语言学教程课后习题与答案第一章

1、Chapter 1 Invitations to Linguistics1. Define the following terms:design feature: the distinctive features of human language that essentially make human language distinguishable from languages of animals.function: the role language plays in communication (e.g. to express ideas, attitudes) or in part

2、icular social situations (e.g. religious, legal).in time.synchronic: said of an approach that studies language at a theoretical pointdiachronic: said of the study of development of language and languages over time.prescriptive: to make authoritarian statement about the correctness of a particular us

3、e of language.descriptive: to make an objective and systematic account of the patterns and use of a language or variety.arbitrariness: the absence of any physical correspondence between linguistic signals and the entities to which they refer.duality: the structural organization of language into two

4、abstract levels: meaningful units (e.g. words) and meaningless segments (e.g. sounds, letters).s immeddisplacement: the ability of language to refer to contexts removed from the speaker situation.phatic communion: said of talk used to establish atmosphere or maintain social contact.metalanguage: a l

5、anguage used for talking about language.macrolinguistics: a broad conception of linguistic enquiry, including psychological, cultural, petence: unconscious knowledge of the system of grammatical rules in a language. performance: the language actually used by people in speaking or writing.l an

6、gue: the language system shared by a“ speech community ”.parole: the concrete utterances of a speaker.2. Consult at least four introductory linguistics textbooks (not dictionaries), and copy thedefinitions oflanguagethat each gives. Aftelyroamrepfualring the definitions, write a paperdiscussing whic

7、h points recur and explaining the significance of the similarities and differencesamong the defi niti ons.ANSWER:AII the defi niti ons should not exclude the descripti on of desig n features that have bee n mentioned in this course book. Also it will be better if other design features, say, intercha

8、ngeability or cultural transmission is included. But it seems impossible to give an uni mpeachable defi niti on on Ian guage, because the facets people want to emphasize are seldom unanimous. To compare several definitions can make you realize where the argument is.3. Can you think of some words in

9、En glish which are ono matopoeic?ANSWERS:creak: the sound made by a badly oiled door whe n it ope ns.cuckoo: the call of cuckoo.bang: a sudde n loud no ise.roar: a deep loud con ti nuing sound.buzz: a no ise of buzz ing.hiss: a hiss ing sound.n eigh: the long and loud cry that a horse makes.mew: the

10、 no ise that a gull makes.bleat: the sound made by a sheep, goat or calf.4. Do you think that ono matopoeia in dicates a non-arbitrary relati on ship betwee n form and meaning?ANSWER4 No matter you say "Yes" or "No", you cannot deny that onomatopoeia needs arbitrari ness. Before

11、we feel a word is ono matopoeic we should first know which sound the word imitates. Just as what is said in Chapter One, in order to imitate the no ise of flying mosquitoes, there are many choices like "murmurous" and "murderous". They both bear more or less resemblanee to the ge

12、nuine natural sound, but "murmurous" is fortunately chosen to mean the noise while "murderous" is chosen to mean something quite different. They are arbitrary as sig ni fiers.5. A story by Robert LouisStevenson contains the sentence “ Asthenightfell, the wind rose. ”Could this be

13、 expressed as “ As the wind rose, the night fell?” If not, why? Does thisindicateadegree of non-arbitrariness about word order? (Bolinger, 1981: 15)5. Yes. It is a case in point to illustrate non-arbitrariness about word order. When the two partsinterchange, the focus and the meaning of the sentence

14、 is forced to change, because clauses occurring in linear sequence without time indicators will be taken as matching the actual sequence of happening. The writer' s original intention is distorted, aad feeict effortlessly by reading.That is why systemic-fu nctio nalists and America n fun ctio na

15、lists thi nk Ian guage is not arbitrary at the syn tactic level.6. Does the traffic light system have duality? Can you explain by drawing a simple graph?6. Traffic light does not have duality. Obviously, it is not a double-level system. There is onlyon e-to-one relati on ship betwee n sig ns and mea

16、ning but the meaning un its cannot be divided intosmaller meaningless elements further. So the traffic light only has the primary level and lacks the sec on dary level like ani mals' calls.ANSWER:Red stopGree ngoYellow t get ready to go or stop7. The recursive n ature of Ian guage provides a the

