语言学课后习题答案

语言学概论作业

Chapter 1

1. How do you interpret the following definition of linguistics: linguistics is the

scientific study of language?

To understand this definition, we should focus on three words in this sentence: scientific, study and language. First of all, scientific here means a study which is based on the systematic investigation of linguistic data, conducted with reference to some general theory of language structure. The linguist studies it to discover the nature and rules of the underlying language system. Secondly, the word study here refers to investigation or examination. Thirdly, Language here is general term. It refers to any human language, Chinese spoken by the Chinese, English by the English people, German by the Germans, or even Esperanto, an artificial language. Language here also means the dialects or variants of a common language such as Cantonese, a variant of Mandarin. Therefore, this whole sentence can be interpreted that linguistics is a language study through the systematic investigation of linguistic data and some general theory of language structure.

2. What are the major branches of linguistics? What does each of them study?

Phonetics: the study of sounds used in linguistic communication.It describes

individual speech sounds and indicates their physical or phonetic properties.

Phonology: it studies the ways in which these sounds form patterns and

systems and how they work to convey meaning in the system of language.

Morphology: a field of linguistics focused on the study of the forms and

formation of words in a language

Syntax: A set of rules that govern how words are combined to form phrases and

sentences.

Pragmatics: the study of the use of language in a social context.

3. In what basic ways does modern linguistics differ from traditional grammar?

① Linguistics is descriptive while traditional grammar is prescriptive. ② Modern linguistics regards the spoken language as primary, not the written. ③ Modern linguistics differs from traditional grammar also in that it does not

force languages into a Latin-based framework.

4. Is modern linguistics mainly synchronic or diachronic? Why?

In modern linguistics, the linguists seem to give priority to synchronic studies other than diachronic ones. Because it is believed that unless the various states of

a language in different historical periods are successfully studied, it would be difficult to describe the changes that have taken place in its historical development. That is to say, the diachronic studies should be based on synchronic ones. Synchronic descriptions are often thought of as being description of a language in its current existence. And most linguistic studies are of this type.

5. For what reasons does modern linguistics give priority to speech rather than to

writing?

①The writing system is invented by its users when needed

②Today there are languages which can only be spoken but not written

③Speech plays a greater role than writing in terms of the amount of information conveyed in daily communication

④Each human being first acquires speech and then learns writing

⑤Modern linguistics tends to pay more attention to authentic speech as spoken language reveals more true features of human speech while written language is only the “revised” record of speech.

6. How is Saussure’s distinction between langue and parole similar to Chomsky’s

distinction between competence and performance?

They are similar in two aspects: the definition and the content of study.

On one hand, Saussure defines langue as the abstract linguistic system shared by all the members of a speech community, and parole as the realization of langue in actual use. Chomsky defines competence as the ideal user’s knowledge of the rules of his language, and performance the actual realization of this knowledge in linguistic communication. We can see that langue and competence both refer to the abstract issue, conventions and knowledge, and parole and performance both are their actual realization, the concrete use.

On the other hand, in Saussure’s opinion, what linguists should do is to abstract langue from parole as parole is too varied and confusing. And this is the same as Chomsky. He thinks linguists should study the ideal speaker’s competence, not his performance, which is too haphazard to be studied.

7. What characteristics of language do you think should be included in a good,

comprehensive definition of language?

The important characteristics which should be included in a good definition of language are separately: systematic, arbitrary and vocal. First of all, language is a system. It has its own set of rules for people to abide by, or people will use the language in a wrong way.

Second, language is arbitrary in the sense that there is no intrinsic connection between a linguistic symbol and what the symbol stands for. The fact that different languages have different words for the same object is a good illustration of the arbitrary nature of languge.

Third, language is vocal because the primary medium for all languages is sound.

8. What are the main features of human language that have been specified by

C.Hockett to show that it is essentially different from animal communication system?

1) Arbitrariness: no natural/motivated/logical relationship between the sign and

what the sign stands for.

