语言学-作业(共9页).doc

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1、精选优质文档-倾情为你奉上2. What are the major branches of linguistics? What does each of them study?答： The major branches of linguistics are: (1) phonetics: it studies the sounds used in linguistic communication; (2) phonology: it studies how sounds are put together and used to convey meaning in communication;

2、 (3) morphology: it studies the way in which linguistic symbols representing sounds are arranged and combined to form words; (4) syntax: it studies the rules which govern how words are combined to form grammatically permissible sentences in languages; (5) semantics: it studies meaning conveyed by la

3、nguage; (6) pragmatics: it studies the meaning in the context of language use.7. What characteristics of language do you think should be included in a good, comprehensive definition of language?答： First of all, language is a system, i.e., elements of language are combined according to rules.Second,

4、language is arbitrary in the sense that there is no intrinsic connection between a linguistic symbol and what the symbol stands for. Third, language is vocal because the primary medium for all languages is sound.Fourth, language is human-specific, i. e., it is very different from the communication s

5、ystems other forms of life possess.8. What are the main features of human language that have been specified by C. Hockett to show that it is essentially different from animal communication system?答：The main features of human language are termed design features. They include: 1) Arbitrariness Languag

6、e is arbitrary. This means that there is no logical connection between meanings and sounds. A good example is the fact that different sounds are used to refer to the same object in different languages. 2) Productivity Language is productive or creative in that it makes possible the construction and

7、interpretation of new signals by its users. This is why they can produce and understand an infinitely large number of sentences, including sentences they have never heard before. 3) Duality Language consists of two sets of structures, or two levels. At the lower or the basic level there is a structu

8、re of sounds, which are meaningless by themselves. But the sounds of language can be grouped and regrouped into a large number of units of meaning, which are found at the higher level of the system. 4) Displacement Language can be used to refer to things which are present or not present, real or ima

9、gined 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. This is what “displacement” means. 5) Cultural transmission While human capacity for language has a genetic basis, i.e

10、., we were all born with the ability to acquire language, the details of any language system are not genetically transmitted, but instead have to be taught and learned. 8. What is a phone? How is it different from a phoneme? How are allophones related to a phoneme?答： A phone is a phonetic unit or se

11、gment. The speech sounds we hear and produce during linguistic communication are all phones. A phoneme is not any particular sound, but rather it is represented or realized by a certain phone in a certain phonetic context. The different phones which can represent a phoneme in different phonetic envi

12、ronments are called the allophones of that phoneme. For example, the phoneme /l/ in English can be realized as dark ?, clear l, etc. which are allophones of the phoneme /l/.4. The italicized part in each of the following sentences is an inflectional morpheme. Study each inflectional morpheme careful

13、ly and point out its grammatical meaning. Sue moves in high-society circles in London. A traffic warden asked John to move his car. The club has moved to Friday, February 22nd. The branches of the trees are moving back and forth.答：(1) the third person singular(2) the past tense(3) the present perfec

14、t(4) the present progressive4. How can words opposite in meaning be classified? To which category does each of the following pairs of antonyms belong?north/south vacant/occupied literate/illiterate above/belowdoctor/patient wide/narrow poor/rich father/daughter答：They can be gradable antonyms, comple

15、mentary antonyms and relational opposite Gradable antonyms: literate/illiterate wide /narrow poor/rich Complementary antonyms: vacant/occupied Relational opposite: north/south, doctor/patient, father/daughter, above/below5. Identify the relations between the following pairs of sentences: Toms wife i

16、s pregnant. My sister will soon be divorced Tom has a wife. My sister is a married woman. He likes seafood, They are going to have another baby.He likes crabs. They have a child.答： “Toms wife is pregnant” presupposes “Tom has a wife.” “My sister will soon be divorced” presupposes “My sister is a mar

17、ried woman.” “He likes seafood” is entailed by “He likes crabs.” “They are going to have another baby” presupposes “They have a child.” 8. Try to analyze the following sentences in terms of predication analysis: The man sells ice-cream. Is the baby sleeping? It is snowing. The tree grows well.答：The

