语言学教程各章节练习及答案

Exercises to Linguistics

外语系

黄永亮

Chapter 1 Invitation to Linguistics

1.Define the following terms:

Langue:Langue refers to the abstract linguistic system shared by all the members of a speech community.

Parole:parole refers to the realization of langue in actual use.

Prescriptive: Prescriptive and descriptive represent two different types of linguistic study. if the linguistic study aims to lay down rules for ―correct and standard‖behaviour in using

language, i.e. to tell people what they should day and what they should not say, it is said

to be prescriptive.

Descriptive: Prescriptive and descriptive represent two different types of linguistic study. If a linguistic study aims to describe and analyze the language people actually use, it is said

to be descriptive;

competence: Chomsky defines competence as the ideal user‘s knowledge of the rules of his language.

Performance: Chomsky defines performance the actual realization of this knowledge in linguistic communication.

Synchronic: The description of a language at some point of time in history is a synchronic study;

Diachronic: The description of a language as it changes through time is a diachronic study.

Linguistics：Linguistics may be defined as the systematic (or scientific) study of language.

language：Language is a form of human communication by means of a system of symbols principally transmitted by vocal sounds.‖

2.Does the traffic light system have duality, why?

No. No discrete units on the first level that can be combined freely in the second level to form meaning.

There is only simple one to one relationship between signs and meaning, namely, re-stop, green-go and yellow-get ready to go or stop.

https://www.wendangku.net/doc/2f17624782.html,munication can take many forms, such as sign, speech, body language and facial expression. Do

body language and facial expression share or lack the distinctive properties of human language?

Less arbitrary, lack duality, less creative, limited repertoire, emotional-oriented.

4.Why is competence and performance an important distinction in linguistics?

According to Chomsky, a language user‘s underlying knowledge about the system of rules is called his linguistic competence. And performance refers to the actual enables a speaker to produce and

understand an indefinite numbers of sentences and to recognize grammatical mistakes and ambiguities.

A speaker‘s competence is stable but his performance is often influenced by psychological and social

factors. Thus, Chomsky proposed that linguists should focus on the study of competence, not performance. The distinction of the two terms ―competence and performance‖represents the orientation of linguistic study. So we can say competence and performance is an important distinction in linguistics.

5.In what basic ways does modern linguistics differ from traditional grammar?

Modern linguistics differs from traditional grammar in the following basic ways:

Firstly, priority is given, as mentioned earlier, to spoken language. Secondly, focus is on synchronic study of language, rather than on diachronic study of language. Thirdly, modern linguistics is descriptive rather than prescriptive in nature. Linguists endeavor to state objectively the regularities of a language. They aim at finding out how a language is spoken: they do not attempt to tell people how it should be spoken. Fourthly, modern linguistics is theoretically rather than pedagogically oriented. Modern linguists strive to construct theories of language that can account for language in general. These features distinguished modern linguistics from traditional grammar. The two are complementary. Not contradictory. Knowledge of both is necessary for a language teacher: knowledge of the latter is necessary for a language learner.

Chapter 2 Phonetics

1. Give the description of the following sound segments in English

1)[?] voiced dental fricative

2)[?] voiceless alveolar fricative

3)[?] velar nasal

4)[?] voiced alveolar stop

5)[?] voiceless bilabial stop

6)[ ] voiceless velar stop

7)[●] (alveolar) lateral

8)[?] high front lax unrounded vowel

9)[◆:] high back tense rounded vowel

10)[ ] low back lax rounded vowel

2. How is the description of consonants different from that of vowels?

Consonants are described according to manner and place of articulation while vowels are described with four criteria: part of the tongue that is raised; extent to which the tongue rises in the direction of the palate; kind of opening made at the lips; position of soft palate.

3. Which sound may be described as

a voiced bilabial plosive [?]

a voiced labio-dental fricative [ ]

a voiceless velar plosive [ ]

4. Why might a photographer ask the person she is photographing to say cheese?

The vowel of the word cheese [?:] is produced with the lips spread, this resembling a smile.

