Chapter 4：Syntax
I. Decide whether each of the following statements is True or False:
1. Syntax is a subfied of linguistics that studies the sentence structure
of language, including the combination of morphemes into words.
2.Grammatical sentences are formed following a set of syntactic rules.
3. Sentences are composed of sequence of words arranged in a simple linear
order, with one adding onto another following a simple arithmetic logic.
4.Universally found in the grammars of all human languages, syntactic
rules that comprise the system of internalized linguistic knowledge of
a language speaker are known as linguistic competence.
5. The syntactic rules of any language are finite in number, but there
is no limit to the number of sentences native speakers of that language
are able to produce and comprehend.
6. In a complex sentence, the two clauses hold unequal status, one
subordinating the other.
7. Constituents that can be substituted for one another without loss of
grammaticality belong to the same syntactic category.
8. Minor lexical categories are open because these categories are not
fixed and new members are allowed for.
9. In English syntactic analysis, four phrasal categories are commonly
recognized and discussed, namely, noun phrase, verb phrase, infinitive
phrase, and auxiliary phrase.
10. In English the subject usually precedes the verb and the direct object
usually follows the verb.
11.What is actually internalized in the mind of a native speaker is a complete
list of words and phrases rather than grammatical knowledge.
12. A noun phrase must contain a noun, but other elements are optional.
13. It is believed that phrase structure rules, with the insertion of the
lexicon, generate sentences at the level of D-structure.
14. WH-movement is obligatory in English which changes a sentence from
affirmative to interrogative.
II. Fill in each of the following blanks with one word which begins with the letter given:
15. A s________ sentence consists of a single clause which contains a
subject and a predicate and stands alone as its own sentence.
16. A s______ is a structurally independent unit that usually comprises
a number of words to form a complete statement, question or command.
17. A s______ may be a noun or a noun phrase in a sentence that usually
precedes the predicate.
18. The part of a sentence which comprises a finite verb or a verb phrase
and which says something about the subject is grammatically called
p_________.
19. A c_________ sentence contains two, or more, clauses, one of which
is incorporated into the other.
20. In the complex sentence, the incorporated or subordinate clause is
normally called an e_______ clause.
21. Major lexical categories are o___ categories in the sense that new
words are constantly added.
22. A _____ Condition on case assignment states that a case assignor and
a case recipient should stay adjacent to each other.
23. P_______ are syntactic options of UG that allow general principles to operate in one way or another and contribute to significant linguistic variations between and among natural languages.
24. The theory of C_____condition explains the fact that noun phrases
appear only in subject and object positions.
III. There are four given choices for each statement below. Mark the choice that can best complete the statement:
25. A sentence is considered ____ when it does not conform to the
grammatical knowledge in the mind of native speakers.
A. right
B. wrong
C. grammatical
D. ungrammatical
26. A __________ in the embedded clause refers to the introductory word
that introduces the embedded clause.
A. coordinator
B. particle
C. preposition
D.
subordinator
27. Phrase structure rules have ____ properties.
27. A. recursive B. grammatical
C. social
D. functional
28. Phrase structure rules allow us to better understand _____________.
A. how words and phrases form sentences.
B. what constitutes the grammaticality of strings of words
C. how people produce and recognize possible sentences
D. All of the above.
29. Syntactic movement is dictated by rules traditionally called ________.
A. transformational rules
B. generative rules
C. phrase structure rules
D. x-bar theory
30. The theory of case condition accounts for the fact that __________.
A. noun phrases appear only in subject and object positions.
B. noun phrases can be used to modify another noun phrase
C. noun phrase can be used in adverbial positions
D. noun phrase can be moved to any place if necessary.
31. The sentence structure is ________.
A. only linear
B. Only hierarchical
C. complex
D. both linear and hierarchical
32. The syntactic rules of any language are ____ in number.
A. large
B. small
C. finite
D. infinite
33. The ________ rules are the rules that group words and phrases to
form grammatical sentences.
A. lexical
B. morphological
C. linguistic
D. combinational
34._______ rules may change the syntactic representation of a sentence.
