语言学大题及名词解释整理

Chapter 1

1.

How

do

you

interpret

the

following

definition

of

linguistics:

linguistics

is

the

scientific study of language?

Linguistics

studies

not

any

particular

language,but

it

studies

languages

in

is a scientific study because it is based on the systematic investigation

of linguistic data,conducted with

reference to

some general

theory of language

order

to

discover

the

nature

and

rules

of

the

underlying

language

system,

what

the

linguist

has

to

do

first

is

to

collect

and

observe

language

facts,which are found to display some similarities ,and generalizations are made

about

them,then

he

formulates

some

hypotheses

about

the

language

structure .But the hypotheses thus formed have to be checked repeatedly against

the observed facts to fully prove their validity.

6. How is Saussure

’

s distinction between langue and parole similar to Chomsky

’

s

distinction between competence and performance?

Both

Saussure

and Chomsky

make

the

distinction

between

the

abstract

language

system

and the actual use of language. their purpose is to single out the language system for serious

study

They are similar in two aspects: the definition and the content of study.

On one hand, Saussure defines langue as the abstract linguistic system shared by

all the members of a speech community, and parole as the realization of langue

in actual use. Chomsky defines competence as the ideal user’s knowledge of the

rules of his language, and performance the actual realization of this knowledge in

linguistic communication. We can see that langue and competence both refer to

the abstract issue, conventions and knowledge, and parole and performance both

are their actual realization, the concrete use.

On the other hand, in Saussure’s opinion, what linguists should do is to abstract

langue from parole as parole is too varied and confusing. And this is the same as

Chomsky. He thinks linguists should study the ideal speaker’s competence, not

his performance, which is too haphazard to be studied.

Two linguists idea differ in that Saussure took a sociological view of language, Chomsky

looks at language from a psychological point of view, competence is a property of the mind

of each individual.

8.

What

are

the

main

features

of

human

language

that

have

been

specified

by

t

to

show

that

it

is

essentially

different

from

animal

communication

system?

1)

Arbitrariness:

this

means

that

there

is

no

logical

connection

between

meanings

and

sounds.

A

good

example

is

the

fact

that

different

sounds

are

used to refer to the same object in different language.

2)

Productivity:

Language

is

productive

in

that

it

makes

possible

the

construction and interpretation of new signals of its users.

3)

Duality:

language

is

a

system,

which

consists

of

two

sets

of

structures,

or

two levels. At the lower or the basic level there is a structure of sounds, which

are

meaningless.

But

the

sounds

of

language

can

be

grouped

and

regrouped

into a large number of units of meaning, which are found at the higher level of

the system.

4)

Displacement:

Language can be use to refer to things which are present or not

present, real or imagined matters in the past ,present or future, or in far-away

places. In other words, language can be used to refer to contexts removed from

the immediate situations of the speaker.

5)

Cultural

transmission

：

Language

is

passed

on

from

one

generation

to

next

through teaching and learning rather than by instinct.

Chapter 5

1.

What are the major views concerning the study of meaning?

1)

The

naming

theory

命名论

was

proposed

by

the

ancient

Greek

scholar

Plato. The linguistic forms or symbols, in other words, the words used in a

language are taken to be labels of the objects they stand for; words are just

names or labels for things. The semantic relationship holding between words

and things is the relationship of naming.

2)

The conceptualist view

概念论

: This view holds that there is no direct link

between a linguistic form and what it refers to; rather, in the interpretation of

meaning they are linked through the mediation of concepts in the mind. This

is best illustrated by the semantic triangle suggested by Ogden and Richards:

3)

Contextualism

语境论

: Representatively proposed by the British linguist J.

R. Firth who had been influenced by the Polish anthropologist Malinowski

and

the

German

philosopher

holds

that

meaning

should

be

studied in terms of situation, use, context

–

elements closely linked with

language behavior.

?

the meaning of a word is its use in the language.

4)

Behaviourism

行为主义论

:

Based

on

contextualist

view

by

Bloomfield

who

drew

on

behaviorist

psychology

in

defining

“meaning”.

Behaviorists

attempted

to

define

the

meaning

of

a

language

from

as

the

“

situation

in

which the speaker utters it and the response it calls forth in the hearer.

”

This

theory,

somewhat

close

to

contextualism,

is

linked

with

psychological

interest.

6.

In

what

way

is

componential

analysis

similar

to

the

analysis

of

phonemes

into

distinctive features?

成分分析和把音 位分析区别性特征有何相似之处？

Componential

analysis

is

a

way

proposed

by

the

structural

semanticists

to

analyze word meaning. The approach is based on the belief that the meaning of a

word can be dissected into meaning components, called semantic features. And

that is similar to the analysis of phonemes into distinctive features.

Chapter 6

5.

According

to

Austin,

what

are

the

three

acts

a

person

is

possibly

performing while making an utterance. Give an example.

答：

According

to

Austin's

new

model,

a

speaker

might

be

performing

three acts simultaneously when speaking: locutionary act, illocutionary act,

and perlocutionary act.