试卷《科目：语言学导论.doc

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四川外语学院重庆南方翻译学院
2010 －2011 学年第 1 学期
2007级《语言学导论》期末考试试卷（A卷）
考试方式：闭卷 考试时间：100分钟
二级学院： 专业： 班级：
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I. Please read each of the following statements carefully, decide which one of the four choices is best and put the letter A, B, C, or D in the Answer Sheet. (25 points)

1. The distinction between competence and performance is similar to the distinction between____B__.
A. prescriptive and descriptive B. langue and parole
C. speech and writing D. sentence and utterance

2. “A rose by any other name would smell as sweet”, the famous quotation from Shakespeare’s play “Romeo and Juliet”, well illustrates__C_____.
A. the productivity of language B. the duality of language
C. the arbitrariness of language D. the displacement of language

3. The different phones which can represent a phoneme in different phonetic environments are called the __D_____ of that phoneme.
A. phonemes B. phones C. phonetics D. allophones

4. Of the three speech acts,   linguists are most interested in the __B___ because this kind of speech act is identical with the speaker’s intention.
A. locutionary act    B. illocutionary act 
C. perlocutionary act          D. constative act

5. “Tom broke the windows.” __B_____ “Tom did something.”
A. presupposes B. entails
C. is synonymous with D. is consistent with

6. What cooperative maxim is violated in the following dialogue?
A: Can you answer the telephone?
B: I am in the bath.
The maxim of____C____.
A. quality B. quantity C. relation D. manner

7. “We can do things with words” is the main idea of __A____.
A. the speech act theory B. the cooperative principle
C. pragmatics D. language acquisition

8. The well-known formula: S→r...s→R was put forward by__A___.
A. Bloomfield B. Firth C. Chomsky D. Saussure

9.The relation between “food” and “bread” is called___D____.
A. synonymy B. polysemy C. homonymy D. hyponymy

10. That there is no direct link between language and the real world is the view of ___B_____ concerning the study of meaning.
A. naming B. conceptualist C. contextualist D. behaviorist

11. Tom: Thanks for your help.
Li Ming: No, don’t thank.
Li Ming’s improper response is attributed to __D_____from Chinese.
A. overgeneralization B. fossilization
C. positive transfer D. negative transfer

12. What is the full name of LAD? D
A. Language Associative District B. Language Acquisition District
C. Language Associative Device D. Language Acquisition Device

13. What is Sapir-Whorf Hypothesis mainly about? A
A. language and thought B. speech and act
C. thought and behavior D. speech and thought

14. Speech act theory was originally proposed by__A____.
A. Austin B. Searle C. Chomsky D. Richard

15. Zhang Tao, an English learner, has learned that adding “ed” to the end of a verb is the rule for regular past tense formation and so he says: “My wife goed to Beijing.” Zhang Tao’s mistake is attributed to ___D____.
A. fossilization B. negative transfer
C. positive transfer D. overgeneralization

16. Which of the following meanings is not a term of Geoffrey Leech? C
A. Conceptual meaning B. Social meaning
C. Lexical meaning D. Thematic meaning

17. Which of the following is not the focus of pragmatics？ C
A. contextual meaning B. utterance meaning
C. metaphorical meaning D. speaker meaning

18. “I can refer to Confucius even though he was dead 2,000 years ago.” This shows that language has the design feature of _D____.
A. arbitrariness B. creativity C. duality D. displacement

19. The pair of words “lend” and “borrow” are __B____.
   A. gradable opposites            B. relational opposites
   C. co-hyponyms                    D. synonyms

20. The level of syntactic representation that exists before movement takes place is commonly termed the __D____.
   A. phrase structure           B. surface structure
   C. syntactic structure          D. deep structure

21. The utterance "We're already working 25 hours a day, eight days a week.”
Obviously violates the maxim of ___A___.
A. quality    B. quantity     C. relation   D. manner

22. A bilingual speaker often uses two languages alternatively during a
conversation with another bilingual speaker, a speech situation known as __D___.
A. discourse role-switching     B. activity role-switching   
C. social role-switching       D. code-switching

23. Chomsky uses the term __D___ to refer to the actual realization of a
language user’s knowledge of the rules of his language in linguistic communication.
A. langue     B. competence C. parole     D. performance

24. Transformational-Generative Grammar was introduced by _C___in 1957.
A. L. Bloomfield    B. F. Saussure
C. N. Chomsky    D.M. A. K. Halliday

25. Which of the following best states the behaviorist view of child language acquisition? A
A. Language acquisition is a process of habit formation.
B. Language acquisition is the species-specific property of human beings.
C. Children are born with an innate ability to acquire language.
D. Humans are equipped with the neural prerequisites for language.