5.Account for the difference in articulation in each of the following pairs of words:

coast ghost; ghost boast

boast most; ghost mist;

The words coast and ghost are distinguished by the fact that the initial segment is voiceless in the case of the former and voiced in the case of the latter.

The word ghost and boast are distinguished by the place of articulation of the initial segment, [?] being velar while [?] is bilabial.

Boast and most are distinguished by the manner of articulation of the initial segment, [?] being nasal.

Most and mist are distinguished by the fact that the former has a rounded back vowel shile the latter has a spread front vowel.

Chapter 3 Phonology

1.Define the following terms

Phonology: Phonology is concerned with the sound system of languages. It is concerned with which sounds a language uses and how the contribution of sounds to the task of communication.

Phone: A phone is a phonetic unit or segment. The speech sounds we hear and produce during linguistic communication are all phones

Phoneme: Phoneme is the abstract element of sound, identified as being distinctive in a particular language.

Allophone: Allophone refers any of the different forms of a phoneme is an allophone of it in English.

Compare the words peak and speak, for instance. The /?/ in peak is aspirated; phonetically transcribed as [??] while the /?/ in speak is unaspirated, phonetically [?＝]. [?,??] are two different phones and are variants of the phoneme /?/. Such variants of a phoneme are called Allophone of the same phoneme.

Suprasegmental features:. The phonemic features that occur above the level of the segment are called Suprasegmental features. Suprasegmental features include: stress, tone and intonation.

2.Transcribe the realization of the past tense morpheme for each of the following words:

Waited waved wiped waded. account for the differences.

[id] in ―waited‖and ―waded‖follows another alveolar plosive. [d] in ―waved‖follows voiced consonants.

[t] in ―wiped‖ follows voiceless consonants, there being voicing assimilation.

3. which of the following would be phonologically acceptable as English words?

Thlite grawl dlesher shlink tritch sruck stwondle

―grawl‖ and ―tritch‖

4.Why can we not use the sequence [?kl] in twinkle as an example of a consonant cluster?

The sequence [?kl] bridges two syllables.

5.For each of the following pairs compare the position of the stress. Comment.

Economy/economic wonder/wonderful

Beauty/beautiful acid/acidic

In adjectives ending in –ic the stress moves to the following syllable, in adjectives ending in –ful it does not.

6.Explain why somebody might choose to stress the following utterances as indicated by the bold

type:

a) John want ed to do this today. b) John wanted to do this today. c) John wanted to do this

to day.

The first utterance implies that John was unable to do what he wanted.

The second implies that he was only able to do something else.

The third implies that he was only able to do it some other day.

Chapter 4 Morphology

1.Define the following terms:

Morpheme: the smallest unit of language in terms of relationship between expression and content, a unit that can not be divided into further small units without destroying or drastically altering the meaning, whether it is lexical or grammatical.

Compound:Polymorphemic words which consist wholly of free morphemes, such as classroom, blackboard, snowwhite, etc.

Allomorph: any of the different form of a morpheme. For example, in English the plural morpheme -?s but it is pronounced differently in different environments as /s/ in cats,as /z/ in dogs and as /iz/ in classes. So /s/, /z/, and /iz/ are all allomorphs of the plural morpheme.

Bound morpheme: an element of meaning which is structurally dependent on the word it is added to,

e.g. the plural morpheme in ―dogs‖.

Free morpheme: an element of meaning which takes the form of an independent word.

https://www.wendangku.net/doc/2f17624782.html,plete the words with suitable negative prefixes

a. ir removable g. in human

b. in formal h. ir relevant

c. im practicable i. un evitable

d. in sensible j. im mobile

e. in tangible k. il legal

f. il logical l. in discreet

3. “Morpheme” is defined as the smallest unit in terms of relationship between

expression and content. Then is morpheme a grammatical concept or a

semantic one? What is its relation to phoneme?

