语言学导论复习资料.doc

Chapter 1IntroductionI. There are four choices following each statement. Mark the choice that can best complete the statement. 1. If a study describes and analyzes the language people actually use, it is said to be CA. prescriptiveB. analytic C. descriptiveD. linguistic2. Which of the following is not a design feature of human language? DA. Arbitrariness B. Displacement C. Duality D. Meaningfulness3. Modern linguistics regards the written language as _C_. A. primary B. correct C. secondary D. stable4. In modern linguistics, speech is regarded as more basic than writing, because _D_. A.in linguistic evolution, speech is prior to writingB.speech plays a greater role than writing in terms of the amount of information conveyed.C.speech is always the way in which every native speaker acquires his mother tongue.D.All of the above5. A historical study of language is a _B_ study of language. A. synchronicB. diachronic C. prescriptiveD. comparative6. Saussure took a(n) _A_ view of language, while Chomsky looks at language from a _ point of view. A. sociological, psychological B. Psychological, sociologicalC. applied, pragmatic D. semantic, linguistic7. According to F. de Saussure, _C_ refers to the abstract linguistic system shared by all the members of a speech community.A. parole B. performance C. Langue D. language8. Language is said to be arbitrary because there is no logical connection between _B_ and meanings. A. sense B. Sounds C. objects D. ideas9. Language can be used to refer to contexts removed from the immediate situations of the speaker. This feature is called_A_. A. displacement B. duality C. flexibility D. cultural transmission 10. The details of any language system is passed on from one generation to the next through _D_ , rather than by instinct. A. learning B. teaching C. books D. both A and BII. Fill in each of the following blanks with one word which begins with the letter given.1. 1. Duality is one of the design features of human language which refers to the phenomenon that language consists of two levels: a lower level of meaningless individual sounds and a higher level of meaningful units. 2. Language is a system of arbitrary vocal symbols used for human communication. 3. The discipline that studies the rules governing the formation of words into permissible sentences in languages is called _syntax . 4. Human capacity for language has a genetic_ basis, but the details of language have to be taught and learned. 5. Parole _ refers to the realization of langue in actual use.6. Findings in linguistic studies can often be applied to the settlement of some practical problems. The study of such applications is generally known as applied_ linguistics.7. Language is productive_ in that it makes possible the construction and interpretation of new signals by its users. In other words, they can produce and understand an infinitely large number of sentences which they have never heard before.III. Define the following terms.1. Syntax: The study of how morphemes and words are combined to form sentences is called syntax. 2. Applied linguistics: In a narrow sense, applied linguistics refers to the application of linguistic principles and theories to language teaching and learning, especially the teaching of foreign and second languages. In a broad sense, it refers to the application of linguistic findings to the solution of practical problems such as the recovery of speech ability. 3. Arbitrariness: It is one of the design features of language. It means that there is no logical connection between meanings and sounds. 4. Displacement: Displacement means that language can be used to refer to things which 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. 5. Duality: The duality nature of language means that language is a system, which consists of two sets of structure, or two levels, one of sounds and the other of meanings. 6. Design features: Design features refer to the defining properties of human language that distinguish it from any animal system of communication. IV. Answer the following questions. 1. A wolf is able to express subtle gradations of emotion by different positions of the ears, the lips, and the tail. There are eleven postures of the tail that express such emotions as self-confidence, confident threat, lack of tension, uncertain threat, depression, defensiveness, active submission, and complete submission. This system seems to be complex. Suppose there were a thousand different emotions that the wolf could express in this way. Would you then say a wolf had a language similar to mans? If not, Why not?答案1. No. Hint: Wolfs way of expressing emotions does not present the defining features of human language. Examine them one by one.2. Why does modern linguistics regard the spoken form of language as primary, not the written? 答案2. While speech is the vocal/spoken form of language, writing is the written form of language. They belong to different systems though they may overlap.That speech is primary over writing is a general principle of linguistic analysis. First, speech existed long before writing systems came into being. Second, written forms just represent in this way or that the speech sounds. Third, genetically children learn to speak before learning to write. However, emphasizing the primacy of speech is by no means to deny the importance of writing, which gives language new scope and uses that speech does not have. First, with writing, messages can be carried through space and time. Second, oral message are subject to distortion, either intentional or otherwise, causing misunderstanding, while written messages remain exactly the same whether read a thousand years later or ten thousand miles away. Everything considered, speech is believed to more representative of human language than writing. Most modern linguistic analysis is thus focused on speech, different from traditional grammar of the 19th century and therebefore.3. How is modern linguistics different from traditional grammar?答案3. First, linguistics is descriptive, while traditional grammar is prescriptive. Linguistics describes languages as they are and does not lay down rules of correctness; traditional grammar emphasizes such matters as correctness and aims to prescribe what is right.Second, linguistics regards the spoken language as primary, not the written.Third, traditional grammar is based on Latin and it tries to impose the Latin categories and structures on other languages (Latin patterns and categories, especially its case system and tense divisions of past, present and future), while linguistics describes each language on its own merits. Linguists are opposed to the notion that any one language can provide an adequate framework for the others. They are trying to set up a universal framework, but that will be based on the features shared by most of the languages used by mankind.