现代语言学自考历年真题.doc

全国2010年10月自学考试现代语言学试题I. Directions: Read each of the following statements carefully. Decide which one of the four choices best completes the statement and put the letter A, B, C, or D in the brackets. (2%10=20% )1. The purpose of Chomskys definition is to focus attention on the purely _ properties of language, and these properties can be studied from a mathematically precise point of view. A. lexical B. grammatical C. semantic D. structural2. We refer to the limited range of sounds as the phonic medium of language and individual sounds within that range as _.A. vowels B. consonants C. sounds D. speech sounds3. A(n) _ refers to the existing form to which a derivational affix can be added. A. root B. stem C. affix D. morpheme4. All sentences in all languages can be represented by constituent structure trees, and all have syntactic rules that determine the linear order of words and their _ structure. A. linear B. hierarchicalC. constituent D. syntactic5. In semantic analysis of a sentence, a(n) _ is a logical participant in a predication, largely identical with the nominal element in a sentence. （ ）A. argument B. subject C. object D. predicate6. Speaker A: Can you answer the telephone? Speaker B: Im in the bath. Speaker B is violating the maxim of _.（ ）A. quantity B. quality C. relation D. manner7. New words may be formed from existing words by the removal of a suffix thought to be part of the old word. Such a process is called _, e.g., caretake from caretaker. A. back-formation B. clippingC. blending D. abbreviating8. It is insulting to a woman to be called a spinster, but it is not insulting to a man to be called a bachelor. There is nothing inherently _ about the word spinster. The connotations reflect the sexist views society has about an unmarried woman as opposed to an unmarried man. A. important B. unusualC. pejorative D. commendatory9. Human linguistic ability depends primarily on human _. （ ）A. brain B. vocal cordsC. tongue D. articulatory organs10. In the _ stage, children begin to produce longer utterances with more complex grammatical structures. （ ）A. prelinguistic B. one-word C. two-word D. multi-word. Directions: Fill in the blank in each of the following statements with one word, the first letter of which is already given as a clue. Note that you are to fill in ONE word only, and you are not allowed to change the letter given. ( 1%10=10% )11. D linguistics is the systematic description and elucidation of all linguistic changes through time. It studies the historical development of language over a period of time. For example, a study of the changes English has undergone since the time of Shakespeare would be a diachronic study.12. The phonemes of a language cannot be strung together in any random order to form words. The phonological system determines which phonemes can begin a word, end a word, and follow each other, in other words, there are s rules that govern the combination of sounds in a particular language.13. Morphology can be divided into two sub-branches: inflectional morphology and d morphology.14. Syntax consists of a set of abstract rules that allow words to be combined with other words to form grammatical sentences. It is universally found that syntactic rules comprise a speakers system of i linguistic knowledge known as linguistic competence.15. Pairs of words which exhibit the reversal of a relationship between the lexical items are called r opposites.16. Pragmatics and semantics are both linguistic studies of m , but what distinguishes them is whether the context of use is considered.17. In Old English the word order is different from that of Modern English, and there are two negatives, “ne” (“not”) and “nfre” (“not”+“ever”=“never”). So d rule is one of the grammatical rules in Old English.18. When a pidgin comes to be adopted by a community as its native tongue and is learned by children as their first language, it becomes c .19. The c age for the acquisition of the first language coincides with the period of brain lateralization.20. In second language learning, instrumental motivation occurs when the learners goal is f , and integrative motivation occurs when the learners goal is social.III. Directions: 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. If you think a statement is false, you must explain why you think so and then give the correct version. （ 2%10=20% ）21.（ ）Language is arbitrary by nature. And it is entirely arbitrary.22.（ ）In producing stops or plosives, the obstruction created by the speech organs is total or complete, with the obstruction audibly released and the air passing out again, such as English stops p and t in pit. In producing p and t the flow of air is blocked through the mouth only.23.（ ）From the semantic point of view, the meaning of a compound is always perceived from the meanings of its components.24.（ ）According to the “principles-and-parameters” theory, “principles” refer to highly abstract properties of grammar which are applied to language in general and which generate phrases and at the same time restrain the power of Move a, while “parameters” allow general principles to operate in certain restricted ways, according to which particular grammars of natural languages vary.25.（ ）In discussing the sense relations between sentences, Y is a prerequisite of X. So if Y is true, X must be true.26.（ ）According to Austins classification of perlocutionary acts, speech acts fall into five general categories, which are representatives, directives, commissives, expressives and decalrations.27.