Since morpheme is defined as the smallest unit in terms of relationship between expression and content, it at the same time covers the grammatical and semantic aspect of linguistic unit. A morpheme may overlap with a phoneme, such as I, but usually not, as in pig, in which the morpheme is the whole word, i.e. and independent, free morpheme, but the phonemes are /p/, /i/ and /g/.

4. Identify in the following sentence four bound morphemes. State the function of

each and say whether each is derivational or inflectional.

The teacher’s brother considered the project impossible.

The –er and the –?s of teacher’s are bound morphemes, the former being derivational, as it produces a lexeme that denotes the person who does an action, the latter being an inflectional morpheme, as it indicates possession.

The –ed of considered is inflectional, indicating that the action took place in the past. The im- of impossible is derivational, producing a new lexeme that denotes the opposite of possible.

Chapter 5 Syntax

1.Define the following terms:

Category: parts of speech and functions, such as the classification of words in terms of parts of speech, the identification of functions of words in term of subject, predicate, etc.

Concord:also known as agreement, is the requirement that the forms of two or more words in a syntactic relationship should agree with each other in terms of some categories Syntagmatic relation:. Syntagmatic relation is a relation between one item and others in a sequence, or between elements which are all present.

Paradigmatic relation: a relation holding between elements replaceable with each other at a particular place in a structure, or between one element present and the others absent. Deep structure: is defined as the abstract representation of the syntactic properties of a construction, i.

e. the underlying level of structural relations between its different constituents Surface structure: is the final stage in the syntactic derivation of a construction, which closely corresponds to the structural organization of a construction people actually produce

and receive.

Theme: The Theme is the first constituent of the clause.

Rheme: All the rest of the clause is simply labeled the Rheme.

2.Why is it important to know the relations a sign has with others, such as syntaxgmatic and

paradigmatic relations?

As the relation between a signifier and signified is arbitrary, the value of a sign can not be determined by itself. To know the identity of a sign, the linguist will have to know the signs it is used together with and those it is substitutable for. The former relation is known as syntagmatic and the latter paradigmatic.

3.In what ways is IC analysis better than traditional parsing?

In traditional parsing, a sentence is mainly seen as a sequence of individual words, as if it has only

a linear structure. IC analysis, however, emphasizes the hierarchical structure of a sentence,

seeing it as consisting of word groups first. In this way the internal of structure of a sentence is shown more clearly, hence the reason of some ambiguities may be revealed.

4.What are the problems in IC analysis?

There are some technical problems caused by the binary division and discontinuous constituents.

But the main problem is that there are structures whose ambiguities cannot be revealed by IC analysis, e.g. the love of God. In terms of both the tree diagram and the label, there is only one structure, but the word God is in two different relations with love, i.e. either as subject or object.

5.Clarify the ambiguity in the following sentence by tree diagrams:

Old teachers and priests fear blackbirds.

S

NP VP

NP V

Old fear blackbirds.

N Conj. N

teachers and priests

S

NP VP

NP Conj. V N

Adj. N and priests fear blackbirds.

Old teachers

Chapter 6 Semantics

1. defining the following terms:

semantics: The subject concerning the study of meaning is called semantics. More specifically, semantics is the study of the meaning of linguistics units, words and sentences in

particular.

Denotation: the core sense of a word or a phrase that relates it to phenomena in the real world. Connotation: a term in a contrast with denotation, meaning the properties of the entity a word denotes.

Sense: the literal meaning of a word or an expression, independent of situational context. Reference: the use of language to express a proposition, i.e. to talk about things in context. Synonymy: is the technical name for the sameness relation.

Antonymy: is the name for oppositeness relation:

hyponymy: a relation between two words, in which the meaning of one word (the superordinate) is included in the meaning of another word (the hyponym)

semantic component: a distinguishable element of meaning in a word with two values, e.g.

[+human].

2. Some people maintain that there are no true synonyms. If two words mean really the same,

one of them will 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 talking about when we say two words are synonymous with each other?

It is true that there are no absolute synonyms. When we say two words are synonymous with each other, we usually mean they have the same conceptual meaning.

