语言学习题

河南财经政法大学

2011

< br>—

2012

学年第二学期期末考查

《语言学》试题

供外国语言文学 系英语专业

09

级

1-5

班使用）

班级：

09

级商务英语一班

学号：

2

姓名：余文杰

题

号

得

分

一

二

（请根据实际情况增减列数）

总

分

得分

评卷人

Complete each of the following assignments according to its

requirement(s) concerned.(

（每 小题

5

分，共

100

< br>分）

1. Do you think what aspects of linguistic knowledge are helpful in your language

study? Illustrate them and your statement should involve at least 10 linguistic

terms.

Answer:

All aspects of linguistic knowledge are helpful in my language study. As for

language comprehension, cohort model, interactive model, race model, and

connectionist theories make the reading easier and easier. When it comes to the use

of language, the performatives and constatives, the illocutionary act and the theory

of conversational implicature, etc they help me put my linguistic knowledge into

practice.

2. Compare Chomsky

’

s competence with Hyme

’

s communicative competence.

Answer:

Chomsky brought up his competence and performance theory

in

knowledge of an ideal speaker-listener of the language in a

homogeneous speech community. Thus, linguistic knowledge is

separated from sociocultural features

Communicative competence is a term in linguistics which refers to a language user's

grammatical knowledge of syntax, morphology, phonology and the like, as well as

social knowledge about how and when to use utterances appropriately.

1) Whether (and to what degree) something is formally

possible

;

2) Whether (and to what degree) something is

feasible

in virtue of the

means of implementation available;

3) Whether (and to what degree) something is

appropriate

(adequate,

happy, successful) in relation to a context in which it is used and

evaluated;

4) Whether (and to what degree) something is in fact done, actually

performed

and what it is doing entails.

Hyme

points out that Chomsky's competence/performance model

does not provide an explicit place for sociocultural features.

And he

also points out that Chomsky's notion of performance seems confused

between actual performance and underlying rules of performance.

3.

Halliday

distinguishes

three

social

variables

that

determine

the

register,

w

hat

are

they?

Please

explain

each

of

them

in

some

details.

Answer

：

Halliday

distinguishes

three

social

variables

that

determine

the

register:

field

of

d

iscourse,

tenor

of

discourse,

mode

of

discourse.

Three

social

variables

Field

of

discourse:

what

is

going

on:

to

the

area

of

operation

of

the

language

a

ctivity.

It

is

concerned

with

the

purpose

(why)

and

subject

matter

(about

what)

of

communication.

It

can

be

either

technical

or

non- technical.)

Tenor

of

discourse:

the

role

of

relationship

in

the

situation

in

question:

who

are

the

participants

in

the

communication

and

in

what

relationship

they

stand

to

e

ach

other.(customer-shop-assistant,

teacher-student,

etc.)

Mode

of

discourse:

the

means

of

communication.

It

is

concerned

with

how

co

mmunication

is

carried

out.

(oral,

written,

on

the

line…)

4.

What

is

the

speech

act

theory

advanced

by

John

Austin?

Please

give

ex

amples

for

illustration.

Answer:

In

How to Do Things with Words

, Austin commences by enunciating a reasonably

clear-cut distinction between constative and performative utterances. According to

him, an utterance is constative if it describes or reports some state of affairs such that

one could say its correspondence with the facts is either true or false. For example,

the weather is fine.

Performatives, on the other hand,

constate anything at all, are not 'true' or 'false.' . . . The uttering of the sentence is, or is

part of the doing of an action, which again would not normally be described as saying

something.

Marrying, betting, bequeathing, umpiring, passing sentence,

christening, knighting, blessing, firing, baptizing, bidding, and so forth involve

performatives.

Austin divides the linguistic act into three components. First, there is the locutionary

act,

performance of an act in saying something as opposed to the performance of an act of

saying something.

often, or even normally, produce certain consequential effects upon the feelings,

thoughts, or actions of the audience, of the speaker, or of other persons.

words, a locutionary act has meaning; it produces an understandable utterance. An

illocutionary act has force; it is informed with a certain tone, attitude, feeling, motive,

or intention. A perlocutionary act has consequence; it has an effect upon the addressee.

By describing an imminently dangerous situation (locutionary component) in a tone

that is designed to have the force of a warning (illocutionary component), the

addresser may actually frighten the addressee into moving (perlocutionary

component).

5.

Briefly

discuss

the

individual

factors

which

affect

the

acquisition

of

a

se

cond

language.

Answer:

Different

factors

that

affect

individuals'

second

language

acquisition

are

person

ality,

motivation,

and

anxiety.

The

relationship

between

age

and

the

ability

to

learn

languages

has

also

been

a

subject

of

long- standing

debate.