A. Generative
B. Transformational
C. X-bar
D. Phrase structure
IV. Define the following terms:
35. syntax 36. Sentence 37. coordinate sentence 38. syntactic categories
39. grammatical relations 40. linguistic competence 41. transformational rules
42. D-structure
V. Answer the following questions:
43. What are the basic components of a sentence?
44. What are the major types of sentences? Illustrate them with
examples.
45. Are the elements in a sentence linearly structured? Why?
46. What are the advantages of using tree diagrams in the analysis of
sentence structures?
47. What is NP movement. Illustrate it with examples.
I. Decide whether each of the following statements is True or False:
l.F 2.T 3.F 4.T 5.T 6.T 7.T 8.F 9.F 10.T 11.F 12.T 13.T 14.T
II. Fill in each of the following blanks with one word which begins with the letter given:
15. simple, 16. sentence 17. subject 18. predicate 19. complex
20.embedded 21. open 22.adjacency 23.Parameters 24.Case
III. There are four given choices for each statement below. Mark the choice that can best complete the statement:
25. D 26. D 27. A 28. D 29. A 30. A
31. D 32. C 33. D 34. B
IV. Define the following terms:
35. syntax: Syntax is a subfield of linguistics. It studies the
sentence structure of language. It consists of a set of abstract
rules that allow words to be combined with other words to form
grammatical sentences.
36. Sentence: A sentence is a structurally independent unit that
usually comprises a number of words to form a complete statement,
question or command. Normally, a sentence consists of at least a
subject and a predicate which contains a finite verb or a verb
phrase.
37. coordinate sentence: A coordinate sentence contains two clauses
joined by a linking word called coordinating conjunction, such as
"and", "but", "or".
38. syntactic categories: Apart from sentences and clauses, a
syntactic category usually refers to a word (called a lexical
category) or a phrase ( called a phrasal category) that performs
a particular grammatical function.
39. grammatical relations: The structural and logical functional
relations of constituents are called grammatical relations. The
grammatical relations of a sentence concern the way each noun phrase
in the sentence relates to the verb. In many cases, grammatical
relations in fact refer to who does what to whom .
40. linguistic competence: Universally found in the grammars of all
human languages, syntactic rules comprise the system of
internalized linguistic knowledge of a language speaker known as linguistic competence.
41. Transformational rules: Transformational rules are the rules that
transform one sentence type into another type.
42. D-structure: D- structure is the level of syntactic representation
that exists before movement takes place. Phrase structure rules, with the insertion of the lexicon, generate sentences at the level of D-structure.
V. Answer the following questions:
43. What are the basic components of a sentence?
Normally, a sentence consists of at least a subject and its predicate which contains a finite verb or a verb phrase.
44. What are the major types of sentences? Illustrate them with
examples.
Traditionally, there are three major types of sentences. They are simple sentence, coordinate( compound) sentence, and complex sentence.
A simple sentence consists of a single clause which contains a subject and a predicate and stands alone as its own sentence, for example: John reads extensively.
A coordinate sentence contains two clauses joined by a linking word that is called coordinating conjunction, such as "and", "but", "or". For example:
John is reading a linguistic book, and Mary is preparing
for her history exam.
A complex sentence contains two, or more, clauses, one of which is incorporated into the other. The two clauses in a complex sentence do not have equal status, one is subordinate to the other. For example: Before John gave her a lecture, Mary showed no interest in lin-guistics.
45. Are the elements in a sentence linearly structured? Why?
No. Language is both linearly and hierarchically structured. When a sentence is uttered or written down, the words of the sentence are produced one after another in a sequence. A closer examination of a sentence shows that a sentence is not composed of sequence of words arranged in a simple linear order with one adding onto another following a simple arithmetic logic. In fact, sentences are also hierarchically structured. They are organized by grouping together words of the same syntactic category, such as noun phrase (NP) or verb phrase (VP), as can be seen from the following tree diagram:
S
NP VP
Det N Vt NP
Det N
The boy likes the music.
46. What are the advantages of using tree diagrams in the analysis of sentence structures?
The tree diagram can not only reveal a linear order, but also a hierarchical structure that groups words into structural constituents.
It can, in addition, show the syntactic category of each structural constituent, thus it is believed to most truthfully illustrate the constituent relationship among linguistic elements.