3. For each of the following pairs of words, state the principal reason why they may not be

considered to be synonyms:

man boy toilet loo determined stubborn

pavement sidewalk walk run

The words man and boy are principally distinguished be age, the words walk and run by speed.

The principal distinction between the words toilet and loo is one of social register. Determined and stubborn are largely distinguished by attitude—a person reluctant to give up is described as determined by those who sympathize and as stubborn by those who do not. The difference between the words pavement and sidewalk is a matter of geography, the former being used in Britain and the latter in America.

Chapter 7 Pragmantics

1. defining the following terms:

Performative:an utterance by which a speaker does something does something,as apposed to a constative, by which makes a statement which may be true or false.

Constative:an utterance by which a speaker expresses a proposition which may be true or false. Locutuonary act: the act of saying something; it‘s an act of conveying literal meaning by means of syntax, lexicon, and phonology. Namely, the utterance of a sentence with determinate

sense and reference.

Illocutuonary act:the act performed in saying something; its force is identical with the speaker‘s intention.

Perlocutionary act: the act performed by or resulting from saying something, it‘s the consequence of, or the change brought about by the utterance.

Cooperative principle:in making conversation, there is, as Grice holds, a general principle which all participants are expected to observe. He calls this guiding principle the

Cooperative Principle, CP for short.. It runs as follows: "make your

conversational contribution such as is required, at the stage at which it occurs, by

the accepted purpose or direction of the talk exchange in which you are engaged.‖Conversational implicature: the extra meaning not contained in the literal utterances, understandable to

the listener only when he shares the speaker‘s knowledge or knows why and

how he violates intentionally one of the four maxims of the Cooperative

Principle (CP)

2. Consider the following dialogue between a man and his daughter. Try to explain the illocutionary force in each of the utterances.

[The daughter walks into the kitchen and takes so e popcorn.]

Father: I thought you were practicing your violin.

Daughter: I need to get the violin stand.

Father: Is it under the popcorn?

The illocutionary force of ―I thought you were practicing your violin‖ is a criticism of the daughter for her not practicing the violin. That of the daughter‘s answer is a defense for herself—I‘m going to do that. And that of the father‘s retort is a denial of the daughter‘s excuse.

3.If you ask somebody “Can you open the door?” he answered “Yes” but does not actually do it, what would be your reaction? Why? Try to see it in the light of speech act theory.

I would be angry with him. ―Can you open the door‖ is normally a request of the hearer to do it rather than a question about his ability. The fact that he answers ―Yes‖ but does not actually do it shows that he declines my request.

4. A is reading the newspaper. When B asks “What’s on television tonight?” he answers “Nothing.”What does A mean in normal situations? Think of two situations in which this interpretation of “Nothing” will be cancelled.

Normally ―Nothing‖ here means ―Nothing interesting‖. If A adds after ―Nothing‖ ―The workers are on strike today‖ or ―There‘s going to be a blackout tonight‖, then the interpretation of ―Nothing interesting‘will be cancelled.

