《当代语言学》期末考试.docx

精品文档当代语言学期末考试试题Please give your answers to the following questions in a separated answer sheet provided by the examiner. 1. Do you think the following words are permissible in English? Why? 5% a) tpray b) btry c) tgharg 2. What is the difference between open-class words and closed-class words? 5% 3. What role can English inflection play in the expression of meaning? 5% 4. Draw the tree diagrams for the following sentences: 10% (1) She found a book on Madison Street.(2) Jack advised Henry to see the dentist.(3) Jack promised Henry to see the doctor. 5. What is the difference between sentence meaning and utterance meaning? 5% 6. What is the use of metaphor in verbal communication? 5% 7. In each case below decide which maxim of the cooperative principle has been flouted and what implicature might be drawn. 15%1) A: Where does Miss Rosebery live? B: Somewhere in the suburbs of the city.2) A: Im out of petrol. B: There is a garage round the corner.3) A: How do you think of Cathys singing? B: Well, she has produced a series of sounds that correspond closely with the score of Home sweet home. 4) Teacher: (towards the end of a lecture) What time is it now? Student: Its 10:44 and 35.6 seconds. 5) A: Do you want some coffee? B: Coffee would make me awake.8. The New information in each of the following utterances is bold-typed. Please use a different sentence structure for each so that the New information can be highlighted. 10%1) He owed the tailor twenty dollars. 2) The impossible has often proved possible. 3) We have oral practice every other day. 4) We didnt leave the flat until we could smell the smoke in the corridor. 5) The football match was cancelled because of the rain. 9. What is a regional dialect? And what is the relationship between a regional dialect and a standard dialect? 5% 10. Do you agree to the claim that all languages in the world derived from one common ancestor? 5% 11. Please explain the primacy of human language over animal communication. 10% 12. The following are some questions taken from some test papers. Decide which type of test they belong to: (a) the discrete point test, (b) integrative test, and (c) the communicative test.10% Directions: There are 30 incomplete sentences in this part. For each sentence there are four choices marked A, B, C, and D. Choose the ONE answer that best completes the sentence. Then mark the corresponding letter on the Answer Sheet with a single line through the center.1). By the time he arrives in Beijing, we _ here for two days.A. have been staying B. have stayedC. shall stayD. will have stayed2) Directions: In this section, you will, you will hear a passage three times. When the passage is read for the first time, you should listen carefully for the general idea. When the passage is read for the second time, you are required to fill in the blanks numbered from S1 to S7 with the exact words you have just heard. For blanks numbered S8 to S10 you are required to fill in the missing information. You can either use the exact words you have just heard or write down the main points in your own words. Finally, when the passage is read for the third time, you should check what you have written.If you are a college student, most of your concerns about your health and happiness in life are probably (S1) _ on the present. Basically, you want to feel good physically, mentally, and (S2) _ now. You probably dont spend much time worrying about the (S3) _, such as whether you will develop heart disease, or (S4) _, how you will take care of yourself in your (S5) _ years, or how you are going to live. 13. What do you think are the strong points and drawbacks of each of the following types of test: (a) the achievement test, (b) the proficiency test, (c) the aptitude test, (d) the diagnosis test, (e) the subjective test, and (f) the objective test. 10% 参考答案1. These words are not permissible in English. All languages have constraints on the permitted sequences of phonemes. *tpray, *btry, *tgharg do not sound like an English word because it does not conform to the restrictions on the sequencing of phonemes. When three consonants occur, the first must be s. 2. Open-class words refer to those classes of words to which we can add new words. In English, nouns, notional verbs, adjectives and adverbs belong to this category. Such words normally convey certain semantic contents and thus are also called content words. Closed-class words refer to those classes to which new words can hardly be added. In English, closed-class words include pronouns, determiners, conjunctions, relatives, prepositions, auxiliary verbs, modal verbs and the linking verb to be. Their roles in the linguistic system are partly or wholly grammatical and thus are also called grammatical words.3. Inflection refers to the process of adding an affix to a word or changing it in some other way according to the grammatical rules of the language. English inflections are used to express certain grammatical meanings: the plural morpheme s to change the noun into the plural-number form, the generative-case morpheme s to indicate the relation of possession, the feminine-gender morpheme ess to change the masculine noun into its corresponding feminine-gender form, the third-person singular s to change the verb into the third-person singular form, the -ing participle ing to change the verb into the -ing participle, the past-form morpheme ed to change the verb into the past-tense form, the past-participle morpheme ed to change the verb into the -ing participle, the comparative er to change an adjective into the comparative-degree form, and the superlative est to change an adjective into the superlative-degree form.4. 1) (a) (b)2)3) 5. Sentence meaning refers to the conventional content or literal meaning of a sentence. It is the context-independent meaning. Utterance meaning refers to the meaning of an utterance in the context. In other words, it is the meaning dependent on the context. In some cases, the sentence meaning coincides with the utterance meaning. But in many situations, the utterance meaning differs from the sentence meaning. 