18、man sells ice-cream. MAN, ICE-CREAM (SELL) Is the baby sleeping? BABY (SLEEP) It is snowing. (SNOW) The tree grows well. TREE (GROW)4. Try to think of contexts in which the following sentences can be used for other purposes than just stating facts: a) The room is messy. b) Oh, it is raining! c) The

19、music of the movie is good. d) You have been keeping my notes for a whole week now.答：a) A father entered his sons room and found it is very messy. Then when he said, “The room is messy,” he was blaming his son for not tidying it up. b) A son asked his father to play with him outside. So when the fat

20、her said, “Oh, its raining”, he meant they couldnt play outside. c) Two persons just watched a movie and had a discussion of it. One person said, “The story of the movie is very moving”, so when the other person said, “The music of the movie is good”, he meant he didnt think the story of the movie w

21、as good. d) A person wanted his notes back, so when he said, “you have been keeping my notes for a whole week now”, he was demanding the return of his notes.8. What are the four maxims of the CP? Try to give your own examples to show how flouting these maxims gives rise to conversational implicature

22、?答： Cooperative Principle, abbreviated as CP. It goes as follows: Make your conversational contribution such as required at the stage at which it occurs by the accepted purpose or direction of the talk exchange in which you are engaged. To be more specific, there are four maxims under this general p

23、rinciple: (1) The maxim of quantity Make your contribution as informative as required (for the current purpose of the exchange). Do not make your contribution more informative than is required. (2) The maxim of quality Do not say what you believe to be false. Do not say that for which you lack adequ

24、ate evidence. (3) The maxim of relation Be relevant. (4) The maxim of manner Avoid obscurity of expression. Avoid ambiguity. Be brief (avoid unnecessary prolixity). Be orderly.5. What is register as used by Halliday? Illustrate it with an example of your own.答： According to Halliday, “Language varie

25、s as its function varies; it differs in different situations.” The type of language which is selected as appropriate to the type of situation is a register. Halliday further distinguishes three social variables that determine the register: field of discourse, tenor of discourse, and mode of discours

26、e. For example, a lecture on linguistics could be identified as Field: scientific (linguistic) Tenor: teacher students (formal, polite) Mode: oral (academic lecturing)2. What do you think of Sapir-Whorf hypothesis? Give examples or proof to support your point of view.答： The studies have shed new lig

27、ht on our understanding of the hypothesis: people tend to sort out and distinguish experiences differently according to the semantic categories provided by their different codes. Here is an example. English-speaking culture teaches its people to name what is practical, useful and important. In a gen

28、eral sense, the important things take on specific names while the less important things have general names that must be modified through additional words to become specific. A good illustration of this point is the word snow in Eskimo and English.2. Explain with an example that the evaluation of lan

29、guage is social rather than linguistic.答： The evaluation of language is social rather than linguistic. This is because every language or language variety can express all ideas that its native speakers want to express. That is to say, language and language variety are equal in expressing meaning. For

30、 example, the much-prejudiced Black English can be used by the black people to communicate with each other without feeling any hindrance. But many other people think Black English is not pure English because it does not conform to their grammar and not adopted by educated people. As a result, many p

31、eople feel shameful to use Black English. From this example we can know that the evaluation of language is social, not linguistic.2. Among the language acquisition theories mentioned in this chapter, which one do you think is more reasonable and convincing? Explain why. 答： The language acquisition t

32、heories mentioned in this chapter have different emphasis on different aspects. Behaviorists view sounds reasonable in explaining the routine aspects, the innatist accounts most plausible in explaining childrens acquiring complex system, and the interactive description convincing in understanding how children learn and use the language appropriately from their environment. In my opinion, behaviorists view is more reasonable and convincing because language acquisition is a process of enforcing and reinforcing. Only through this process can a person learn a language well.专心-专注-专业