英语语言学练习题

英语语言学练习题

Supplementary exercises

Chapter 1 Introduction

Ⅰ. Decide whether each of the following statements is True or False:

1. Linguistics is generally defined as the scientific study of language.

2. Linguistics studies particular language, not languages in general.

3. A scientific study of language is based on what the linguist thinks.

4. In the study of linguistics, hypotheses formed should be based on language facts and checked against the observed facts.

5. General linguistics is generally the study of language as a whole.

6. General linguistics, which relates itself to the research of other areas, studies the basic concepts, theories, descriptions, models and methods applicable in any linguistic study.

7. Phonetics is different from phonology in that the latter studies the combinations of the sounds to convey meaning in communication.

8. Morphology studies how words can be formed to produce

meaningful sentences.

9. The study of the ways in which morphemes can be combined to form words is called morphology.

10. Syntax is different from morphology in that the former not only studies the morphemes, but also the combination of morphemes into words and words into sentences.

11. The study of meaning in language is known as semantics.

12. Both semantics and pragmatics study meanings.

13. Pragmatics is different from semantics in that pragmatics studies meaning not in isolation, but in context.

14. Social changes can often bring about language changes.

15. Sociolinguistics is the study of language in relation to society.

16. Modern linguistics is mostly prescriptive, but sometimes descriptive.

17. Modern linguistics is different from traditional grammar.

18. A diachronic study of language is the description of language at some point in time.

19. Modern linguistics regards the written language as primary, not the written language.

20. The distinction between competence and performance was proposed by F. de Saussure.

Ⅱ. Fill in each of the following blanks with one word which begins with the letter given:

21. Chomsky defines “competence” as the ideal user’s k__________ of the rules of his language.

22. Langue refers to the a__________ linguistic system shared by all the members of a speech community while the parole is the concrete use of the conventions and application of the rules.

23. D_________ is one of the design features of human language which refers to the phenomenon that language consists of two levels: a lower level of meaningless individual sounds and a higher level of meaningful units.

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

25. The discipline that studies the rules governing the formation of words into permissible sentences in languages is called s________.

26. Human capacity for language has a g_______ basis, but the details of language have to be taught and learned.

27. P _______ refers to the realization of langue in actual use.

28. Findings in linguistic studies can often be applied to the settlement of some practical problems. The study of such

applications is generally known as a________ linguistics.

29. Language is p___________ in that it makes possible the construction and interpretation of new signals by its users. In other words, they can produce and understand an infinitely large number of sentences which they have never heard before.

30. Linguistics is generally defined as the s _______ study of language.

Ⅲ. There are four choices following each statement. Mark the choice that can best complete the statement:

31. If a linguistic study describes and analyzes the language people actually use, it is said to be _______.

A. prescriptive B. analytic C. descriptive D. linguistic

32. Which of the following is not a design feature of human language?

A. Arbitrariness B. Displacement C. Duality D. Meaningfulness

33. Modern linguistics regards the written language as _______.

A. primary B. correct C. secondary D. stable

34. In modern linguistics, speech is regarded as more basic than writing, because _______.

A. in linguistic evolution, speech is prior to writing

B. speech plays a greater role than writing in terms of the amount of information conveyed

C. speech is always the way in which every native speaker acquires his mother tongue

D. All of the above

35. A historical study of language is a _______ study of language.

A. synchronic B. diachronic C. prescriptive D. comparative

36. Saussure took a(n) _______ view of language, while Chomsky looks at language from a ________ point of view.

A. sociological…psychological B. psychological…sociological

C. applied…pragmatic D.semantic…linguistic

37. According to F. de Saussure, _______ refers to the abstract linguistic

system shared by all the mem- bers of a speech community.

A. parole B. performance C. langue D. Language

38. Language is said to be arbitrary because there is no logical connection between _______ and meanings.

A. sense B. sounds C. objects D. ideas

39. Language can be used to refer to contexts removed from the immediate situations of the speaker. This feature is called _______,

A. displacement B. duality C. flexibility D. cultural transmission

40. The details of any language system is passed on from one generation to the next through _______, rather than by instinct.