6. Metaphor is common in verbal communication. In the traditional approach, metaphor is generally interpreted as a rhetorical device to add novelty to verbal communication. But according to the cognitive and functional linguistic approach, metaphor is a basic cognitive facility with which human beings organize the world in the system of language. Much of the history of every language, according to Halliday (1994: 348), is a history of demetaphorizing: of expressions which began as metaphors gradually losing their metaphorical character. Metaphorical modes of expression are characteristic of adult discourse. On the other hand, metaphor is also an important stylistic feature. For example, literary works (such as novels and poetry) normally abound in lexical metaphor while scientific and technical registers are characterized with nominalizing metaphors. 7. 1) In this dialogue, B has flouted the maxim of Manner. Here B uses an obscure expression and fails to give a brief and direct answer to As question. The implicature of Bs utterance is probably I dont know the exact place. What I can tell you is that Miss Rosebery lives somewhere in the suburbs of the city.2) In this dialogue, B has flouted the maxim of Relevance. Bs answer is not relevant to As statement. The implicature of Bs utterance is probably There is a garage round the corner, so you can have your car refilled there.3) In this dialogue, B has flouted the maxim of Quantity. Bs reply is more informative than is required for the current purposes of the exchange. The conversational implicature of Bs utterance is that I dont think too much of Cathys singing.4) In this dialogue, the student is more informative than is required for the current purposes of the exchange and has thus flouted the maxim of Quantity. The implicature of the students utterance is probably Its high time you finished the lecture.8. 1) He owed the tailor twenty dollars. It was the tailor whom he owed twenty dollars.2) The impossible has often proved possible. It is the impossible that has often proved possible. Or: What has often proved possible is the impossible.3) We have oral practice every other day. It is every other day that we have oral practice.4) We didnt leave the flat until we could smell the smoke in the corridor. It was not until we could smell the smoke in the corridor that we left the flat.5) The football match was cancelled because of the rain. It was because of the rain that the football match was cancelled.9. Regional dialect is the kind of dialect that is spoken and used by the people in a geographical region. Every local group of people spoke the language a little differently from other groups. For instance, these differences may be found in pronunciation, spelling, and the use of words and grammatical structures. With the passage of time, a regional dialect may become the standard dialect of a nation. This is largely due to a number of socio-economic and political reasons. 10. Currently, we cannot say that all languages in the world derived from one common ancestor. It might be true that some languages have diverged from one common ancestor, for example, French, Spanish, Italian and other Romance languages were clearly descended from Latin, but no evidence show that all languages in the world have the same origin. As research shows, there are at least 29 language families in the world. However, this problem will be solved when we have enough evidence to show that human beings have one common ancestor.11. Human language is primary over animal communication in the following aspects:1) Human has the ability to refer to things far remote in time and space. In contrast, it may be impossible for an animal to convey such ability.2) Human has the ability to produce and understand an indefinite number of novel utterances, but no animal can communicate creatively with another animal. 3) Learning is much more important as a factor in human language than in animal communication.4) Human language structure and language use are vastly more complex than any animal communication system.5) Animal communication systems are closed-ended, whereas human languages are open-ended.12. The questions in 1) belong to the discrete point test, because the test consists of many questions on a number of linguistic points, but each question tests only one linguistic point. Besides, the questions here are objective so that the test can be scored objectively and the results are easy to be analyzed statistically. The questions in 2) belong to the integrative test, because they are a combination of cloze test and dictation. The testees are required to fill in the blanks in a passage with either a single word, a sentence or a larger unit while they are listening to the same material.13. (a) The achievement test is aimed at assessing the testees mastery of the knowledge and skills set by the syllabus as the teaching goals the contents of a particular course. It is usually given at the end of a period of study. The achievement test focuses on the result rather than the process. Thus, it is of little use in diagnosing how the testee is getting along with the study of the target language. (b) The proficiency test is aimed at discovering what the testee has already known about the target language. It can be used to predict whether he has the ability to accomplish a certain task in the future. The proficiency test does not care what kind of language training the testee has ever received. It focuses more on the result than the process. (c) The aptitude test is designed to measure the testees aptitude or natural ability to learn the target language. It is based on the assumption that the learners mastery of his native language is closely related to his potential to learn a foreign language. The drawback of the aptitude test is its failure to assess the effect of the learners attitude, learning strategies, learning environment and other related factors.