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英语语言学补充练习

英语语言学补充练习
英语语言学补充练习

Supplementary exercises

Chapter 1 Introduction

Ⅰ. Decide whether each of the following statements is True or False:

1. Linguistics is generally defined as the scientific study of language.

2. Linguistics studies particular language, not languages in general.

3. A scientific study of language is based on what the linguist thinks.

4. In the study of linguistics, hypotheses formed should be based on language facts and checked against the observed facts.

5. General linguistics is generally the study of language as a whole.

6. General linguistics, which relates itself to the research of other areas, studies the basic concepts, theories, descriptions, models and methods applicable in any linguistic study.

7. Phonetics is different from phonology in that the latter studies the combinations of the sounds to convey meaning in communication.

8. Morphology studies how words can be formed to produce meaningful sentences.

9. The study of the ways in which morphemes can be combined to form words is called morphology.

10. Syntax is different from morphology in that the former not only studies the morphemes, but also the combination of morphemes into words and words into sentences.

11. The study of meaning in language is known as semantics.

12. Both semantics and pragmatics study meanings.

13. Pragmatics is different from semantics in that pragmatics studies meaning not in isolation, but in context.

14. Social changes can often bring about language changes.

15. Sociolinguistics is the study of language in relation to society.

16. Modern linguistics is mostly prescriptive, but sometimes descriptive.

17. Modern linguistics is different from traditional grammar.

18. A diachronic study of language is the description of language at some point in time.

19. Modern linguistics regards the written language as primary, not the written language.

20. The distinction between competence and performance was proposed by F. de Saussure.

Ⅱ. Fill in each of the following blanks with one word which begins with the letter given:

21. Chomsky defines “competence” as the ideal user’s k__________ of the rules of his language.

22. Langue refers to the a__________ linguistic system shared by all the members of a speech community while the parole is the concrete use of the conventions and application of the rules.

23. D_________ is one of the design features of human language which refers to the phenomenon that language consists of two levels: a lower level of meaningless individual sounds and a higher level of meaningful units.

24. Language is a system of a_________ vocal symbols used for human communication.

25. The discipline that studies the rules governing the formation of words into permissible sentences in languages is called s________.

26. Human capacity for language has a g_______ basis, but the details of language have to be taught and

learned.

27. P _______ refers to the realization of langue in actual use.

28. Findings in linguistic studies can often be applied to the settlement of some practical problems. The study of such applications is generally known as a________ linguistics.

29. Language is p___________ in that it makes possible the construction and interpretation of new signals by its users. In other words, they can produce and understand an infinitely large number of sentences which they have never heard before.

30. Linguistics is generally defined as the s _______ study of language.

Ⅲ. There are four choices following each statement. Mark the choice that can best complete the statement:

31. If a linguistic study describes and analyzes the language people actually use, it is said to be _______.

A. Prescriptive

B. Analytic

C. Descriptive

D. Linguistic

32. Which of the following is not a design feature of human language?

A. Arbitrariness

B. Displacement

C. Duality

D. Meaningfulness

33. Modern linguistics regards the written language as _______.

A. Primary

B. Correct

C. Secondary

D. stable

34. In modern linguistics, speech is regarded as more basic than writing, because _______.

A. in linguistic evolution, speech is prior to writing

B. speech plays a greater role than writing in terms of the amount of information conveyed

C. speech is always the way in which every native speaker acquires his mother tongue

D. All of the above

35. A historical study of language is a _______ study of language.

A. synchronic

B. diachronic

C. prescriptive

D. comparative

36. Saussure took a(n) _______ view of language, while Chomsky looks at language from a ________ point of view.

A. sociological…psychological

B. psychological…sociological

C. applied…pragmatic

D.semantic…linguistic

37. According to F. de Saussure, _______ refers to the abstract linguistic system shared by all the mem- bers of a speech community.

A. parole

B. performance

C. langue

D. Language

38. Language is said to be arbitrary because there is no logical connection between _______ and meanings.

A. sense

B. sounds

C. objects

D. ideas

39. Language can be used to refer to contexts removed from the immediate situations of the speaker. This feature is called _______,

A. displacement

B. duality

C. flexibility

D. cultural transmission

40. The details of any language system is passed on from one generation to the next through _______, rather than by instinct.

A. learning

B. teaching

C. books

D. both A and B Ⅳ. Define the following terms:

41. Linguistics 42. Phonology 43. Syntax

44. Pragmatics 45. Psycholinguistics 46. Language

47. Phonetics 48. Morphology 49. Semantics

50. Sociolinguistics 51. Applied Linguistics 52. Arbitrariness

53. Productivity 54. Displacement 55. Duality

56. Design Features 57. Competence 58. Performance

59. Langue 60. Parole

Ⅴ. Answer the following questions as comprehensively as possible. Give examples for illustration if necessary:

61. Language is generally defined as a system of arbitrary vocal symbols used for human commu- nication. Explain it in detail.

62. What are the design features of human language? Illustrate them with examples.

63. How is modern linguistics different from traditional grammar?

64. How do you understand the distinction between a synchronic study and a diachronic study?

65. Why does modern linguistics regard the spoken form of language as primary, not the written?

66. What are the major distinctions between langue and parole?

67. How do you understand competence and performance?

68. Saussure’s distinction between langue and parole seems similar to Chomsky’s distinction between competence and performance. What do you think are their major differences?

