语言学试卷A

一．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. Which of the following words is entirely arbitrary?
A. tree B. crash C. typewriter D. bang


3. Which of the following sounds is a voiceless bilabial stop?
A.[ p ] B. [m] C. [b] D. [t]

4. The morpheme "vision" in the common word "television" is a(n) ___.
A、 bound morpheme
B、 bound form
C、 inflectional morpheme
D、 free morpheme

5. A word with several meanings is called __word.
A. a polysemous B. a synonymous C. an abnormal D. a multiple

6. "Can I borrow your bike?" ___ "You have a bike."
A、 is synonymous with
B、 is inconsistent with
C、 entails
D、 presupposes

7. The branch of linguistics that studies how context influences the way
speakers interpret sentences is called ___.
A. semantics B. pragmatics
C. sociolinguistics D. psycholinguistics

8. The pair of words “lend” and “borrow” are ___.
A. gradable opposites B. relational opposites
C. co-hyponyms D. synonyms

9 .The utterance "We're already working 25 hours a day, eight days a week."
obviously violates the maxim of ______.
A. quality B. quantity C. relation D. manner

10. The word “lab” is formed through _____ .
A. back formation B. blending
C. clipping D. derivation


二. 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. (2%×
10=20%)
1. Chomsky defines "competence" as the ideal user's k ______ of the rules
of his language.

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

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

4. The illocutionary point of r ______ is to state or describe, to say what the
speaker believes to be true.

5. Words are created outright to fit some purpose. Such a method of enlarging
the vocabulary is known as word c ______ .

6. Utterance meaning is based on ________ meaning; it is the realization of
the abstract meaning of a sentence in a real situation of communication, or
simply in a context.

7. Language exists in time and changes through time. The description of a
langua

ge at some point of time is called a s_______ study of language.

8. An essential difference between consonants and vowels is whether the air
coming up from the lungs meets with any o________ when a sound is
produced.

9. The morphemes that cannot be used by themselves, but must be combined
with other morphemes to form words are called b________ morphemes.

10. Hyponymy is the relationship which obtains between specific and general
lexical items. The word that is more general in meaning is called s________.

三、Directions: Judge whether each of the following
statements is true or false. Put a T for true or F
for false in the brackets in front of each
statement. (1%×10=10%)

( ) 1. In modern linguistic studies, the written form of language is given
more emphasis than the spoken form for a number of reasons.

( ) 2. The compound word "bookstore" is the place where books are sold.
This indicates that the meaning of a compound is the sum total of the
meanings of its components.

( ) 3. Only when a maxim under Cooperative Principle is blatantly violated
and the hearer knows that it is being violated, do conversational implicatures
arise.

( ) 4. According to Searle's classification of illocutionary acts, inviting, ordering, advising, promising and apologizing all fall into the category of directives.

( ) 5. Modern linguistics is mainly diachronic.

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

( ) 7. The writing system of a language is always a later invention used to
record speech; thus there are still many languages in today’s world that can
only be spoken, but not written.

( ) 8. In such sound combinations as /bi:p/, /geip/ and /su:p/, the voiceless
stop /p/, occurring in the final position, is unaspirated, i.e. pronounced with the
strong puff of air withheld to some extent.

( ) 9. The part of speech of the compound is always determined by the part
of speech of the second element, without exception.

( ) 10 “Beat” and “bit” are not a minimal pair.


四、Directions: Explain the following terms, using one
or two examples for illustration when necessary.
(5%×6=30%)

1. displacement
2. a minimal pair
3. derivational affixes
4. illocutionary act
5. conversational implicature


五、Answer the following questions. (10％×2=20％)



1. Explain with examples the sequential rule, the assimilation rule, and the
deletion rule.

2. What is grammacality? What might make a grammatically meaningful sentence semantically meaningless?