17、oretical basis for the creativity of Ian guage. Canyou write a recursive sentence follow ing the example in sect ion 1.3.3.ANSWER:Today I encoun tered an old friend who was my classmate whe n I was in eleme ntary school where there was an apple orchard in which we slid to select ripe apples that8. C

18、ommunication can take many forms, such as sign, speech, body Ianguage and facialexpression. Do body Ianguage and facial expression share or lack the distinctive properties of huma n Ian guage?ANSWER:On a whole, body Ian guage and facial expressi on lack most of the disti nctive properties of huma nI

19、anguage such as duality, displacement, creativity and so on. Body Ianguage exhibits arbitrarinessa little bit. For instanee, nod means "OK/YES" for us but in Arabian world it is equal to saying"NO". Some facial expressi ons have non-arbitrari ness because they are in sti nctive s

20、uch as the cryand laugh of a n ewbor n infant.9. Do you agree with the view that no Ian guage is especially simple?ANSWER:Yes. All huma n Ian guages are complicated systems of com muni cati on. It is decided by their shared desig n features.10. What do you think of Bertrand Russell obervation of the

21、 dog Ianguage: “ Ncmatter howeloquently a dog may bark, he cannot tell you that his parents were poor but honest” ? Arefamiliar with any type of ways an imals com mun icate among themselves and with huma n bein gs?ANSWER:When gazelles sense pote ntial dan ger, for example, they flee and thereby sig

22、nal to other gazellesin the vic inity that dan ger is lurk ing. A dog sig nals its wish to be let in side the house by bark ingand signals the possibility that it might bite momentarily by displaying its fangs.11. Can you mention some typical expressions of phatic communion in Chinese? There is thed

23、ialog betwee n Ms. P and Ms. Q. in sect ion 1.5.5. When some one sn eezes viole ntly, do you say anything of the n ature of phatic com munion? Have you no ticed your pare nts or gran dpare nts say someth ing special on such an occasi on?Some of the typical phatic expressions in Chinese are:吃了吗？家里都好吧

24、？这是去哪里啊？最近都挺好的？ANSWER:If some one is sn eez ing viole ntly, maybe you pare nts and gran dpare nts may say:“ Are you(“ Do you need to see a doctor?” ,“ Do you need some water? ” ,“ Do you need a handkerchief?you have a cold? ” or somelthinthese to show their concerns.12. There are many expressions in

25、 Ianguage which are metalingual or self-reflexives, namely,talk ing about talk and think about thinking, for in sta nee, to be hon est, to make a long story short,come to think of it, on second thought, can you collect a few more to make a list of these expressi ons? When do we use them most often?A

26、NSWER:To tell the truth, fran kly speak ing, as a matter of fact, to be precise, in other words, that is to saySuch expressi ons are used most freque ntly whe n we want to expatiate the mea ning of former clauses in an ther way in argume ntati on.13. Comment on the following prescriptive rules. Do y

27、ou think they are acceptable?(A) It is I.(B) It is me.You should say A in stead of B because“ be ” should be followed by the nomin ative case, notthe accusative according to the rules in Latin.(A) Who did you speak to?(B) Whom did you speak to?You should say B in stead of A.(A) I have n't done a

28、ny thi ng.(B) I have n't done nothing.B is wrong because two n egatives make a positive.ANSWER:(1) the Lati n rule is not uni versal. I n En glish, me is in formal and I is felt to be very formal.(2) Whom is used in formal speech and in writ ing; who is more acceptable in in formal speech.(3) La

29、nguage does not have to follow logic reasoning. Here two negative only make a more emphatic negative. This sentence is not acceptable in Standard English not because it is illogical, but because Ian guage cha nges and rejects this usage now.14. The prescriptivism in grammar rules has now shifted to

30、prescriptions in choice of words. In the“ guidelines on anti-sexist Ianguage "issued by the British sociological association, some guidelines are listed below. Do you think they are descriptive and prescriptive? What' gour comme nt on them?(1) Do not use man to mean humanity in general. Use

31、 person, people, human beings, men and wome n, huma nity and huma nkind.(2) colored: This term is regarded as outdated in the UK and should be avoided as it is gen erally viewed as offen sive to many black people.(3) civilized: This term can still carry racist overt ones which derive from a coloni a