II. Judge whether each of the following statements is true or false. Put a T for true or F for false in the brackets in front of each statement. (10 points)

( F ) 1. Syntactic category refers to sentences (S) and clauses (C) only. 
( T ) 2. Only when a maxim of Cooperative Principle is blatantly violated and the hearer knows that it is being violated does conversational implicature arises.
( F ) 3. A large portion of grammatical errors in second language acquisition can be explained by mother tongue interference.
( T ) 4. Creole is originally a pidgin that has become established as a native language in some speech communities.
( F )5. Modern linguistics is mostly descriptive, but sometimes prescriptive.
( F ) 6. researchers have proved that, in the behaviorist learning theory, correction and reinforcement are really key factors in child language development.
( T ) 7.An important difference between traditional grammarians and modern linguists in their study of language is that the former tended to over-emphasize the written form of language and encourage people to imitate the "best authors" for language usage.
( F ) 8. Since language is arbitrary, learners of a foreign language should pay more attention to the arbitrariness instead of the conventionality of language.
( T ) 9. According to Chomsky, a speaker can produce and understand an unlimited number of sentences because he possesses an internalized set of rules about his language.
( F ) 10. Generally speaking, the standard language is more effective in expressing ideas than any other dialect which is coexisting with it.

III. Explain the following terms, using one or two examples for illustration. (15 points)

1. Arbitrariness
The arbitrariness of language lies in the fact that there is no logical connection between the linguistic form and its corresponding linguistic meaning. A good example is the fact that different sounds are used to refer to the same object in different languages.
2. Language transfer
Language transfer is a phenomenon that L2 learners subconsciously use their L1 knowledge in their learning process.
3. Lingua franca
A lingua franca is a variety of language that serves as a medium of communication among groups of people for diverse linguistic backgrounds. A lingua franca must be an agree-upon “common tongue” used by people thrown in social contact for various purposes. For example, the spoken language of modern China 普通话, known as the “common speech”, serves as an effective lingua franca among speakers of 56 different nationalities. English is an international lingua franca, used in numerous social and political situations where a common language is asked for.
4. Standard language
The standard language is a supposed, socially prestigious dialect of language. It is the language employed by the government and the judiciary system, used by the mass media, and taught in educational institutions, including school settings where the language is taught ass a foreign or second language. For example, the common speech of the Chinese language and King’s English in Britain.
5. Euphemism
A euphemism is a mild, indirect or less offensive word or expression that replaces a taboo word or serves to avoid more direct wording that might be harsh, unpleasantly direct, or offensive, e.g. "pass away" for "die".

IV. Answer the following questions according to what you’ve learned in linguistics. (50 points)

1. Suppose you are considering X for a position that involves philosophical studies. The recommendation letter written by X’s professor, Mr. Smith, is given below:

Dear Sir,
Mr. X’s command of English is excellent, and his attendance at tutorials has been regular.
Yours sincerely,
John Smith

1) What maxim or maxims does the professor seem to flout?
2) What implicature would you draw about X for this position?
3) Why do you think the professor phrased the letter this way?

This professor obviously flouts the maxim of quantity. The information provided by the professor is less than what is wanted. He cannot be unable, through ignorance, to say more, since the man is his pupil; moreover, he knows that more information that is wanted. He must, therefore, be wishing to impart information that he is reluctant to write down. This supposition is tenably only on the assumption that he thinks Mr. X is no good at philosophy. This, then, is what he is implicating.

2. Discuss the different theories of child language acquisition with reference to the behaviorist learning model and the nativist biological model.

According to the behaviorist view, language acquisition is a process of habit formation. A child’s verbal behavior is conditioned through association between a stimulus and the following response. Children are believed to gradually assume correct forms of the language of their community when their “bad” speech gets corrected and when their good speech get positively reinforce.
According to nativist view, language acquisition is a genetically determined capacity that all humans are endowed with. Humans are predisposed or biologically programmed to acquire at least one language. Language development can thus be regarded as analogous to other biological developments in human growth and maturation, such as the growth and maturation of one’s limbs and organs. Humans are equipped with the neural prerequisites for language and use.
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