1章现代语言学.doc

1章：
一．1.linguistics:Linguistics is generally defined as the sciengific study of languuage.
2.phonitics:The study of sounds which are used in linguistics communication is called phonetics.For example ,vowels and consonants.
3.phonology:The study of how sounds are put together and used is communication is called phonology.For example ,phone,phoneme,and allophone.
4.Morphology:The study of the way in which morphemes are arranged to form words is called morphology.For example,boyand “ish “—boyish,teach---teacher.
5.syntax:The study of how morphemes and words are combined to form sentences is called syntax.For example,”John likes linguistics.”
6.semantics:The study of meaning in language is called semantics.For example.”The seal could not be found.The zoo keeper became worried.”The seal could not be found .The king became worried.Here the word seal means different things.
7.pragmatics:The study of meaning in context of use is called pragmatics.For example.”I do “.The word do means differently in different context.
8.Sociolinguistics:The study lof language with reference to society is called sociolinguistics.For example,regional dialects,social variation in language.
9.psycholinguistics:The sdudy of language with reference to the workings of mind is called psycholinguistics.
二．1．Why is language not entirely arbitrary?
Because there are words in every language that imitate matural sounds ,such as crash ,bang in English.Besides,some compound words are also not entirely arbitrary.These words can not be made freely.
2.Why is language culturally transmitted and why are animal call systems genetically transmitted?
Beacause the details of any language are not genetically transmitted,but instead have to be taught and learned anew.It is passed on from one generation to another through teaching and learning rather than by instinct.In contrast ,animals are born with the capacity to produce the set of calls peculiar to their species,so animal call systems are genetically transmitted.
3.Language has the design feature of duality.Why ?
The duality nature of language means that language is a system,which consists of two sets of structures,or two levels,one of sounds and the other of meanings,At the lower or the basic level,there is the structure of sounds,which are meaningless.At the higher level,the units can be arranged and rearranged into an infinite number of sentences.
4.Why is productivity unique to language?
Language is productive or creative in that it makes pollible the construction and interpretation of new signals by its users .The user can send messages which no one else has ever sent before.
5.What doed the displacement feature of language mean?
Displacement means that language can be used to refer to thingswhich are present or not present,real or imagined matters in the past,present,or future,or in far-away places,In other words,language can be used to refer to contexts removed from the immediate situations of the speaker.
6.How is modern linguistics different from traditional grammar?
Moedrn linguistics differs from traditional grammar .Traditional grammar is prescriptive;it is based on “high”(religious,literary)written language.It sets models for language users to follow.But Modren linguistics is descriptive;its investigations are based on authentic,and mainly spoken language data.It is supposed to be scientific and objective and the task of linguists is supposed to describe the language people actually use,whether it is “correct”or not.
7.What is the distinction between a synchronic study and a diachronia study?
Language exists in time and changes through time.The description of a language at some point in time is a synchronic study,the description of a language as it changes through time is a diachronic study. Asynchronic study of language describes a language as it is at some particular point in time,while a diachronic study of language is a historical study;it studies the historical development of language over a period.
8.Why doed modren linguistics regard the spoken form of language as primary?
Speech and writing are the two major media of communication.Modern linguistics regards the spoken form of language as primary,but not the written form,because the spoken form is prior to the written form and most writing systems are derived from the spoken form of language.
9.What do langue and parole mean respectively?
Langue and parole are French words.Langue refers to the abstract linguistic system shared by all the members of a speech community,and parole refers to the realization of langue in actual use.Langue is the set of conventions and rules which language users all have to follow while parole is the concrete use of the conventions and the application of the rules.
10.How does chomsky define competence and performance respectively?
Chomsky defines competence as the ideal user`s knowledge of the rules of his language,and performance the actual realization of this knowledge in linguistic communication.
2章:phonology
一.1.phonetics:The study of sounds that are used in linguistic communication is called phonetics.
2.Phonology:The study of how sounds are put together and used in communication is called phonology.
3.phone :Phones can be simply defined as the opeech sounds we use when speaking a language.Aphone is a phonetic unit or segment .It does not necessarily distinguish meaning;some do,some don`t.
4.phoneme:Phonology is concerned with the speech sounds which distinguish meaning.The basic unit in phonology is called phoneme;it is a unit that is of distinctive value.
5.allophone:The different phones which can represent a phoneme in different phonetic environments are called the allophones of that phoneme.
plementary distribution:These two allophones of the same phoneme are said to be in complementary distribution.
7.minimal pair :When two different forms are identical in every way except for one sound segment which occurs in the same place in the strings,the two words are said to form a minimal pair.
8.stress:When a certain syllable of a word is stressed ,it means that the syllable is pronounced with greater force than the other or others.
9.tone :Tones are pitch variations,which are caused by the differing rates of vibration of the vocal cords ,Pitch variations can dis tinguish meaning just like phonemes ;therefore ,the tone is a ruprasegmental feature.
10.intonation:When pitch ,stress and sound length are tied to the sentence rather than the word in isolation,they are collectively known as intonation.Intonation plays an important role in conveying meaning in almost every language,especially in a language like English.
二.1.Why does linguistics regard speech as the primary rather than writing?
Speech and writing are the two major media of communication.modrn linguistic regards the spoken form of language as primary,but not the written form ,because the spoken form is prior to the written form and most writing systems are derived from the spoken form of language.
