-
I. Brief Introduction of Linguistics
1. Why is linguistics a vast field of
study?
Linguistics is a broad field of
study, because language is a complicated entity
with many layers and facets. It is
hardly possible for a linguist to deal
with all aspects of language at once. There are a
number of divisions of
linguistics,
which can be put into two categories.
1) Intra-disciplinary divisions: the
study of language in general is often termed
general linguistics. It is based
on the
view that language as a system is composed of
three aspects: sound, structure and meaning.
2) Inter-disciplinary
divisions:
a) Sociology
deals with language and culture.
b) Psycholinguistics deals with the
relation between language and mind
c) Applied linguistics is concerned
with the application of linguistic theories and
descriptions in other fields.
All above
three belong to sociolinguistics.
2.
How is linguistics different from traditional
grammar?
1) Traditional grammar is
prescriptive, while modern linguistics is
descriptive.
2)
Traditional
grammatical
categories
are
merely
based
on
European
language,
while
modern
linguistics
studies all languages.
3)
Traditional
grammar
lacks
a
theoretical
framework,
while
modern
linguistics
is
theoretically
rather
than
pedagogically oriented.
3.
What
are
the
two
main
schools
of
contemporary
western
linguistics?
What
are
the
fundamental
differences
between them?
TG grammar v.s
systematic-functional grammar
TG
based
on
UG
,
studies
the
general
principles
while
systematic-functional
grammar
studies
language
functions.
4. On what basis do linguists regard
human language as species-specific (unique to
humans)?
Language
is
a
system
of
arbitrary
vocal
symbols
used
for
human
communication.
Many
philosophers
and
linguists believe that
language is unique to man. Language is a human
trait that sets us apart from other living
creatures.
They
spell
out
a
number
of
features
of
language
which
are
not
found
in
animal
communication
systems.
These
features:
creativity,
duality,
arbitrariness,
displacement,
cultural
transmission,
interchangeability
and
reflexivity. These are universal
features
possessed
by
all human languages.
Although
some animal communication
systems possess, to a very limited degree, one or
another of these features except
creativity and duality, none is found
to have all the features. On this basis linguists
tend to conclude that human
languages
are qualitatively different form animal
communication systems.
5. What is the
difference between linguistic competence and
communicative competence?
The
term
linguistic
competence
is
applied
to
account
for
a
speaker’s
knowledge
of
his
language.
While
communicative
competence is proposed to account for both the
tacit knowledge of language and the ability to
use it. There are four parameters that
underlie a
speaker’s communicative
competence, namely the ability to
judge: Whether (and to what degree)
something is feasible/appropriate/formally
possible/in fact done.
II.
Phonetics
语音学
1.
How are speech sounds described?
The
study of speech sounds is phonetics which includes
3 parts: 1) articulatory phonetics 2) acoustic
phonetics
3) auditory phonetics.
Articulatory phonetics is
the primary concern in linguistics, in which
speech sound is described within 3 sides:
The description of
consonants: a) place of articulation b) manners of
articulation c) voicing d) aspiration
The description of vowels: a)
monophthongs b) diphthongs c) lip rounding d)
tensity
In more detailed transcription
(sometimes referred to as narrow transcription), a
sound may be transcribed with
a symbol
to which a smaller symbol is added in order to
mark the finer distinctions. The smaller one is
called
diacritic.
1
2. What are the two
classes of phonetic features? What is the
fundamental difference?
The
two
classes
of
phonetic
features
are
distinctive
features
and
non-
distinctive
features.
Features
that
distinguish
meaning
are
called
distinctive
features,
in
other
words,
those
distinguishing
phonemes.
Non-
distinctive features do not distinguish meanings,
i.e. the features belong to allophones. However,
whether
a phonetic feature is
distinctive or non-distinctive varies from one
language to another language.
III. Phonology
音位学
1.
Analyze the two English sound segments
[t] and [t
h
], [k] and
[k
h
], [p]
and[p
h
] in terms of
distribution
and the phonetic feature
that distinguishes them.
[t]
and
[t
h
],
[k]
and
[k
h
],
[p]
and
[p
h
]
are
the
allophones
of
the
same
phoneme
/t/,
/k/,
/p/.
They
are
in
complementary distribution and share
phonetic features.
[t] is an
unaspirated voiceless alveolar stop;
[t
h
] is an aspirated
voiceless alveolar stop
[k] is an
unaspirated voiceless velar stop;
[k
h
] is an aspirated
voiceless velar stop
[p] is an
unaspirated voiceless bilabial
stop;[p
h
] is an aspirated
voiceless bilabial stop
/t/
→
[t] / [voiceless, fricative,
alveolar]____
___
[t
h
]/ elsewhere
[k] and [k
h
], [p]
and [p
h
] is the same as
above.
2.
Analyze
the change of feature concerning the vowels in
bean, time, farm
This rule is called
nasalization, that is a vowel becomes nasalized
before a nasal segment, possible followed
by one or two consonants within a
syllable.
V →[+nasal] /
____ [+nasal]
3.
Analyze the relation of {im-}, {in-},
{ir-}, {il-} in English and generalize of their
distribution.
