自考现代语言学包过笔记-自考考前押题试题答案、重点考点知识点梳理复习

1、0830 - 现代语言学现代语言学何兆熊、梅德明主编 外语教学与研究出版社A Detailed Note for Modern LinguisticsChapter 1: Introduction1.Define the following terms:1).Linguistics:It is generally defined as the scientific study of language. 2).General linguistics: The study of language as a whole is called general linguistics.3).Applied

2、 linguistics: In a narrow sense, applied linguistics refers to the application of linguistic principles and theories to language teaching and 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 pr

3、actical problems such as the recovery of speech ability.4).Synchronic study: The study of a language at some point in time. e.g. A study of the features of the English used in Shakespeares time is a synchronic study.5).Diachronic study: The study of a language as it changes through time. A diachroni

4、c study of language is a historical study, which studies the historical development of language over a period of time. e.g. a study of the changes English has undergone since Shakespeares time is a diachronic study.6).Language competence: The ideal users knowledge of the rules of his language. A tra

5、nsformational-generative grammar（转化生成语法）is a model of language competence.7).Language performance: performance is the actual realization of the ideal language users knowledge of the rules in linguistic communication. 8).Langue : Langue refers to the abstract linguistic system shared by all the membe

6、rs of a speech community; Langue is the set of conventions and rules which language users all have to follow; Langue is relatively stable, it does not change frequently.9).Parole: Parole refers to the realization of langue in actual use; parole is the concrete use of the conventions and the applicat

7、ion of the rules; parole varies from person to person, and from situation to situation.10).Language: Language is a system of arbitrary vocal symbols used for human communication.11).Arbitrariness: It is one of the design features of language. It means that there is no logical connection between mean

8、ings and sounds. A good example is the fact that different sounds are used to refer to the same object in different languages.12).Productivity: Language is productive or creative in that it makes possible the construction and interpretation of new signals by its users.13).Duality: Language is a syst

9、em, which consists of two sets of structure, or two levels, one of sounds at the lower or basic level, and the other of meanings at the higher level.14).Displacement: language can be used to refer to things which are present or not present, real or imagined matters in the past, present, or future, o

10、r in far-away places. In other words, language can be used to refer to contexts removed from the immediate situations of the speaker.15).Cultural transmission: While we are born with the ability to acquire language, the details of any language are not genetically transmitted, but instead have to be

11、taught and learned.16).Design features: It refers to the defining properties of human language that distinguish it from any animal system of communication2.Explain the following definition of linguistics: Linguistics is the scientific study of language.Linguistics investigates not any particular lan

12、guage, but languages in general. Linguistic study is scientific because it is based on the systematic investigation of authentic(可靠的，真实的) language data. No serious linguistic conclusion is reached until after the linguist has done the following three things: observing the way language is actually us

13、ed, formulating some hypotheses, and testing these hypotheses against linguistic facts to prove their validity.3.What are the branches of linguistics? What does each of them study? (语言学的主要分支是什么。每个分支的研究对象是什么？)Linguistics mainly involves the following branches: 1)General linguistics, which is the stud

14、y of language as a whole and which deals with the basic concepts, theories, descriptions, models and methods applicable in any linguistic study 2)Phonetics, which studies the sounds that are used in linguistic communication 3)Phonology, which studies how sounds are put together and used to convey me

15、aning in communication ： 4)Morphology, which studies the way in which morphemes are arranged to form words 5)Syntax, which studies how morphemes and words are combined to form sentences 6)Semantics, which is the study of meaning in lan¬guage. 7)Pragmatics, which is the study of meaning not in i

16、solation, but in the context of use 8)Sociolinguistics, which is the study of language with reference to society 9)Psycholinguistics, which is the study of language with reference to the workings of mind. 10)Applied linguistics, which is concerned about the application of linguistic findings in ling

17、uistic studies; in a nar¬row sense, applied linguistics refers to the application of linguistic principles and theories to language teaching, especially the teaching of foreign and second languages. 11)Other related branches are anthropological linguistics(人类语言学), neurological linguistics（神经语言学

18、）, mathematical linguistics（数学语言学）, and computational linguistics（计算机语言学）. 4.What makes modern linguistics different from traditional grammar? (现代语言学与传统语法有什么区别？) Traditional grammar is prescriptive（规定性）; it is based on "high "(religious, literary) written language. It sets models for langu

19、age users to follow. But Modern linguistics is descriptive（描述性）; its investigations are based on authentic and mainly spoken language data. It is supposed to be scientific and objective and the task of linguists is supposed to describe the language people actually use, whether it is "correct&qu