69. Do you think human language is entirely arbitrary? Why?

Chapter 2 Phonology

Ⅰ. Decide whether each of the following statements is True or False:

1. V oicing is a phonological feature that distinguishes meaning in both Chinese and English.

2. If two phonetically similar sounds occur in the same environments and they distinguish meaning, they are said to be in complementary distribution.

3. A phone is a phonetic unit that distinguishes meaning.

4. English is a tone language while Chinese is not.

5. In linguistic evolution, speech is prior to writing.

6. In everyday communication, speech plays a greater role than writing in terms of the amount of information conveyed.

7. Articulatory phonetics tries to describe the physical properties of the stream of sounds which a speaker issues with the help of a machine called spectrograph.

8. The articulatory apparatus of a human being are contained in three important areas: the throat, the mouth and the chest.

9. Vibration of the vocal cords results in a quality of speech sounds called voicing.

10. English consonants can be classified in terms of place of articulation and the part of the tongue that is raised the highest.

11. According to the manner of articulation, some of the types into which the consonants can be classified are stops, fricatives, bilabial and alveolar.

12. V owel sounds can be differentiated by a number of factors: the position of tongue in the mouth, the openness of the mouth, the shape of the lips, and the length of the vowels.

13. According to the shape of the lips, vowels can be classified into close vowels, semi-close vowels, semi-open vowels and open vowels.

14. Any sound produced by a human being is a phoneme.

15. Phones are the sounds that can distinguish meaning.

16. Phonology is concerned with how the sounds can be classified into different categories.

17. A basic way to determine the phonemes of a language is to see if substituting one sound for another results in a change of meaning.

18. 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 phonemic contrast.

19. The rules governing the phonological patterning are language specific.

20. Distinctive features of sound segments can be found running over a sequence of two or more phonemic segments.

Ⅱ. Fill in each of the following blanks with one word which begins with the letter given:

21. A_______ refers to a strong puff of air stream in the production of speech sounds.

22. A_______ phonetics describes the way our speech organs work to produce the speech sounds and how they differ.

23. The four sounds /p/, /b/, /m/ and /w/ have one feature in common, i.e., they are all b_______ sounds.

24. Of all the speech organs, the t_______ is the most flexible, and is responsible for varieties of articulation than any other.

25. English consonants can be classified in terms of manner of articulation or in terms of p_______ of articulation.

26. When the obstruction created by the speech organs is total or complete, the speech sound produced with the obstruction audibly released and the air passing out again is called a s________.

27. S_________ features are the phonemic features that occur above the level of the segments. They include stress, tone, intonation, etc.

28. The rules that govern the combination of sounds in a particular language are called s_______ rules.

29. The transcription of speech sounds with letter-symbols only is called broad transcription while the transcription with letter-symbols together with the diacritics is called n_________ transcription.

30. When pitch, stress and sound length are tied to the sentence rather than the word in isolation, they are collectively known as i_________.

31. P___________ is a discipline which studies the system of sounds of a particular language and how sounds are combined into meaningful units to effect linguistic communication.

32. The articulatory apparatus of a human being are contained in three important cavities: the pharyngeal cavity, the o_______ cavity and the nasal cavity.

33. T_______ are pitch variations, which are caused by the differing rates of vibration of the vocal cords and which can distinguish meaning just like phonemes.

34. Depending on the context in which stress is considered, there are two kinds of stress: word stress and s_________ stress.

Ⅲ. There are four choices following each statement. Mark the choice that can best complete the

statement:

35 Of all the speech organs, the _______ is/are the most flexible.

A. mouth

B. lips

C. tongue

D. vocal cords

36. The sounds produced without the vocal cords vibrating are ____ sounds.

A. voiceless

B. voiced

C. vowel

D. consonantal

37. __________ is a voiced alveolar stop.

A. /z/

B. /d/

C. /k/

D. /b/

38. The assimilation rule assimilates one sound to another by “copying”a feature of a sequential phoneme, thus making the two phones ____________.

A. identical

B. same

C. exactly alike

D. similar

39. Since /p/ and /b/ are phonetically similar, occur in the same environments and they can distinguish meaning, they are said to be ___________.

A. in phonemic contrast

B. in complementary distribution

C. the allophones

D. minimal pair

40. The sound /f/ is _________________.

A. voiced palatal affricate

B. voiced alveolar stop

C. voiceless velar fricative

D. voiceless labiodental fricative

41.A ____ vowel is one that is produced with the front part of the tongue maintaining the highest position.

A. back

B. central

C. front

D. middle

42. Distinctive features can be found running over a sequence of two or more phonemic segments. The phonemic features that occur above the level of the segments are called _______.

A. phonetic components

B. immediate constituents

C. suprasegmental features

D. semantic features

43. A(n) ___________ is a unit that is of distinctive value. It is an abstract unit, a collection of distinctive phonetic features.

A. phone

B. sound

C. allophone

D. phoneme 44.The different phones which can represent a phoneme in different phonetic environments are called the ____ of that phoneme.