47. What is NP movement. Illustrate it with examples.
NP movement involves the movement of a noun phrase. NP-movement occurs when, for example, a sentence changes from the active voice to the passive voice:
(A) The man beat the child.
(B). The child was beaten by the man.
B is the result of the movement of the noun phrases "the man" and "the child" from their original positions in (A) to new positions. That is, "the man" is postposed to the right and "the child" is preposed to the left.
Not all instances of NP-movement, however, are related to changing a sentence from the active voice to the passive voice. For example:
(C) It seems they are quite fit for the job.
(D) They seem quite fit for the job.
These sentences are identical in meaning, but different in their superfi-cial syntactic representations. It is believed that they have the same underlying structure, but (27b) is the result of an NP movement.
第12章现代语言学理论与流派 12.1 复习笔记 本章要点： 1. The Prague School and Functional Sentence Perspective (FSP) 布拉格学派与功能句子观 2. The London School and context of situation 伦敦学派与语境观 3. Halliday and Systemic-Functional Grammar 韩礼德与系统——功能语法 4. Bloomfield and American Structuralism 布隆菲尔德与美国结构主义 5. Chomsky and Transformational-Generative Grammar 乔姆斯基与转换——生成语法 常考考点： 各流派的代表人物、理论基础、特点、主要观点、重要概念；语言普遍性和人类行为关系等。 本章内容索引：
I. Saussure and modern linguistics II. The Prague School 1. Main points and contribution 2. Functional Sentence Perspective (FSP) 3. Communicative Dynamism (CD) III. The London School 1. Introduction 2. Malinowski’s theories 3. Firth’s theories 4. Halliday and Systemic-Functional Grammar 5. Systemic grammar and Functional grammar (1) Systemic grammar (2) Functional grammar IV. American Structuralism 1. Introduction 2. Three stages of the development V. Transformational-Generative Grammar 1. Introduction 2. The Innateness Hypothesis 3. Generative Grammar 4. Stage of development of TG Grammar 5. Main features of TG Grammar
英语专业考研语言学复习题附答案 Chapter I 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. Ch omsky defines “ competence” as the ideal user’s k__________ of the rules of his language. https://www.doczj.com/doc/892066850.html,ngue 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
Chapter 4 Phonology(音位学) 4.1 phonetics and phonology:语音学与音位学的区分 Both phonetics and phonology are concerned with speech.语音学和音位学都士对语音的研究。 定义区别 -Phonetics is a study of the production, perception and physical properties of speech sounds. 语音学是研究语音的生产、感知和物理性质的。 -Phonology studies how speech sounds are combined，organized，and convey meanings in particular languages.研究语音如何在在特定的语言中结合、组织和表达含义。 ---Phonology is language-specific.it is the study of how sounds are organized and used in natural languages.音位学是特定于语言的。它的研究对象是自然语言中的声音是如何组织和使用的。 ---Phonetics is a study of speech sounds while phonology is a study of the sound syst em of a language.语音学是一个研究语音的然后音位学是研究一种语言的声音系统的学科。 4.2 Phonemes，phones and allophones 音位、音子、音位变体 Different languages have different phonological systems.不同的语言有不同的语音系统。 定义： ①Phones are the smallest identifiable phonetic unit or segment found in a stream of speech. 音子就是在连续的发音中可辨认的最小语音单位或片段。 ②Allophones are the phones which represent a phoneme in a language and cannot change word meaning by substituting any of the set for another.