32、list percepti onof the world. It is often associated with social Darwinist thought and is full of implicit valuejudgme nts and ignorance of the history of the non-i ndustrialized world.ANSWER:They are un doubtedly descriptive. Guideli nes are not rules that can determ ine whether a sentence is right

33、 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 the way an ti-sexist advocators speak and write.15. Why is the distinction between competence and performance an important one in lingu

34、istics?Do you think the line can be neatly drawn between them? How do you like the concept “ com muni cative compete nce”？ANSWER:This is proposed by Chomsky in his formalist lin guistic theories. It is sometimes hard to draw a strict line. Some researchers in applied lin guistics thi nk com muni cat

35、ive compete nce may be a more revealing concept in Ianguage teaching than the purely theoretical paircompetence and performa nce.16. Which branch of lin guistics do you thi nk will develop rapidly in China and why?It is up to you to decide after you have gone through the whole book. At this stage, w

36、e suggest all branches of linguistics have the potential to flourish.17. The following are some well-known ambiguous sentences in syntactic studies of Ianguage. Can you disambiguate them?The chicke n is too hot to eat.Flying pla nes can be dan gerous.ANSWER:The chicke n is too hot to eat.The chicke

37、n meat is too hot, so it cannot be eate n at the mome nt.The chicke n feels so hot (maybe after some intense aerobic exercises) that it cannot start eat ing and n eeds to calm dow n first.Flying pla nes can be dan gerous.The ambiguity comes from "fly ing pla nes". It can be deciphered as &

38、quot;the pla nes that is flying" or "to fly pla nes".18. There are many reas ons for the discrepa ncy betwee n compete nce and performa nce in no rmal Ian guage users. Can you think of some of them?ANSWEREthnic background, socioeconomic status, region of the country, and physical stat

39、e (such as in toxicatio n, fatigue, distract ion, ill ness) vary from in dividual to in dividual.19. What do these two quotes reveal about the different emphasis or perspectives of Ianguage studies?(1) A huma n Ian guage is a system of remarkable complexity. To come to know a huma n Ian guage would

40、be an extraordinary intellectual achievement for a creature not specifically designed to accomplish this task. A normal child acquires this knowledge on relatively slight exposure and without specific training. He can then quite effortlessly make use of an intricate structure of specific rules and g

41、uiding principles to convey his thoughts and feelings to others, . Thus Ianguage is a mirror of mind in a deep and significant sense. It is a product of human intelligenee, created anew in each in dividual by operati ons that lie far bey ond the reach of will or con scious ness.(Noam Chomsky: Reflec

42、t ions on Lan guage. 1975: 4)(2) It is fairly obvious that Ianguage is used to serve a variety of different needs, but until we examine its grammar there is no clear reason for classifying its uses in any particular way. However, when we examine the meaning potential of Ianguage itself, we find that

43、 the vast numbers of options embodied in it combine into a very few relatively independent “ networks ” ; and these n etworks of optio ns corresp ond to certa in basic functions of Ian guage. This en ables us to give an acco unt of the differe nt functions of Ian guage that is releva nt to the gen e

44、ral un dersta nding of linguistic structure rather than to any particular psychological or sociological investigation.(M. A. K. Halliday, 1970: 142)ANSWER:The first quote shows chil dren ' s inborn ability of acquiring the knowledge of intricate structure of specific rules. It implies that the I

45、anguage user's underlying knowledge about the system of rules is the valuable object of study for lin guists. The sec ond attaches great importa nee to the functions of Ianguage. It regards the use of Ianguage as the choice of needed function. The meaning of Ianguage can be completely included b

46、y a few “ networks which is directly related to basic functions of Ian guage. It in dicates the n ecessity to study the fun cti ons of Ian guage.20. You may be familiar with the follow ing proverbs. How do you perceive them accord ing to the arbitrariness and conventionality of Ianguage?The proof of the puddi ng is in the eat ing.Let sleep ing dogs lie.You can ' t make a silk purse out of a sow' s ear.Rome was not built in a day.When in Rome, do as the Roma ns do.All roads lead to Rome.ANSWER:20. Arbitrari ness and conven ti on