A. learning B. teaching C. books D. both A and B

Ⅳ. Define the following terms:

41. Linguistics 42. Phonology 43. Syntax 44. Pragmatics 45. Psycholinguistics

46. Language 47. Phonetics 48. Morphology 49. Semantics 50. Sociolinguistics

51. Applied Linguistics 52. Arbitrariness 53. Productivity

54. Displacement

55. Duality 56. Design Features 57. Competence 58. Performance

59. Langue 60. Parole

Ⅴ. Answer the following questions as comprehensively as possible. Give examples for illustration if necessary:

61. Language is generally defined as a system of arbitrary vocal symbols used for human commu- nication. Explain it in detail.

62. What are the design features of human language? Illustrate them with examples.

63. How is modern linguistics different from traditional grammar?

64. How do you understand the distinction between a synchronic study and a diachronic study?

65. Why does modern linguistics regard the spoken form of language as primary, not the written?

66. What are the major distinctions between langue and parole?

67. How do you understand competence and performance?

68. Saussure’s distinction between langue and parole seems similar to Chomsky’s distinction between competence and performance. What do you think are their major differences?

69. Do you think human language is entirely arbitrary? Why?

Chapter 2 Phonology

Ⅰ. Decide whether each of the following statements is True or False:

1. Voicing is a phonological feature that distinguishes meaning in both Chinese and English.

2. If two phonetically similar sounds occur in the same environments and

they distinguish meaning, they are said to be in complementary distribution.

3. A phone is a phonetic unit that distinguishes meaning. 4. English is a tone language while Chinese is not.

1. 语言的普遍特征：

任意性arbitrariness 双层结构duality 既由声音和意义结构 多产性productivity

移位性displacement:我们能用语言可以表达许多不在场的东西 文化传播性cultural transmission

2。语言的功能：

传达信息功能informative 人济功能：interpersonal 行事功能：

Performative 表情功能：Emotive

寒暄功能：Phatic 娱乐功能recreatinal 元语言功能 metalingual

3. 语言学linguistics ：包括六个分支

语音学Phonetics 音位学 phonology 形态学 Morphology 句法学 syntax

语义学 semantics 语用学 pragmatics

4. 现代结构主义语言学创始人：Ferdinand de saussure

提出语言学中最重要的概念对之一：语言与言语language and parole ，语言之语言系统的整体，言语则只待某个个体在实际语言使用环境中说出的具体话语

5. 语法创始人：Noam Chomsky

提出概念语言能力与语言运用competence and performance

1. Which of the following statements can be used to describe

displacement. one of the unique properties of language:

a. we can easily teach our children to learn a certain language

b. we can use both 'shu' and 'tree' to describe the same thing.

c. we can u se language to refer to something not present

d. we can produce sentences that have never been heard before.

2.What is the most important function of language?

a. interpersonal b. phatic c. informative d.metallingual

3.The function of the sentence "A nice day, isn't it ?"is __

a informative b. phatic c. directive d. performative

4.The distinction between competence and performance is proposed by __

a saussure b. halliday c. Chomsky d. the prague school

5. Who put forward the distinction between language and parole? a. saussure b. chomsky c. halliday d anomymous

第二节 语音学

1. 发音器官由声带the vocal cords和三个回声腔组成

2. 辅音consonant ：there is an obstruction of the air stream at some point of the vocal tract.

3. 辅音的发音方式

爆破音 complete obstruction 鼻音 nasals 破裂音 plosives

部分阻塞辅音 partial obstruction 擦音 fricatives 破擦音 affricates 等

4. 辅音清浊特征voicing

辅音的送气特征 aspiration

5. 元音vowel

分类标准舌翘位置，舌高和嘴唇的形状

6双元音 diphthongs, 有元音过渡 vowel glides

1. Articulatory phonetics mainly studies __.

a. the physical properties of the sounds produced in speech

b. the perception of sounds c. the combination of sounds d. the production of sounds

2. The distinction between vowel s and consonants lies in __

a. the place of articulation b.the obstruction f airstream

c. the position of the tongue d. the shape of the lips

3. What is the common factor of the three sounds: p, k t

a. voiceless b. spread c.voiced d.nasal

4. What phonetic feature distinguish the p in please and the p in speak? a. voicing b. aspiration c.roundness d. nasality

