大学英语语言学练习题

I.

Directions:

Fill

in

the

blank

in

each

of

the

following

statements

with

one

word,

the

first

letter of which is already given as a clue. Note that you are to fill in ONE word only.

1. Clear

［

1

］

and dark [

?

] are allophones of the same one phoneme /1/.They never take the same

position in sound combinations, thus they are said to be in

c

omplementary

distribution. (P24)

2.

M

orphology

is the smallest meaningful unit of language. (P32)

3. Consonant sounds can be either?voiceless or voiced, while all

v

owel

sounds are voiced. (P16)

4.

In

making

conversation,

the

general

principle

that

all

participants

are

expected

to

observe

is

called the

C

ooperative

?p rinciple proposed by J. Grice. (P86-87)

5.??Language exists in time and changes through time. The description of a language at some point

of time is called a

s

ynchronic

study of language. (P4)

6.?An essential difference between consonants and vowels is whether the air coming up from the

lungs meets with any

o

bstruction

when a sound is produced. (P18)

7.?XP may contain more than just X. For example, the NP

“

the boy who likes this puppy

”

consists

of Det, N and S, with Det being the

s

pecifier

, N the head and S the complement. (P46)

9.??While

the

meaning

of

a

sentence

is

abstract

and

decontextualized,

that

of

an

u

tterance

is

concrete and context- dependent. (P70)

11.

P

sycholinguistics

relates the study of language to psychology. It aims to answer such questions

as how the human mind works when people use language. (P70)

12.

A

d

iachronic

study

of

language

is

a

historical

study,

it

studies

the

historical

development

of

language over a period of time. (P70)

13. Language is a system, which consists of two sets of structures, or two levels. At the lower level,

there

is

a

structure

of

meaningless

sounds,

which

can

be

combined

into

a

large

number

of

meaningful units at the higher level. This design feature is called

d

uality

. (P70)

14.

The

articulatory

apparatus

of

a

human

being

is

contained

in

three

important

areas:

the

pharyngeal cavity, the

o

ral

cavity and the nasal cavity. (P15)

16.

S

uprasegmental

features such as stress, tone and intonation can influence the interpretation of

meaning. (P70)

18.

H

omonymy

refers

to

the

phenomenon

that

words

having

different

meanings

are

identical

in

sound or spelling, or in both. (P70)

19.

The

three

branches

of

phonetics

are

labeled

as

a

rticulatory

phonetics,

auditory

phonetics

and

acoustic phonetics respectively. (P15)

21.?

S

yntax

_ studies the sentence structure of language. (P70)

22.?The noun

“

tear

”

and the verb

“

tear

”

are

h

omonymy

. (P70)

23.

S

peech

act theory is an important theory in the pragmatic study of language. (P70)

24.

The

modern

linguistics

is

d

escriptive

,

not

prescriptive,

and

its

investigations

are

based

on

authentic and mainly spoken language data. (P70)

25. Langue refers to the language system shared by a community of speaker while

p

arole

contrasted

with langue is the concrete act of speaking in actual situations by an individual speaker. (P70)

26. In semantic triangle, the relation between a word and a thing it refers to is not direct, and it is

mediated by

c

oncept

. (P70)

27. H. Sweet made a distinction between narrow and

b

road

transcription. (P70)

28.

In the cooperative principle, Grice introduced four categories of maxims. They are maxim of

quality, maxim of quantity, maxim of

r

elation

and maxim of manner. (P70)

29.

P

ragmatics

is the study of language in use. (P70)

30.

H

istorical

linguistics studies language change or historical development of language. (P70)

II. Directions

：

Decide whether each of the following statements is true or false. Put a T for true

or F for false in the brackets in front of each statement.

( T )1. Language is arbitrary in the sense that there is no intrinsic connection between words and

what these words actually refer to.

( T ) 2. The syntactic rules of any language are finite in number, and

yet there is no limit to the

number of sentences native speakers of that language are able to produce and comprehend.

( T ) 3. Two people who are born and brought up in the same town and speak the same regional

dialect may speak differently because of a number of social factors.

( T ) 4. In modern linguistic studies, the spoken form of language is given more emphasis than the

written form for a number of reasons.

