语言学复习试题及参考答案

语言学复习试题及参考答案,对期末考试有帮助

语言学 复习试题及参考答案

I. Mark the choice that can best complete the statement (20 x1)

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

A. Arbitrariness B. Displacement C. Duality D. Meaningfulness

2. According to F. de Saussure, _______ refers to the abstract linguistic system shared by all the members of a speech community.

A. parole B. performance C. langue D. Language

3. 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

4. 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

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

A. bound morpheme B. bound form C. inflectional morpheme D. free morpheme

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

A. lexical B. morphemic C. grammatical D. semantic

7. Phrase structure rules have ____ properties.

A. recursive B. grammatical C. social D. functional

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

A. large B. small C. finite D. infinite

9. “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

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

A. gradable antonyms B. relational opposites

C. complementary antonyms D. None of the above

11. 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

12. __________ 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

13. 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

14. In Old and Middle English, 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

语言学复习试题及参考答案,对期末考试有帮助

C. sound shift D. sound movement

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

A. use of words B. use of structures

C. accent D. morphemes

16. _________ 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

17. Human linguistic ability largely depends on the structure and dynamics of _________.

A. human brain B. human vocal cords

C. human memory D. human

18. The most important part of the brain is the outside surface of the brain, called _________.

A. the neurons B. nerve pathways

C. cerebral cortex D. sensory organs

19. The development of linguistic skills involves the acquisition of ____ rules rather than the mere memorization of words and sentences.

A. cultural B. grammatical

C. behavior D. pragmatic

20. According to the _______, the acquisition of a second language involves, and is dependent on, the acquisition of the culture of the target language community.

A. acculturation view B. mentalist view

C. behaviourist view D. conceptualist view

rue or False (10 x1)

21. People can utter a sentence he has never heard or used before. In this sense, human language is creative.

22. In English both aspirated and unaspirated voiceless stops occur. The voiceless aspirated stops

and the voiceless unaspirated stops

or environment.

23. Parameters 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 languages.

24. Syntactic movement occurs to all sentences, therefore, the deep structure and surface structure of every sentence look different at its two levels of representation.

25. The Anglo-Saxons were migrants from the northern parts of Europe, so the words that they originally used and the words that the English vocabulary has later taken in from other languages are regarded as loan words.

26. Paul Grice made a distinction between what he called “constatives” and“performatives”.

27. Most of the languages of Europe, Persia (Iran), and the northern part of India belong to the occur in the same phonemic context

语言学复习试题及参考答案,对期末考试有帮助

same Indo-European language family. The language, which no longer exists, is called Proto-Indo-European, a term reflecting the earlier linguistic distribution of the speakers of this language family from India to Europe.

28. In Black English, when the verb is negated, the indefinite pronouns something, somebody, and some become the negative indefinites nothing, nobody, and none, as in :

He don’t know nothing.

He don’t like nobody.

He ain’t got none.

29. The cerebral cortex is the decision-making organ of the body, receiving messages from all the sensory organs and initiating all voluntary actions.

30.During the two-word stage of language acquisition, two-word expressions are absent of syntactic or morphological markers.

III. Define Six of the following

ten terms, illustrate them if necessary (6 x 5).

31. allomorph

32. bound morpheme

33. semantics

34. reference

35. synonymy,

36. predication analysis,

37. critical period hypothesis

38. linguistic competence

39. bilingualism

40.psycholinguistics

IV. Answer the following questions as comprehensively as possible, giving examples if necessary ( 4x10 ):

1. How do you understand that language is arbitrary?

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

3. Draw a tree diagram for the following statements:

1 ) The people live a peaceful life in the countryside.

2) He knows that I will come the day after tomorrow.

语言学复习试题及参考答案,对期末考试有帮助

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

参考答案及评分标准

I. Mark the choice that can best complete the statement (20 x1) 每题一分

1.D 2.C 3.D 4.C 5.D 6. C 7. A 8. C 9. B 10.C

11D 12.C 13.A 14.B 15. C 16.C 17.A 18.C 19.B 20.A

II. True or False (10x1) 每题一分

21.T 22.F 23.T 24.F 25.F 26.F 27.T 28.T 29.T 30.T

III. Define the following terms, illustrate them if necessary (5x6). 每题五分，能够举例不举例说明的扣二分。

31. allomorph: Some morphemes are realized by more than one morph according to their position in a word. Such alternative morphs are allomorphs, e.g.Plurality :-s, -es; foot-feet, man-men, goose-geese, etc.

32. bound morpheme: Bound morphemes are the morphemes which cannot be used independently but have to be combined with other morphemes, either free or bound, to form a word, e.g., -ish in girlish, -mit in transmit, remit, admit.

33. semantics: Semantics can be simply defined as the study of meaning in language.

34. reference: Reference 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

35. synonymy: Synonymy refers to the sameness or close similarity of meaning.

36. predication analysis: Predication analysis refers to the kind of analysis which involves the breaking down of predications into their constitutes-arguments and predicates.

37. critical period hypothesis: The critical period hypothesis refers to a period in one' s life extending from about age two to puberty, during which the human brain is most ready to acquire a particular language and language learning can proceed easily, swiftly, and without explicit instruction.

