语言学简答期末

1、1. Communication can take many forms, such as sign, speech, body language and facial expression. Do nobody language and facial expression share or lack the distinctive properties of human language答： On the whole, body Ianguage and facial expression lack most of the distinctive properties of human la

2、nguage such as duality, displacement, creativity and so on. Body language exhibits arbitrariness a little bit. For instance, nod means OK/YES for us but in Arabian world it is equal to saying NO. Some facial expressions have non-arbitrariness because they are instinctive such as the cry and laugh of

3、 a newborn infant.2. Do you think they are descriptive and prescriptive Whatsyour comment on them(1) Do not use man to mean humanity in general. Use person, people, human beings, men and women, humanity and humankind.(2) colored: This term is regarded as outdated in the UK and should be avoided as i

4、t is generally viewed as offensive to many black people.(3) civilized : This term can still carry racist overtones which derive from a colonialist perception of the world. It is often associated with social Darwinist thought and is full of implicit value judgments and ignorance of the history of the

5、 non-industrialized world.答： They are undoubtedly descriptive, Guidelines are not rules that can determine whether a sentence is right or not. The guidelines advise you to avoid the use of particular words that are grammatically correct but offensive to some certain groups. Actually, they describe t

6、he way antisexist advocators speak and write.3. (1)What organs are involved in speech production答： Quite a few human organs are involved in the production of speech: the luns, the trachea, the throat, the nose, and the mouth.(2) Why did George Bernard Shaw say he could spell the wordfishasghoti答： Th

7、is is because gh is pronounced as f inenough,o as I in women, and ti as ? in nation.(3) How is the description of consonants different from that of vowels答： Consonants are produced by a closure in the vocal tract, or by a narrowing which is so marked that air cannot escape without producing audible

8、friction. By contrast, a vowel is produced without such stricture so that air escapes in a relatively unimpeded way through the mouth or nose. The distinction between vowels and consonants lies in the obstruction of airstream.(4) To what extent is phonology related to phonetics and how do they diffe

9、r答： Both phonetics and phonology study human speech sounds but they differ in the levels of analysis. Phonetics studies how speech sounds are produced, transmitted, and perceived. Phonology is the study of the sound patterns and sound systems of languages. It aims to discover the principles that gov

10、ern the way sounds are organized in languages, and to explain the variations that occur.(5) Assimilation is often used synonymously with coarticulation.Discuss.答： Assimilation is a phonological term, often used synonymously with coarticulation, which is more of a pho netic term. Similarly, there are

11、 two possibilities of assimilatio n: if a follow ing sound is in flue ncing a precedi ng sound, we call it regressive assimilati on; the conv erse process, in which a preced ing sound is in flue ncing a follow ing soun d, is known as progressive assimilati on.(6) The pronunciation of tell is t? but

12、that of teller is t?. Discuss why the phon eme/l/ is realized as ? and l respectively in this situati on.答：The world teller is formed by adding a suffix -er to the base word tell to form a new word. We are all familiar with the rule that governs the allophones of the phoneme /I/: when preceding a vo

13、wel, it is l and when following a vowel it is ?.We no tice that tell is a mono syllabic word while teller is disyllabic. I n a polysyllabic word, we follow the Maximal Onset Principle for division of syllable. By MOP, the l must be placed in the on set positi on of the sec ond syllable in stead of t

14、he coda position of the first syllable. Thus, the phoneme l is realized as it should be before the vowel in the second syllable. The same is true with telling, falling, and many others.followi ng words con tai n differe nt forms of the n egative prefix in-. Group the data according to the variants a

15、nd try to determine which kinds of base word take which kinds of prefix variant and what kind of mechanism is word responsible for the variation. Formulate a rule and then test it against words that are formed in this way but are not men tio ned here.答: There are five groups of words according to th

16、eir variation on pronunciation: In: in harm onic, ingenio us, inoffen sive, in differe nt, in evitable, innu merable; I n or I ?: in comprehe nsible, in compete nt, incon siste nt; Im: impe netrable, impossible, immobile; Il: illiterate, illegal, illogical; Ir: irresp on sible, irresistible, irregul

17、ar. It is clear that the first sound of the base word governs the distribution of the variants, because the final consonant of the prefix in- must assimilate to the first segment of the base word. As a result of this, we find Imbefore labial consonants like m or p, Il before the lateral I, Ir before

18、 r. Whe n the first consonant of the base word is the velar consonan t k, it is I? in rapid speech and In in careful speech. In all other cases In is always the case.each of the un derl ined con struct ions or word groups, do the follow ing. State whether it is headed or non-headed. If headed, state

19、 its headword. Name the type of con struct ions.(a) Ducks quack答: non-headed, independent clause(b) The ladder in the shed is long eno ugh答:non-head, prepositi onal phrase.(c) I saw a bridge damaged beyond repai答:headed; headword-damaged; adjectival group(d) Singing hymns is forbidden in some countr

20、ies.答：headed; headword-singing; gerun dial phrase.(e) His handsome face appeared in the magazine. A lady of great beauty came out. 答: headed; headword-face; nominal group.(f) He enjoys climbing high mountains答:non-headed; prepositional phrase.(h) The man nodded patiently.答:non-headed; independent cl

21、ause.(i) A man roused by the in suit drew his sword. 答: headed; headword-roused. Adjectival phrase.6. An alyse the poem below from the sema ntic point of view, tak ing a special acco unt of sense relati ons.答: This poem is about the use of the word colored .The author cleverly makes use of colored i

22、n the sense of Ciffere nt colors to oppose the proactive to refer to black people as coloredThis shows from another point of view that colored is not a superord in ate to red； gree n, yellow etc.7. Some people maintain that there are no true synonyms. If two words mean really the same, one of them w

23、ill definitely die out. An example often quoted is the disuse of the word wireless；which has been replaced by radio.Do you agree In general what type of meaning we are talk ing about whe n we say two words are synonym ous with each other答:It is true that there are no absolute synony ms. When we say

24、two words are synonymous with each other, we usually mean they have the same conceptual meaning.British linguist We can treat male/female, married/single, alive/dead asgradable antonyms on occasi ons. Some one can be very male or more married and certa inly more dead tha n alive. Comme nt on it.答: It is not advisable to tell beginners of linguistics that the distinction between gradable antonyms and complementary antonyms is relative. The expression more dead that aliveis not a true comparative.you