、保险公司保费收入与一般企业收入性质不同,它介于收入与负债之间。 三、单选题 1、下列保险会计诸多目标中,保险监管部门最关心的是( D )。 A、帮助会计信息使用者进行投资与决策。 B、呈报企业的经济资源、对经济资源的请求权及变动情况。 C、呈报企业的经营绩效。 D、呈报企业资金的流动性、流量及偿债能力。 2、( A )假设规范了会计工作的空间范围。 A、会计主体 B、持续经营 C、会计分期 D、货币计量 3、保险公司的注册资本最低限额为人民币( D )元。 A、3万元 B、500万元 C、1亿元 D、2亿元 4、下列关于保险公司费用的说法中,不正确的是( D )。 A、保险公司的费用是资产的耗费 B、保险公司的费用与一定的会计期间相联系。 C、保险赔款及向保险营销员支付的佣金均属于保险公司的费用。 D、保险公司提取的各种责任准备金不会产生费用。 5、( B )要求保险公司要向有关各方提供对其决策有用的信息。 A、可靠性 B、相关性 C、可理解性 D、可比性 四、多选题 1、下列关于保险公司会计特征的说法正确的是( ABC )。 A、会计核算过程与业务处理过程融合。 B、以偿付能力为核心的外部监管日趋严格。 C、保险经营成本支出与收入补偿的顺序与一般行业相反。 D、保险公司的利润具有较大的确定性。 2、下列关于保险公司资产的说法中,正确的是( BC )。 A、与其他工商企业相比,保险公司流动资产中存货比重相对较大。

《保险会计》课程教学大纲一

《保险会计》教学大纲 目录 第一部分:课程性质与任务 第二部分:教学目标 第三部分:课题与课时分配表 第四部分:课题教学内容 第一章保险会计基本理论 第二章保险公司会计制度发展与规范体系 第三章财产保险公司业务核算 第四章人寿保险公司业务核算 第五章再保险业务的核算 第六章外币业务核算 第七章流动资产核算 第八章投资性资产业务的核算 第九章固定资产、无形资产和其他资产核算 第十章负债的核算 第十一章所有者权益核算 第十二章保险公司财务会计报告 第十三章保险公司财务会计报告分析 第五部分:实践性教学环节 第六部分:大纲说明

《保险会计》课程教学大纲(会计专业) 一、课程性质与任务 1.性质:《保险会计》是将会计理论运用于保险公司的一门专业基础课。学员在完成保险学概论、会计学基础课课程的学习后,进入该课程的学习,在完成本课程的学习后,再进入各具体专业课程的学习。本课程不仅具有较强的理论性,还具有非常强的应用性。 2.任务:本课程在专业培养目标中的定位是:培养具有一般会计理论知识且掌握保险会计实务的技能型人才。通过本课程的教学,使学生能够系统地掌握保险会计基本理论与专业知识,熟悉财产保险公司业务、人寿保险公司业务、再保险业务、外币业务以及资产、负债和所有者权益的会计核算方法和操作技能,懂得保险公司财务会计报告的编制技巧和分析方法,能胜任保险公司的财务会计工作。 二、教学目标 1.概括了解保险会计理论研究动向,为学员选择主攻方向及毕业论文选题与进一步研究作好准备; 2.探讨保险会计制度特性及规律,掌握保险会计的基本理论、基本知识与基本方法,为进一步学习奠定理论基础; 3.通过保险会计专业知识运用于保险会计实务,掌握保险会计核算的具体方法和操作技能,能够胜任保险公司的财务会计工作。 三、课题与课时分配表 总学时为57课时,具体安排如下:

相关文档