20、ot; or not. 5.Is modern linguistics mainly synchronic（共时性） or diachronic（历时性）? Why? (The description of language at some point in time is a synchronic study; the description of a language as it changes through time is a diachronic study.)Modern linguistics is mainly synchronic, focusing on the prese

21、nt-day language. Unless the various states of a language are successfully studied, it will not be possible to describe language from a diachronic point of view. ： 6.Which enjoys priority in modern linguistics, speech or writing? Why?Modern linguistics gives priority to the spoken language for the fo

22、llowing reasons:First, speech precedes writing. The writing system is always a later invention used to record the speech. There are still some languages that only have the spoken form.Then, a larger amount of communication is carried out in speech than in writing.Third, speech is the form in which i

23、nfants acquire their native language.7.Saussure 是如何区分语言langue和言语parole的？(The distinction between langue and parole was made by the famous Swiss linguist Ferdinand de Saussure early this century. Langue and parole are French words.)Langue refers to the abstract linguistic system shared by all the mem

24、bers 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 follow while parole is the concrete use of the conventions and the application of the rules. Langue is abstract; it is not the languag

25、e people actually use, but 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.8.Chomsky的语言能力competence和语言使用performance各指什么？(American linguist

26、N. Chomsky in the late 1950s proposed the distinction between competence and performance.) Chomsky defines competence as the ideal users knowledge of the rules of his language. This internalized set of rules enables the language user to produce and understand an infinitely large number of sentences

27、and recognize sentences that are ungrammatical and ambiguous. According to Chomsky, performance is the actual realization of this knowledge in linguistic communication. Although the speakers knowledge of his mother tongue is perfect, his performances may have mistakes because of social and psycholog

28、ical factors such as stress, embarrassment, etc Chomsky believes that what linguists should study is the competence, which is systematic, not the performance, which is too haphazard (偶然的).9.How is Saussures distinction between langue and parole similar to Chomskys distinction between competence and

29、performance? And what is their difference?Both Saussure and Chomsky make the distinction between the abstract language system and the actual use of language. Their purpose is to single out one aspect of language for serious study.They differ in that Saussure takes a sociological view of language and

30、 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.10.What characteristics of language do you think should be included in a good, comprehensive definition of lang

31、uage?Language is a system of arbitrary vocal symbols used for human communication.First of all, language is a system, i.e. elements of language are combined according to rules.Second, language is arbitrary in the sense that there is no intrinsic connection between the word and the thing it refers to

32、. ： Third, language is vocal because the primary medium is sound for all languages.The term “human” is meant to specify that language is human-specific.11.What features of human language have been specified by Charles Hockett to show that it is essentially different from any animal communication sys

33、tem? 人类语言的甄别性特征是什么？ 1.Arbitrariness（任意性）: (课本答案：a sign of sophistication only humans are capable of) It means that there is no logical connection between meanings and sounds. Although language is arbitrary by nature, it is not entirely arbitrary. Non-arbitrary words make up only a small percentage o

34、f the total number. The arbitrary nature of language is a sign of sophistication and it makes it possible for language to have an unlimited source of expressions. ： 2.Productivity（创造性）: （课本答案：creativity: animals are quite limited in the messages they are able to send）Language is productive or creati

35、ve in that it makes possible the con¬struction and interpretation of an infinitely large number of sentences, including those they have never said or heard before. 3.Duality（二重性）: （课本答案：a feature totally lacking in any animal communication）It means that language is a system, which consists of t

36、wo sets of structure, or two levels, one of sounds at the lower level and the other of meanings at the higher level. At the lower or the basic level, there is the structure of individual and meaningless sounds, which can be grouped into meaningful units at the higher level. This duality of structure

37、 or dou¬ble articulation of language enables its users to talk about anything within their knowledge. 4.Displacement（移位性）: （课本答案：no animal can “talk” about things removed from the immediate situation）Language can be used to refer to things which are present or not present, real or imagined matt

38、ers in the past, present, or future, or far-away places. In other words, language can be used to refer to contexts removed from the immediate situations of the speaker. 5. Cultural transmission（文化传递性）： （课本答案：details of human language system are taught and learned while animals are born with the capa

39、city to send out certain signals as a means of limited communication）While we are born with the ability to acquire language, the details of any language are not genetically transmitted, but instead have to be taught and learned.12.Do you think human language is entirely arbitrary? Why?Language is ar

40、bitrary in nature, it is not entirely arbitrary, because there are a limited number of words whose connections between forms and meanings can be logically explained to a certain extent, for example, the onomatopoeia, words which are coined on the basis of imitation of sounds by sounds such as bang,