(完整版)语言学练习题及答案

练习1 1. There is no logical connection between meaning and sounds. A dog might be a pig if only the first person or group of persons had used it for a pig. This is one of the design features of language.A. duality B. arbitrariness C. productivity D. displacement 2. Language is a system of two sets of structures, one of sounds and the other of meaning. This is . It makes people possible to talk everything within his knowledge. A. duality B. arbitrariness C. productivity D. displacement 3. ___ refers to the ability to construct and understand an indefinitely large number of sentences in one’s native language, including those that he has never heard before, but that are appropriate to the speaking situation .A. duality B. arbitrariness C. productivity D. displacement 4. __ __ refers to the fact that one can talk about things that are not present, as easily as he does things present. The dog couldn’t be bow-wowing sorrowfully for some lost love or a bone to be lost. A. duality B. arbitrariness C. productivity D. displacement 5. ______ means language is not biologically transmitted from generation to generation, but the linguistic system must be learnt anew by each speaker. A. duality B. Arbitrariness C. interchangeability D. cultural transmission 6. ______ means that any human being can be both a producer and a receiver of messages. A. duality B. Arbitrariness C. interchangeability D. cultural transmission 7. To say “How are you.” “Hi” to your friends is the ____ __of language. A. directive function B. informative function C. phatic function D. interrogative function 8. “Tell me the result when you finish.” If you want to get your hearer to do something, y ou should use the _____ of language. A. directive function B. informative function C. phatic function D. interrogative function 9. A linguist regards the changes in language and language use as __ ___. A. unnatural B. something to be feared C. natural D. abnormal 10. A linguist is interested in ___A. speech sounds only B. all sounds C. vowels only 11. Which of the following sounds is a voiceless bilabial stop? A. [t] B. [m] C. [b] D. [p 12. Which of the following sounds is a voiced affricate? A. [y] B. [t∫] C. [z] D. [dЗ] 13. Which of the following sounds is a central vowel? A. [ ? ] B. [ i ] C. [ou] D. [a: ] 14. In the following sounds , ______ is a palatal fricative ? A. [ s ] B. [∫] C. [ l ] D. [θ] 15. In the following sounds, _____ is a voiceless affricative? A. [dЗ] B. [v] C. [t∫] D. [θ] 16. In English if a word begins with a [ l ] or [ r ],then the next sound must be a __ __. A. fricative B. nasal sound C. semi-vowel D. vowel 17. Of the “words” listed below___ is not an English word A. [r∧b ] B. [ l? b ] C. [m?sta:∫] D. [lm?p] 18. ___ are produced when the obstruction created by the speech organs is total and audibly released. A. Back vowels B. Stops C. Fricatives D. Glides 19. The International Phonetic Association devised the INTERNATIONAL PHONETIC ALPHABET in _____. A. 1965 B. 1957 C. 1888 D. 1788 20. ___ is a phonological unit , and it is a unit that is of distinctive value. A. Phone B. Phoneme C. Allophone D. Sound 1. [ f ] is a dental consonant. F 2. Phonology studies the characteristics of speech sounds and provides methods for their description, classification and transcription. F 7. The three / p / are allophones. T 3. Phoneme is a phonological unit. T 4. Phone is a phonetic unit. T

英语语言学试题及答案

英语语言学试题（1） I. Directions: Read each of the following statements carefully. Decide which one of the four choices best completes the statement and put the letter A, B, C or D in the brackets. (2%×10=20%) 1、As modern linguistics aims to describe and analyze the language people actually use, and not to lay down rules for "correct" linguistic behavior, it is said to be ___. A、prescriptive B、sociolinguistic C、descriptive D、psycholinguistic 2、Of all the speech organs, the ___ is/are the most flexible. A、mouth B、lips C、tongue D、vocal cords 3、The morpheme "vision" in the common word "television" is a(n) ___. A、bound morpheme B、bound form C、inflectional morpheme D、free morpheme 4、A ___ in the embedded clause refers to the introductory word that introduces the embedded clause. A、coordinator B、particle C、preposition D、subordinator 5、"Can I borrow your bike?" _____ "You have a bike." A、is synonymous with B、is inconsistent with C、entails D、presupposes 6、The branch of linguistics that studies how context influences the way speakers interpret sentences is called ___. A、semantics B、pragmatics C、sociolinguistics D、psycholinguistics 7、Grammatical changes may be explained, in part, as analogic changes, which are ___ or generalization. A、elaboration B、simplification C、external borrowing D、internal borrowing 8、___ refers to a marginal language of few lexical items and straightforward grammatical rules, used as a medium of communication. A、Lingua franca B、Creole C、Pidgin D、Standard language 9、Psychologists, neurologists and linguists have concluded that, in addition to the motor area which is responsible for physical articulation of utterances, three areas of the left brain are vital to language, namely, ___ . A、Broca's area, Wernicke's area and the angular gyrus B、Broca's area, Wernicke's area and cerebral cortex C、Broca's area, Wernicke's area and neurons D、Broca's area, Wernicke's area and Exner's area 10、According to Krashen, ___ refers to the gradual and subconscious development of ability in the first language by using it naturally in daily communicative situations. A、learning B、competence C、performance D、acquisition II. Directions: Fill in the blank in each of the following statements with one word, the first letter of which is already given as a clue. Note that you are to fill in One word only, and you are not allowed to change the letter given. (1%×10=10%) 11、Chomsky defines "competence" as the ideal user's k_______ of the rules of his language. 12、The four sounds /p/,/b/,/m/ and /w/have one feature in common, i.e, they are all b______ . 13、M_______ is a branch of grammar which studies the internal structure of words and the rules by which words are formed. 14、A s______ is a structurally independent unit that usually comprises a number of words to form a complete statement, question or command. 15、Synonyms that are mutually substitutable under all circumstances are called c______ synonyms. 16、The illocutionary point of r_____ is to commit the speaker to something's being the case, to the truth of what has been said. 17、Words are created outright to fit some purpose. Such a method of enlarging the vocabulary is known as word c______.

