语言学课后习题问题详解.docx

语言学课后习题问题详解.docx

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语言学课后习题问题详解

Chapter1

Introduction

1.Definethefollowingtermsbriefly.

（1）linguistics:

thescientificorsystematicstudyoflanguage.

（2）language:

asystemofarbitraryvocalsymbolsusedforhumancommunication.

（3）arbitrariness:

theabsenceofsimilaritybetweentheformofalinguisticsignandwhatitrelatestoinreality,e.g.theworddogdoesnotlooklikeadog.

（4）duality:

thewaymeaninglesselementsoflanguageatonelevel（soundsandletters）combinetoformmeaningfulunits（words）atanotherlevel.

（5）competence:

knowledgeofthegrammarofalanguageasaformalabstractionanddistinctfromthebehaviorofactuallanguageuse,i.e.performance.

（6）performance:

Chomsky’stermforactuallanguagebehaviorasdistinctfromtheknowledgethatunderliesit,orcompetence.

（7）stylistics:

thestudyofhowliteraryeffectscanberelatedtolinguisticfeatures.

（8）phaticcommunion:

Languageisusedtoestablishanatmosphereormaintainsocialcontactbetweenthespeakerandthehearer.

（9）functionalism:

thestudyoftheformsoflanguageinreferencetotheirsocialfunctionincommunication.

（10）formalism:

thestudyoftheabstractformsoflanguageandtheirinternalrelations.

（11）synchroniclinguistics:

thestudyoflanguageandspeechastheyareusedatagivenmomentandnotintermsofhowtheyhaveevolvedovertime.

（12）diachroniclinguistics:

thestudyoflinguisticchangeovertimeincontrasttolookingatlanguageasitisusedatagivenmoment.

2.No,languageishuman-specific.Humanlanguagehassevendesignfeatures,includingarbitrariness,duality,productivity,interchangeability,displacement,specializationandculturaltransmission.Thesefeaturesarefoundutterlylackingindogs’orpigs’noisesandthussethumanlanguageapartfromanimalcrysystems.

3.Arbitrarinessreferstothefactthatthereisnologicalorintrinsicconnectionbetweenaparticularsoundandthemeaningitisassociatedwith.Forexample,forthesameanimaldog,inEnglishwecallit/d0g/,inChineseas“gou”,but“yilu”inJapanese;itbarkswowwowinEnglishbutwangwanginChinese.Ofcourse,onomatopoeticwordssuchas“quack-quack”and“bang”areexceptions,butwordslikethesearerelativelyfewcomparedwiththetotalnumberofwordsinalanguage.

4.Ahumanbabydoesnotspeakanylanguageatbirth.Whatlanguagethebabyisgoingtospeakisdeterminedbythecultureheisborninto.AChinesebabybornandbroughtupinLondonbyanEnglishfamilywillspeakEnglish,whileanEnglishchildbroughtupinBeijingbyaChineseauntwillspeakChinese.Thatistosay,languagecannotbetransmittedthroughheredity.Itisculturallytransmitted.

5.Firstly,linguisticsdescribeslanguagesanddoesnotlaydownrulesofcorrectnesswhiletraditionalgrammaremphasizescorrectness.Secondly,linguisticsregardsthespokenlanguageasprimary,whiletraditionalgrammaremphasizesthepriorityofthewrittenlanguage.Thirdly,traditionalgrammarisbasedonLatinandittriestoimposetheLatincategoriesandstructuresonotherlanguages,whilelinguisticsdescribeseachlanguageonitsownmerits.

6.Adescriptiveapproachattemptstotellwhatisinthelanguagewhiletheprescriptiveapproachtellspeoplewhatshouldbeinthelanguage.Mostmodernlinguisticsisdescriptive,whereastraditionalgrammarsareprescriptive.

7.Synchroniclinguisticsstudieslanguageatoneparticulartimewhilediachroniclinguisticsstudieslanguagedevelopmentsthroughtime.Synchroniclinguisticsfocusesonthestateoflanguageatanypointinhistorywhilediachroniclinguisticsfocusesonthedifferencesintwoormorethantwostatesoflanguageoverdecadesorcenturies.

8.No,humanlanguagehasthedesignfeatureofspecialization.Itreferstothefactthatmandoesnothaveatotalphysicalinvolvementintheactofcommunication.Forexample,amothercantellastorytoherchildwhileslicingupacake.However,wolvescanonlyrespondtoastimulusandistotallyinvolvedphysicallyinthecommunicationprocess.Thus,awolfcannothavealanguagesimilartoman’s,eventhoughitcouldexpressathousanddifferentemotions.Besides,theaspectofproductivityalsodistinguisheshumanlanguagefromwolf’spostures.

Chapter2

TheSoundsofLanguage

1.Defineeachofthefollowingtermsbriefly.

（1）articulator:

thetongue,lips,andvelum,whichchangetheshapeofthevocaltracttoproducedifferentspeechsounds.

（2）assimilation:

aphonologicalprocesswherebyasoundbecomesphoneticallysimilar（oridentical）toaneighboringsound,e.g.avowelbecomes[+nasal]whenfollowedbya[+nasal]consonant.

（3）consonant:

aspeechsoundproducedbypartialorcompleteclosureofpartofthevocaltract,thusobstructingtheairflowandcreatingaudiblefriction.Consonantsaredescribedintermsofvoicing,placeofarticulation,andmannerofarticulation.