（ ）For some speakers of American English, the word ask is pronounced ks, but the word asking is pronounced skI. It is interesting that in Old English the verb ask was aksian, with the/k/preceding the/s/. This means that a historical metathesis rule switched these two consonants, producing ask in most dialects of English. Metathesis is the phonological process that reorders segments, often by transposing two adjoining sound segments.28.（ ）Language varieties may be standard and nonstandard. Nonstandard varieties are regarded as substandard languages. Only standard varieties are regarded as the only correct, logical and pure, and are effective in expressing ideas in communication.29.（ ）Language is the only means of expressing thought.30.（ ）The Error Analysis approach shows that there are striking similarities in the ways in which different L2 learners acquire a new language. Directions: Explain the following terms and give examples for illustration where appropriate. (3%10=30% )31. descriptive linguistics32. diphthong33. morphological rules34. case condition35. collocational synonyms36. declarations37. Grimms Law38. registers39. language centers40. formal instructionV. Directions: Answer the following questions. (10%2=20% )41. Explain syntactic movement, NP-movement and WH-movement with examples.42. Explain the term “euphemism” with examples. Describe the use of euphemisms in social communication. What will result in euphemistic clichs?全国2010年1月自学考试现代语言学试题I . Directions: Read each of the following statements carefully. Decide which one of the four choices best completes the statement and put the letter A, B, C, or D in the brackets. ( 2% 10=20% )1. The language behavior of particular persons on particular occasions is determined by many other factors over and above their linguistic _. ( )A. system B. structureC. competence D. performance2. When we pronounce the long vowels i: or u:, our _, which is a bony structure at the end of the windpipe, is in a state of tension. ( )A. larynx B. hard palateC. glottis D. vocal cords3. The word “manuscript” is a two-morpheme cluster which contains _. ( )A. two rootsB. a root and a prefix C. a root and a suffix D. a root and a free morpheme4. The grammatical knowledge is represented through Phrase Structure Rules, which state explicitly all and only the possible combinations of the _ of a language, for example, in English, NP ( Det ) (Adj) N (PP) (S). ( )A. phrases B. clauses C. sentences D. constituents5. The view that the meaning of a linguistic form is defined as the “situation in which the speaker utters it and the response it calls forth in the hearer” was proposed by _. A. Plato B. Ogden and RichardsC. John Firth D. Bloomfield6. According to John Austins theory of speech act, a(n) _ act is the change brought about by the utterance. ( )A. prelocutionary B. locutionaryC. illocutionary D. perlocutionary7. In 1786, Sir William Jones suggested that _ bore to Greek and Latin a stronger affinity than could possibly have been produced by accident.（ ）A. Germanic B. PersianC. Sanskrit D. Lithuanian8. The existence of taboo words and taboo ideas stimulates the creation of euphemism, which shows that a word or phrase not only has a linguistic denotative meaning but also has a _.( )A. conceptual meaning B. connotative meaningC. cultural meaning D. social meaning9. Dichotic listening research tells us a signal coming in the left ear will first go to the _ hemisphere, from where it is transferred to the left side of the brain for processing. A. right B. left C. front D. back10. Studies of the effects of formal instruction on second language acquisition suggest that formal instruction may help learners perform some of the following types of tasks except _. A. planned speech B. writingC. casual and spontaneous conversation D. career-oriented examinationII. Directions: Fill in the blank in each of the following statements with one word, the first letter of which is already given as a clue. Note that you are to fill in ONE word only, and you are not allowed to change the letter given. (1% 10=10%)11. Double a refers to the property of language which means language is composed of discrete units at two levels. At the lower level there is a structure of sounds, which are meaningless. At the higher level there are morphemes and words, which are meaningful.12. In the production of v , the back of the tongue is brought into contact with the soft palate, or velum, e.g., k in cat, g in get and in sting.13. Morphological rules are the rules that govern which affix can be added to what type of s to form a new word.14. A sentence is a structurally independent unit that usually comprises a number of words. A phrase structure tree diagram assigns a h structure to sentences.15. The words such as “pop” meaning a certain sound and “pop” meaning popular are in relationship of c homonyms.16. The c view in the discussion of semantics is often considered as the initial effort to study meaning in a pragmatic sense.17. Extensive changes in rules of morphology have occurred in the history of English. English has lost most of its i endings, by which it is no longer possible to identify the functional roles of nouns.18. Diglossia describes any stable linguistic situation, in which there exists a strict f differentiation between a low-variety or L-variety and a high variety or H-variety.19. The localization of cognitive and perceptual functions in a particular hemisphere of the brain is called l .20. I is the language that a learner constructs at a given stage of second language acquisition.III. Directions: 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. If you think a statement is false, you must explain why you think so and then give the correct version. （2% 10=20%)21.