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

39. bilingualism: Bilingualism refers to a linguistic situation in which two standard languages are used either by an individual or by a group of speakers, such as the inhabitants of a particular region or a nation.

40.psycholinguistics: Psycholinguistics is the study of language in relation to the mind.

IV.Answer the following questions as comprehensively as possible, giving examples if necessary ( 4x10 ): 每题十分，回答不全者酌情扣分。

语言学复习试题及参考答案,对期末考试有帮助

41. The duality nature of language means that language is a system, which consists of two sets of structure, or two levels, one of sounds and the other of meanings. At the lower or the basic level, there is the structure of sounds, which are meaningless, discrete, individual sounds. But the sounds of language can be combined according to rules into units of meaning such as morphemes and words, which, at the higher level, can be arranged into sentences. This duality of structure or double articulation of language enables its users to talk about anything within their knowledge. No animal communication system has duality or even comes near to possessing it.

42. Phonetics and phonology are the two fields dedicated to the study of human speech sounds and sound structures. The difference between phonetics and phonology is that phonetics deals with the physical production of these sounds while phonology is the study of sound patterns and their meanings both within and across languages. If they still sound like more or less the same thing, read on. We’ll discuss each one individually and then compare them side by side, which should clear things up.

Phonetics is strictly about audible sounds and the things that happen in your mouth, throat, nasal and sinus cavities, and lungs to make those sounds. It has nothing to do with meaning. It’s only a description. For example, in order to produce the word “bed,” you start out with your lips together. Then, air from your lungs is forced over your vocal chords, which begin to vibrate and make noise. The air then escapes through your lips as they part suddenly, which results in a B sound. Next, keeping your lips open, the middle of your tongue comes up so that the sides meet your back teeth while the tip of your tongue stays down. All the while, air from your lungs is rushing out, and your vocal chords are vibrating. There’s your E sound. Finally, the tip of your tongue comes up to the hard palate just behind your teeth. This stops the flow of air and results in a D sound as long as those vocal chords are still going.As literate, adult speakers of the English language, we don’t need a physical description of everything required to make those three sounds. We simply

understand what to do in order to make them. Similarly, phoneticists simply understand that when they see /kæt/, it’s a description of how most Americans pronounce the word “cat.” It has nothing to do with a furry house pet.In fact, if there were a word in any other language pronounced the same way, the phonetic spelling would be the same regardless of meaning. Again, it’s not about meaning. It’s strictly physical.

Phonology, on the other hand, is both physical and meaningful. It explores the differences between sounds that change the meaning of an utterance. For example, the word “bet” is very similar to the word “bed” in terms of the physical manifestation of sounds. The only difference is that at the end of “bet,” the vocal chords stop vibrating so that sound is a result only of the placement of the tongue behind the teeth and the flow of air. However, the meanings of the two words are not

related in the least. What a vast difference a muscle makes!This is the biggest distinction between phonetics and phonology, although phonologists analyze a lot more than just the obvious

differences. They also examine variations on single letter pronunciations, words in which multiple variations can exist versus those in which variations are considered incorrect, and the phonological “grammar” of languages.If you are a native speaker of English, you pronounce the letter P three different ways. It’s true. You may not realize it, but you do, and if you were to hear the wrong pronunciation, you might not be able to put your finger on the problem, but you would think it sounded really weird. Say the word “pop-up.” The first P has more air behind it than the others, the second is very similar to the first, but it doesn’t have much air in it, and the last one is barely

语言学复习试题及参考答案,对期末考试有帮助

pronounced at all. The word just sort of ends there when your lips close. Now, say it again, but put a lot of air in the final P. See? Weird, right? That’s because the aspirated P (with air) sound is not “grammatically” correct at the end of an English word. Similarly, Spanish words do not begin with an “s” sound followed by a consonant, which makes it very difficult for Spanish-speakers who are learning English to say words like “school,” “speak” and “strict.” Phonologists study things like that.

43. 1) The girl lives a happy life in the city.

CP C

S

NP Infl VP

Det N V NP PP

Pres Det A N P NP

Det N

The girl lives a happy life in the city

2) The girl wonders whether he will come here tomorrow.

CP

C

Infl VP

N Pres

Infl

N V AdvP Adv P

will

Adv Adv

语言学复习试题及参考答案,对期末考试有帮助

The girl wonders whether he come here tomorrow

44. A locutionary act is the act of uttering words, phrases, clauses. It is the act of conveying

literal meaning by means of syntax, lexicon and phonology. An illocutionary act is the act of expressing the speaker's intention; it is the act performed in saying something. A

perlocutionary act is the act performed by or resulting from saying something; it is the

consequence of, or the change brought about by the utterance; it is the act performed by saying something. For example:

You have left the door wide open.

The locutionary act performed by the speaker is that he has uttered all the words " you,' " have," " door," " left," " open," etc. and expressed what the word literally mean.

The illocutionary act performed by the speaker is that by making such an utterance, he has expressed his intention of asking the hearer to close the door.

The perlocutionary act refers to the effect of the utterance. If the hearer understands that the speaker intends him to close the door and closes the door, the speaker has successfully brought about the change in the real world he has intended to; then the perlocutiohary act is successfully performed .