（4）elision:

theleavingoutofasoundorsoundsinspeech.

（5）intonation:

thevariationinpitchandstresswhichgivesbeatandrhythmtothetunethevoiceplaysinordinaryspeech.

（6）phoneme:

theabstractelementofasound,identifiedasbeingdistinctiveinaparticularlanguage.

（7）phonetics:

thestudyoflinguisticspeechsounds,howtheyareproduced,howtheyareperceived,andtheirphysicalproperties.

（8）phonology:

thestudyoftheabstractsystemsunderlyingthesoundsoflanguage.

（9）stress:

theprominencegiventocertainsoundsinspeech.

（10）voicing:

thevibrationinthelarynxcausedbyairfromthelungspassingthroughthevocalcordswhentheyarepartlyclosed;speechsoundsaresaidtobeeithervoicedorvoiceless.

（11）voiceless:

Whenthevocalcordsarespreadapart,theairstreamfromthelungsisnotobstructedatthespacebetweenvocalcordsandpassesfreely.Thesoundsproducedinthiswayaredescribedasvoicelesssounds.

（12）vowel:

aspeechsoundproducedwithoutsignificantconstrictionoftheairflowingthroughtheoralcavity.

2.Minimalpairtestorsubstitutiontest.

Minimalpairtestorsubstitutiontestistoseewhethersubstitutingonesoundfor4anotherresultsinadifferentword.Ifitdoes,thetwosoundsrepresentdifferentphonemes.Forexample,astotheEnglishwordbear,ifwesubstitutepforb,wegetthewordpear,thetwoaredifferentwords.Then/b/and/p/representdifferentphonemes.Otherexamplesarechunk/junk,ban/bin,bet/beat,fine/vine,side/site,etc.

3.Takethewordbigforexample,inthewordbig/big/,/b/istheonset,/i/isthenucleusand/g/isthecoda.Thedifferencebetweenopensyllablesandclosedsyllablesiswhetherthewordshavecodas.Iftherearecodas,theyareclosedsyllables,suchaspig,hatandat;ifnot,theyareopensyllables,suchasdo,I,teaandkey.

4.

（1）stop,consonant

（2）back,rounded,vowel

5.

（1）voiceless/voiced

（2）bilabial/labiodental

（3）close/semi-open

（4）stop/nasal

（5）alveolar/palatal

（6）alveolar/dental

（1）kit/git,bucker/bugger,bag/back

（2）mark/nark,smack/snack,sum/sun

（3）best/vest,ober/over,lib/live

（4）bore/more,abate/amate,mob/mom

（5）pat/fat,apt/aft（AmE）,harp（BrE）/half

7.

（1）Thestressesareplacedonthesecondsyllableexceptfor“promise”.Wemayeasilyconcludethattheverbsusuallyarestressedonthesecondsyllable.

（2）Syllablerepresentationsofthewords:

collide[k2#laid]elect[i#lekt]consider[k2n#sid2]

Chapter3

Morphology

1.Definethefollowingtermsbriefly.

（1）morphology:

thestudyofthestructureofwords.5

（2）morpheme:

thesmallestunitoflanguagethatcarriesmeaningorservesagrammaticalfunction.

（3）freemorpheme:

amorphemethatcanstandaloneasaword.

（4）boundmorpheme:

amorphemethatcannotstandaloneasaword,e.g.ment（asinestablishment）,and-er（asinpainter）.

（5）morph:

thesmallestmeaningfulphoneticsegmentsofanutteranceonthelevelofparole.

（6）allomorph:

aphoneticforminwhichamorphemeisrealized,e.g.-s,-es,andenareallallomorphs（inwriting）ofthepluralmorpheme.

（7）derivation:

theformationofnewwordsbyaddingaffixestootherwordsormorphemesinmorphologyandwordformation.

（8）clipping:

theprocessbywhichpartsofawordofmorethanonesyllablehavebeencutoff,andreducedtoashorterform.

（9）acronym:

wordswhicharecomposedofthefirstletterofaseriesofwordsandarepronouncedassinglewords.Examples:

NATO,radarandyuppy.

（10）initialism:

Somenewwordsarecomposedofthefirstlettersofaseriesofwordsandpronouncedbysayingeachletterinthem.Suchwordsarecalledinitialism.

（11）blending:

Asinglenewwordcanbeformedbycombiningtwoseparateforms.Typically,blendingisfinishedbytakingonlythebeginningofonewordandjoiningittotheendofanotherword.Forexample,brunchisformedbytheshortenedformsofbreakfastandlunch.

（12）root:

themorphemethatremainswhenallaffixesarestrippedfromacomplexword,e.g.systemfromun-+system+atic+ally.

（13）stem:

thebasetowhichoneormoreaffixesareattachedtocreateamorecomplexformthatmaybeanotherstemoraword.Forexample,bookisthestemofbookish.

（14）prefix:

Affixescanbejoinedtothebeginningoftherootorstem,inwhichcasetheyarecalledprefixes.

（15）suffix:

Affixescanbejoinedtotheendoftherootorstem,inwhichcasetheyarecalledsuffixes.

2.（3）,（5）,（7）

3.

（1）simple:

flytreesuite

（2）boundmorphemeroot

fly/fly

reusere-use

spiteful-fulspite

preplanpre-plan

desks-sdesk

triumphed-edtriumph

suite/suite

optionality-alityoption

untieun-tie

delightde-light

fastest-estfast

prettier-ierpretty

tree/tree