(Traditional grammar is usually based on earlier grammars of Latin and applied them, often inappropriately, to some other language. For example, some grammarians stated that English had six cases because Latin had six cases. )4. Saussures distinction between langue and parole seems similar to Chomskys distinction between competence and performance. What do you think are their major differences?答案4. According to Saussure, 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. Langue is abstract; it is not the language people actually use, but parole is concrete; it refers to the naturally occurring language events. Langue is relatively stable, it does not change frequently; while parole varies from person to person, and from situation to situation. According to Chomsky, competence is the ideal users knowledge of the rules of his language. This internalized set of rules enables the language user to produce and understand an infinitely large number of sentences and recognize sentences that are ungrammatical and ambiguous. However, performance is the actual realization of this knowledge in linguistic communication. Although the speakers knowledge of his mother tongue is perfect, his performances may have mistakes because of social and psychological factors such as stress, embarrassment, etc. Chomsky believes that what linguists should study is the competence, which is systematic, not the performance, which is too haphazard.Although Saussures distinction and Chomskys are very similar, they differ at least in that Saussure took a sociological view of language and his notion of langue is a mater of social conventions, and Chomsky looks at language from a psychological point of views and to him, competence is a property of the mind of each individual.Chapter 2 The Sounds of Language1. If two phonetically similar sounds occur in the same environments and they distinguish meaning, they are said to be in complementary distribution. F 2. A phone is a phonetic unit that distinguishes meaning. F 3. English is a tone language while Chinese is not.F 4. In linguistic evolution, speech is prior to writing. T 5. In everyday communication, speech plays a greater role than writing in terms of the amount of information conveyed. T 6. Vibration of the vocal cords results in a quality of speech sounds called voicing.T 7. English consonants can be classified in terms of place of articulation and the part of the tongue that is raised the highest. F 8. According to the manner of articulation, some of the types into which the consonants can be classified are stops, fricatives, bilabial and alveolar. F 9. Vowel sounds can be differentiated by a number of factors: the position of tongue in the mouth, the openness of the mouth, the shape of the lips, and the length of the vowels. T 10. According to the shape of the lips, vowels can be classified into close vowels, semi-close vowels, semi-open vowels and open vowels. F II. Fill in each of the following blanks with one word which begins with the letter given: 1. Of all the speech organs, the t _1. tongue _ is the most flexible, and is responsible for varieties of articulation than any other. 2. English consonants can be classified in terms of manner of articulation or in terms of p_2. place_ of articulation. 3. When the obstruction created by the speech organs is total or complete, the speech sound produced with the obstruction audibly released and the air passing out again is called a s_3. stop. 4. S_4. Suprasegmental_ features are the phonemic features that occur above the level of the segments. They include stress, tone, intonation, etc. 5.The rules that govern the combination of sounds in a particular language are called s_5. sequential_ rules. 6.The transcription of speech sounds with letter-symbols only is called broad transcription while the transcription with letter-symbols together with the diacritics is called n_6. narrow _ transcription. 7.When pitch, stress and sound length are tied to the sentence rather than the word in isolation, they are collectively known as i_ 7. intonation _. 8.P_8. Phonology_ is a discipline which studies the system of sounds of a particular language and how sounds are combined into meaningful units to effect linguistic communication. 9.T_9. Tone_ are pitch variations, which are caused by the differing rates of vibration of the vocal cords and which can distinguish meaning just like phonemes. 10.Depending on the context in which stress is considered, there are two kinds of stress: word stress and s_10. sentence_ stress. III. Define the terms below:1 Phoneme: The basic unit in phonology is called phoneme; it is a unit of distinctive value. But it is an abstract unit. To be exact, a phoneme is not a sound; it is a collection of distinctive phonetic features.2. Allophone: The different phones which can represent a phoneme in different phonetic environments are called the allophones of that phoneme.3. International phonetic alphabet: It is a standardized and internationally accepted system of phonetic transcription. 4. Intonation: When pitch, stress and sound length are tied to the sentence rather than the word in isolation, they are collectively known as intonation.5. Auditory phonetics: It studies the speech sounds from the hearers point of view. It studies how the sounds are perceived by the hearer.6. Acoustic phonetics: It studies the speech sounds by looking at the sound waves. It studies the physical means by which speech sounds are transmitted through the air from one person to another.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.Phoneme: The basic unit in phonology is called phoneme; it is a unit of distinctive value. But it is an abstract unit. To be exact, a phoneme is not a sound; it is a collection of distinctive phonetic features.IV.1What are the major differences between phonology and phonetics?答案. They differ in their approach and focus. Phonetics is of a general nature; it is interested in all the speech sounds used in all human languages: how they are produced, how they differ from each other, what phonetic features they possess, how they can be classified. Phonology, on the other hand, is interested in the system of sounds of a particular language; it aims to discover how speech sounds in a language form patterns and how these sounds are used to convey meaning in linguistic communication. 1. Illustrate with examples how suprasegmental features can affect meaning. 答案 1) The location of stress in English distinguishes meaning, such as import and import. The similar alternation of stress also occurs between a compound noun and a phrase consisting of the same elements. A phonological feature of the English compounds, is that the stress of the word always falls on the first element and the second element receives secondary stress, for example: blackbird is a particular kind of bird, which is not necessarily black, but a black bird is a bird that is black. 2) The more important words such as nouns, verbs adjectives, adverbs, etc. are pronounced with greater force and made more prominent. But to give special emphasis to a certain notion, a word in sentence