语言学简答题.doc

l Why is productivity unique to language? The productivity of language is the property which enables its users to construct and understand an indefinitely large number of utterances, including the novel utterances that they have never said nor heard before. This feature is unique to human language because most animal communication systems appear to be highly restricted with respect to the number of different signals that their users can send and receive. For example, a gibbon call system lacks productivity, for gibbons draw all their calls from a limited repertoire, which is rapidly exhausted, making any novelty impossible; and bee dancing is used only to indicate nectar sources, which is the only kind of message that can be sent through the dancing.l How is Saussures distinction between langue and parole similar to Chomskys distinstion between competence and performance? According to Fde Saussure, langue refers to the abstract linguistic system shared by all the members of a speech community and parole refers to the realization of langue in actual use. 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. From these definitions we find that both Saussure and Chomsky make the distinction between the abstract language system and the actual use of language. Their purpose is to single out the language system for serious study.l What are the major branches of linguistics? What does each of them study? The major branches of linguistics include phonetics, phonology, morphology, syntax, semantics, pragmatics, sociolinguistics, psycholinguistics and applied linguistics. Phonetics studies how speech sounds are produced and classified. Phonology studies how sounds form systems and function to convey meaning. Morphology studies how morphemes are combined to form words. Syntax studies how morphemes and words are combined to form sentences. Semantics studies meaning (in abstraction). Pragmatics studies meaning in context of use. Sociolinguistics studies language with reference to society. Psycholinguistics studies language with reference to the workings of the mind. Applied linguistics studies the application of linguistic principles and theories to language teaching and learning.l Why is syntax regarded as a system of rules? As a major component of grammar, syntax consists of a set of abstract rules that allow words to be combined with other words to form grammatical sentences. A sentence is considered grammatical when it conforms to the grammatical knowledge in the mind of native speakers. If, on the other hand, a sentence violates a rule according to which words are organized, then native speakers will judge it to be an impossible sentence of that language. Universally found in the grammars of all human languages, syntactic rules comprise the system of internalized linguistic knowledge of a language speaker. For any natural language, it is the set of rules that makes it possible for the speakers to produce, comprehend and memorize the vast number of sentences of their native language.l What makes modern linguistics different from traditional grammer? Traditional grammar is based on “high” (religious, literary) written language. It is prescriptive. It sets models for language users to follow. It tells the learner what he should say, or what is supposed to be correct usage. On the other hand, modern linguistics is mostly descriptive. Modern linguistics is supposed to be scientific and objective and the task of linguists is supposed to describe the language people actually use, be it correct or not. Its investigations and analysis are based on authentic, and mainly spoken language data.l What is a free morpheme? What is a bound morpheme? And how are they different from each other? Free morphemes are morphemes which are independent units of meaning and can be used freely all by themselves, such as help, table, able, etc. Bound morphemes are morphemes that cannot be used by themselves, but must be combined with other morphemes, either free or bound, to form a word, such as “-en” in “enlarge”, “dis-” in “disable”, “im-” in “impossible”.l What do langue and parole mean respectively? According to Fde Saussure, langue refers to the abstract linguistic system shared by all the members of a speech community, and parole refers to the realization of langue in actual use. Langue is the set of conventions and rules which language users all have to abide by; it is abstract. Parole is the concrete use of the conventions and the application of the rules; it is concrete.l Why is the word order in Modern English more rigid than that in Old English? The word order in Modern English is more rigid than that in Old English. This is because in Modern English there are no longer the elaborate morphological system used in Old English, such as the case marking system, to help to indicate grammatical relations. Therefore, it is no longer possible to identify the functional roles of nouns by their inflectional endings. The functional notions of subject and object have to be indicated largely by the syntactic position of nouns in a linear order, resulting in a system with stricter constraints on word order. l What characteristics of language do you think should be included in a good, comprehensive definition of language? a. Language is a rule-governed system. b. Language is basically vocal. c. Language is arbitrary. d. Language is used for human communication.l What are suprasegmental features? How do the major suprasegmental features of English function in conveying meaning? The phonological features that occur above the sound segmental level are called suprasegmental features. The major suprasegmental features of English include word stress, sentence stress and intonation. The suprasegmental features distinguish meaning.l What is Brocas area and what would happen if any damage were inflicted upon it?In 1861, a French surgeon and anatomist Paul Broca discovered that somewhere in the frontal lobe in the left cerebral hemisphere had something to do with speech difficulty. This place is now known as Brocas area. According to his claim in 1865, any damage to sites in the left cerebral hemisphere will result in a patients language disorder, whereas destruction of corresponding sites in the right hemisphere leave linguistic capacities intact. Therefore if any damage is inflicted upon this area, it will result in word finding difficulties and problems with syntax.l State briefly your understanding of the differences between the term acquisition and the term learning in language acquisition study? The distinction between acquisition and learning was proposed by the American SLA scholar Stephen Krashen on the assumption that they are different processes. Acquisition refers to the gradual and subconscious development of ability in the first language by using it naturally