语言学作业第一章

1、语言学作业班级：姓名：Chapter 1 Invitations to LinguisticsI. Please illustrate the following terms.1. Arbitrariness:The forms of linguistic signs bear no natural relationship to their meaning.The different levels of arbitrariness:(1) Arbitrary relationship between the sound of a morpheme and its meaning, even

2、with onomatopoeic words(2) Arbitrariness at the syntactic level: language is not arbitrary at the syntactic level.(3) The link between a linguistic sign and its meaning is a matter of convention.2. DualityThe property of having two levels of structures, such that units of the primary level are compo

3、sed of elements of the secondary level and each of the two levels has its own principles of organization.3. Phatic communionPhatic communion refers to the social interaction of language.4. Synchronic linguistics:A synchronic description takes a fixed instant (usually, but not necessarily, the presen

4、t) as its point of observation. Most grammars are of this kind.II. Please distinguish the following terms:1. Langue vs. ParoleLangue refers to the abstract linguistic system shared by all the members of a speech community, that is, the lexicon, grammar, and phonology implanted in each individual, an

5、d it is the linguist s proper object;Parole refers to the realization of langue, the immediately accessible data. While parole constitutesthe immediately accessible data,and it is a mass of confused facts, so it is not suitable for systematic investigation.(1) Langue is abstract, while parole is spe

6、cific to the situation in which it occurs.(2) Langue is not actually spoken by anyone, while parole is always anaturally occurring event.(3) Langue is relatively stable, systematic and social, while parole is subject to personal, individual and situational constraints.(4) Langue is essential while p

7、arole is accessory and accidental.2. Descriptive vs. PrescriptiveThe distinction lies in prescribing how things ought to be and describing how things are.Traditional grammar was very strongly normative in character.The grammarians tried to lay down rules for the correct use of language and settle th

8、e disputes over usage once and for all. That is prescriptive.These attitudes are still with us, though people realize nowadays the facts of usage count more than the authority-made “ standards ”. Thenature of linguistics as a science determines its preoccupation with description instead of prescript

9、ion.3. Synchronic vs. DiachronicSynchronic description takes a fixed instant (usually, but not necessarily, the present) as its point of observation. Most grammars are of this kind. Actually synchrony is a fiction since any language is changing as the minutes pass.Diachronic linguistics is the study

10、 of a language through the course of its history.4. Competence vs. PerformanceAccording to Chomsky:A language user s underlying knowledge about the system of rules is called his linguistic competence.Performance refers to the actual use of language or the actual realization of this knowledge in utte

11、rances in concrete situations.A speaker s competence is stable while his performance is often influenced by psychological and social factors, so a speaker s performance does not always or equal his supposed competence.He believes that linguists ought to study competence rather than performance.5. La

12、ngue vs. CompetenceAccording to Chomsky:Langue is a social product, a systematic inventory of rules of the language, a set of conventions for a speech community.Competence is defined from the psychological point of view, is deemed as a property of the mind of each individuals, or underlying competen

13、ce as a system of generative processes.According to Hymes:He approaches language from a socio-cultural viewpoint with the aim of studying the varieties of ways of speaking on the part of individual and the community.He extended notion of competence, restricted by Chomskyto a knowledge of grammar, to

14、 incorporate the pragmatic ability for language use. This extended idea of competence can be called communicative competence.III. Answer the following questions in brief:1) The following are some book titles of linguistics. Can you judge the synchronic or diachronic orientation just from the titles2

15、) English Examined: Two Centuries of Comment on the Mother Tongue3) Protean Shape: A Study in Eighteenth-century Vocabulary and Usage4) Pejorative Sense Development in English5) The Categories and Types of Present-Day English Word-Formation6) Language in the Inner City: Studies in the Black English

16、Vernacular 1) diachronic 2) synchronic 3 ) diachronic 4 ) synchronic7) We can t judge whether it is synchronic or diachronic orientation just from the titles.8) What is language What is linguisticsLanguage can be defined as a system of arbitrary vocal symbols used for human communication and interac

17、tion.Linguistics is the scientific study of human language. The aims of linguistic theory: 1) what is knowledge of language (Competence) 2) how is knowledge of language acquired (Acquisition) 3) how is knowledge of language put to use ( Performance/language processing). Main branches of linguistics:

18、Phonetics, Phonology Morphology, Syntax, Semantics,Pragmatics.9) How do you understand performative function of languageThe performative function of language is primarily to change the social status of persons or the situations of events, as in marriage ceremonies, the sentencing of criminals, the b

19、lessing of children, the naming of a ship at a launching ceremony, and the cursing of enemies.The kind of language employed in performative verbal acts is usually quite formal and even ritualized.The performative function can extend to the control of reality as on somemagical or religious occasions.

20、 For example, in Chinese whensomeone breaks a bowl or a plate the host or the people present are likely to say sui sui ping an as a means of controlling the invisible forces which the believers feel might affect their lives adversely.IV. Discuss the following question in detail.How do you interpret

21、the viewpoint that“ arbitrariness is a matterof degree1)Arbitrary relationship between the sound of a morphemeand its meaning, even with onomatopoeic words: The dog barks bow wowin English but "汪 汪汪" in Chinese.2) Arbitrariness at the syntactic level: language is not arbitrary at the synta

22、ctic level.He came in and sat down.He sat down and came in.He sat down after he came in.3) The link between a linguistic sign and its meaning is a matter of convention.Arbitrariness of language makes it potentially creative.Conventionality of language makes learning a language laborious.Chapter 2 Sp

23、eech Sounds1. Complete the following statements.1. Human language enable their users to symbolize objects, events and concepts which are not present (in time and space) at the moment of communication. This quality is labeled as .2. The sound p can be described with “ voiced, , stop. ”3. The differen

24、t members of a phoneme, sounds which are phonetically different but do not makeone word different from another in meaning, are.4. Both semantics and investigate linguistic meaning, but theyfocus on different aspects.5. If certain linguistics tries to lay down rules for the correct use of language an

25、d settle the disputes over usage once and for all, it is linguistics.6. Phones that fall into allophones of a phoneme have to satisfy two conditions, one is they are , and another is thatthey should be in .7. The vowel is high front tense unrounded.8. A dog cannot tell people that its master will be

26、 homein a few days, because its language does not have the feature of .9. Computational linguistics often refersto the problems of, information retrieval, and .10. Halliday proposed a theory of metafunctions of language, that is, language has , and functions.11. Define the following terms.1. Manner

27、of articulation:2. Distinctive features:3. Intonation:4. Assimilation:III. Answer the following questions briefly.1. Specify the difference between each pair of sounds using distinctive features.1)l ? 2)ph p 3)b d4)k g 5)Iu2. Work out the features of the following sounds.1) th 2) w 3) v 4) e 5) l 3. In somedialects of English the following words have different vowels, as shown by the phonetic tr