（ ）According to Hall (1968), language is the institution whereby humans communicate and interact with each other by means of habitually used oral-auditory arbitrary symbols. Most linguists today accept the view of language as a set of habitually used symbols.22.（ ）Intonation refers to a distinctive pattern of tones over stretch of speech in principle longer than a word, in other words, when pitch, stress and sound length are tied to the sentence rather than the word in isolation, they are collectively known as intonation.23.（ ）Suffixes are added to the end of stems, during the process of which they modify the meaning of the original word but usually do not change its part of speech.24.（ ）When we say a sentence has two levels of structure, D-structure and S-structure, we do not mean that the syntactic representations of these two levels must be different. Since syntactic movement occurs to all sentences, so the representations of the two levels look different.25.（ ）“He has been to New York”presupposes “He has been to America”.26.（ ）John Searle made a distinction between what he called “constatives”and “performatives”.27.（ ）Regularization of exceptional plural forms of nouns constantly occurs. By analogy to foe/foes, and dog/dogs, English speakers started saying cows as the plural of cow instead of the earlier plural kine. This analogical change does not occur when words are borrowed from foreign languages.28.（ ）The common English address terms are First Name (e.g., John), Last Name (e.g., Smith), Title + Last Name (e.g., Dr. Green), Title + Title (e.g., Mr. President), Title alone (e.g., Sir) and Kin term (e.g., Dad). And outside of marked settings, between friends, neighbours and colleagues, first names are always preferred.29.（ ）Thanks to cerebral plasticity, people suffering damage to the left hemisphere are able to transfer their language centers to the right hemisphere and to reacquire the lost linguistic skills with relatively little disruption.30.（ ）The earliest sounds produced by infants can be considered as early languageIV. Directions: Explain the following terms, using one or two examples for illustration, if necessary. ( 3% 10=30% )31. design features32. narrow transcription33. bound morphemes34. deep structure35. missives37. sound assimilation38. idiolect39. Wernickes area40. interferenceV. Directions: Answer the following questions. ( 10% 2=20% )41. Please illustrate the syntactic and semantic features of compounds in English language with examples.42. Please explicate how language and thought develop and blend each other in order to understand the relationship between language and thought.全国2009年10月自学考试现代语言学试题. Directions: Read each of the following statements carefully. Decide which one of the four choices best completes the statement and put the letter A, B, C, or D in the brackets. (2% 10=20% )1. Saussure used _ to refer to the abstract linguistic system shared by all the members of a speech community. ()A. performance B. paroleC. langue D. competence2. In English, a phoneme may be represented by two or more allophones. The choice of the allophone is _. ()A. random B. rule-governed C. haphazard D. unpredictable3. In word-formation, a _ is the smallest meaningful unit of language. ()A. phoneme B. word C. compound D. morpheme4. A _ category usually refers to a word or phrase that performs a particular grammatical function, such as the subject or predicate in a sentence. ()A. lexical B. phrasal C. syntactic D. phonetic5. In the following pairs of words, _ are a pair of relational opposites. ()A. “buy” and “sell” B. “male” and “female”C. “hot” and “cold” D. “alive” and “dead”6. The illocutionary point of _ has the characteristic that the successful performance of an act of this kind brings about the correspondence between what is said and reality. A. directives B. declarationsC. commissives D. representatives7. Old English had a rich case-ending system, e.g., Old English noun had four cases, i.e., nominative, genetive, dative and _. ()A. possessive B. vocative C. accusative D. locative8. _ dialects are characteristic of a particular type of linguistic activity and appropriate for use in particular speech situations. ()A. Social B. Ethnic C. Regional D. Situational9. Lying under the skull, the human brain contains an average of ten billion nerve cells called _.()A. nerve fibers B. nerves C. neurons D. cerebral cortex10. By the time children are going beyond the _ stage, they begin to incorporate some of the inflectional morphemes. ()A. telegraphic B. multiword C. two-word D. one-wordII. Directions: Fill in the blank in each of the following statements with one word, the first letter of which is already given as a clue. Note that you are to fill in ONE word only, and you are not allowed to change the letter given. ( 1%10=10% )11. If a linguistic study aims to lay down rules for “correct” behavior, i.e., to tell people what they should say and what they should not, it is said to be p .12. Languages that use the pitch of individual syllables to contrast meanings are called t languages. Pitch variations can be used to distinguish meaning just like phonemes.13. I morphemes are those morphemes that show various grammatical relations or categories such as number, tense and case.14. A c sentence contains two or more clauses, one of which is incorporated into the other.15. In grammatical analysis, the sentence is taken to be the basic unit, but in semantic analysis of a sentence, the basic unit is called p , which is the abstraction of the meaning of a sentence.16. The significance of Grices C Principle lies in that it explains how it is possible for the speaker to convey