語言學(xué)作業(yè)第一章

1、語言學(xué)作業(yè)班級(jí)：姓名： chapter 1 invitations to linguisticsi. 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, e

2、ven 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

3、 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, th

4、e present) as its point of observation. most grammars are of this kind. ii. please distinguish the following terms: 1. langue vs. parolelangue refers to the abstract linguistic system shared by all the members of a speech community, that is, the lexicon, grammar, and phonology implanted in each indi

5、vidual, and it is the linguists 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

6、 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

7、essential while parole is accessory and accidental. 2. descriptive vs. prescriptive the distinction lies in prescribing how things ought to be and describing how things are.traditional grammar was very strongly normative in character. the grammarians tried to lay down rules for the correct use of la

8、nguage and settle the disputes over usage once and for all. that is prescriptive.these attitudes are still with us, though people realize nowadays the facts of usage count more than the authority-made “standards”. the nature of linguistics as a science determines its preoccupation with description i

9、nstead of prescription.3. synchronic vs. diachronic synchronic description takes a fixed instant (usually, but not necessarily, the present) as its point of observation. most grammars are of this kind. actually synchrony is a fiction since any language is changing as the minutes pass. diachronic lin

10、guistics is the study of a language through the course of its history.4. competence vs. performance according to chomsky:a language users underlying knowledge about the system of rules is called his linguistic competence.performance refers to the actual use of language or the actual realization of t

11、his knowledge in utterances in concrete situations.a speakers competence is stable while his performance is often influenced by psychological and social factors, so a speakers performance does not always or equal his supposed competence. he believes that linguists ought to study competence rather th

12、an performance. 5. langue vs. competence according to chomsky:langue is a social product, a systematic inventory of rules of the language, a set of conventions for a speech community. competence is defined from the psychological point of view, is deemed as a property of the mind of each individuals,

13、 or underlying competence as a system of generative processes.according to hymes:he approaches language from a socio-cultural viewpoint with the aim of studying the varieties of ways of speaking on the part of individual and the community. he extended notion of competence, restricted by chomsky to a

14、 knowledge of grammar, to incorporate the pragmatic ability for language use. this extended idea of competence can be called communicative competence. iii. answer the following questions in brief: 1. the following are some book titles of linguistics. can you judge the synchronic or diachronic orient

15、ation just from the titles? 1) english examined: two centuries of comment on the mother tongue 2) protean shape: a study in eighteenth-century vocabulary and usage 3) pejorative sense development in english 4) the categories and types of present-day english word-formation 5) language in the inner ci

16、ty: studies in the black english vernacular 1) diachronic 2）synchronic 3）diachronic 4）synchronic 5）we cant judge whether it is synchronic or diachronic orientation just from the titles. 2. what is language? what is linguistics? language can be defined as a system of arbitrary vocal symbols used for

17、human communication and interaction. linguistics is the scientific study of human language. the aims of linguistic theory: 1) what is knowledge of language? (competence) 2) how is knowledge of language acquired? (acquisition) 3) how is knowledge of language put to use? (performance/language processi

18、ng). main branches of linguistics: phonetics, phonology morphology, syntax, semantics, pragmatics. 3. how do you understand performative function of language? the performative function of language is primarily to change the social status of persons or the situations of events, as in marriage ceremon

19、ies, the sentencing of criminals, the blessing of children, the naming of a ship at a launching ceremony, and the cursing of enemies. the kind of language employed in performative verbal acts is usually quite formal and even ritualized. the performative function can extend to the control of reality

20、as on some magical or religious occasions. for example, in chinese when someone breaks a bowl or a plate the host or the people present are likely to say sui sui ping an as a means of controlling the invisible forces which the believers feel might affect their lives adversely. iv. discuss the follow

21、ing question in detail. how do you interpret the viewpoint that “arbitrariness is a matter of degree”? 1)arbitrary relationship between the sound of a morpheme and its meaning, even with onomatopoeic words: the dog barks bow wow in english but “汪汪汪” in chinese. 2) arbitrariness at the syntactic leve

22、l: language is not arbitrary at the syntactic level. n he came in and sat down.n he sat down and came in.n he sat down after he came in.3) the link between a linguistic sign and its meaning is a matter of convention.n arbitrariness of language makes it potentially creative.n conventionality of langu

23、age makes learning a language laborious. chapter 2 speech soundsi. complete the following statements. 1. human language enable their users to symbolize objects, events and concepts which are not present (in time and space) at the moment of communication. this quality is labeled as _. 2. the sound p

24、can be described with “voiced, _, stop.” 3. the different members of a phoneme, sounds which are phonetically different but do not make one word different from another in meaning, are_. 4. both semantics and _ investigate linguistic meaning, but they focus on different aspects. 5. if certain linguis

25、tics tries to lay down rules for the correct use of language and settle the disputes over usage once and for all, it is _ linguistics. 6. phones that fall into allophones of a phoneme have to satisfy two conditions, one is they are _, and another is that they should be in _.7. the vowel _ is high fr

26、ont tense unrounded. 8. a dog cannot tell people that its master will be home in a few days, because its language does not have the feature of _. 9. computational linguistics often refers to the problems of _, information retrieval, and _. 10. halliday proposed a theory of metafunctions of language,

27、 that is, language has _, _ and _ functions. ii. define the following terms. 1. manner of articulation: 2. distinctive features: 3. intonation: 4. assimilation: iii. answer the following questions briefly. 1. specify the difference between each pair of sounds using distinctive features. 1) l 2) ph p 3) b d 4) k g 5) i u 2. work out the features of the following sounds. 1) th _ 2) w _ 3) v _ 4) ð _ 5) l _ 3. in some dialects of english the following words have different vowels, as shown by the phonetic transcr