5.Which of the following is not a distinctive feature in English?

a. voicing b.nasal c. approximation d. aspiration

6.The phonological features of the consonant k are __

a. voiced stop b. voiceless stop c. voiced fricative d. voiceless fricative

7.p is divverent from k in __

a. the manner of articulation b. the shape of the lips

c. the vibration of the vocal cords d.the palce of articualtion

8.Vibration of the vocal cords results in __

a. aspiration b.nasality c. obstruction d. voicing

第三节 音位学 phonology

1. 音位学与语音学的区别：语音学着重于语音的自然属性，主要关注所有语言中人可能发出的所有声音；音位学则强调语音的社会功能，其对象是某一种语言中可以用来组合成词句的那些语音。

2. 音位phoneme ：最小语音单位

3. 音位变体allophones:读音差别

4. 对比性分布：如果两个音段出现在同一个语音环境中，而且产生了两个不同的单词，

5. 互补性分布；如果两个基本相似的音段绝不会出现在相同的语音环境中，那么它们之间就是互补性分布的关系，如送气p 绝不会出现在s 之后，不送气的p 绝不会出现在词首

6. 音节syllable ，分为节首onset ，节峰peak ，节尾coda

7. 辅音群:一般作为音节节首的辅音群不能超过三个福音，节尾不能超过4个

8. 最小语音对minimal pairs

I. Introduction

1. What is Language

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

2. What is Linguistics(语言学)

Linguistics is the scientific study of language.

3.Some Basic Distinctions(区分) in Linguistics

3.1 Speech and Writing

One general principle(原则) of linguistic analysis is the primacy of

speech over writing. Writing gives language new scope(范畴) and uses that speech does not have.

3.2 Descriptive(描述性) or Prescriptive(说明性)

A linguistic study is descriptive if it describes and analyses facts observed; it is prescriptive if it tries to lay down rules for "correct" behavior.

3.3 Synchronic(共时) and Diachronic(历时) Studies

The description of a language at some point in time is a synchronic study and The description of a language as it changes through time is a diachronic study.

3.4 Langue(语言) and Parole(言语)

This is a distinction made by the Swiss linguist F.De Saussure (索绪尔）early last century. langue refers to the abstract linguistic system shared by all the members of a speech community and parole refers to the actualized(实际的) language, or realization of langue.

3.5 Competence(能力)and Performance(行为)

Competence is the ideal language user's knowledge of the rules of his language. Performance is the actual realization of this knowledge in utterances(发声).

4. The Scope of Linguistics

General linguistics is the study of language as a whole. Phonetics(语音学) is the branch of linguistics which studies the characteristics of speech sounds and provides methods for their description, classification and transcription.

Phonology(音韵学) is the branch of linguistics which studies the sound patterns of languages.

Morphology(词法) is the branch of linguistics which studies the form of words.

Syntax(句法) is the branch of linguistics which studies the rules governing the combination of words into sentences.

Semantics(语义学) is the branch of linguistics which studies the meaning of language.

Applied linguistics(应用语言学) is the study of the teaching of foreign and second languages.

Sociolinguistics is the study of the relationship between language and society.

Psycholinguistics is the study of the relationship between language and

the mind.

Historical Linguistics(历史语言学) is the study of language changes. Anthropological linguistics(人文语言学) uses the theories and methods of anthropology to study language variation and language use in relation to the cultural patterns and beliefs of man.

Neurolinguistics(神经语言学) studies the neurological basis of language development and use in human beings.

Mathematical linguistics(数学语言学) studies the mathematical features of language, often employing models and concepts of mathematics. Computational linguistics(计算语言学) is an approach to linguistics in which mathematical techniques and concepts are applied, often with the aid of a computer.

Wrong OR correct STATEMENTS

6. Linguistics studies particular language, not languages in general.

7. In the study of linguistics, hypotheses formed should be based on language facts and checked against the observed facts.

8. Applied linguistics is the study of language as a whole.

9. Phonetics is different from phonology in that the latter studies the combinations of the sounds to convey meaning in communication.

10. Modern linguistics is mostly prescriptive, but sometimes descriptive.

11. Modern linguistics regards the written language as primary, not the written language.

12. A phone is a phonetic unit that distinguishes meaning.

13. If two phonetically similar sounds occur in the same environments and they distinguish meaning, they are said to be in complementary distribution.

