语言学教程复习题与答案(胡壮麟版)1

1、语言学教程复习题与答案 （胡壮麟版第一章 ）Chapter I IntroductionI. Decide whether each of the following statements is True or False:1. Linguistics is generally defined as the scientific study of language.2. Linguistics studies particular language, not languages in general.3. A scientific study of language is based on w

2、hat the linguist thinks.4. In the study of linguistics, hypotheses formed should be based on language facts and checked against the observed facts.5. General linguistics is generally the study of language as a whole.6. General linguistics, which relates itself to the research of other areas, studies

3、 the basic concepts, theories, descriptions, models and methods applicable in any linguistic study. 7.7. Phonetics is different from phonology in that the latter studies the combinations of the sounds to convey meaning in communication.8. Morphology studies how words can be formed to produce meaning

4、ful sentences.9. The study of the ways in which morphemes can be combined to form words is called morphology.10. Syntax is different from morphology in that the former not only studies the morphemes, but also the combination of morphemes into words and words into sentences.11. The study of meaning i

5、n language is known as semantics.12. Both semantics and pragmatics study meanings.13. Pragmatics is different from semantics in that pragmatics studies meaning not in isolation, but in context.14. Social changes can often bring about language changes.15. Sociolinguistics is the study of language in

6、relation to society.16. Modern linguistics is mostly prescriptive, but sometimes descriptive.17. Modern linguistics is different from traditional grammar.18. A diachronic study of language is the description of language at some point in time.19. Modern linguistics regards the written language as pri

7、mary, not the written language.20. The distinction between competence and performance was proposed by Saussure.II. Fill in each of the following blanks with one word which begins with the letter given:21. Chomsky defines “ competence ” as the ideal user s k of the rulesof his language.22. Langue ref

8、ers to the a linguistic system shared by all the membersof a speech community while the parole is the concrete use of the conventions and application of the rules.23. D is one of the design features of human language which refers to the pheno 广告网址 n that language consists of two levels: a lower leve

9、l of meaningless individual sounds and a higher level of meaningful units.24. Language is a system of a vocal symbols used for humancommunication.25. The discipline that studies the rules governing the formation of words into permissible sentences in languages is called s.26. Human capacity for lang

10、uage has a g basis, but the details of languagehave to be taught and learned.27. P refers to the realization of langue in actual use.28. Findings in linguistic studies can often be applied to the settlement of some practical problems. The study of such applications is generally known as a linguistic

11、s.29. Languageis p in that it makes possible the constructionandinterpretationof new signals by its users. In other words,they can produce andunderstand an infinitely large number of sentences which they have never heard before.30. Linguistics is generally defined as the s study of language.III. The

12、re are four choices following each statement. Mark the choice that can best complete the statement.31. If a linguistic study describes and analyzes the language people actually use, it is said to be .A. prescriptive B. analytic C. descriptive D. linguistic32. Which of the following is not a design f

13、eature of human language?A. Arbitrariness B. Displacement C. Duality D. Meaningfulness33. Modern linguistics regards the written language as .A. primary B. correct C. secondary D. stable34. In modern linguistics, speech is regarded as more basic than writing, because . A. in linguistic evolution, sp

14、eech is prior to writingB. speech plays a greater role than writing in terms of the amount of information conveyed. C. speech is always the way in which every native speaker acquires his mother tongueD. All of the above35. A historical study of language is a study of language.A. synchronic B. diachr

15、onic C. prescriptive D. comparative36.Saussure took a (n) view of language, while Chomsky looks atlanguage from a point of view.A. sociological psychological B. psychological sociologicalC. applied pragmaticD.semantic and linguistic37. According to F. de Saussure, refers to the abstract linguistic s

16、ystemshared by all the members of a speech community.A. parole B. performanceC. langue D. Language38. Language is said to be arbitrary because there is no logical connection between and meanings.A. senseB. soundsC. objects D. ideas39. Language can be used to refer to contexts removed from the immedi

17、ate situations of the speaker. This feature is called,A. displacementB. duality C. flexibility D. cultural transmissionon from one generation to theDesignDisplacement 55.Duality 56.40. The details of any language system is passedFeatures 57. Competence58 Performance59. Langue 60 ParoleA. learning B.