英语语言学概论复习

《英语语言学概论》复习纲要 1.复习的基本原则：第一，理解和吃透各章的重点内容。第二，以 各章的题目为统领，理解各章节下的具体内容。第三，动手书写和记忆重要内容，部分语言学理论会应用到实际中。 2.各章节复习要点如下 Chapter 1 Invitations to Linguistics Definitions of the following terms: language, linguistics, arbitrariness, duality, creativity, displacement, descriptive VS prescriptive, synchronic VS diachronic, langue VS parole, competence VS performance Study of the origin of language What are the functions of language Which subjects are included in macrolinguistics Chapter 2 Speech Sounds Definitions of the following terms: articulatory phonetics, acoustic phonetics, auditory phonetics, phonetics, phonology, consonants, vowels, allophones, broad transcription VS narrow transcription Analyze the complementary distribution, free variation with examples The classification of English consonants and English vowels and the features involved in the classification Understand some processes of phonology: nasalization, dentalization, velarization

语言学第一章整理

Chapter one 1.What is language? Language is a system of arbitrary vocal symbols used for human communication. System means it is rule-governed; arbitrary means there is no logical relationship between language elements and their meaning; vocal means speech is primary; symbols related to arbitrariness, it means language elements are only the symbols for the meaning they express. Human, it means language is uniquely human; communication is the primary function of language. 2.What are the design features of language, give their definitions and examples. Arbitrary: arbitrary is the core feature of language, which means that there is no logical relation between meanings and sounds. Arbitrary is a matter of degree, language is not entirely arbitrary, first, the onomatopoeia are words that sound like the sound they describe, to some extent, they have natural basis. Second, some compounds are not entirely arbitrary either, “snow” and“storm” are arbitrary words, but the compound word “snowstorm”is less so. Thirdly, some surnames, such as Longfellow, Johnson. Examples: a rose by other name would smell as sweet Duality: is meant the property of having two levels of structures, such that units of the primary level are composed of elements of the secondary level and each of the two levels has its own principles of organization .we call sounds secondary units as opposed to primary units as words, since the secondary are meaningless and the primary unit have distinct and identifiable meaning. Creativity: language users can understand and produce new sentences to express new meanings. By creativity, we mean language is resourceful because of its duality and recursiveness. By duality the speaker is able to combine the basic linguistic units to form an infinite set of sentences, most of which are never produced or heard before. Language is creativity in another sense, that is, its