A. phones

B. sounds

C. phonemes

D. allophones

Ⅳ. Define the terms below:

45. phonology 46. phoneme 47. allophone

48. international phonetic alphabet 49. intonation 50. phonetics

51. auditory phonetics 52. acoustic phonetics 53. phone

54. phonemic contrast 55. tone 56. minimal pair

Ⅴ. Answer the following questions as comprehensively as possible. Give examples for illustration if necessary:

57. Of the two media of language, why do you think speech is more basic than writing?

58. What are the criteria that a linguist uses in classifying vowels?

59. What are the major differences between phonology and phonetics?

60. Illustrate with examples how suprasegmental features can affect meaning.

61. In what way can we determine whether a phone is a phoneme or not?

Chapter 3 Morphology

Ⅰ. Decide whether each of the following statements is True or False:

1. Morphology studies the internal structure of words and the rules by which words are formed.

2. Words are the smallest meaningful units of language.

3. Just as a phoneme is the basic unit in the study of phonology, so is a morpheme the basic unit in the study of morphology.

4. The smallest meaningful units that can be used freely all by themselves are free morphemes.

5. Bound morphemes include two types: roots and affixes.

6. Inflectional morphemes manifest various grammatical relations or grammatical categories such as number, tense, degree, and case.

7. The existing form to which a derivational affix can be added is called a stem, which can be a bound root, a free morpheme, or a derived form itself.

8. Prefixes usually modify the part of speech of the original word, not the meaning of it.

9. There are rules that govern which affix can be added to what type of stem to form a new word. Therefore, words formed according to the morphological rules are acceptable words.

10. Phonetically, the stress of a compound always falls on the first element, while the second element receives secondary stress.

Ⅱ. Fill in each blank below with one word which begins with the letter given:

11. M _______ is the smallest meaningful unit of language.

12. The affix “-ish” in the word boyish conveys a g_______ meaning.

13. B___________ morphemes are those that cannot be used independently but have to be combined with other morphemes, either free or bound, to form a word.

14. Affixes are of two types: inflectional affixes and d__________ affixes.

15. D________ affixes are added to an existing form to create words.

16. A s______ is added to the end of stems to modify the meaning of the original word and it may case change its part of speech.

17. C__________ is the combination of two or sometimes more than two words to create new words.

18. The rules that govern which affix can be added to what type of stem to form a new word are called m___________ rules.

19. In terms of morphemic analysis, d_______________ can be viewed as the addition of affixes to stems to form new words.

20. A s______ can be a bound root, a free morpheme, or a derived form itself to which a derivational affix can be added.

Ⅲ. There are four choices following each statement. Mark the choice that can best complete the statement:

21. The morpheme “vision”in the common word “television” is a(n) ______.

A. bound morpheme

B. bound form

C. inflectional morpheme

D. free morpheme

22. The compound word “bookstore” is the place where books are sold. This indicates that the meaning of a compound __________.

A. is the sum total of the meaning of its components

B. can always be worked out by looking at the meanings of morphemes

C. is the same as the meaning of a free phrase.

D. None of the above.

23. The part of speech of the compounds is generally determined by the part of speech of __________.

A. the first element

B. the second element

C. either the first or the second element

D. both the first and the second elements

24. _______ are those that cannot be used independently but have to be combined with other morphemes, either free or bound, to form a word.

A. Free morphemes

B. Bound morphemes

C. Bound words

D. Words

25. _________ is a branch of grammar which studies the internal structure of words and the rules by which words are formed.

A. Syntax

B. Grammar

C. Morphology

D. Morpheme

26. The meaning carried by the inflectional morpheme is _______.

A. lexical

B. morphemic

C. grammatical

D. semantic

27. Bound morphemes are those that ___________.

A. have to be used independently

B. can not be combined with other morphemes

C. can either be free or bound

D. have to be combined with other morphemes

28. _______ modify the meaning of the stem, but usually do not change the part of speech of the original word.

A. Prefixes

B. Suffixes

C. Roots

D. Affixes

29. _________ are often thought to be the smallest meaningful units of language by the linguists.

A. Words

B. Morphemes

C. Phonemes

D. Sentences

30. “-s”in the word “books” is _______.

A. a derivative affix

B. a stem

C. an inflectional affix

D. a root

Ⅳ. Define the following terms:

31. morphology 32. inflectional morphology 33. derivational morphology 34. morpheme 35. free morpheme 36. bound morpheme

37. root 38. affix 39. prefix

40. suffix 41. derivation 42. Compounding

Ⅴ. Answer the following questions:

43. What are the main features of the English compounds?

44. Discuss the types of morphemes with examples.

Chapter 4 Syntax

Ⅰ. Decide whether each of the following statements is True or False:

1. Syntax is a subfied of linguistics that studies the sentence structure of language, including the combination of morphemes into words.

2. Grammatical sentences are formed following a set of syntactic rules.

3. Sentences are composed of sequence of words arranged in a simple linear order, with one adding onto another following a simple arithmetic logic.

4. Universally found in the grammars of all human languages, syntactic rules that comprise the system of internalized linguistic knowledge of a language speaker are known as linguistic competence.

5. The syntactic rules of any language are finite in number, but there is no limit to the number of sentences native speakers of that language are able to produce and comprehend.

6. In a complex sentence, the two clauses hold unequal status, one subordinating the other.

7. Constituents that can be substituted for one another without loss of grammaticality belong to the same syntactic category.

8. Minor lexical categories are open because these categories are not fixed and new members are allowed for.

9. In English syntactic analysis, four phrasal categories are commonly recognized and discussed, namely, noun phrase, verb phrase, infinitive phrase, and auxiliary phrase.