{im-},
{in-},
{ir-},
{il-}
are
the
allomorphs
of
the
same
morpheme
{in-},which
represents
the
negative
meaning as a prefix.
{in-
}→ {im
-} /
________ [m,p, b] [bilabial stop, or nasal]
{ir-} /
_________ [r] [retroflex, alveolar]
{il-} / _________ [l]
[lateral, alveolar]
{in-} / elsewhere
4. How do
you account for the relation between phonetics and
phonology?
1)
Phonology
and
phonetics
are
both
concerned
with
the
study
of
speech
sounds,
but
the
two
differ
in
perspectives.
2)
Phonetics, particularly articulatory phonetics,
focuses on how speech sounds are produced, what
phonetic
features they have, and how to
transcribe them. In phonetics, sound segments are
assumed to be invariable;
variations
are overlooked.
3)
Phonology
focuses
on
three
fundamental
questions.
What
sounds
make
up
the
list
of
sounds
that
can
distinguish meaning in a
particular language? What sounds vary in what ways
in what context? What sounds
can appear
together in a sequence in a particular language?
5. What are the functions of supra-
segmental features?
Supra-segmental
features
are distinctive
features that can be found in
units of syllables, words, phrases
and
sentences.
They
are
stress,
intonation
and
tone.
Intonation
and
stress
generally
occur
simultaneously
in
utterance.
The
simultaneous
functioning
of
the
features
serves
to
highlight
the
information
focus,
or
to
eliminate
ambiguity of the phrases and sentences.
the desk
typical tone
language in which each of the four tones means
four different words.
6.
Analyze
the
change
of
feature
concerning
the
liquids
and
nasals
in
flight,
snow,
smart,
pray
and
generalize the rule.
Liquids
/l/ /r/ appear after a voiceless consonant /f/ and
/p/ respectively, they are devoiced.
Nasals /n//m/ appear after a voiceless
consonant /s/, they are devoiced.
2
Rule: Devoice a voiced
consonant after a voiceless consonant.
Or:
When
the
English
liquids,
glides
and
the
two
anterior
nasals
appear
after
a
voiceless
consonant,
it
is
devoiced.
This rule can be expressed as follows: devoice a
voiced consonant after a voiceless
consonant
，
that is,
[+voiced+consonantal]
[-voiced] / [-voiced+consonantal]-. The
phonology /l/ /r/ belongs to liquids, and /m/
/n/
belong
to
anterior
nasals.
All
these
four
are
voiced
consonant,
but
in
these
words,
they
change
to
the
voiceless, for they appear after
voiceless consonants.
7. What is
distinctive feature?
Features
that
distinguish
meaning
are
called
distinctive
features,
in
other
words,
just
those
distinguishing
phonemes,
such as [b] and [p] in the words between
8. Analyze the relation of
-er, -est
and
more, most
in Englsih and
generalize their distribution.
They are in
complementary distribution. -er and more, -est and
most are allomorphs. More and most are put
before adjectives and adverbs composed
of two or more syllables.
IV
. Morphology
形态学
1. What are
the categories of lexical meaning?
Lexical meaning includes:
a) Referential meaning (also denotative
meaning) is the central meaning and it is more
stable and universal.
b) Associative
meanings. Associative meanings are meanings are
meanings that hinge on referential meaning,
which are less stable and more culture-
specific.
Types of
associative meanings:
connotative
meaning, social meaning, affective meaning,
reflected meaning,
collective
meaning
2. How are words
decomposed into their constituents?
1) Words are composed of one or more
than one morphemes.
2) Morphemes are
the smallest meaningful unit of language.
3) A morpheme may be represented by
different forms, called allomorphs.
4)
Morphemes can be categorized into 2 kinds. a) Free
morphemes (they constitute words by themselves)
b) bound morphemes (they
are never used independently)
5) Bound
morphemes include inflectional morphemes and
derivational morphemes.
6) The
distinction between a free morpheme and a bound
morpheme is whether it can be used independently
in
speech or writing.
V
. Syntax
句法
1.
What are the aspects of syntactic
knowledge?
Knowing which strings of
words are grammatical and which are not is part of
syntactic knowledge. In addition,
native speakers know at least the
following:
1) structural ambiguity---
which strings of words have more than one meaning.
2) word order---different
arrangements of the same words have different
meanings.
3) grammatical
relations---what element relates to what other
element directly or indirectly
4) recursion---the repeated use of the
same rules to create infinite sentences
5) sentence relatedness---
sentences may be structurally variant but
semantically related
6)
syntactic
categories---a
class
of
words
or
phrases
that
can
substitute
for
one
another
without
loss
of
grammaticality.
2. How does
transformational grammar
(
转换生成语法
)account for
sentence- relatedness?
1) Sentence-
relatedness: sentences may be structurally variant
but semantically related.
2) According
to Chomsky, a grammar as the tacit shared
knowledge of all speakers is a system of finite
rules
by which an infinite number of
sentences can be generated. He attempts to account
for this aspect of syntax by
postulating that deep structures and
surface structures.
3) Deep structures
are the basic structures generated by phrase
structure rules.
3
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
上一篇：玛氏
下一篇：外贸业务员面试的自我介绍范文