语言学chapter1课后练习答案.pdf

A New Concise Course in Linguistics for Students of English (2nd edition) 1 Chapter 1 Revision exercises reference 1. How do you interpret the following definition of linguistics: Linguistics is the scientific study of language? Refer to section1.1.1 Linguistics investigates not any particular language, e.g. English, Chinese, Arabic and Latin, but language in general. Its ultimate goal is to find the rules that govern the structure and use of language that can be applied to all human languages. It is a scientific study because it is based on the systematic investigation of objective linguistic data, not sentence made up by linguists themselves. In their investigation linguistics follow a procedure quite similar to that of natural scientists. First of all they have to observe and collect language facts, i.e. the language people actually use. Based on the data thus obtained, they make some hypotheses about the structure of the language. Then the hypotheses have to be checked again and again against more language data before its validity is fully proved. Only at this stage can the linguists draw a conclusion. From the way the linguists work, we can say their study of language is objective and scientific. 2. What are the major branches of linguistics? What does each of them study? Refer to section1.1.2 The major branches of linguistics include the following: Phonetics: The study of sounds used in linguistics communication. Phonology: The study how sounds are put together and are used to convey meaning in communication. Morphology: The study of how morphemes, i.e. symbols, are arranged and combined to form work. Syntax: The study of rules that govern the grammatical formation of sentences. Semantics: The study of language meaning. Pragmatics: The study of how language is used in actual communication. The study of language can also be combined with other branches of learning of the humanities. These include the following: Sociolinguistics: The study of the social aspects of language and its relation with society. Psycholinguistics: The study of how the mind works when language is used. Applied linguistics: The study of how findings in linguistics studies can be applied to the solution of practical problem, such as the recovery of speech ability and foreign language teaching and learning. A New Concise Course in Linguistics for Students of English (2nd edition) 2 3. In what basic ways does modern linguistics differ from traditional grammar? Refer to section 1.1.3, part 6. Modern linguistics and traditional grammar differ in at least the following three ways. Firstly, linguistics is descriptive while traditional grammar is prescriptive. A modern linguist is interested in what is said, not in what he thinks ought to be said. He describes language in all its aspects, but does not prescribe rules of “correctness”. Second, modern linguistics regards the spoken language as primary, not the written. Traditional grammarians, on the other hand, tend to emphasize, maybe over-emphasize, the importance of the written word, partly because of its permanence. Thirdly, modern linguistics differs from traditional grammar also in that it does not force languages into a Latin-based framework. To modern linguists, it is unthinkable to judge one language by standards of another. 4. Is modern linguistics mainly synchronic or diachronic? Why? Modern linguistics is mainly synchronic because modern linguists believe that unless the various states of a language in different historical periods are successfully studied, it would be difficult to describe the changes that have taken place in its historical development. 5. For what reasons does modern linguistics give priority to speech rather than to writing? Refer to section 1.1.3, part 3. First, from the point of view of linguistic evolution, speech is prior to writing. The writing system of any language is always “invented” by its users to record speech when the need arises. Then in everyday communication, speech plays a greater role than writing in terms of the amount of information conveyed. And also, speech is always the way in which every native speaker acquires his mother tongue, and writing is learned and taught later when he goes to school. Above all, for modern linguistics, spoken language reveals many true features of human speech while written language is only the “revised” record of speech .Thus the former is authentic language in their eyes, and thus the source of data for their investigation. 6. How is Saussures distinction between language and parole similar to Chomskys distinction between competence and performance? According to Saussure, language refers to the abstract linguistic system shared by all the members of a speech community, and parole refers to the realization of language in actual use. Language is the set of conventions and rules which language users all have to abide by, and parole is the concrete use of the A New Concise Course in Linguistics for Students of English (2nd edition) 3 conventions and application of the rules. Chomsky defines competence as the ideal users knowledge of the rules of his language, and performance the actual realization of this knowledge in linguistic communication. The similarity between the two distinctions is that Saussures language and Chomskys competence refer to what the language user knows about his language, and Saussures parole and Chomskys performance refer to the actual use of language. 7. What characteristics of language do you think should be included in a good, comprehensive definition of language? A comprehensive definition of language should include the following features: 1) Language is governed by rules; thus it is a system, or it is systematic. 2) Language is primarily spoken, rather than written; therefore the system of symbols used in language is vocal rather than written. 3) The symbols used in language are arbitrary, i.e. there is no logical connection between the symbols and meanings. 4) Language is used by humans to communicate with each other. 5) And finally language is human-specific, i.e. it is unique to the human species. All the five features mentioned above are included in the following concise definition of language: Language is a system of arbitrary vocal symbols used for human communication. 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? In the coursebook five of the twelve features of human language specified by C. Hockett are discussed: arbitrariness, productivity or creativity, duality, displacement, and cultural transmission. By arbitrariness it is meant that the symbols used in human language are arbitrary, i.e. there is no logical connection between the symbols and what they stand for. This feature may seem to be shared by animal communication systems, as the means used by animals to communicate are also arbitrary. But the arbitrary nature of human language is a sign of sophistication and makes it possible for human language to have an unlimited source of expression. The feature of productivity means that language is productive or creative, i.e. it is possible for its users to construct and understand an unlimited number of sentences, including sentences they have never heard before. This feature is undoubtedly human-specific for animals have, if any, a very limited number of signals for communication. Duality is a feature of the structure of the human language system, which consists of two levels. At the lower or the basic level there exist a limited number of sounds which are meaningless, while at the higher or the superficial level these meaningless sounds can be arranged and rearranged in various ways to form meaningful language units, unlimited in number. This enables language users to express whatever they want to express. This feature is not possessed by any A New Concise Course in Linguistics for Students of English (2nd edition) 4 animal communication system. The feature “displacement” means that language can be used to refer to things which are present or not present, real or unreal, in the past, present, or future. This means that the expressive power of human language is not restricted to “the here and now.” In contrast, animal communication is restricted to the current time and circumstances. Cultural transmission, in contrast to genetic transmission, refers to the fact that human babies, though born with the ability to acquire a language, must be taught to use it. The ability to use a language is not transmitted genetically from our parents. But young animals seem to be born with the ability to use particular ways to communicate with their fellow creatures. 9. What are the major functions of the language? Think of your own examples for illustration. Refer to section 1.2.3. To answer this question, you can base yourself on either tripartite framework or Jakobsons model of language functions. According to the tripartite framework, there are three main functions: descriptive, expressive, and social. In Jakobsons model, six functions have been specified: emotive, conative, referential,