(完整word版)语言学导论复习资料
Chapter 1 Introduction
I. There are four choices following each statement. Mark the choice that can best
complete the statement.
1. If a study describes and an alyzes the Ian guage people actually use, it is said to be
C
A. prescriptive
B. analytic
C. descriptive
D. linguistic
2. Which of the follow ing is not a desig n feature of huma n Ian guage? D
A. Arbitrari ness
B. Displaceme nt
C. Duality
D. Meaningfuln ess
3. Moder n lin guistics regards the writte n Ian guage as C ________ .
A. primary
B. correct
C. sec on dary
D. stable
4. In modern linguistics, speech is regarded as more basic than writing, because
_____ D ____ .
A. in lin guistic evoluti on, speech is prior to writ ing
B. speech plays a greater role tha n writ ing in terms of the amount of in formati on
conveyed.
C. speechis always the way in which every n ative speakeracquires his mother ton
gue.
D. All of the above
5. A historical study of Ian guage is a __B__ study of Ian guage.
A. synchronic
B. diachr onic
C. prescriptive
D. comparative
6. Saussure took a(n) A view of Ian guage, while Chomsky looks at la nguage
7. Accordi ng to F. de Saussure, _C _ refers to the abstract lin guistic system shared
by all the members of a speech com mun ity.
A. parole
B. performa nee
C. Lan gue
D. la nguage
8. Lan guage is said to be arbitrary becausethere is no logical conn ecti on betwee n
__B ___ and meanin gs.
A. sense
B. Sounds
C. objects
D. ideas
9. Lan guage can be used to refer to con texts removed from the immediate situati ons
of the speaker. This feature is called _ A __ .
from a _______ point of view.
A. sociological, psychological
C. applied, pragmatic B. Psychological, sociological
D. sema ntic, li nguistic
A. displaceme nt
B. duality
C. flexibility
D. cultural tran smissi on
10. The details of any Ian guage system is passed on from one gen erati on to the n ext through
__D__ , rather tha n by in st inct.
A. lear ning
B. teach ing
C. books
D. both A and B
II. 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 Ianguage which refers to the phe nomenon that
Ian guage con sists of two levels: a lower level of meanin gless in dividual sounds and a higher level of meanin gful un its.
2. Language is a system of arbitrary vocal symbols used for human com muni catio n.
3. The discipline that studies the rules governing the formation of words into permissible senten
ces in Ian guages is called syntax .
4. Human capacity for Ianguage has a genetic, basis, but the details of Ianguage have to be
taught and lear ned.
5. Parole _ refers to the realizati on of Ian gue in actual use.
6. Findings in linguistic studies can often be applied to the settlement of some practical problems.
The study of such applicati ons is gen erally known as applied _ lin guistics.
7. Language is productive, in that it makes possible the construction and in terpretati on of new
sig nals by its users. In other words, they can produce and un dersta nd an infin itely large nu mber of senten ces which they have n ever heard before.
III. Define the following terms.
1. Syntax: The study of how morphemes and words are combined to form senten ces is called syn
tax.
2. Applied linguistics: In a narrow sense, applied linguistics refers to the applicati on of lin guistic
prin ciples and theories to Ian guage teachi ng and learning, especially the teaching of foreign and second Ianguages. In a broad sen se, it refers to the applicatio n of lin guistic findings to the soluti on of practical problems such as the recovery of speech ability.
3. Arbitrari ness: It is one of the desig n features of Ian guage. It means that there
is no logical connection betwee n mea nings and soun ds.
4. Displaceme nt Displaceme nt means that Ian guage can be used to refer to things which are
prese nt or not prese nt, real or imag ined matters in the past, prese nt, or future, or in far-away places. In other words, la nguage can be used to refer to con texts removed from the
immediate situati ons of the speaker.
5. Duality: The duality nature of Ianguage means that Ianguage is a system, which con sists of two
sets of structure, or two levels, one of sounds and the other of meanin gs.
6. Design features: Design features refer to the defining properties of human
Ian guage that dist in guish it from any an imal system of com muni catio n.
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 eleve n postures of the tail that express such emotio ns as self-c on fide nee, con fide nt threat, lack of tension, un certa in threat, depression, defensiveness, active submission, and complete submission. This system seems to be complex. Suppose there were a thousa nd differe nt emoti ons that the wolf could express in this way. Would you then say a wolf had a Ianguage similar to man's? If not, Why n ot?
答案1. No. Hint: Wolf' way of expressing emotions does not present the
defi ning features of huma n Ian guage. Exam ine them one by one.