18、 teachingC. booksD. both A and BIV. Define the following terms:41. Linguistics 42.Phonology43. Syntax 44Psycholinguistics 46.Language 47.50.Sociolinguistics 51.next through , rather than by instinct.Pragmatics 45.Phonetics 48.Applied Linguistics53 Productivity 54.as possible.vocal symbolsGiveusedIll

19、ustrate them withV. Answer the following questions as comprehensively examples for illustration if necessary:61. Language is generally defined as a system of arbitrary for human communication. Explain it in detail.62. What are the design features of human language?examples.63. How is modern linguist

20、ics different from traditional grammar?64. How do you understand the distinction between a synchronic study and a diachronic study?65. Why does modern linguistics regard the spoken form of language as primary, not the written?66. What are the major distinctions between langue and parole?67. How do y

21、ou understand competence and performance ?68. Saussure s distinction between langue and parole seems similar to Chomsky s distinction between competenceand performance. What do you thinkare theirmajor differences?69. Do you think human language is entirely arbitrary? Why?I. Decidewhethereach of thef

22、ollowingstatementsis True or False:15II. Fill in eachof thefollowingblankswith one word which beginswith the letter given:21.knowledge 22.abstract23. Duality 24.arbitrary25.syntax 227.Parole28. applied 29.productive 30. scientific(orsystematic)III. There are four choices following each statement. Ma

23、rk the choice that can best complete the statement. 3l.C 32.D 33.C 34.D 35.B 36.A 37.C 38. IV. Define the following terms:41. Linguistics: Linguistics is generally definedas the scientific study of language.42. Phonology: The study of how soundsare put together and used in communication is called ph

24、onology.43. Syntax:The study of how morphemes and words are combined to form sentences is called syntax. 44.Pragmatics: The study of meaning in context of use is called pragmatics. 45. Psycholinguistics: The study of language with reference to the workings of mind is called psycholinguistics.46. Lan

25、guage: Language is asystem of arbitrary vocal symbols used for human communication.47. Phonetics: The study of sounds which are used in linguistic communication is called phonetics. 48. Morphology: The study of the way in which morphemes are arranged to form words is called morphology.49. Semantics:

26、 Thestudy of meaning in language is called semantics.50. Sociolinguistics:The study of language with reference to society is called sociolinguistics.51. Applied linguistics: In a narrow sense, applied linguistics refers to the application of linguistic principles and theories to language teaching an

27、d learning, especially the teaching of foreign and second languages. In a broad sense, it refers to the application of linguistic findings to the solution of practical problems such as the recovery of speech ability. 52. Arbitrariness: It is one of the design features of language. It means that ther

28、e is no logical connection between meanings and sounds53. Productivity: Language is productive or creative inthat it makes possible the con-struction and interpretation of new signals by its users.54. Displacement: Displacement means that language can be usedto refer to things which are present or n

29、ot present, real or imagined matters in the past, present, or future, or in far-away places. In other words, language can be used to refer to contexts removed from the immediate situations of the speaker55. Duality: The duality nature of language means that language is a system, whichconsists of two

30、 sets of structure, or two levels, one of sounds and the other of meanings. 56. Design features: Design features refer to the defining properties of human language that distinguish it from any animal system of communication57. Competence: Chomsky defines competence as the idealusers knowledge of the

31、 rules of his language,58. Performance: performance isthe actual realization of the knowl-edge of the rules in linguistic communication.59. langue : Langue refers to the abstract linguistic system shared by all the members of a speech community; Langue is the set of conventions and rule s which lang

32、uage users all have to follow; Langue is relatively stable, it does not change frequently 60. Parole: Parole refers to the realization of lang ue in actual use; parole is the concrete use of the conventions and the appli cation of the rules; parole varies from person to person, and from situation t

33、o situation.V. Answer the following questions as comprehensively as possible. Give exam ples for illustration if necessary:61. Languageis generallydefined as a system of arbitraryvocal symbolsused for humancommunication.Explainit in detail.First of all,language isa system, becauseelements oflanguage

34、 are combined accordingtorules. Secondly, languageis arbitrary because thereis no intrinsic connectionbetweenformand meaning, or betweenthe sign and what it standsfor. Differentlanguages have different words forthe sameobject intheworld.This fact isa goodllustrationof the arbitrarynature oflanguage.

35、Thisalsoexplains thesymbolicnature oflanguage: wordsare justsymbols;theyareassociated with objects, actions,ideas, etc. by convention .Thirdly,languageis vocal because theprimary medium is sound for all languages, no matter how well - developed their writingsystems are.The term humanin the definitio

36、n indicatesthat language ispossessedbyhumanbeings onlyand isverydifferent fromthe communicationsystemsofotherliving creatures.Thetermcommunicationmeans that language makes it possible for its users to talk to each other and fulfill their communicative needs.62. What are the design features of human

37、language? Illustrate them with ex amples. 1) Arbitrariness As mentioned earlier, the arbitrary property of langu age means that there is no logical connection between meanings and sounds.For instance, there is no necessary relationship between the word elephant and the animal it symbolizes. In addit