The strict version of this hypothesis states that there is a cut-off age at about 12, after

which learners lose the ability to fully learn a language. This has led to speculation

that age is indirectly related to other, more central factors that affect individual?s

second language acquisition.

There has been considerable attention paid to the strategies which learners use when

learning a second language. Strategies have been found to be of critical importance.

The learner's attitude to the learning process has also been identified as being

critically important to second-language acquisition. Anxiety in language-learning

situations has been almost unanimously shown to be detrimental to successful

learning.

A related factor, personality, has also received attention. There has been discussion

about the effects of extrovert and introvert personalities. However, one study has

found that there were no significant differences between extroverts and introverts on

the way they achieve success in a second language. Social attitudes such as gender

roles and community views toward language learning have also proven critical.

Also, the motivation of the individual learner is of vital importance to the success of

language learning. Studies have consistently shown that intrinsic motivation, or a

genuine interest in the language itself, is more effective

over the long-term than

extrinsic motivation, as in learning a language for a reward such as high grades or

praise.

6. Describe the process of language perception, comprehension and production.

Answer:

The process of language perception and comprehension: Humans can understand

sentences that carry novel messages in a way that is exquisitely sensitive to the

structure of the language. The core processes of language perception and

comprehension will be realized in the word retrieval and recognition, sentence parsing

and textual interpretation.

(1)

Word recognition

Word relays in the central position in language comprehension because of its

extremely important role in transmitting the meaning. Word recognition can be

viewed in terms of recognition of spoken words and printed ones.

(2)

Comprehension of sentences

Understanding language requires far more than adding the meanings of the individual

together. We must combine the meanings in ways that the honor the grammar of the

language and that are sensitive to the possibility that language is being used in a

metaphoric or nonliteral manner.

(3)

Comprehension of the text

Sentences come in texts and discourses, and the entire text or discourse is relevant to

the messages conveyed. Text is the net propositions that make up the semantic

interpretations of individual sentences.

The process of Language production: Various aspects of processes of language

production, such as conceptualization and linearization, grammatical and

phonological encoding, self- monitoring, self-repair and gesturing during speech have

been topics of interest.

(1)

Access to words

First, it is conceptualization which decided what notion to express.

Second, it is morpho-phonological encoding which begins with the retrieval of the

morphemes corresponding to the selected word.

(2)

Generation of sentences

Sentences are generated in five levels, they are as follows

；

message level, function

level, positional level and phonetic level and articallitery level.

(3)

Written language production

The steps in the production of written language are similar to those in the production

of spoken language. A major difference is that, once a syntactic lexicon unit and its

morphological representation have been accesses, it is the orthographic rather than the

phonological form that must be retrieved and produced.

7. Explain sociological triggers for language change by giving a typical example

in the history of English.

Answer:

Sociological triggers for language change refer to such radical socio-political changes

such as wars, invasions, occupations, colonialization, and language planning and

standardization policies. A typical example is about Norman Conquest. For about a

century and a half after the Norman Conquest which happened in 1066, French

remained as the language of the ruling class. A passage from

Pub Talk and the King

’

s

English

will illustrate this clearly.

“

When we talk of meat on our tables we use

French words; when we speak of the animals from which the meat come from we use

Anglo-Saxon words. It is a pig in its sty; and it is pork (porc) on the table. They are

cattle in the fields, but we sit to beef (boeuf). Chickens become poultry (poulet), and a

calf

becomes veal (veau)

< br>·

·

·

”

8. Discuss the influence of language and culture on each other by comparing the

kinship vocabulary in Chinese and English.

Answer:

The same word may stir up different associations in people under different cultural

background, e.g. the word “dog”.

Language expresses cultural reality, reflects the people?s attitudes, beliefs, world

outlooks, etc.

The culture both emancipates and constrains people socially, historically and

metaphorically

Culture also affects its people?s imagination or common dreams which are mediated

through the language and reflected in their life.

On the one hand, language as an integral part of human beings, permeates in his

thinking and way of viewing the world, language both expresses and embodies

cultural reality; on the other, language, as a product of culture, helps perpetuate the

culture, and the changes in language uses reflect the cultural changes in return.

For example, in both Chinese and English, red is usually associated with happy

occasions. On calendar, we can find that holidays such as Spring Festival is printed

in red, which is called “red

-

letter days”, while

ordinary days are in black. Besides,

“to paint the town red” is to celebrate wildly, to enjoy oneself to one?s heart?s

content. Another example is to “roll out the red carpet for someone”, meaning to

give a hospitable and formal reception.

Similarly, Chinese people traditionally cut red couplets and applique to celebrate

occasions like wedding and New Year. Besides, in China there is a very famous

trademark “double red happiness” (

红双喜

) which is symbolic of good fortune.

9. According to the Sapir-Whorf hypothesis,

language determines speakers’

perceptions and patterns their way of life. How in your view does language

relate to thought and culture?

Answer: