10-11语言学第二学
河南财经政法大学
2010——2011学年第二学期期末考试
语言学试题（考查课）
级别：08级班级：3班姓名：王航航分数：
1. What are the main concerns of general linguistics?
The main concerns of general linguistics are phonetics, phonology, morphology, syntax, semantics, and pragmatics.
Linguistics is usually defined as the science of language. It generally concludes at least five parameters. They are phonetics, phonology morphology semantics and pragmatics.
2. What are the similarities and differences between Saussure’s distinction of ‘Langue vs. Parole’ and Chomsky’s distinction of ‘Competence vs. Performance’?
The similarities (1) language and competence mainly concerns the user’s underlying knowledge; parole and performance concerns the actual phenomena (2) language and competence are abstract; parole and performance are concrete.
The differences (1) according to Saussure, language is a mere systematic inventory of items; according to Chomsky, competence should refers to the underlying competence as a system of generative processes (2)According to Saussure, language mainly base on sociology, in separating language from parole, we separate social from individual; according to Chomsky, competence was restricted to a knowledge of grammar.
3.Examine the following two statements about language, and discuss the
similarities and differences between them. Do you agree with the two statements? Explain your answer
1)Sapir (1921: language): ‘Language is a purely human and
non-instinctive method of communicating ideas, emotions and desires by means o f voluntarily produced symbols’
2)Bloch and Trager (1942: Outline of Linguistic Analysis): ‘ A
language is a system of arbitrary vocal symbols by means of which a
social group co-operates’
Similarities (1) they all concluded that language was the method of
communicating ideas. (2) They all concluded that language was arbitrary (3)
language came from human society.
Differences (1) Sapir concluded that language was produced symbols,
Bloch and Trager concluded that it was a system of arbitrary vocal symbols (2) Sapir concluded that language is purely human; Bloch and Trager did not
point out.
I agree with Sapir’s statement, language was no born with, people have the
ability of language through society and language was voluntary produced
symbols, not only vocal symbols but also gestures.
4. Discuss the phonological rule that underlines the third person singular present tense forms of verbs in English. Keep in mind the following forms:
1). He works eight hours a day, six days a week.
2) The girl comes here every Saturday.
3) She uses the computer at night.
When the third person singular present tense forms of verbs, - (e) s in written form, is pronounced in three different ways: [s], [z], and [?u]
. [z] Appears after these sounds: [l，?，n，b，d，g，?u]
[s] Is found after [t, k]
[?u] occurs after [s,?,t?]
a. The [s] appears after voiceless sounds
b. The[z] appears after voiced sounds
c. The [?u ] appears after sibilants
5. Is English a language that uses a phonetic alphabet system? Explain briefly why or why not with examples:
In the production of consonants at least two articulators are involved. We talk about them as the Manner of Articulation and the Place of Articulation. When there are two sounds share the same place and manner of articulation, they are distinguished by VOICING. For example
[p] V oiceless bilabial stop
[b] V oiced bilabial stop
[s] V oiceless alveolar fricative
[z] V oiced alveolar fricative
6. Inspect the utterance provided below.
Billy took his mice away.
1)Analyze it into a string of morphemes.
2)Classify the morpheme by nature and feature,
3)Conclude a concise statement on the properties of morpheme
（1）Billy, took, his, mice, a, way
（2）Classified by nature, morpheme can be divided into free morpheme and bound morpheme.
Free morpheme: Billy, his and way
Bound morpheme: took, mice, a
Classified by feature, morpheme can be divided into inflectional affix and derivational affix.
Inflectional affix: Billy, took, his, mice
Derivational affix: away
(3) It is the smallest unit in terms of the relation between expression and content. It can't be changed without destroying or drastically altering the central meaning whether in lexical or grammar.
7. Discussion and exemplify the statement that ‘language is both arbitrary and non-arbitrary
Saussure first refers to the fact that the forms of linguistic signs bear no natural relationship to their meaning. For instance, we cannot explain why a book is called a /buk / and a pen a /pen /. In this side language is arbitrary which can be seen (1) between the sound of a morpheme and its meaning. (2) At the syntactic level Language has its idiom form; mean that in this way you cannot change the expression any other way even if you think it does not look or logical, for example, “After you” means you go first. So in this degree language is non-arbitrary.
So language is both arbitrary and non-arbitrary’
8. Unlike human’s language, animals can only use their very few changes of sound to express very limited meanings, state the reasons by means of the theory of design features.
The design features of language are arbitrariness, duality, creativity and displacement. Among the above duality, creativity and displacement are features only of human beings.
A nimals’ sounds do not have these three features; they can only use their very few changes of sound to express very limited meaning. Animals’ sounds are from genetic factors, human language is a form of culture transmission.