14. Vibration of the vocal cords results in a quality of speech sounds called voicing.

15. Vowel sounds can be differentiated by a number of factors: the position of tongue in the mouth, the openness of the mouth, the shape of the lips, and the length of the vowels.

II. Phonetics(语音学）

1. scope of phonetics

Speech sounds may be studied from different angles, thus we have at least three branches of phonetics:

Articulatory phonetics(发音语音学）we may examine the way in which a speech sound is produced to discover which vocal organs are involved and how they coordinate(协调） in the process.

Auditory phonetics （听觉语音学）we may look into the impression a speaker makes on the hearer as mediated(调节） by the ear, the auditory

nerve(神经） and the brain.

Acoustic phonetics (声学语音学） we study the physical properties of speech sounds, as transmitted（传送） between mouth and ear.

2. The vocal organs

The vocal organs may be viewed as consisting of three parts, the initiator of the air-stream,(气流发生器官） the producer of voice（声音发生器官） and the resonating cavities.（声音共振器官）

3. Consonants(辅音）

Places of articulation(发音部位）: bilabial,(双唇） Labiodentals, （唇齿） dental, （齿） alveolar, （齿龈） retroflex, （卷舌） palate-alveolar, （上齿龈）palatal, （上颚） velar, （软腭） uvular, （小舌） glottal(声门）

Manners of articulation: plosive,（暴破） nasal, （鼻音） trill, （颤音）lateral, （边音） fricative, （摩擦） approximant, （近似音） affricate （破擦）

4. Vowels (元音）

The classification of vowels: the height of tongue raising (high, mid, low), the position of the highest part of the tongue(front, central, back), and the degree of lip rounding(rounded, unrounded)

MULTIPLE CHOICES

16. A historical study of language is a ___________ study of language.

A. synchronic B. diachronic

C. prescriptive D. comparative

17. Saussure took a(n) __________ view of language, while Chomsky looks at language from a __________ point of view.

A. sociological…psychological B. psychological…sociological

C. applied…pragmatic D. semantic…linguistic

18. Of all the speech organs, the ____________ is/are the most flexible.

A. mouth B. lips

C. tongue D. vocal cords

19. The sound /f/ is ___________.

A. voiced palatal affricate. B. voiced alveolar stop.

C. voiceless velar fricative. D. voiceless labiodental fricative.

20. A __________ vowel is one that is produced with the front part of the tongue maintaining the highest position.

A. back B. central

C. front D. middle

21. A(n) ___________ is a unit that is of distinctive value. It is an abstract unit, a collection of distinctive phonetic features.

A. phone B. sound

C. allophone D. phoneme

22. Since /p/ and /b/ are phonetically similar, occur in the same environments and they can distinguish meaning, they are said to be ___________.

A. in phonemic contrast. B. in complementary

distribution.

C. the allophones. D. minimal pair.

23. Th e morpheme “vision” in the common word “television” is a(n) ___________.

A. bound morpheme. B. bound form.

C. inflectional morpheme. D. free morpheme.

24. The part of speech of the compounds is generally determined by the part of speech of __________.

A. the first element. B. the second element.

C. either the first or the second element. D. both the first and the second elements.

25. The meaning carried by the inflectional morpheme is ____________.

A. lexical. B. morphemic. C. grammatical. D. semantic.

III. Phonology（音韵学）

1. phonemes(音素）：a distinctive(有区别的） sound in a language.

2. Allophones(音位变体）：The nondistinctive sounds are members of the same phoneme.

3. Minimal pairs(最小对立体）： word forms which differ from each other only by one sound.

4. Free variation (自由变异）：If two sounds occurring in the same

environment(环境）, they does not produce a different word form, but merely a different pronunciation of the same word.

5. Complementary distribution(补充分类）：Not all the speech sounds occur in the same environment. When two sounds never occur in the same environment.

6.Suprasegmental phonology(超音段音位）：the study of phonological properties(

性质） of units lager than the segment-phoneme. They are syllable(音节），stress, （重音） word stress, sentence stress. pitch （音调）and intonation（语调）.