10. In English the subject usually precedes the verb and the direct object usually follows the verb.

11. What is actually internalized in the mind of a native speaker is a complete list of words and phrases rather than grammatical knowledge.

12. A noun phrase must contain a noun, but other elements are optional.

13. It is believed that phrase structure rules, with the insertion of the lexicon, generate sentences at the level of D-structure.

14. WH-movement is obligatory in English which changes a sentence from affirmative to interrogative. Ⅱ. Fill in each of the following blanks with one word which begins with the letter given:

15. A s________ sentence consists of a single clause which contains a subject and a predicate and stands alone as its own sentence.

16. A s______ is a structurally independent unit that usually comprises a number of words to form a complete statement, question or command.

17. A s______ may be a noun or a noun phrase in a sentence that usually precedes the predicate.

18. The part of a sentence which comprises a finite verb or a verb phrase and which says something about the subject is grammatically called p_________.

19. A c_________ sentence contains two, or more, clauses, one of which is incorporated into the other.

20. In the complex sentence, the incorporated or subordinate clause is normally called an e_______ clause.

21. Major lexical categories are o_______ categories in the sense that new words are constantly added.

22. A _____ Condition on case assignment states that a case assignor and a case recipient should stay adjacent to each other.

23. P_______ are syntactic options of UG that allow general principles to operate in one way or another and contribute to significant linguistic variations between and among natural languages.

24. The theory of C_______ condition explains the fact that noun phrases appear only in subject and object positions.

Ⅲ. There are four choices following each statement. Mark the choice that can best complete the statement:

25. A sentence is considered ____ when it does not conform to the grammati-cal knowledge in the mind of native speakers.

A. right

B. wrong

C. grammatical

D. ungrammatical

26. A __________ in the embedded clause refers to the introductory word that introduces the embedded clause.

A. coordinator

B. particle

C. preposition

D. subordinator

27. Phrase structure rules have ____ properties.

A. recursive

B. grammatical

C. social

D. functional

28. Phrase structure rules allow us to better understand _____________.

A. how words and phrases form sentences.

B. what constitutes the grammaticality of strings of words

C. how people produce and recognize possible sentences

D. All of the above.

29. Syntactic movement is dictated by rules traditionally called ________.

A. transformational rules

B. generative rules

C. phrase structure rules

D. x-bar theory

30. The theory of case condition accounts for the fact that __________.

A. noun phrases appear only in subject and object positions.

B. noun phrases can be used to modify another noun phrase

C. noun phrase can be used in adverbial positions

D. noun phrase can be moved to any place if necessary.

31. The sentence structure is ________.

A. only linear

B. Only hierarchical

C. complex

D. both linear and hierarchical

32. The syntactic rules of any language are ____ in number.

A. large

B. small

C. finite

D. infinite

33. The ________ rules are the rules that group words and phrases to form grammatical sen-tences.

A. lexical

B. morphological

C. linguistic

D. combinational

34._______ rules may change the syntactic representation of a sentence.

A. Generative

B. Transformational

C. X-bar

D. Phrase structure

Ⅳ. Define the following terms:

35. syntax 36. Sentence 37. coordinate sentence

38. syntactic categories 39. grammatical relations 40. linguistic competence 41. transformational rules 42. D-structure

Ⅴ. Answer the following questions:

43. What are the basic components of a sentence?

44. What are the major types of sentences? Illustrate them with examples.

45. Are the elements in a sentence linearly structured? Why?

46. What are the advantages of using tree diagrams in the analysis of sentence structures?

47. What is NP movement. Illustrate it with examples.

Chapter 5 Semantics

Ⅰ. Decide whether each of the following statements is True or False:

1. Dialectal synonyms can often be found in different regional dialects such as British English and American English but cannot be found within the variety itself, for example, within British English or American English.

2. Sense is concerned with the relationship between the linguistic element and the non-linguistic world of experience, while the reference deals with the inherent meaning of the linguistic form.

3. Linguistic forms having the same sense may have different references in different situations.

4. In semantics, meaning of language is considered as the intrinsic and inherent relation to the physical world of experience.

5. Contextualism is based on the presumption that one can derive meaning from or reduce meaning to observable contexts.

6. Behaviourists attempted to define the meaning of a language form as the situation in which the speaker utters it and the response it calls forth in the hearer.

7. The meaning of a sentence is the sum total of the meanings of all its components.

8. Most languages have sets of lexical items similar in meaning but ranked differently according to their degree of formality.

9. “It is hot.” is a no-place predication because it contains no argument.

10. In grammatical analysis, the sentence is taken to be the basic unit, but in semantic analysis of a sentence, the basic unit is predication, which is the abstraction of the meaning of a sentence.

Ⅱ. Fill in each of the following blanks with one word which begins with the letter given:

11. S________ can be defined as the study of meaning.

12. The conceptualist view holds that there is no d_______ link between a linguistic form and what it refers to.

13. R______ means what a linguistic form refers to in the real, physical world; it deals with the relationship between the linguistic element and the non-linguistic world of experience.

14. Words that are close in meaning are called s________.

15. When two words are identical in sound, but different in spelling and meaning, they are called h__________.

16. R_________ opposites are pairs of words that exhibit the reversal of a relationship between the two items.

17. C ____ analysis is based upon the belief that the meaning of a word can be divided into meaning components.

18. Whether a sentence is semantically meaningful is governed by rules called s________ restrictions, which are constraints on what lexical items can go with what others.