语言学练习总汇及答案

1. Phonetics & Language Introduction: 1. There is no logical connection between meaning and sounds. A dog might be a pig if only the first person or group of persons had used it for a pig. This is ______one of the design features of language. A. duality B. arbitrariness C. productivity D. displacement 2. Language is a system of two sets of structures, one of sounds and the other of meaning. This is ______ . It makes people possible to talk everything within his knowledge. A. duality B. arbitrariness C. productivity D. displacement 3. _____ refers to the ability to construct and understand an indefinitely large number of sentences in one’s native language, including those that he has never heard before, but that are appropriate to the speaking situation. A. duality B. arbitrariness C. productivity D. displacement 4. _____ refers to the fact that one can talk about things that are not present, as easily as he does things present. The dog couldn’t be bow-wowing sorrowfully for some lost love or a bone to be lost. A. duality B. arbitrariness C. productivity D. displacement 5. ______ means language is not biologically transmitted from generation to generation, but the linguistic system must be learnt anew by each speaker. A. duality B. Arbitrariness C. interchangeability D. cultural transmission 6. ______ means that any human being can be both a producer and a receiver of messages. A. duality B. Arbitrariness C. interchangeability D. cultural transmission 7. To say “How are you. ”“Hi” to your friends is the _______of language. A. directive function B. informative function C. phatic function D. interrogative function 8. “Tell me the result when you finish.” If you want to get your hearer to do something, you should use the _____ function of language. A. directive function B. informative function C. phatic function D. interrogative function 9. A linguist regards the changes in language and language use as _____. A. unnatural B. something to be feared C. natural C. abnormal 10. A linguist is interested in _______.

英语语言学第1-3章课后练习题

《新编简明英语语言学教程》第二版第1-3章练习题参考答案 Chapter 1 Introduction P13 1. How do you interpret the following definition of linguistics: Linguistics is the scientific study of language？ 答：Linguistics is based on the systematic investigation of linguistic data, conducted with reference to some general theory of language structure. In order to discover the nature and rules of the underlying language system, the linguists has to collect and observe language facts first, which are found to display some similarities, and generalizations are made about them; then he formulates some hypotheses about the language structure. The hypotheses thus formed have to be checked repeatedly against the observed facts to fully prove their validity. In linguistics, as in any other discipline, data and theory stand in a dialectical complementation, that is, a theory without the support of data can hardly claim validity, and data without being explained by some theory remain a muddled mass of things. 2. What are the major branches of linguistics? What does each of them study? 答：The major branches of linguistics are: (1) phonetics: it studies the sounds used in linguistic communication; (2) phonology: it studies how sounds are put together and used to convey meaning in communication; (3) morphology: it studies the way in which linguistic symbols representing sounds are arranged and combined to form words; (4) syntax: it studies the rules which govern how words are combined to form grammatically permissible sentences in languages; (5) semantics: it studies meaning conveyed by language; (6) pragmatics: it studies the meaning in the context of language use. 3. In what basic ways does modern linguistics differ from traditional grammar? 答：The general approach thus traditionally formed to the study of language over the years is roughly referred to as “t raditional gramma r.” Modern linguistics differs from traditional g rammar in several basic ways. Firstly, linguistics is descriptive while traditional grammar is prescriptive. Second, modem linguistics regards the spoken language as primary, not the written. Traditional grammarians, on the other hand, tended to emphasize, maybe over-emphasize, the importance of the written word, partly because of its permanence. Then, modem linguistics differs from traditional grammar also in that it does not force languages into a Latin-based framework. 4. Is modern linguistics mainly synchronic or diachronic? Why? 答：In modem linguistics, a synchronic approach seems to enjoy priority over a diachronic one. Because people believed that unless the various states of a language in different historical periods are successfully studied, it would be difficult to describe the changes that have taken place in its historical development. 5. For what reasons does modern linguistics give priority to speech rather than to writing? 答：Speech and writing are the two major media of linguistic communication. Modem linguistics regards the spoken language as the natural or the primary medium of human language for some obvious reasons. From the point of view of linguistic evolution, speech is prior to writing. The writing system of any langu age is always “invented” by its users to record speech when the need arises. Even in today's world there are still many languages that can only be spoken but not written. Then in everyday communication, speech plays a greater role than writing in terms of the amount of information conveyed. And also, speech is always the way in which every native speaker acquires his mother tongue, and writing is learned and taught later when he goes to school. For modern linguists, spoken language reveals many true features of human speech while written language is only the “revised” record of spe ech. Thus their data for investigation and analysis are mostly drawn from everyday speech, which they regard as authentic.