(

F

)

5.

The

compound

word

“

reading- room

”

is

the

place

where

a

person

can

read

books.

This

indicates that the meaning of a compound is the sum total of the meanings of its components.

( T ) 6. Only when a maxim under Cooperative Principle is blatantly violated and the hearer knows

that it is being violated do conversational implicatures arise.

( T ) 7. In English, long vowels are also tense vowels because when we pronounce a long vowel

such as /i:/,the larynx is in a state of tension.

( T ) 8. An important difference between traditional grammarians and modern linguists in their study

of language is that the former tended to over- emphasize the written form of language and encourage

people to imitate the

“

best authors

”

for language usage.

( T ) 9. The open-class words include prepositions.

( T ) 10. According to semantic triangle, there is no direct link between a symbol and referent, .

between a word and a thing it refers to.

( T ) 11.

The relationship of “flower”

,

“violet”

,

“rose” and “tulip” is hyponymy.

( F ) 12. Only words of the same parts of speech can be combined to form compounds. (sunrise)

( T ) 13. Linguists believe that whatever occurs in the language people use should be described and

analyzed in their investigation.

( F ) 14. The conclusions we reach about the phonology of one language can be generalized into the

study of another language.

( F )

15. The meaning-distinctive function of the tone is

especially important

in

English because

English, unlike Chinese, is a typical tone language.

( F ) 16. When we think of a concept, we actually try to see the imag

e of something in our mind’s

eye every time we come across a linguistic symbol.

( F ) 17. All utterances can be restored to complete sentences. For example,

“

Good morning

！

”

can

be restored to

“

I wish you a good morning.

”

(

T

)

18.

Any

child

who

is

capable

of

acquiring

some

particular

human

language

is

capable

of

acquiring any human language spontaneously and effortlessly.

(

F

)

19.

According

to

N. < /p>

Chomsky,?

”

competen ce

”

is

the

actual

realization

of

his

knowledge

in

utterance.

( F ) 20. The English spelling exactly represents its pronunciation.

( F ) 21. All the grammatically well-formed sentences are semantically well-formed.

( T ) 22. Pragmatics studies the aspect of meaning that is not accounted for by semantics.

( F )?23. An illocutionary act is the consequence of or the change brought about by the utterance.

( T ) 24. Language is a system of arbitrary vocal symbols used for human communication.

( T ) 25. The writing system of a language is always a later invention used to record speech; thus

there are sti

ll many languages in today’s world that can only be spoken

, but not written.

( F ) 26. In classifying the English consonants and vowels, the same criteria can be applied.

(

F

)

27.

Parole

refers

to

the

abstract

linguistic

system

shared

by

all

the

members

of

a

speech

community.

(

T

)

28.

Conversational

implicature

is

a

kind

of

implied

meaning,

deduced

on

the

basis

of

the

conventional

meaning

of

words

together

with

the

context,

under

the

guidance

of

the

CP

and

its

maxims.

(

F

)

29.

Pragmatic

failure

may

occur

in

cross-cultural

communication, .

between

speakers

of

different cultural backgrounds, but not occur in intra-cultural communication . between speakers of

the same cultural background.

( T ) 30. Sense and reference are two terms often encountered in the study of meaning.

III. Directions: Explain the following terms, using one or two examples for illustration when

necessary.

1. diachronic linguistics

Linguistics that studies language over a period of time, also known as historical linguistics, . the

study of the Chinese language since the end of the Qing dynasty up to the present.

2. synchronic linguistics

Linguistics that studies language at one particular point of time, . the study of the kind of English

used during Shakespeare

’

s time.

3. Language

Language is a system of arbitrary vocal symbols used for human communication.

4. context

Context

is

generally

considered

as

constituted

by

the

knowledge

shared

by

the

speaker

and

the

hearer.

5. blending

A process of forming a new word by combining parts of other words. . smog--- smoke + fog.

6. reference

Reference

is

what

a

linguistic

form

refers

to

in

the

real

world;

it

is

a

matter

of

the

relationship

between the form and the reality.

7. broad transcription

Broad transcription is the transcription with letter symbols only. It is the transcription normally used

in dictionaries and teaching textbooks.

8. a minimal pair