大学英语语言学练习题考试必考题.docx

1、大学英语语言学练习题考试必考题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 s

2、ound combinations, thus they are said to be in complementary distribution. (P24)2. Morphology is the smallest meaningful unit of language. (P32)3. Consonant sounds can be either?voiceless or voiced, while all vowel sounds are voiced. (P16)4. In making conversation, the general principle that all par

3、ticipants are expected to observe is called the Cooperative?principle 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 synchronic study of language. (P4)6.?An essential difference between consonants and

4、 vowels is whether the air coming up from the lungs meets with any obstruction 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 specifier, N the head and S the complement. (P46)9.?While

5、the meaning of a sentence is abstract and decontextualized, that of an utterance is concrete and context-dependent. (P70)11. Psycholinguistics 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 diachronic stu

6、dy 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 nu

7、mber of meaningful units at the higher level. This design feature is called duality. (P70)14. The articulatory apparatus of a human being is contained in three important areas: the pharyngeal cavity, the oral cavity and the nasal cavity. (P15)16. Suprasegmental features such as stress, tone and into

8、nation can influence the interpretation of meaning. (P70)18. Homonymy 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 articulatory phonetics, auditory phonetics and acoustic phonetic

9、s respectively. (P15)21.?Syntax_ studies the sentence structure of language. (P70)22.?The noun “tear” and the verb “tear” are homonymy. (P70)23. Speech act theory is an important theory in the pragmatic study of language. (P70)24. The modern linguistics is descriptive, not prescriptive, and its inve

10、stigations are based on authentic and mainly spoken language data. (P70)25. Langue refers to the language system shared by a community of speaker while parole contrasted with langue is the concrete act of speaking in actual situations by an individual speaker. (P70)26. In semantic triangle, the rela

11、tion between a word and a thing it refers to is not direct, and it is mediated by concept. (P70)27. H. Sweet made a distinction between narrow and broad transcription. (P70)28. In the cooperative principle, Grice introduced four categories of maxims. They are maxim of quality, maxim of quantity, max

12、im of relation and maxim of manner. (P70)29. Pragmatics is the study of language in use. (P70)30. Historical 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 fals

13、e 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 n

14、ative 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 g

15、iven 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 Princ

16、iple 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 trad

17、itional 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 triang

18、le, there is no direct link between a symbol and referent, i.e. 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 b

19、elieve 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 especi

20、ally 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 image of something in our minds eye every time we come across a linguistic symbol.( F ) 17. All utterances can be restored to complete sentences. For

21、 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. Chomsky,?”competence” is the actual realization

22、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 ac

23、t 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 still many languages in todays wor

24、ld 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

25、 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, i.e. between speakers of different cultural backgrounds, but not occur in intra-cultural c

26、ommunication i.e. 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

27、 studies language over a period of time, also known as historical linguistics, e.g. the study of the Chinese language since the end of the Qing dynasty up to the present.2. synchronic linguisticsLinguistics that studies language at one particular point of time, e.g. the study of the kind of English

28、used during Shakespeares time.3. LanguageLanguage is a system of arbitrary vocal symbols used for human communication.4. contextContext is generally considered as constituted by the knowledge shared by the speaker and the hearer.5. blendingA process of forming a new word by combining parts of other

29、words. E.g. smog- smoke + fog.6. referenceReference 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 u

30、sed in dictionaries and teaching textbooks.8. a minimal pairA pair of sound combinations which are identical in every way except one sound segment which occurs in the same position in the strings, e.g. /pit/ and /bit/. 9. homonymyHomonymy refers to the phenomenon that words having different meanings

31、 are identical in sound or spelling, or in both. eg. night / knight; lead v. / lead n.; fast adj. / fast v.10. hyponymyIt refers to meaning inclusiveness,?that is, the sense relation between a more general, more inclusive word and a more specific word. e.g. The relationship of “flower”, “violet”, “r

32、ose” and “tulip” is hyponymy.11. cultural transmission (as a defining feature of human language)One of the major defining features of human language. Humans are born with the ability to acquire a language, but different from animals, the actual use of human language is not genetically transmitted, rather it is culturally transmitted, i.e. it has to be taught and learnt.12. allophones Allophones are the different phones that represent a phoneme in different phonetic environments.13. morphology Morphology is a branch