19. An a______ is a logical participant in a predication, largely identical with the nominal element(s) in

a sentence.

20. According to the n______ theory of meaning, the words in a lan-guage are taken to be labels of the objects they stand for.

Ⅲ. There are four choices following each statement. Mark the choice that can best complete the statement:

21. The naming theory is advanced by ________.

A. Plato

B. Bloomfield

C. Geoffrey Leech

D. Firth

22. “We shall know a word by the company it keeps.” This statement represents _______.

A. the conceptualist view

B. contexutalism

C. the naming theory

D. behaviourism

23. Which of the following is not true?

A. Sense is concerned with the inherent meaning of the linguistic form.

B. Sense is the collection of all the features of the linguistic form.

C. Sense is abstract and decontextualized.

D. Sense is the aspect of meaning dictionary compilers are not interested in.

24. “Can I borrow your bike?”_______ “You have a bike.”

A. is synonymous with

B. is inconsistent with

C. entails

D. presupposes

25. ___________ is a way in which the meaning of a word can be dissected into meaning components, called semantic features.

A. Predication analysis

B. Componential analysis

C. Phonemic analysis

D. Grammatical analysis

26. “Alive”and “dead” are ______________.

A. gradable antonyms

B. relational opposites

C. complementary antonyms

D. None of the above

27. _________ deals with the relationship between the linguistic element and the non-linguistic world of experience.

A. Reference

B. Concept

C. Semantics

D. Sense

28. ___________ refers to the phenomenon that words having different meanings have the same form.

A. Polysemy

B. Synonymy

C. Homonymy

D. Hyponymy

29. Words that are close in meaning are called ______________.

A. homonyms

B. polysemy

C. hyponyms

D. synonyms

30. The grammaticality of a sentence is governed by _______.

A. grammatical rules

B. selectional restrictions

C. semantic rules

D. semantic features

Ⅳ. Define the following terms:

31. semantics 32. sense 33. reference

34. synonymy 35. polysemy 36. homonymy

37. homophones 38. Homographs 39. complete homonyms

40. hyponymy 41. antonymy 42 componential analysis 43. grammatical meaning 44. predication 45. Argument

46. predicate 47. two-place predication

Ⅴ. Answer the following questions:

48. Why do we say that a meaning of a sentence is not the sum total of the meanings of all its components?

49. What is componential analysis? Illustrate it with examples.

50. How do you distinguish between entailment and presupposition in terms of truth values?

51. How do you account for such sense relations between sentences as synonymous relation, inconsistent relation in terms of truth values?

52. According to the way synonyms differ, how many groups can we classify synonyms into? Illustrate them with examples.

53. What are the major views concerning the study of meaning? How they differ?

Chapter 6 Pragmatics

Ⅰ. Decide whether each of the following statements is True or False:

1. Both semantics and pragmatics study how speakers of a language use sentences to effect successful communication

2. Pragmatics treats the meaning of language as something intrinsic and inherent.

3. It would be impossible to give an adequate description of meaning if the context of language use was left unconsidered.

4. What essentially distinguishes semantics and pragmatics is whether in the study of meaning the context of use is considered.

5. The major difference between a sentence and an utterance is that a sentence is not uttered while an utterance is.

6. The meaning of a sentence is abstract, but context-dependent.

7. The meaning of an utterance is decontexualized, therefore stable.

8. Utterances always take the form of complete sentences

9. Speech act theory was originated with the British philosopher John Searle.

10. Speech act theory started in the late 50’s of the 20th century.

11. Austin made the distinction between a constative and a performative.

12. Perlocutionary act is the act of expressing the speaker’s intention.

Ⅱ. Fill in each blank below with one word which begins with the letter given:

13. P_________ is the study of how speakers of a language use sentences to effect successful communication.

14. What essentially distinguishes s_______ and pragmatics is whether in the study of meaning the context of use is considered.

15. The notion of c_________ is essential to the pragmatic study of language.

16. If we think of a sentence as what people actually utter in the course of communication, it becomes an u___________.

17. The meaning of a sentence is a_______, and decontexualized.

18. C________ were statements that either state or describe, and were thus verifiable.

19. P________ were sentences that did not state a fact or describe a state, and were not verifiable.

20. A l_________ act is the act of uttering words, phrases, clauses. It is the act of conveying literal meaning by means of syntax, lexicon and phonology.

21. An i__________ act is the act of expressing the speaker’s intention; it is the act performed in saying something.

22. A c_________ is commit the speaker himself to some future course of action.

23. An e________ is to express feelings or attitude towards an existing state.

24. There are four maxims under the cooperative principle: the maxim of q_______, the maxim of quality, the maxim of relation and the maxim of manner.

Ⅲ. There are four choices following each statement. Mark the choice that can best complete the statement:

25. _________ does not study meaning in isolation, but in context.

A. Pragmatics

B. Semantics

C. Sense relation

D. Concept

26. The meaning of language was considered as something _______ in traditional semantics.

A. contextual

B. behaviouristic

C. intrinsic

D. logical

27. What essentially distinguishes semantics and pragmatics is whether in the study of meaning _________ is considered.

A. reference

B. speech act

C. practical usage

D. context

28. A sentence is a _________ concept, and the meaning of a sentence is often studied in isolation.

A. pragmatic

B. grammatical

C. mental

D. conceptual

29. If we think of a sentence as what people actually utter in the course of communication, it becomes a(n) _________.

A. constative

B. directive

C. utterance

D. expressive

30. Which of the following is true?

A. Utterances usually do not take the form of sentences.

B. Some utterances cannot be restored to complete sentences.

C. No utterances can take the form of sentences.

D. All utterances can be restored to complete sentences.

31. Speech act theory did not come into being until __________.

A. in the late 50’s of the 20the century

B. in the early 1950’s

C. in the late 1960’s

D. in the early 21st century

32. __________ is the act performed by or resulting from saying something; it is the consequence of, or the change brought about by the utterance.

A. A locutionary act

B. An illocutionary act

C. A perlocutionary act

D. A performative act

33. According to Searle, the illocutionary point of the representative is ______.

A. to get the hearer to do something

B. to commit the speaker to something’s being the case

C. to commit the speaker to some future course of action

D. to express the feelings or attitude towards an existing state of affairs

34. All the acts that belong to the same category share the same purpose, but they differ __________.

A. in their illocutionary acts.

B. in their intentions expressed

C. in their strength or force

D. in their effect brought about

35. __________ is advanced by Paul Grice

A. Cooperative Principle

B. Politeness Principle

C. The General Principle of Universal Grammar

D. Adjacency Principle

36. When any of the maxims under the cooperative principle is flouted, _______ might arise.

A. impoliteness

B. contradictions

C. mutual understanding

D. conversational implicatures

Ⅳ. Define the terms below:

37. pragmatics 38. context 39. utterance meaning

40. sentence meaning 41. constative 42. performative

43. locutionary act 44. illocutionary act 45. perlocutionary act

46. Cooperative Principle

Ⅴ. Answer the following questions as comprehensively as possible. Give examples for illustration if necessary:

47. How are semantics and pragmatics different from each other?

48. How does a sentence differ from an utterance?

49. How does a sentence meaning differ from an utterance meaning?

50. Discuss in detail the locutionary act, illocutionary act and perlocutionary act.

51. Searle classified illocutionary act into five categories. Discuss each of them in detail with examples.

52. What are the four maxims under the cooperative principle?

53. How does the flouting of the maxims give rise to conversational implicatures?

Chapter 7 Historical Linguistics

Ⅰ. Decide whether each of the following statements is True or False:

1. One of the tasks of the historical linguists is to explore methods to reconstruct linguistic history and establish the relationship between languages.

2. Language change is a gradual and constant process, therefore often indiscernible to speakers of the same generation.

3. The history of the English language is divided into the periods of Old English, Middle English and Modern English.

4. Middle English began with the arrival of Anglo-Saxons, who invaded the British Isles from northern Europe.

5. In Old English, all the nouns are inflected to mark nominative, genitive, dative and accusative cases.

6. In Old English, the verb of a sentence often precedes the subject rather than follows it.

7. A direct consequence of the Renaissance Movement was the revival of French as a literary language.

8. In general, linguistic change in grammar is more noticeable than that in the sound system and the vocabulary of a language.

9. The sound changes include changes in vowel sounds, and in the loss, gain and movement of sounds.

10. The least widely-spread morphological changes in the historical development of English are the loss and addition of affixes.

11. In Old English, the morphosyntactic rule of adjective agreement stipulated that the endings of adjective must agree with the head noun in case, number and gender.

12. The word order of Modern English is more variable than that of Old English.

13. Derivation refers to the process by which new words are formed by the addition of affixes to the roots, stems, or words.

14. “Smog” is a word formed by the word-forming process called acronymy.

15. “Fridge” is a word formed by abbreviation.

16. Modern linguists are able to provide a consistent account for the exact causes of all types of language change.

17. Sound assimilation may bring about the loss of one of two phonetically similar syllables in sequence, as in the case of change of “Engla-land”to “England”.

18. Rule elaboration occurs when there is a need to reduce ambiguity and increase communicative clarity or expressiveness.

19. Language change is always a change towards the simplification of language rules

20. The way children acquire the language is one of the causes for language change.

Ⅱ. Fill in each of the following blanks with one word which begins with the letter given:

21. H________ linguistics is the subfield of linguistics that studies language change.

22. The historical study of language is a d________ study of language rather than a synchronic study.

23. European R________ Movement separates the period of Middle English from that of modern English.

24. An important set of extensive sound changes, which affected 7 long or tense vowels and which led to one of the major discrepancies between phonemic representations of words and morphemes at the end of the Middle English Period, is known as the Great V_______ Shift.

25. A_______ involves the deletion of a word-final vowel segment.

26. A change that involves the insertion of a consonant or vowel sound to the middle of a word is known as e__________.

27. The three sets of consonant shifts that Grimm discovered became known collectively as Grimm s L _______.

28. Sound change as a result of sound movement, known as m_______, involves a reversal in position of two adjoining sound segments.

29. B________ is a process by which new words are formed by taking away the supposed suffixes of exiting words.

30. Semantic b________ refers to the process in which the meaning of a word becomes more general or inclusive than its historically earlier denotation.

31. The original form of a language family that has ceased to exist is called the p_________.

32. Sound a________ refers to the physiological effect of one sound on another. In this process, successive sounds are made identical or similar to one another in terms of place or manner of articulation.

33. In order to reduce the exceptional or irregular morphemes, speakers of a particular language may

borrow a rule from one part of the grammar and apply it generally. This phenomenon is called i_________ borrowing.

34. By identifying and comparing similar linguistic forms with similar meanings across related languages, historical linguists reconstruct the proto form in the common ancestral language. This process is called c________ reconstruction.

35. The m ____ rule of adjective agreement has been lost from English.

Ⅲ. There are four choices following each statement. Mark the choice that can best complete the statement:

36. Historical linguistics explores ________________.

A. the nature of language change

B. the causes that lead to language change

C. the relationship between languages

D. all of the above

37. Language change is ______________.

A. universal, continuous and, to a large extent, regular and systematic

B. continuous, regular, systematic, but not universal

C. universal, continuous, but not regular and systematic

D. always regular and systematic, but not universal and continuous

38. Modern English period starts roughly _____________.

A. from 449 to 1100

B. from 1500 to the present

C. from 1100 to the present

D. from 1700 to the present

39. Old English dates back to the mid-fifth century when _________.

A. the Norman French invaders under William the Conqueror arrived in England

B. the printing technology was invented

C. Anglo-Saxons invaded the British Isles from northern Europe

D. the Celtic people began to inhabit England

40. Middle English was deeply influenced by ___________.

A. Norman French in vocabulary and grammar

B. Greek and Latin because of the European renaissance movement

C. Danish languages because Denmark placed a king on the throne of England

D. the Celtic people who were the first inhabitants of England

41. Language change is essentially a matter of change ________.

A. in collocations

B. in meaning

C. in grammar

D. in usages

42. In Old and Middle Engli sh, both /k/ and /n/ in the word “knight” were pronounced, but in modern English, /k/ in the sound /kn-/ clusters was not pronounced. This phenomenon is known as ________.

A. sound addition

B. sound loss

C. sound shift

D. sound movement

43. A change that involves the insertion of a consonant or vowel sound to the middle of a word is known as _____.

A. apocope

B. epenthesis

C. parenthesis

D. antithesis

44. Segment switch of sound positions can be seen in the example of the modern word “bird” which comes from the old English word “bridd”. The change of the word from “bridd”to “bird” is a case of _________.

A. metathesis

B. sound loss

C. sound addition

D. apocope

45. _________ is a process of combining two or more words into one lexical unit.

A. Derivation

B. Blending

C. Compounding

D. Abbreviation

46. “Wife”, which used to refer to any woman, stands for “a married woman” in modern English. This phenomenon is known as ________.

A. semantic shift

B. semantic broadening

C. semantic elevation

D. semantic narrowing

47. English language belongs to _________.

A. Indo-European Family

B. Sino-Tibetan Family

C. Austronesian Family

D. Afroasiatic Family

48. By analogy to the plural formation of the word “dog-s”, speakers started saying “cows” as the plural of “cow”instead of the earlier plural “kine”. This is the case of _________.

A. elaboration

B. external borrowing

C. sound assimilation

D. internal borrowing

49. Morphologcial changes can involve __________.

A. the loss of morphological rules

B. the addition of morphological rules

C. the alteration of morphological rules

D. all of the above

50. The most dramatic morphological loss concerns the loss of ________.

A. comparative markers

B. tense markers

C. gender and case markers

D. none of the above

Ⅳ. Define the following terms:

51. Apocope 52. Metathesis 53. Derivation

54. back-formation 55. semantic narrowing 56. protolanguage

57. haplology 58. epenthesis 59. Compounding

60. Blending 61. semantic broadening 62. semantic shift

63. Great V owel Shift 64. acronym 65. sound assimilation

Ⅴ. Answer the following questions:

66. What is the purpose or significance of the historical study of language?

67. What are the characteristics of the nature of language change?

68. What are the major periods in the history of English?

69. As language changes over time, the meaning of a word may deviate from its original denotation. Discuss the major types of semantic changes.

70. Over the years from Old English period to the Modern English period, English has undergone some major sound changes. Illustrate these changes with some examples.

71. What are the most widely-spread morphological changes in the historical development of English?

72. What are the causes of language change? Discuss them in detail.

Chapter 8 Sociolinguistics

Ⅰ. Decide whether each of the following statements is True or False:

1. Sociolinguistics is the sub-discipline of linguistics that studies social contexts.

2. Language as a means of social communication is a homogeneous system with a homogeneous group of speakers.

3. Language use varies from one speech community to another, from one regional group to another, from one social group to another, and even from one individual to another.

4. The goal of sociolinguistics is to explore the nature of language variation and language use among a variety of speech communities and in different social situations.

5. The linguistic markers that characterize individual social groups may serve as social markers of group membership.

6. From the sociolinguistic perspective, the term “speech variety” can not be used to refer to standard language, vernacular language, dialect or pidgin.

7. Functional speech varieties are known as regional dialects.

8. The most distinguishable linguistic feature of a regional dialect is its grammar and uses of vocabulary.

9. Geographical barriers are the only source of regional variation of language.

10. A person’s social backgrounds do not exert a shaping influence on his ch oice of linguistic features.

11. Two speakers of the same language or dialect use their language or dialect in the same way.

12. Every speaker of a language is, in a stricter sense, a speaker of a distinct idiolect.

13. The standard language is a better language than nonstandard languages.

14. A lingua franca can only be used within a particular country for communication among groups of people with different linguistic backgrounds.

15. Pidgins are linguistically inferior to standard languages.

16. A pidgin usually reflects the influence of the higher, or dominant, language in its lexicon and that of the lower language in their phonology and occasionally syntax.

17. The major difference between a pidgin and a creole is that the former usually has its native speakers while the latter doesn’t.

18. Bilingualism and diglossia mean the same thing.

19. The kind of name or term speakers use to call or refer to someone may indicate something of their social relationship to or personal feelings about that individual.

20. The use of euphemisms has the effect of removing derogatory overtones and the disassociative effect as such is usually long-lasting.

Ⅱ. Fill in each of the blanks below with one word which begins with the letter given:

21. The social group isolated for any given study is called the speech c________.

22. Speech v_________ refers to any distinguishable form of speech used by a speaker or group of speakers.

23. From the sociolinguistic perspective, a speech variety is no more than a d__________ variety of a language.

24. Language standardization is also called language p_______.

25. Social variation gives rise to s_________ which are subdivisible into smaller speech categories that reflect their socioeconomic, educational, occupational background, etc.

26. S_______ variation in a person’s speech or writing usually ranges on a continuum from casual or colloquial to formal or polite according to the type of communicative situation.

27. A regional dialect may gain status and become standardized as the national or o________ language

of a country.

28. The standard language is a s_________, socially prestigious dialect of language.

29. Language varieties other than the standard are called nonstandard, or v_______ languages.

30. A pidgin typically lacks in i_______ morphemes.

31. Linguistic taboo reflects s_________ taboo.

32. The avoidance of using taboo language mirrors social attitudes, emotions and value judgments and has no l_________ basis.

Ⅲ. There are four choices following each statement. Mark the choice that can best complete the statement:

33. _______ is concerned with the social significance of language variation and language use in different speech communities.

A. Psycholinguistics

B. Sociolinguistics

C. Historical linguistics

D. General linguistics

34. The most distinguishable linguistic feature of a regional dialect is its _____.

A. use of words

B. use of structures

C. accent

D. morphemes

35. ____ is speech variation according to the particular area where a speaker comes from.

A. Regional variation

B. Language variation

C. Social variation

D. Register variation

36. _______ are the major source of regional variation of language.

A. Geographical barriers

B. Loyalty to and confidence in one’s native speech

C. Physical discomfort and psychological resistance to change

D. Social barriers

37. _________ means that certain authorities, such as the government choose, a particular speech variety, standardize it and spread the use of it across regional boundaries.

A. Language interference

B. Language changes

C. Language planning

D. Language transfer

38. _________ in a person’s speech or writing usually ranges on a continuum from casual or colloquial to formal or polite according to the type of communicative situation.

A. Regional variation

B. Changes in emotions

C. Variation in connotations

D. Stylistic variation

39. A ____ is a variety of language that serves as a medium of communication among groups of people for diverse linguistic backgrounds.

A. lingua franca

B. register

C. Creole

D. national language

40. Although _______ are simplified languages with reduced grammatical features, they are rule-governed, like any human language.

A. vernacular languages

B. creoles

C. pidgins

D. sociolects

41. In normal situations, ____ speakers tend to use more prestigious forms than their ____ counterparts

with the same social background.

A. female; male

B. male; female

C. old; young

D. young; old

42. A linguistic _______ refers to a word or expression that is prohibited by the “polite” society from general use.

A. slang

B. euphemism

C. jargon

D. taboo

Ⅳ. Define the following terms:

43. sociolinguistics 44. speech community 45. speech variety

46. language planning 47. idiolect 48. standard language

49. nonstandard language 59. taboo 60. euphemism

50. lingua franca 51. pidgin 52. Creole

53. diglossia 54. Bilingualism 55. ethnic dialect

56. Sociolect 57. register 58. slang

Ⅴ. Answer the following questions as comprehensively as possible. Give examples for illustration if necessary:

61. Discuss with examples that the speech of women may differ from the speech of men.

62. Discuss with examples some of the linguistic differences between Standard English and Black English.

63. What is a linguistic taboo? What effect does it have on our use of language?

Chapter 9 Psycholinguistics

Ⅰ. Decide whether each of the following statements is True or False:

1. The linguistic ability of human beings depends primarily on the structure of the vocal cords.

2. Human beings are the only organisms in which one particular part of the left half of the brain is larger than the corresponding part of the right half.

3. The case of Phineas Gage suggests that if our language ability is located in the brain, it is clear that it is not situated right at the front.

4. In general, the right side of the brain controls voluntary movements of, and responds to signals from, the left side of the body, whereas the left side controls voluntary movements of, and responds to signals from, the right side of the body.

5. Language functions are believed to be lateralized primarily in the left hemisphere of the brain.

6. The language we speak determines the way we perceive the world and therefore the nature of thought.

7. Human beings can not think without language, just as they can not speak without thinking.

8. If a language lacks a word, its speakers will not be able to grasp its concept.

9. Generally speaking, left hemisphere is responsible for language and speech, analytic reasoning, associative thought, etc., while the right hemisphere is responsible for perception of nonlinguistic sounds, holistic reasoning, recognition of musical melodies, etc.

10. Language by no means determines the ways we perceive the objective world, but by its convenience, availability, and habitual use, does influence the perceptions of human being.

Ⅱ. Fill in each of the blanks below with one word which begins with the letter given:

11. P_________ is the study of language in relation to the mind.

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