2) Productivity: provides opportunities for sending messages that have never

been sent before and for understanding novel messages.

3) Duality: language is a system, which consists of two sets of stuctures, or two

levels.

4) Displacement: can be used to refer to things real or imagined, past, present or future

5) Cultural transmission

9. What are the major functions of language? 1)descriptive function

2)expressive function 3)social function

Chapter 3

1. Divide the following words into their separate morphemes by placing a “+”

between each morpheme and the next: a. microfilm: micro+film

b. bedraggled: be+draggle+ed c. announcement: announce+ment d. predigestion: pre+digest+ion

e. telecommunication: tele+communicate+ion f. forefather: fore+father g. psychophysic: psycho+physic h. mechanist: mechan+ist

2. Think of three morpheme suffixes, give their meaning and specify the types of

stem they may be suffixed to. Give at least two examples of each.

1) suffix: -ing meaning: denoting a verbal action, an instance of this, or its result stem type: added to verbs examples: fighting: denote the action of battle building: denote the action of consruction 2) suffix: -able meaning: able to be stem type: added to verbs examples: avoidable: able to be prevented from calculable: able to be measured or assessed 3) suffix: -ist meaning: denoting a member of a profession or business activity stem type: added to nouns examples: dramatist : a person who writes plays dentist: a person who treats the teeth disease

3. Think of three morpheme prefixes, give their meaning, and specify the types of

stem they may be prefixed to. Give at least two examples of each.

1) prefix: un- meaning: denoting the absence of a quality or state; not stem type: added to nouns examples: unacademic: not adopting or characteristic of a scholarly

approach or language

unhappy: not happy 2) prefix: anti- meaning: opposed to; against stem type: added to nouns examples: anti-abortion: opposing or legislating against medically

induced abortion

anti-art: against the traditional art 3) prefix: re- meaning: once more; afresh; anew stem type: added to verbs examples: restart: start once more reaccustom: accustom (someone) to something again

4. The italicized part in each of the following sentences is an inflectional morpheme.

Study each inflectional morpheme carefully and point out its grammatical meaning.

1)Sue moves in high-society circles in London. The third person singular

2)A traffic warden asked John to move his car. The past tense

3)The club has moved to Friday, February 22nd. The present perfect

4)The branches of the trees are moving back and forth. The present progressive

5. Detemine whether the words in each of the following groups are related to one

another by process of inflection or derivation.

a) go, goes, going, gone

process of inflection

b) discover, discovery, discoverer, discoverable, discoverability

process of derivation

c) inventor, inventor’s inventors, inventors’

process of inflection

d) democracy, democrat, democratic, democratize

process of derivation

6. The following sentences contain both derivational and inflectional affixes.

Underline all of the derivational affixes and circle the inflectional affixes.

a) The farmer’s cows escaped.

Derivational affixes: -er

Inflectional affixes: ?s, -s, -ed b) It was raining.

Derivational affixes:none Inflectional affixes: -ing c) Those socks are inexpensive.

Derivational affixes: in- Inflectional affixes: -s d) Jim needs the newer copy.

Derivational affixes: -er Inflectional affixes: -s

e) The strongest rower continued.

Derivational affixes: -est, -er Inflectional affixes: -ed f) She quickly closed the book.

Derivational affixes: -ly Inflectional affixes: -ed

g) The alphabetization went well.

Derivational affixes:-ion Inflectional affixes: went

Chapter 5

1. What are the major views concerning the study of meaning?

1) The naming theory was proposed by the ancient Greek scholar Plato. The

linguistic forms or symbols, in other words, the words used in a language are taken to be labels of the objects they stand for; words are just names or labels for things. The semantic relationship holding between words and things is the relationship of naming.

2) The conceptualist view: This view holds that there is no direct link between

a linguistic form and what it refers to; rather, in the interpretation of meaning they are linked through the mediation of concepts in the mind. This is best illustrated by the semantic triangle suggested by Ogden and Richards:

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