2. Why does modern linguistics regard the spoken form of Ianguage as primary, not the writte n? 答案2. While speech is the vocal/spoken form of Ianguage, writing is the writte n form of Ian guage. They bel ong to differe nt systems though they may overlap.
That speech is primary over writi ng is a gen eral prin ciple of lin guistic an alysis. First, speech existed long before writi ng systems came into being.
Second, writte n forms just represe nt in this way or that the speech soun ds.
Third, gen etically childre n lear n to speak before lear ning to write.
However, emphasiz ing the primacy of speech is by no means to deny the importa nee of writi ng, which gives Ian guage new scope and uses that
speech does not have. First, with writ ing, messages can be carried through space and time. Second, oral message are subject to distortion, either inten ti onal or otherwise, caus ing misun dersta nding, while writte n messages rema in exactly the same whether read a thousa nd years later or ten thousa nd miles away.
Everyth ing con sidered, speechis believed to more represe ntative of human Ianguage than writing. Most modern linguistic analysis is thus focused on speech, differe nt from traditi onal grammar of the 19th cen tury and therebefore.
3. How is modern linguistics different from traditional grammar?
答案3. First, linguistics is descriptive, while traditional grammar is prescriptive.
Lin guistics describes Ian guages as they are and does not lay dow n rules of correctness;
traditional grammar emphasizessuch matters as correctness and aims to prescribe what is right.
Second, linguistics regards the spoken Ianguage as primary, not the writte n.
Third, traditi onal grammar is based on Lat in and it tries to impose the Lat in categories and structures on other Ian guages (Lati n patter ns and categories, especially its case system and tense divisions of past, present and future), while lin guistics describes each Ian guage on its own merits.
Lin guists are opposed to the no ti on that any one Ian guage can provide an adequate framework for the others. They are tryi ng to set up a uni versal framework, but that will be based on the features shared by most of the Ian guages used by mankind.
(Traditional grammar is usually based on earlier grammars of Latin and applied them, ofte n in appropriately, to some other Ian guage. For example, some grammaria ns stated that En glish had six cases because Lat in had six cases.)
4. S aussure ' destinction between Iangue and parole seems similar to Chomsky' s dist in ctio n betwee n compete nee and performa nee. What do you think are their major differe nces?
答案4. According to Saussure,langue refers to the abstract linguistic system shared by all the members of a speech com mun ity, an dparole refers to the realization of Iangue in actual use.
Langue is the set of conventions and rules which Ian guage users all have to follow while
parole is the con crete use of the conven ti ons and the applicati on of the rules. Lan gue is abstract; it is not the Ian guage people actually use, but parole is con crete; it refers to the n aturally occurri ng Ian guage eve nts. Lan gue is relatively stable, it does not cha nge freque
ntly; while parole varies from pers on to pers on, and from situatio n to situati on.
Accord ing to Chomsky, compete nee is the ideal user ' s kno wledge of the rules of his Ian guage. This intern alized set of rules en ables the Ian guage user to produce and un dersta nd an infin itely large nu mber of senten ces and recognize sentences that are ungrammatical and ambiguous. However, performanee is the actual realization of this knowledge in linguistic com muni cati on. Although the speaker ' s kno wledge of his mother ton gue is perfect, his performances may have mistakes because of social and psychological factors such as stress, embarrassme nt, etc. Chomsky believes that what lin guists should study is the compete nee, which is systematic, not the performa nee, which is too haphazard.
Although Saussure "dstinction and Chomsky' sare very similar, they differ at least in that
Saussure took a sociological view of Ian guage and his no ti on of Ian gue is a mater of social conven ti ons, and Chomsky looks at Ian guage from a psychological point of views and to him, compete nee is a property of the mind of each in dividual.
Chapter 2 The Sounds of Language
1. If two phonetically similar sounds occur in the same environments and they dist in guish
meaning, they are said to be in compleme ntary distributi onF
2. A phone is a phonetic unit that distinguishes meaningF
3. English is a tone Ianguage while Chinese is noF
4. In linguistic evolution, speech is prior to writing. T
5. In everyday com muni cati on, speech plays a greater role tha n writ ing in terms of the amount
of in formati on eonv eyed.T
6. Vibration of the vocal cords results in a quality of speech sounds called voicing.
7. English consonants can be classified in terms of place of articulation and the part of the ton gue
that is raised the highestF
8. According to the manner of articulation, some of the types into which the consonants can be
classified are stops, fricatives, bilabial and alveolaF.