41、crash, etc. Take compounds for another example. The two elements “photo” and “copy” in “photocopy” are non-motivated, but the compound is not arbitrary. Chapter 2: Phonology1.Define the terms: 1).phonetics: Phonetics is defined as the study of the phonic medium of language; it is concerned with all

42、the sounds that occur in the world s languages2).auditory phonetics: It studies the speech sounds from the hearers point of view. It studies how the sounds are perceived by the hearer. 3).acoustic phonetics: It studies the speech sounds by looking at the sound waves. It studies the physical means by

43、 which speech sounds are transmitted through the air from one person to another.4).international phonetic alphabet IPA: It is a standardized and internationally accepted system of phonetic transcription.5).Broad transcription: the transcription with letter-symbols only, i.e. one letter-symbol for on

44、e sound. This is the transcription normally used in dictionaries and teaching textbooks.6).Narrow transcription: is the transcription with letter-symbols together with the diacritics. This is the transcription used by the phoneticians in their study of speech sounds.7).diacritics: is a set of symbol

45、s which can be added to the letter-symbols to make finer distinctions than the letters alone make possible. ： 8).Voiceless（清音）: when the vocal cords are drawn wide apart, letting air go through without causing vibration, the sounds produced in such a condition are called voiceless sounds.9).Voicing

46、（浊音）: Sounds produced while the vocal cords are vibrating are called voiced sounds.10).Vowel: the sounds in production of which no articulators come very close together and the air stream passes through the vocal tract without obstruction are called vowels.11).Consonants: the sounds in the productio

47、n of which there is an obstruction of the air stream at some point of the vocal tract are called consonants.12).phonology: Phonology studies the system of sounds of a particular language; it aims to discover how speech sounds in a language form patterns and how these sounds are used to convey meanin

48、g in linguistic communication.13).phone: Phones can be simply defined as the speech sounds we use when speaking a language. A phone is a phonetic unit or segment. It does not necessarily distinguish meaning.14).phoneme: a collection of abstract phonetic features, it is a basic unit in phonology. It

49、is represented or realized as a certain phone by a certain phonetic context.15).allophone: The different phones which can represent a phoneme in different phonetic environments are called the allophones of that phoneme. For example l and l16).phonemic contrast: Phonemic contrast refers to the relati

50、on between two phonemes. If two phonemes can occur in the same environment and distinguish meaning, they are in phonemic contrast.17).Complementary distribution: refers to the relation between two similar phones which are allophones of the same phoneme, and they occur in different environments.18).m

51、inimal pair: When two different forms are identical in every way except for one sound segment which occurs in the same place in the strings, the two words are said to form a minimal pair. For example: bin and pin.19).suprasegmental features: the phonemic features that occur above the level of the se

52、gments are called suprasegmental features. The main suprasegmental features include stress, tone and intonation.20).tone: Tones are pitch variations, which are caused by the differing rates of vibration of the vocal cords. Pitch variation can distinguish meaning just like phonemes. The meaning-disti

53、nctive function of the tone is especially important in tone languages, for example, in Chinese.21).intonation: When pitch, stress and sound length are tied to the sentence rather than the word in isolation, they are collectively known as intonation. For example, English has four basic types of inton

54、ation: the falling tone, the rising tone, the fall-rise tone and the rise-fall tone.2.What are the two major media of communication? Of the two, which one is primary and why? 语言交际的两大媒介是什么？哪一个是基本的交际媒介？为什么？ Speech and writing are the major media of communication. Speech is considered primary over writ

55、ing. The reasons are: speech ： is prior to writing in language evolution, speech plays a greater role in daily communications, and speech is the way in which people acquire their native language.3.What are the three branches of phonetics? How do they contribute to the study of speech sounds? 语音学的三个分

56、支是什么。它们是如何研究语言学的？ (可参照一下课文原话，可能更容易理解)1)Articulatory phonetics describes the way our speech organs work to produce the speech sounds and how they differ. 2)Auditory phonetics studies the physical properties of the speech sounds, and reaches important conclusion that phonetic identity is only a theore

57、tical ideal.3)Acoustic phonetics studies the physical properties of the speech sounds, the way sounds travel from the speaker to the hearer; it deals with the sound waves through the use of such machines as a spectrograph（声谱仪）. 4.Where are the articulatory apparatus of human being contained?Pharynge

58、al cavity, oral cavity and nasal cavity.5.What is voicing and how is it caused? 什么叫浊音化？它是如何形成的？ Voicing is the result of the vibration of the vocal cords. When the vocal cords are drawn wide apart, letting air go through without causing vibration, the sounds produced in such a way are voiceless. When vocal cords are held together tautly so that the air stream vibrates them, the sounds produced in this way are voiced. 6.What is the function of nasal cavity? How does it perform this function?The function of nasal cavity is