语言学基础知识试卷

北京林业大学

2004年硕士研究生入学考试语言学基础知识试题

I. Below are some questions and statements with missing words, each followed by four possible answers or fillers marked A, B, C and D. In some cases, only one choice is correct while in others more than one should be chosen. Choose ALL the correct ones. (30 points, 2 points each)

1. Language is ______.

A. a means of verbal communication

B. a purposeful act

C. social and conventional

D. true of both human beings and animals

2. A linguistic study is ______ if it describes and analyses facts observed.

A. prescriptive

B. synchronic

C. diachronic

D. descriptive

3. The sounds in the production of which there is an obstruction of the airstream at

some point of the vocal tract are known as ______.

A. consonants

B. places of articulation

C. vowels

D. manners of articulation

4. [f] is a ______.

A. voiced bilabial stop

B. voiceless bilabial fricative

C. voiceless labiodental fricative

D. voiced labiodental fricative

5. [i] is a ______.

A. high front unrounded vowel

B. high front rounded vowel

C. high middle vowel

D. high back vowel

6. Which of the following is a broad transcription of the word rap?

A. [r?p]

B. [λ??p]

C. [λ??h]

D. [λ???]

7. The basic unit of phonological analysis is the ______.

A. allophone

B. phoneme

C. sound

D. minimal pair

8. Look at the following examples:

i) the man went to the theater ii) *man to the theater went the

It shows the importance of ______ in producing the acceptable utterance in a language.

A. word order

B. substitutability

C. co-occurrence

D. constituents

9. Which of the following are instances of Case?

A. Animate

B. Accusative

C. Nominative

D. Dative

10. Which of the following are related to Noam Chomsky?

A. Generative Grammar.

B. Functional Grammar.

C. Standard Theory.

D. GB Theory.

11. Which of the following are related to M A K Halliday?

A. Transformational Grammar.

B. Functional Grammar.

C. Binding Theory.

D. Theme and Rheme.

12. Which of the following are areas of sociolinguistics?

A. Variations.

B. Sexism

C. Register.

D. “Garden Path” sentences.

13. How to Do Things with Words was written by ______.

A. John Austin

B. William James

C. H. P. Grice

D. Stephen Levinson

14. The Cooperative Principle was formulated by ______.

A. John Austin

B. William James

C. H. P. Grice

D. Stephen Levinson

15. Which of the following contains a metaphor?

A. O, my luve is like a red, red rose

B. All the world’s a stage

C. And all the men and women merely players

D. Death lays his icy hand on kings

II. Decide whether the following statements are True (T) or False (F). (20 points, 2 points each)

1. The relationship between sound and meaning is arbitrary.

2. The narrow transcriptions of speak and peak are [spi:k] and [pi:k] respectively.

3. The following rule shows “complementary distribution”:

/p/ [p=] / [s]______

[p h] in other places

4. Tense and aspect are two important categories of the verb.

5. The phrase poor John is an endocentric construction.

6. The standard theory refers to the theory of grammar outlined in Chomsky’s Lectures on Government and Binding.

7. An Introduction to Functional Grammar(1985, 1994) was written by M A K Halliday.

8. Sociolinguistics studies how language is affected by social factors.

9. In the following exchange, Guest has violated the Maxim of Relevance:

Host: Would you like a cocktail? It’s my own invention.

Guest: Well, mmm uh it’s not that we don’t not drink.

10. The following sentence is an instance of metaphor:

The world is like a stage.

III. Define the following terms. (25 points, 5 points each)

1. interpersonal function

2. syntagmatic relation

3. the semantic triangle

4. the Sapir-Whorf Hypothesis

5. I-narrators

IV. Discuss the phonological rule that underlies the third person singular present tense forms of verbs in English. Keep in mind the following forms:

1) He works eight hours a day, six days a week.

2) The girl comes here every Saturday.

3) She uses the computer at night.

(25 points)

V. Determine the allomorphy of the prefix in- on the basis of the data below. Group the data according to the variants and try to determine which kinds of base take which kinds of prefix allomorph and what kind of mechanism is responsible for the allomorphy. Formulate a rule and then test it against prefix-base pairs that are not mentioned below.

irregular incomprehensible illiterate

ingenious inoffensive inharmonic

impenetrable illegal incompetent

irresistible impossible irresponsible

immobile illogical indifferent

inconsistent innumerable inevitable

(25 points)

VI. Explain John Austin’s theory of illocutionary act. (25 points)

试题答案

I. 多选题：共30分，15题，每题2分。

1. ABC

2. D

3. A

4. C

5. A

6. A

7. B

8. A

9. BCD 10. ACD

11. BD 12. ABC 13. A 14. C 15. BC

II. 正误题：共20分，10题，每题2分。

1. T

2. F

3. T

4. T

5. T

6. F

7. T

8. T

9. T 10. F

III. 解词：共25分，5题，每题5分。

1. interpersonal function: the most important sociological use of language, by which people establish and maintain their status in a society. In Functional Grammar, it is concerned with interaction between the addresser and addressee in the discourse situation and the addresser’s attitude toward what he speaks or writes about.

2. syntagmatic relation:a relation between one item and others in a sequence, or between elements which are all present, such as the relation between weather and the others in If the weather is nice, we’ll go out.

3. the semantic triangle:a theory which explicitly employs the notion “concept”proposed by Ogden and Richards in their The Meaning of Meaning. They argue the relation between a word and a thing it refers to is not direct. It is mediated by concept. In a diagram form, the relation is represented as follows:

concept

word--------------------thing

4. the Sapir-Whorf Hypothesis: Our language helps mould our way of thinking and, consequently, different languages may probably express our unique ways of understanding the world.

5. I-narrators: The person who tells the story may also be a character in the fictional world of the story, relating the story after the event. In this case the critics call the narrator a FIRST-PERSON NARRATOR or I-NARRATOR because when the narrator refers to himself or herself in the story the first person pronoun I is used.

IV. 答题：满分为25分。

The 3rd person singular present verb suffix, -(e)s in written form, is pronounced in three different ways: [s], [z], and [?z].

Through analysis of data, we can see that /z/ appears after voiced sound [m], /s/ is found after voiceless consonant [k], while /?z/ occurs after sibilant [s]. If we examine more words, we find that they follow the same kind of pattern. It is easy to see that (1) /s/ is used when the preceding sound is a voiceless consonant other than the voiceless sibilants, (2) /z/ occurs when the preceding sound is a vowel or a voiced consonant

other than the voiced sibilants, and (3) /?z/ follows any of the sibilants.

Now, the three variants of the 3rd person singular present verb form in English are applied in the following fashion:

(1) a. The /s/ appears after voiceless sounds.

b. The /z/ appears after voiced sounds.

c. The /?z/ appears after sibilants.

In order to bring out the rule that governs this pattern, we need to say that /z/, which occurs in the most cases, is the basic form and the other two forms are derived from it. The basic form is technically known as the“underlying form” or “underlying representation(UR)”. The derived form is the “surface form” or “surface representation(SR)”. Therefore, /s/ is a matter of devoicing and /?z/ is a case of epenthesis. The two rules are represented as follows:

(2) z → s / [-voice, C] _____ (Devoicing)

(3) ? →? / sibilant _____ z (Epenthesis)

With these two rules at hand, we can see if we can derive the correct SRs from the URs. Consider the derivations in (4):

(4) a. //si:t + z// b. //b?d + z// c. //ke?s + z//

s N/A s Devoicing

N/A N/A N/A Epenthesis

si:ts b?dz ke?ss Output

Clearly, something has gone wrong. The problem is that Devoicing will always apply to /z/ after a voiceless consonant and then there is never the environment for Epenthesis to apply. The obvious solution is to say that Epenthesis will always apply before Devoicing, as in (5):

(5) a. //si:t + z// b. //b?d + z// c. //ke?s + z//

N/A N/A ?Epenthesis

s N/A N/A Devoicing

si:ts b?dz ke?s?z Output

Thus, in this particular case, we have to follow a specially stipulated “rule ordering”. If this order is disturbed, incorrect derivation will result.

V. 答题：满分为25分。

There are five groups of words, each of which has a different allomorph of in-. The table below lists the words accordingly, with the pertinent allomorph in the first row. [?n] [?n] or [??] [?m] [?l] [?r] inharmonic incomprehensible impenetrable illiterate irresponsible ingenious incompetent impossible illegal irresistible inoffensive inconsistent immobile illogical irregular indifferent

inevitable

innumerable

What governs the distribution of the allomorphs is the first sound of the base word, to which the final consonant of the prefix assimilates. Thus, before a labial consonant like [m] or [p], we find [?m], before base-initial [l] we find [?l], before [r] we find [?r], before the velar consonant [k] we find in rapid speech [??] (with a velar nasal), and in careful speech [?n]. In all other cases [?n] is obligatory. Assuming an

underlying form /?n/, the morpho-phonological rule for the prefix in- looks as follows: /?n / {[?n], [??]} / ___[velar]

/?n / [?m] / ___[labial]

/?n / [?l] / ___[l]

/?n / [?r] / ___[r]

/?n / [?n] / elsewhere

The above rule system could be further streamlined by eliminating the first rule, because, strictly speaking, the realization [??] is optional. Unlike the other rules, this alternation is not demanded by the morpho-phonology of the prefix, but is due to a more general mechanism of assimilation in fast speech. For example, in Cambridge is also optionally pronounced with a velar nasal in fast speech registers.

We can test the predictions made by the rules by looking at base words which provide the pertinent environments and can take the prefix in-, such as correct, moveable, legible, rational, adequate. When prefixed, the forms are pronounced [?n]correct(or [??]correct), [?m]moveable, [?l]legible, [?r]rational, and [?n]adequate, supporting the above rules.

VI. 答题：满分为25分。

In the latter part of How to Do Things with Words, Austin made a fresh start on the problem and considered it from the ground up again, i.e. in what sense to say something is to do something.

In his opinion, there are three senses in which saying something may be understood as doing something. The first sense is an ordinary one. That is, when we speak we move our vocal organs and produce a number of sounds, organized in a certain way and with a certain meaning. In this sense, when someone says “Morning!”, we can ask a question like “What did he do?”instead of “What did he say?”And the answer could be that he produced a sound, word or sentence—“Morning!” The act performed in this sense is called a LOCUTIONARY ACT. Within this act, however, Austin suggests that there is another act. “[I]n performing a locutionary act we shall also be performing such an act as: asking or answering a question, giving some information or an assurance or a warning, announcing a verdict or an intention, pronouncing sentence, making an appointment or an appeal or a criticism, making an identification or giving a description, and the numerous like”. For example, to the question “What did he do?” when the person concerned said “Morning!”, we could perfectly well say “He offered a greeting.”

In other words, when we speak, we not only produce some units of language with certain meanings, but also make clear our purpose in producing them, the way we intend them to be understood, or they also have certain forces as Austin prefers to say. In the example of “Morning!” we can say it has the force of a greeting, or it ought to have been taken as a greeting. This is the second sense in which to say something is to do something, and the act performed is known as an ILLOCUTIONARY ACT. Austin acknowledges that the force can be regarded as part of meaning, when the latter is used in a broad sense. So in the example we are considering, we can also say “He meant it as a greeting”. In the retort “What do you mean?”, the word mean is used in the broad sense, too. But Austin thinks it is better to distinguish force from meaning, with the latter used in a narrow sense, or what we called the more constant, inherent side of meaning. Thus interpreted, force, or illocutionary force, may be said to be equivalent to speaker’s meaning, contextual meaning, or extra meaning.

The third sense in which to say something can mean to do something concerns the

consequential effects of a locution upon the hearer. By telling somebody something the speaker may change the opinion of the hearer on something, or mislead him, or surprise him, or induce him to do something, etc. Whether or not these effects are intended by the speaker, they can be regarded as part of the act that the speaker has performed. This act, which is performed through, by means of, a locutionary act, is called a PERLOCUTIONARY ACT.

For example, by saying “Morning!” to someone, the speaker has made it clear that he wants to keep friendly relations with the hearer. This friendliness on the speaker’s side will definitely have effects on the hearer. When the two interlocutors are on normal terms, the effect may be negligible. But if there were any tensions between them, a simple “Morning!”from one side may bring about great changes in their relationship. The other may accept his show of friendship, and be friends with him again. In this case, we can say “He’s made peace with his friend” in response to the question “What did he do?” when the person concerned said “Morning!”. On the other hand, the hearer may have some prejudice against the speaker, and take his friendliness as an instance of hypocrisy. As a result, the speaker’s greeting may lead their relationship from bad to worse. Though this effect is not what the speaker had originally intended, it is still a perlocutionary act performed by him. This brings up another difference between the illocutionary act and perlocutionary act, i.e. one is related to the speaker’s intention and the other not.

Defined in this way, the locutionary act is what linguists have been studying all along. That is, how sounds, words and sentences are made, and what inherent meanings they have. The perlocutionary act involves many psychological and social factors, of which we are still more or less in the dark. So the illocutionary act is what Austin really driving at. In this sense, speech act theory is in fact a theory of the illocutionary act.