IV. Morphology（词法）

1. inflection(构形法）：the grammatical relationships through the addition of inflectional affixes.(屈折词缀）

2. Word-formation(构词）：the processes(过程） of word variations

signaling lexical relationships.（表明词法关系） They are compound(合成）and derivation (派生）.

3. Morpheme(词素）： the smallest unit in terms of relationship between expression and content.

4. Allomorph(同质异象变体）： some morphemes have considerable variation, for instance, alternate shapes or phonetic forms.

11

5. Types of morphemes: They are roots,(词根） affix （词缀） and stem（词干）.

6. Lexicon(语言词汇）：in its most general sense, is synonymous with vocabulary.

7. Closed-class words(封闭性） and open-class words(开放性）：the former whose membership is fixed or limited and the latter whose membership is in principle(实际上） indefinite or unlimited.

8. Word class(词性）：It displays a wider range of more precisely defined classes.

9. Lexeme(词位）：the smallest unit in the meaning system of a language that can be distinguished from other smaller units.

10. Idiom(习语，成语）：Most phrasal lexemes are idioms. It is especially true for a sequence of words(词序） which is semantically（语义上） and often syntactically(句法上） restricted. （限制）

11. Collocation(搭配）： the habitual(习惯的） co-occurrences （同时出现）of individual lexical items.

V. Syntax (句法）

1. Positional relation or word order（词序）：the sequential(顺序）arrangement of words in a language.

2. Construction or constituent (句子结构）： the overall process of internal (内部）organization of a grammatical unit .

3. Syntactic function(句法功能）： the relationship between a linguistic form and other parts of the linguistic pattern in which it is used. The names of functions are expressed in terms of subjects, objects, predicates, modifiers,(修饰语） complements （补语）, etc.

4. Category(范畴）：It refers to classes and functions in its narrow sense, e.g. noun, verb, subject, predicate, noun phrase, verb phrase, etc. The categories of the noun include number, gender, case and countability.

5. Phrase: a single element of structure containing more than one word, and lacking the subject-predicate structure typical of clause.

6. Clause: a group of words with its own subject and predicate, if it is included in a larger sentence.

7. Sentence: It is the minimum part of language that expresses a complete thought.

Linguistics:

Languag e :

Phonetics:

Semantics:

Pragmatics:

Transformation:

.Homonym ：

Vocabulary change：

Speech variety：

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Pidgin ：

VI. Semantics

1. Conceptualism or mentalism (概念主义）：Following F. De Saussure(索学尔）'s "sign" theory, the linguistic sign is said to consist of a signifier （所指）and signified（被指）, i.e., a sound image and a concept, liked by a psychological（心理的） "associative" bond.（相关联系）

2. Mechanism(机械主义）：Some linguists, Bloomfield,(布鲁费尔德） for example, turned to science to counter（反）-act the precious theories and this leads to what call the mechanistic approach（方法）. The nature of this theory has nothing to do with the scientific study of mental phenomena. （智力现象）

3. Contextualism （语境主义）：It is based on the presumption(假定）that one can derive meaning from or reduce it to observable context.

4. Behaviorism (行为主义）：Behaviorists attempt to define (定义）the meaning of a language form as "the situation(情景） in which the speaker utters （说话） it and the response（反应） it calls forth in the hearer."

5. functionalism (功能主义）：functionalists as represented (代表）by the Prague school（布拉格学派） linguists and neo-Firthian （新弗斯）linguists, approach the problem from an entirely new orientation（方法）. They argue（争辩） that meaning could only be interpreted（解释） from its use or function in social life.

6. Sense relationships: While reference deals with the relationship between the linguistic elements, words, sentences, etc., and the

non-linguistic world of experience, sense relates to the complex system of relationships that hold between the linguistic elements themselves. They include synonymy(同义词）, antonym(反义词）,hyponymy(下层次）Polysemy(一词多义）and Homonymy (同音异义词）

7. Semantic analysis: It includes 1) componential（成分） analysis which defines the meaning of a lexical element in terms of semantic

components.(意义成分）2) predication (表述）analysis in which the meaning of a sentence is not merely the sum of the meanings of the

words which compose it. 3) relational components in which the semantic analysis of some words presents a complicated picture, because they show relations between two and perhaps more terms.