2.hat is the basic difference between a consonant and a vowel?
The basic difference between a vowel and a consonant is that in the pronunciation of a vowel ,the air stream from the lungs meets no obstruction of any kind in the throat ,the nose ,or the mouth ,while in the pronunciation of a consonant,the air stream from the lungs is obstructed in one way or another.
3.How do you set up the allophones of the same phoneme?
Which allophone is to be used is detemined by the phonetic context in which it occurs.But the choice of an allophone is not random or haphazard in most cases;it is rule-governed .One of the tasks of the phonologist is to find out these rules.
4.Why are stess,tone and intonation called the suprasegmental phonemes?
The phonemic features that occur above the level of the segment are called suprasegmental phonemes;these are the phonological properties of such units as the syllable,the word ,and the sentence.The main suprasegmental features include stress,tone,and intonation.
3章：phonology
一．1.morphology:Morphology is a branch of grammar which studies the internal structure of words and the rules by which words are formed.
2.inflectional morphology:Inflectional morphology studies the inflections of word –formation.
3.derivational morphology”Derivational morphology is the study of word-formation.
4.morpheme:Morpheme is the smallest meaningful unit of language.
5.free morpheme:Free morphemes are the morphemes which are independent units of meaning and can be used freely all by themselves or in combination with other morphemes.
6.bound morpheme:Bound morphemes are the morphemes which cannot be used independently but have to be cmbined with other morphemes ,either free or bound ,to form a word.
7.root:Aroot is often seen as part of a word ;it can never stand by itself although it bears clear ,defintte meaning;it must be combined with another root or an affix to form a word. 8.affix:Affixes are of two types :inflectional and derivationa.
9.prefix:Prefixes occur at the beginning of a word.
10.suffix:Suffixers are added to the end of the stems;tyey modify the meaning of the original word and in many cases change its part of speech.
11.derivation:Derivational affixes are added to an existing form to create a word .Derivation can be viewed as the addition of affixes to stems to form new words.
pounding:Like derivation,compounding is another popular and important way of forming new words in English.Compounding can be viewed as the combination of two or sometimes more than two words to create new words.
二．1.What are the two sub-branches of morphology?What does each of them study?
Morphology is divided into two sub-branches:inflectional morphology and lexical or derivational morphology.
2.What is free morpheme?What is bound morpheme?And low are they different from each other?
Free morphemes are the morphemes which are independent units of meaning and can be used freely all by themselves or in combination with other morphemes.Bound morphemes are the morphemes which cannot be used independently but have to be combined with other morphemes,either free or bound ,to form a word.
3.What are inflectional and derivational affixes?What grammatical meanings do the main inflectional affixes in English convey?
Derivational affixes are added to an existing form to create a word .Prefixes occur at the beginning of a word and suffixes at the end .Prefixes modify the meaning of the stem.Suffixes are added to the end of the stems;they modify the meaning of the original word and in many cases change its part of speech.
4.How do you distinguish a compound noun from a noun phrase?
Syntactically,the part of speech of the compound is denerally determined by the part of speech of the second element ,e.g,icycold adj.head-strong adv.Greenhouse n.But ther are many exceptions,especially with those compounds ending with a verb or an adverb or a preposition,For example ,follow-up ,crackdown,kickoff are all nouns instead of adverbs ,and toothpick,snowfall,and facelift are nouns instead of verbs.
5.Why is the meaning of a compound often idiomatic?
Semantically,the meaning of a compound is often idiomatic,not always being the sum total of the meanings of its components .For example,a greenhouse is not a house that is green.In order to find out the meaning of a compound,one sometimes has to consult the dictionary instead of doing some guess work.
4章:syntax
一.1.linguistic competence:Chomsky defines competence as the ideal user`s knowledge of the rules of his language,and performance the actual realization of this knowledge in linguistic communication.
2.sentence:Asentence is a stuucturally independent unit that usually comprises a number of words to form a complete statement,puestion or command.
3.transformational rules :Syntactic movement is governed by transformational rules.The operation of the transformational rules may change the syntactic representation of a sentence.
4.D-structure:A sentence may have two level of syntactic representation.One sentence may have two levels of syntactic representation.One exists before movement takes place.the other occurs after movement takes place.In formal linguistic exploration.these two syntactic representations are commonly termed as D-structure.
5.Move a:Just as there is a teneral rule for all phrase structure rules ,I,E the X-bar schema,there is a general movement rule accounting for the syntactic hehavior of nay constituent movement.This movement rule is called Move a.
二.1.why is syntax regarded as a system of rules?
As a major component of grammar ,syntax consists of asset of abstract rules that allow words to be combined with other words to form grammatical sentences .Asentence is considred grammatical then it is in agreement with the grammatical knowledge in the mind of native speakers .Universally found in the grammars of all human languages,syntactic rules comprise the system of internalized linguistic knowledge of a language speaker known as linguistic competence.
2.what is the major goal of lingustics?
Linguistics is generally defined as the scientific study of language.The word “language”in this definition implies that linguistics studies not any particular language,but languages in general.The word “study”does not mean “learn”but “investigate”or “examine”.And the word “scientific”refers to the way in which language is studied.
3.what is the fundamental aim in the linguistic analysis of a language according to Noam Chomsky?
Chomsky thinks that linguists should study the ideal speaker`s competence,but not his performance.
4.why are the syntactic rules of a language finite in mumber?