38、ion, different sounds are used to refer t o the same object in different languages,andevenwithin the same language,the same sound does not refer to thesame thing.However, languageis notentirelyarbitrary. There are words whichare createdin the imitation ofsounds by sounds, such as crash, bang in Engl

39、ish.Besides, some compoundwords are also not entirely arbitrary. But the non-arbitrary words are quite limited in number. The arbitrary nature of language makes it possible for language to have an unlimited source of expressions. 2) Productivity Language is prod uctive or creative in that it makes p

40、ossible the construction and interpretationof new signals by its users. This is why they can produce and understand a n infinitely large number of sentences, including sentences that they have ne ver said or heard before. They can send messages which no one else has ev er sent before. Productivity i

41、s unique to human language. Most animal comm unication systems appear to be highly restricted with respect to the number of different signals that their users can send and receive. 3) Duality The du ality nature of language means that language is a system, which consists of two sets of structure, or

42、 two levels, one of sounds and the other of meaning s. At the lower or the basic level, there is the structure of sounds, which are meaningless, discrete, individual sounds. But the sounds of language can be combined according to rules into units of meaning such as morphemes andwords, which, atthe h

43、igher level,canbe arranged intosentences. This dualityof structure ordoublearticulationoflanguage enablesitsusers to talkabout anything withintheirknowledge.Noanimal communicationsystem hasduality or even comesnearto possessingit. 4) DisplacementDisplacementmeans that languagecanbe used toreferto th

44、ings whicharepresent or notpresent, real or imagined matters in the past, present, or future, or in far-away p laces. In other words, language can be used to refer to contexts removed fro m the immediate situations of the speaker. Animal calls are mainly uttered in response to immediate changes of s

45、ituation. 5) Cultural transmissionHuman beings were born with the ability to acquire language, but the details of an y language are not genetically transmitted or passed down by instinct. They have to be taught and learned, but animal call systems are genetically transmi tted.63. How is modern lingu

46、istics different from traditional grammar? Traditional gram-mar is prescriptive; it is based on high (religious, literary) writte n language. It sets grammatical rules and imposes the rules on language users. But Modern linguistics is descriptive; It collects authentic, and mai nly spoken language d

47、ata and then it studies and describes the data in a n objective and scientific way.64. How do you understand the distinction between a synchronic study and a diachronic study? The description of a language at some point in time is a Synchronic study; the description of a language as it changes throu

48、 gh time is a diachronic study. A synchronic study of language describes a language as it is at some particular point in time, while a diachronic st udy of language is the study of the historical development of language o ver a period of time.65. Why does modern linguistics regard the spoken form of

49、 language as pri mary, not the written? First, the spoken form is prior to the writ-ten for m and most writing systems are derived from the spoken form of langua ge. Second, the spoken form plays a greater role than writing in terms of the amount of information conveyed and it serves a wider range o

50、f purp oses Finally, the spoken form is the medium through which we acquire o ur mother tongue.66. What are the major distinctions between langue and parole? The distinction between langue, and parole was made by the famous linguist Ferdinand de Saussure early this century. Langue refers to the abst

51、ract linguisticsystem shared by all the members of a speech community, and parole ref ers to the realization of langue in actual use. Langue is the set of conve ntions and rules which language users all have to follow while parole is t he concrete use of the conventions and the application of the ru

52、les. Lang ue is abstract; it is not the language people actually use, but parole is c oncrete; it refers to the naturally occurring language events. Langue is rel atively stable; it does not change frequently; while parole varies from per son to person, and from situation to situation.67. How do you

53、 understand competence and performance? American lingui st N. Chomsky in the late 1950 s proposed the distinction between comp etence and performance. Chomsky defines competence as the ideal user s knowledge of the rules of his language. This internalized set of rules e nables the language user to p

54、roduce and understand an infinitely large n umber of sentences and recognize sentences that are ungrammatical and ambiguous. According to Chomsky, performance is the actual realization o f this knowledge in linguistic communication. Although the speaker s kno wledge of his mother tongue is perfect,

55、his performances may have mista kes because of social and psychological factors such as stress, embarras sment, etc. Chomsky believes that what linguists should study is the co mpetence, which is systematic, not the performance, which is too haphaz ard.68. Saussure s distinction between langue and p

56、arole seems similar to Chom sky s distinction between competence and performance. What do you thi nk are their major differences? Although Saussure s distinction and Cho msky s are very similar,theydiffer at leastin thatSaussure took a sociological view of languageandhis notion oflangueis a mater of

57、social conventions, and Chomskylooks at languagefrom apsychologicalpoint of vies and to him, competenceis a propertyof themind of eachindividual.69. Do you think human language is entirely arbitrary? Why? Language isarbitrary in nature, it is not entirely arbitrary, because there are a limited number of words whose connections between forms and meanings can b e logically explained to a certain extent,