in daily communicative situations. Learning, however, is defined as a conscious process of accumulating knowledge of a second language usually obtained in school settings. It is recognized that children acquire their native language without explicit learning, while a second language is more commonly learned but to some degree may also be acquired, depending on the environmental setting and the input received by the L2 learner. A rule can be learned before it is internalized(i.e. acquired), but having learned a rule does not necessarily preclude having to acquire it later. l Why is language defined as a system of arbitrary vocal symbols used for human communication? Short as it is, this definition has captured the main features of language. First of all, language is a system, i.e., elements of language are combined according to rules. If language were not constructed according to certain rules, it could not be learned or used consistently. Second, language is arbitrary in the sense that there is no intrinsic connection between a word and the thing we use to write with. The fact that different languages have different words for the same object is a good illustration of the arbitrary nature of language. Third, language is vocal because the primary medium is sound for all languages, no matter how well developed their writing systems are. All evidence points to the fact that writing systems came into being much later than the spoken forms and that they are only attempts to capture sounds and meaning on paper. Finally, the term human in the definition is meant to specify that language is human specific, i.e. it is very different from the communication systems other forms of life possess, such as bird songs and bee dances. l What is universal grammar? Universal grammar, also known as the principles-and-parameters theory, is a system of linguistic knowledge and a human species-specific gift which exists in the mind or brain of a normal human being. Its general principles include case condition and adjacency condition, the former requires that a noun phrase must have case and case is assigned by verb or preposition to the object position, or by auxiliary to the subject position; the latter states that a case assignor and a case recipient should stay adjacent to each other, which explains why no other phrasal category can intervene between a verb and its direct object. The parameters on the other hand includes adjacency parameter and directionality parameter. The former accounts for the specific word order patterns of a certain language, the latter concerns the directionality of case assignment. l What is the nature of language change in historical linguistics? On the one hand, language change is inevitable. As a general rule, language change is universal, continuous and, to a considerable degree, regular and systematic. Language change is extensive, taking place in virtually all aspects of the grammar in phonology, morphology, syntax, lexicon and semantics. When language change is in progress, phonemes, morphemes, words, and grammatical rules may be borrowed, added, lost, or altered, and meanwhile, the meaning of individual lexical items or strings of words may expand, narrow, or shift.On the other hand, though language change is universal and even vigorous in some cases, the truth of the matter is that it is never an overnight occurrence. The historical development of a language is hardly a sudden transformation of one language into another language, but a gradual and constant process, often indiscernible to speakers of the same generation. l Whats the difference between the instrumental motivation and the integrative motivation of the learners? Usually, adults are motivated to learn a second language because of a communicative need. They may learn a second language in order to use it functionally when they intend to use it as an instrument for the purpose of, for instance, securing a desirable job or passing an important examination, or socially when they intend to use it as a means to integrate themselves with the second language community. In certain situations an integrative motivation may be more powerful in facilitating successful second language learning, but in other situations instrumental motivations may count for more. Where the target language functions as a foreign language (used in a limited environment such as in school), the learner is likely to benefit from an integrative motivation; but where the target language functions as a second language (used as a primary means of communication in the community of the learner), an instrumental motivation is more effective.l What are the main design features of human language? here are many defining properties of human language that distinguish it from any animal system of communication, here only a few to mention: Arbitrariness means that there is no logical connection between meanings and sounds, this nature enables language to have an unlimited source of expressions; Productivity makes its users possible to construct and interpret any new signals, by means of which they can produce and understand an infinitely large number of sentences, including sentences they have never heard before; Duality means language consists of two sets of structures, or two levels; at the lower or the basic level there is a structure of sounds, which are meaningless, but they can be grouped and regrouped into a large number of units of meaning such as morphemes and words, which are found at the higher level of the system; Displacement designates that language users may refer to things which are present or not present, real or imagined matters in the past, present, or future, or in far away places; At last, cultural transmission implies that language is culturally transmitted.l How many morphemes are there in the English language? State what they are and illustrate how they work.There are two types of morphemes in the English language: free morphemes are independent units of meaning and can be used freely all by themselves such as help, table, room, etc.; bound morphemes are those that cannot be used independently but have to be combined with other morphemes, either free or bound, to form a word, it includes two types: a root is often seen as part of a word; it can never stand by itself although it bears clear, definite meaning, it must be combined with another root or an affix to form a word. For example, the root “geo” bears the meaning of “the earth”, when it combines with another root “-ology”, meaning “a branch of learning”; affixes are morphemes that are added to an already existing morpheme to form a new word while changing its meaning and grammatical relations. It consists of both inflectional affixes and derivational affixes.l What is the difference between a pidgin and creole? A pidgin is a variety of