语言学作业第一章

语言学作业 班级： 姓名：

Chapter 1 Invitations to Linguistics I. 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 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. Duality The property of having two levels of structures, such that units of the primary level are composed of elements of the secondary level and each of the two levels has its own principles of organization. 3. Phatic communion Phatic communion refers to the social interaction of language. 4. Synchronic linguistics: A synchronic description takes a fixed instant (usually, but not necessarily, the present) as its point of observation. Most grammars are of this kind. II. Please distinguish the following terms: 1. Langue vs. Parole Langue refers to the abstract linguistic system shared by all the members of a speech c ommunity, that is, the lexicon, grammar, and phonology implanted in each individual, and it is the linguist’s proper object; Parole refers to the realization of langue, the immediately accessible data. While parole constitutes the 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 specific to the situation in which it occurs. (2) Langue is not actually spoken by anyone, while parole is always a naturally 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 parole is accessory and accidental. 2. Descriptive vs. Prescriptive

语言学练习答案

《语言学概论》练习 一、名词解释： 1、语言学：语言学是研究语言的科学，研究语言的性质、功能、结构，揭示语言的发展规律的科学。 2、语言：语言是语音和语义结合的符号系统，是人类社会最重要的交际工具，是一种特殊的社会现象，是人类思维的最有效的工具。 3、符号：符号是用于传递信息、指代事物或思想的标记。 4、组合关系：组合关系就是两个同一性质的结构单位（如音位与音位、词与词等等）按照线性的顺序组合起来的关系。简单地说，就是符号与符号相互组合起来的关系。 5、聚合关系：聚合关系就是语言结构某一位置上能够互相替换的具有某种相同作用的单位（如音位、词）之间的关系，简单说就是符号与符号之间的替换关系。 6、语音：语音是语言符号系统的载体，它是由人的发音器官发出的、负载着一定的语言意义的语言的声音 7、音素从音质的角度划分出来的最小的语音单位。 8、发音部位：发音部位是指发辅音时形成阻碍的器官部位。 9 、音位：音位是指具体语言（或方言）中有区别词的语音形式的作用的最小的语音单位。 10、音位变体：是一个音位的不同变异形式，是音位在特定语音环境中的具体体现或具体代表。 11、区别特征：一个音位之所以区别于别的音位，是因为它具有某种特殊的不同于别的音位的语音特征。这种能区别音位的语音特征叫区别特征。 12、音节：音节是音位与音位组合起来构成的最小的语音结构单位。 13、语法：语法就是用词造句的规则系统，它是词的构成规则、变化规则、组合规则的总和。 14、句子：句子是交际中最基本的表述单位，是交流思想的基本语言单位。 15、词：词是造句的时候能够独立运用的最小单位； 16、语素：语素是最小的语音语义结合体，语言的最小单位； 17、变词语素：没有构词作用，但是能改变一个词的形式的语素，是变词语素，词尾就是变词语素。 18、构词语素：具有构词作用的语素就是构词语素，词根和词缀能参与构词，就是构词语素。 19、单纯词：是由一个词根语素构成的词。例如汉语的“人、手、水、河、啊、琵琶、枇杷、哗啦、坦克”等，英语如man、teach 、book、moon、sun、long 等都是单纯词。 20、合成词：合成词是由两个以上的语素构成的词。 21、复合词：完全由几个词根语素按一定规则构成的词就是复合词。例如汉语的“思想、学习、黄瓜、大豆、胆怯”等，英语的如“snowwhite、makeblieve、earthfall 、friendship 、motherland ”等。 22、语法意义：指相对于词汇意义而言由词的变化所体现出来的意义。 23、形态：也叫做词形变化，指词与词组合时发生的词形变化所形成的聚合。 24、社会方言：社会方言是指社会内部不同年龄、性别、职业、阶级、阶层的人们在语言使用上表现出来的、在全民语言基础上产生的语言变体。