英语语言学概论-简答题

1.Synchronic vs diachronicLanguage exists in time and changes through time. The description of a language at some point of time in history is a synchronic study; the description of a language as it changes through time is a diachronic study. A diachronic study of language is a historical study; it studies the historical development of language over a period of time.2. Langue and parole 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, and parole is the concrete use of the conventions and the application of the rules. Langue is abstract; it is not the language people actually use. Parole is concrete; it refers to the naturally occurring language events. Langue is relatively stable, It does not change frequently, while parole varies from person to person, and from situation to situation.3. Competence and performanceChomsky defines competence as the ideal users knowledge of the rules of his language, and performance the actual realization of this knowledge in linguistic communication. According to Chomsky, a speaker has internalized a set of rules about his language, which enables him to produce and understand an infinitely large number of sentences and recognize sentences that are ungrammatical and ambiguous.4. ArbitrarinessAs mentioned earlier, language 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 language.On the other hand, we should be aware that while language is arbitrary by nature it is not entirely arbitrary; certain words are motivated. The best examples are the onomatopoeic words, such as rumble, crash, cackle, bang in English. Besides, some compound words are also not entirely arbitrary. For example, while photo and copy are both arbitrary, the compound word photocopy is not entirely arbitrary. But non-arbitrary words make up only a small percentage of the vocabulary of a language. The arbitrary nature of language is a sigh of sophistication and it makes it possible for language to have an unlimited source of expressions.5. ProductivityLanguage is productive or creative in that it makes possible the construction and 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. They can send messages which no one else has ever sent before. Much of what we say and hear are saying or hearing for the first time.6. DualityLanguage is a system, which 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 by themselves. But the sounds of language 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.7. DisplacementLanguage can be used to refer to things which are present or not present, real or imagined matters in the past, present, or future, or in faraway 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. This property provides speakers with an opportunity to talk about a wide range of things, free from barriers caused by separation in time or place.In contrast, no animal communication system possesses this feature. Animal calls are mainly uttered in response to immediate changes of situation, i.e. in contact of food, in presence of danger, or in pain. Once the danger or pain is gone, calls stop.8. Cultural transmissionWhile human capacity for language has a genetic basis, i.e. 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. An English speaker and a Chinese speaker are both able to use a language, but they are not mutually intelligible. This shows that language is culturally transmitted. It is passed on from one generation to the next through teaching and learning, rather than by instinct. In contrast, animal call systems are genetically transmitted, i.e. animals are born with the capacity to produce the set of calls peculiar to their species.9. Broad transcription and narrow transcription:Broad transcription is the transcription with letter-symbols only, this is the transcription normally used in dictionaries and teaching textbooks for general purposes. Narrow transcription is the transcription with letter-symbols together with the diacritics, this is the transcription needed and used by the phoneticians in their study of speech sounds. With the help of the diacritics they can faithfully represent as much of the fine details as it is necessary for their purpose.10. Sense and reference Sense and reference are two terms often encountered in the study of word meaning. They are two related but different aspects of meaning. Sense is concerned with the inherent meaning of a linguistic form, the collection of all its features; it is abstract and de-contextualized. It is the aspect of meaning dictionary compilers are interested in. Reference means what a linguistic form refers to in the real, physical world; it deals with relationship between the linguistic element and non-linguistic world of experience.11. Context It is generally considered as constituted by the knowledge shared by the speaker and the hearer. Various components of shared knowledge have been identified, e.g. knowledge of the language they use, knowledge of what has been said before, knowledge about the world in general, knowledge about the specific situation in which linguistic communication is taking place, and knowledge about each other. Context determines the speakers use of language and also the hearers interpretation of what is said to him.1. Prescriptive and descriptive Prescriptive and descriptive represent two different types of linguistic study. If a linguistic study aims to describe and analyze the language people actually use, it is said to descriptive; if the linguistic study aims to lay down rules for“correct and standards” behavior in using language. i.e. to tell people what they should say and what they should not say, it is said to be prescriptive. Modern linguistics is mostly descriptive. It differs from earlier studies of language normally known as “grammar” in that the latter is based on “high” (religious, literary) written language. It aims to set models for language user to follow. On the other hand, modern linguistics is supposed to be scientific and objective and its task is to describe the language people actually use, be it correct or not. Modern linguists believe that whatever occurs in the language use should be described and analyzed in their investigations.2. Competence and Performance 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. According to Chomsky, a speaker has internalized a set of rules about his language, which enables him to produce and understand an infinitely large number of sentences and recognize sentences that are ungrammatical and ambiguous. Despite his perfect knowledge of his own language, a speaker can still make mistakes in actual use, e.g. slips of the tongue, and unnecessary puses. This imperfect performance is caused by social and psychological factors such as stress, anxiety, and embarrassment. Similar to Saussure, Chomsky thinks that what linguists should study is the ideal speakers competence, not his performance, which is too haphazard to be studied. Although a speaker possesses an internalized set of rules and applies them in actual use, he cannot tell exactly what these rules are. So the task of the linguists is to discover and specify these rules. While Saussures distinction and Chomskys are very similar, they differ at least in that Saussure took a sociological view of language and his notion of langue is a matter of social conventions, and Chomsky looks at language from a psychological point of view and to him competence is a property of the mind of each individual.3. Assimilation Rule The assimilation rule assimilates one sound to another by copying a feature of a sequential phoneme, thus making the two phones similar. Assimilation of neighbouring sounds is, for the most part, caused by articulatory or physiological processes. When we speak, we tend to increase the ease of articulation. This sloppy tendency may become regularized as rules of language. We all know that nasalization is not a phonological feature in English, i.e. it does not mean that vowels in English are never nasalized in actual pronunciation; in fact they are nasalized in certain phonetic contexts. For example, the i: sound is nasalized in words like bean, green, team, and scream. This is because in all these sound combinations the i: sound is followed by a nasal n or m. The assimilation rule also accounts for the varying pronunciation of the alveolar nasal n in some sound combinations. The rule is that within a word, the nasal n assumes the same place of articulation as the consonant that follows it.Componential analysisa way to analyse lexical meaning4. Componential analysisa way to analyze lexical meaningComponential analysis is a way proposed by the structural semanticists to analyze word meaning. The approach is based upon the belief that the meaning of a word can be dissected into meaning components, called semantic features. This is parallel to the way a phoneme is analyzed into smaller components called distinctive features. Plus and minus signs are used to indicate whether a certain semantic feature is present or absent in the meaning of a word, and these feature symbols are usually written in capital letters. For example, the word man is analyzed as comprising the features of +HUMAN, +ADULT, +ANIMATE, +MALE. One advantage of componential analysis is that by specifying the semantics features of certain words, it will be possible to show how these words are related in meaning. For example, the two word man and woman share the features of +HUMAN, +ANIMATE, and +ANIMATE, but differ in the feature of MALE. And the words man and boy share the features of +HUMAN, +ANIMATE, and +MALE, but differ in the feature of ADULT. Componential analysis provides insight into the meaning of words and a way to study the relationships between words that are related in meaning.1. The scope of linguistics: phonetics(语音学)phonology(音系学)morphology(形态学)syntax(句法学)pragmatics(语用学)2. Interdisciplinary branches of linguistic study:Sociolinguistics: the studies of all there social aspects of language and its relation with societyPsycholinguistics: it relates the study of language to psychology.Applied linguistics3. Distinctions in linguistics:Prescriptive VS Descriptive Synchronic VS diachronic Speech VS writing Langue VS parole(瑞，saussure)Competence VS performance Traditional grammar VS linguistics4. Functions of language: descriptive,expressive,social,performative,persuasive,informative.5. Lan