9. Vowel sounds can be differentiated by a number of factors: the position of tongue in the mouth,
the ope nn ess of the mouth, the shape of the lips, and the len gth of the vowels. T
10. A ccording to the shape of the lips, vowels can be classified into close vowels, semi-close
vowels, semi-ope n vowels and ope n vowels.
11. F ill in each of the following blanks with one word which begins with the letter given:
1. Of all the speech organs, the t _. tongue_ is the most flexible, and is responsible for varieties of
articulati on tha n any other.
2. English consonants can be classified in terms of manner of articulation or in terms of p__2.
place_ of articulatio n.
3. When the obstruction created by the speech organs is total or complete, the speech sound
produced with the obstructi on audibly released and the air pass ing out aga in is called a s_3.
stop
4. S__ . Suprasegmenta_ features are the phonemic features that occur above the level of the
segme nts. They in clude stress, tone, inton ati on, etc.
5. The rules that gover n the comb in ati on of sounds in a particular Ian guage are called
s_5. sequentia l rules.
6. The transcription of speech sounds with letter-symbols only is called broad tran scripti on while the tran scripti on with letter-symbols together with the diacritics is called n_6. narrow _ tran scripti on.
7. Whe n pitch, stress and sound len gth are tied to the sentence rather tha n the word in isolatio n, they are collectively known as i__ 7. intonation _.
8. P_8. Phonology_ is a discipli ne which studies the system of sounds of a particular Ianguage and how sounds are combined into meaningful units to effect linguistic com muni cati on.
9. T 9. Tone_ are pitch variations, which are caused by the differing rates of vibrati on of the vocal cords and which can disti nguish meaning just like phon emes.
10. Depe nding on the con text in which stress is con sidered, there are two kinds of stress: word stress and s10. sentenc_ stress.
III. Define the terms below:
1 Phon eme: The basic unit in pho no logy is called phon eme; it is a unit of disti nctive value. But it is an abstract unit. To be exact, a phoneme is not a sound; it is a collecti on of disti nctive phon etic features.
2. Allophone: The different phones which can represent a phoneme in different phon etic en vir onments are called the allopho nes of that pho neme.
3. International phonetic alphabet: It is a standardized and internationally accepted system of phon etic tran scripti on.
4. Intonation: When pitch, stress and sound length are tied to the sentence rather than the word in isolati on, they are collectively known as inton ati on.
5. Auditory phonetics: It studies the speech sounds from the hearer's 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 tran smitted through the air from one pers on to ano ther.
7. Minimal pair: When two different forms are identical in every way except for one sound segme nt which occurs in the same place in the stri ngs, the two words are said to form a mini mal pair.Pho
neme: The basic un it in phono logy is called phon eme; it is a un it of disti nctive value. But it is an abstract un it. To be exact, a pho neme is not a sound; it is a collecti on of disti nctive phon etic features.
IV. 1 What are the major differe nces betwee n phono logy and phon etics?
答案.They differ in their approach and focus. Phon etics is of a gen eral n ature; it is in terested in all the speech sounds used in all huma n Ian guages: how they are produced, how they differ from each other, what phon etic features they possess, how they can be
classified. Phono logy, on the other han d, is in terested in the system of sounds of a particular Ian guage; it aims to discover how speech sounds
in a Ian guage form patter ns and how these sounds are used to convey meaning in
lin guistic com muni cati on.
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 im'port. The similar alternation of stress also occurs between a compound noun and a phrase con sisti ng of the same eleme nts. A pho no logical feature of the English compounds, is that the stress of the word always falls on the first element and the sec ond eleme nt receives sec on dary stress, for example: 'blackbird is a particular kind of bird, which is not n ecessarily
black, but a black 'bird is a bird that is black.
2) The more importa nt words such as nouns, verbs adjectives, adverbs, etc. are
pronounced with greater force and made more prominent. But to give special emphasis to a certa in no ti on, a word in sentence that is usually un stressed can be stressed to achieve differe nt effect. Take the sentence “ He is driv ing my car.
example. To emphasize the fact that the car he is driving is not his, or yours, but
mine, the speaker can stress the possessive pronoun my, which under normal circumsta nces is not stressed.
3) English has four basic types of intonation, known as the four tones: When spoken in different
tones, the same sequenee of words may have different meanin gs. Gen erally speak ing, the falli ng tone in dicates that what is said is a straight-forward, matter-of-fact stateme nt, the risi ng tone ofte n makes a questi on of what is said, and the fall-rise tone often indicates that there is an implied message in what is said.
2. In what way can we determine whether a phone is a phoneme or not?