语言学习题答案

1、1. q: what is the scope of linguistics?the scope of linguistics can be illustrated as:1) general linguistics: the study of language as whole. it deals with the basic concepts, theories, descriptions, models and methods applicable in any linguistic study.2) phonetics: the study of sounds used in comm

2、unication.3) phonology: the study about how sounds are put together and used to convey meaning in communication.4) morphology: the study of the way in which symbols/morphemes are arranged to form words.5) syntax: the study of the rules about the combination of words to form permisible sentences.6) s

3、emantics: the study of meaning.7) pragmatics: the study of meaning in the context of use.and the interdisciplinary branches.1) sociolinguistics2) psycholinguistics 2. q: what makes modern linguistics different from traditional grammar?modern linguistics differs from traditional grammar in several ba

4、sic ways: firstly, modern linguistics is descriptive, it describes the language as it is; while traditional grammar is prescriptive, it prescribes the way language should be used. secondly, modern linguistics regards the spoken language as primary, not the written. then, modern linguistics differs f

5、rom traditional grammar also in that it does not force languages into a latin-based framework.3. q: what is a phone? how is it different from a phoneme? how are allophones related to a phoneme?a phone is a phonetic unit or segment. a phoneme is a phonological unit; it is a unit that is of distinctiv

6、e value. it is an abstract unit. it is not any particular sound.the different phones which can represent a phoneme in different phonetic environments are called the allophones of that phoneme.4. q: explain with examples the sequential rule, the assimilation rule and the deletion rule?1) sequential r

7、ules form the letters as “k, h ,l ,j” into all possible words in english. we might order them as: blik, klib, bilk, kilb. without other orders. so it indicates that there are rules that govern the combination of sounds in a particular language. one special sequential rule that2) assimilation rule: i

8、t assimilates one sound to another by copying a feather of a sequential phoneme, thus making the two phones similar. for example: “illegal”, inlegal3) deletion rule: it can be stated as: delete a g when it occurs before a final nasal consonant. for example: “designation”, the g represented by the le

9、tter “g” is pronounced, while in the word “sign”. /g/ sound is deleted, because it is followed by and ended with the nasal consonant /n/.5. q: what are the major types of synonyms in english?there are five types of synonyms in english. they are dialectal synonyms-synonyms used in different regional

10、dialects; stylistics synonyms synonyms differing in style; synonyms that differ in their emotive or evaluative meaning; collocational synonyms; semantically different synonyms.6. q: explain with examples “homonymy”, “polysemy”, and “hyponymy”?homonymy (定义) . it includes homophones(定义) (piecepeace) ,

11、 homographs (定义) (bow v. bow n.) and complete homonyms (定义) (scale n.scale v.) . polysemy means that the same one word may have more that one meaning. for example: “table”, has at least seven meanings.hyponymy means that the sense relation between a more general, more inclusive word and a more speci

12、fic word. for example: “furniture” is super-ordinate, its hyponyms are bed, table, desk, dresser, wardrobe, settee7. q: how can words opposite in meaning be classified? to which category does each of the following pairs of antonyms belong? there are three types oppositions in meaning. they are grada

13、ble antonyms, complementary antonyms and relational opposites. “northsouth”, “widenarrow” and “poorrich” belong to gradable antonyms; “vacantoccupied” and “literateilliterate” belong to complementary antonyms; “abovebelow”, “doctorpatient” and “fatherdaughter” belong to relational opposites.8. q: ho

14、w are sentence meaning and utterance meaning related, and how do they differ?the meaning of a sentence is abstract, and de-contextualized, that of an utterance is concrete, and context-dependent. the meaning of an utterance is based on sentence meaning; it is the realization of the abstract meaning

15、of a sentence in a real situation of communication, or simply in a context.difference: sentence meaning includes locutionary act, but it doesnt include illocutionary act and perlocutionary act.9. q: according to austin, what are the three acts a person is possibly performing while making an utteranc

16、e. give an example?they are locutionary act, illocutionary act and perlocutionary act. for example: someone utters “you” “have” “door” “open”! the locutionary act expresses what the words literally mean. the illocutionary act expresses the speakers intention: asking someone to close the door. the he

17、arer gets the speakers message and sees that the speaker means to tell him to close the door, and then the hearer closes the door. therefore, the utterance gets the effect of losing the door. and this is the perlocutionary act.10. q: what are the four maxims of the cp? try to give your own examples

18、to show how flouting these maxims gives rise to conversational implicature?they are the maxim of quantity(具体说明其内容)the maxim of qualitythe maxim of relationand the maxim of manner. for example: a: when is jerrys birthday party?b: sometime next month.so, b doesnt wish to tell you when jerrys birthday

19、party is going to be held.a: would you like to attend our traveling at weekend?b: im afraid i have got an invitation at weekend.so, b doesnt want to attend your traveling.a: shall we get something for our brother?b: yes. but i veto g-u-n.so, b doesnt want their brother to know they are talking about

20、 getting them a gun.11. q: cite with examples the changes in english language?1) sound change: “mouse”mu:smaus;2) morphological change: greenengreen;3) syntactic change: you can speak, cant you? you speak, speak not you ?4) lexical change: wotto know, aspca, mathmathematics;5) semantic change: “sill

21、y” means happy in old english, but today it means foolish; “aunt” means fathers sister before, but today it also means mothers sister.12. q: what are the main social dialects? how do they jointly determine idiolect?they are gender variation, age variation, ethnic dialect, stylistic variation, regist

22、er.idiolectal variation is determined by many factors. the different backgrounds of different people influence their choice of linguistic forms, and the linguistic features of the language they use reveal their indentities.13. q: what peticuliar features does a pidgin have?any dialects have native s

23、peakers, except pidgin.two parties didnt know each other, so in order to do trade, they have to use pidgin. with more understandings of each others cultures, less people would use pidgin.14. q: among the language acquisition theories, which one do you think is more reasonable and convincing? explain

24、 why?there are three language acquisition theories, they are the behaviorist view, the innatist view and the interactionist view.i tend to the behaviorist much more, in my opinion, to do is better than doing nothing, practice and intimation are the best way to learn a language. for the innatist, sed

25、ulity can make up every natural facultiy, and for the interactionist, not everyone can go aboard to have a language environment, at home, there are still many scholarships study different languages well.15. q: what is language acquisition?it refers to the childs acquisition of his mother tongue, it

26、means how the child comes to understand and speak the language of his community.16. q: what is language acquisition devices?it also known as lad, it claims that human beings are biologically programmed for language and that the language develops in the child just as other biological functions such a

27、s walking . it was described as an imaginary “black box” existing somewhere in the human brain, the “black box” is said to contain principles that are universal to all human languages.17. q: what is the critical period hypothesis?the critical period hypothesis refers to a period in ones life extendi

28、ng 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.18. q: what is register?language varies as its function varies, it differs in different situations, it is

29、selected as appropriate to the type of situation.19. q: what is idiolect?idiolect is a personal dialect of an individual speaker that combines elements regarding regional, social, gender, and age variations.20. q: what is pidgin?pidgin is a special language variety that mixes or blends languages and

30、 it is used by people who speak different languages for restricted purposes such as trading.21. q: what is creole?it is originally a pidgin that has become established as a native language in some speech community. that is, when a pidgin come to be adopted by a population as its primary language, and children learn it as their first language, then the pidgin language is called a creole.22. q: what is cp?it is stand of the cooperative principle. .it requires that the speaker and the hearer should make conversational c