Wrong OR correct STATEMENTS.

6. Morphology studies the internal structure of words and the rules by which words are formed.

7. Inflectional morphemes manifest various grammatical relations or grammatical categories such as number, tense, degree, and case.

8. Sentences are composed of sequence of words arranged in a simple linear 13

order, with one adding onto another following a simple arithmetic logic.

9. In a complex sentence, the two clauses hold unequal status, one subordinating the other.

10. It is believed that phrase structure rules, with the insertion of the lexicon,

generate sentences at the level of D-structure.

11. Sense is concerned with the relationship between the linguistic element and

the non-linguistic world of experience, while the reference deals with the inherent meaning of the linguistic form.

12. In grammatical analysis, the sentence is taken to be the basic unit, but in

semantic analysis of a sentence, the basic unit is predication, which is the abstraction of the meaning of a sentence.

13. What essentially distinguishes semantics and pragmatics is whether in the

study of meaning the context of use is considered.

14. The meaning of an utterance is decontexualized, therefore stable. 15. Perlocutionary act is the act of expressing the speaker’s intention.

VII. Language variation (语言变化）

1. Lexical change(词汇的变化）：changes in lexis.

2. Invention: (新造词）new entities.

3. Compounding（合成词）New words are sometimes constructed by combining two old words.

4. Blending: (混合词）：It is a relatively complex form of compounding, in which two roots are blended by joining the initial part of the first root and the final part of the second root, or by joining the initial parts of the two roots.

5. Abbreviation or clipping:(缩写）A new word is created by cutting the final part or cutting the initial part.

6. acronym:(取首字母的缩写词）It is made up from the first letters of the name of an organization, which has a heavily modified (修饰） headword.

7. metanalysis:(再分化）It refers to a process through which a division is made where there were note before.

8. Back-formation:(逆构词） It refers to an abnormal(非正常） type of word-formation where a shorter word is derived by deleting(去掉） an imagined affix from a longer form already present in the language.

9. Analogical creation:(类比造词）It can account for（说明） the

co-existence of two forms, regular and irregular, in the conjugation(结合） of some English verbs.

10. Borrowing（借用）：English in its development has managed to widen her vocabulary by borrowing words from other languages.

11. Phonological change(音变）：It is related to language variation in the phonological system of language. It includes loss,(省音） addition, （加音） assimilation, （ 同化）dissimilation. （异化）

12. Grammatical change: Changes in both morphology（词法） and syntax 14

（句法）are listed under this heading.

13. Semantic change:(语义变化）It includes broadening,（语义扩大） narrowing,

（语义缩小） meaning shift,（意义转化） class shift（词性转换） and folk etymology. （词源变化）

14. Orthographic change ：(正字法）Changes can also be found at the graphitic level.

MULTIPLE CHOICE

16.Bound morphemes are those that _______.

A. have to be used independently

B. can not be combined with other morphemes

C. can either be free or bound

D. have to be combined with other morphemes

17._______ modify the meaning of the original word, but usually do not change the part of speech of the original word.

A. Prefixes C. Roots

B. Suffixes D. Affixes

18. _________ are often thought to be the smallest meaningful units of language by the linguists.

A. Words C. Phonemes

B. Morphemes D. Sentences

19. A __________ in the embedded clause refers to the introductory word that introduces the embedded clause.

A. coordinator C. preposition

B. particle D. subordinator

20. Phrase structure rules have ____ properties.

A. recursive C. social

B. grammatical D. functional

21. Syntactic movement is dictated by rules traditionally called ________.

A. transformational rules B. generative rules

C. phrase structure rules D. x-bar theory

22. The sentence structure is ________.

A. only linear. B. Only hierarchical.

C. either linear or hierarchical. D. both linear and hierarchical.

23. “Can I borrow your bike?”_______ “You have a bike.”

A. is synonymous with B. is inconsistent with

C. entails D. presupposes

24. When any of the maxims under the cooperative principle is flouted, _______

might arise.

A. impoliteness B. contradictions

C. mutual understanding D.conversational implicatures

25. ______ was advanced by Paul Grice.

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A. Cooperative Principle B. Politeness Principle

C. Universal Grammar D. Speech Act Theory

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