音位变体是指代表语言中音位的音子，即使以一个取代另一个也不改变词义。 ③Phonemes are the minimal distinctive units in the sound system of a language.音位是语言系统中最小的独特的单位。 Allophones are the realization of a particular phoneme while phones are the realizatio n of phonemes in general.音位变体是一个特定音素的认知而音子则是一般的音素。 4.3Minimal pairs 最小对立体 The phonologist is concerned with what difference are significant or technically speaki ng, distinctive. Minimal pair---a pair of words which differ from each other by one sound. Three conditions（情况）: 1）the two froms are different in meaning意义不同 2）the two forms are different in one sound segment声音片段不同 3）the different sounds occur in the same position of the two words.不同声音发生在两个单词的相同位置 Minimal set: a group of words can satisfy（满足）the three conditions . Minimal pairs help determine phonemes. 最小对立体用来定义音位。 4.4 identifying phonemes 识别音素 4.4.1 contrastive distribution，complementary distribution and free variation 对比分布，互补分布和自由变异 The distribution of a sound refers to the collective environments in which the sound concerned may appear.一个声音的分布是指其有关的声音可能出现的集体环境。 1）contrastive distribution对比分布 If two or more sounds can occur in the same environment and the substitution of on
南京师范大学英语语言学考研复试经验 南师英语语言文学下的语言学方向和外应初试和复试考的是一样的，只是进去后的研究方向不同。 楼主初试总分398，排名第二，政治68，日语94，专业一117，专业二119，复试笔试122，面试80，口语82，最后综合排名也是第二。 查分后，对结果不满意的，可以申请复查，但基本不会有变动。 看过17年的题，比16年略微简单点，所以分数线应该会偏高一点。去年外应最高分402，然后就是398，397，393，389。英语语言文学初试最高399，录取的最低为373。 这个复试线基本就是按照大家的成绩来确定的(当然，最后扩招的话，就另当别论了。我们去年是扩招了，今年不清楚。上课到现在，老师也没给我们透露过，这样也好，对大家都公平)。去年是1:1.2的比例确定进复试名额的，比如总共招5个人，那么进复试的有6个人。这个比例还算好的。我闺蜜，去年考陕师大，1:2的比例，对半刷，比南师狠。 那么重点来了，去年，我们可以给学长(南师研究生贴吧里有学长可以帮忙查排名，具体帖子自己去找)发邮件，查排名，然后按照1:1.2的比例，结合招生官网的录取人数，就可以算出来自己能不能进复试。南师不给排名，搞得很多分数处于边缘的同学很纠结，所以知道排名还是很有用的。貌似有人说今年学长不干了，这个我就不清楚了，有心的同学自己去贴吧找找看。 群 那么如果真的不能通过学长查了，那就得靠你们自己了。 另外，复试分面试和笔试，具体的复试经验我之前都说过了。
最后的重点来了，语言学方向的同学，不管是外应还是英语语言文学下的语言学，复试的考题和初试不太一样，所以真题是很有价值的。那么真题找谁呢，你懂的。某号，就无散领斯伊斯无就。如果辨别不出来这个号，那我也无能为力了。最后祝大家好运。在美丽的随园校区等大家来。 特别要说的是，复试的压力绝对在初试之上。总共名额9个，推免推了5个，留给我们这些参加考试的就只有4个名额了。而且复试全考专业课，考的不仅细，就题目本身来说，较初试还上升了一个难度，挺有挑战性的。最最关键的，它超钢，会考到其他书里的东西。所以，真题是极其有价值的。当时就是买了去年考上的学姐的复试资料。南师复试还是比较公平的，以实力说话，而且复试也绝不是走过场，你要付出比初试更大的努力。楼主当时准备复试，前后差不多一个月，把戴的书过了3遍，买的资料过了2～3遍，时间紧，任务重，压力大，就这么熬过了3月份，最终结果很欣慰，笔试122。另外，楼主每天会跟读一会儿新概念2，因为面试也是很重要的。 以上内容为仙林南师大考研网整理的英语语言文学考研知识点，如果同学还想获得更多英语语言文学考研资料，可以加入我们的南京师范大学考研复试交流群还可获得超强院校专业信息、每日打卡监督学习、研究生学姐答疑，不定期奖励活动等。
Chapter 1 What is language? [A] The origins of language Some speculations of the origins of language: ①The divine source The basic hypothesis: if infants were allowed to grow up without hearing any language, then they would spontaneously begin using the original god-given language. Actually, children living without access to human speech in their early years grow up with no language at all. ②The natural-sound source The bow-wow theory: the suggestion is that primitive words could have been imitations of the natural sounds which early men and women heard around them. The “Yo-heave-ho” theory: the sounds produced by humans when exerting physical effort, especially when co-operating with other humans, may be the origins of speech sounds. Onomatopoeic sounds ③The oral-gesture source It is claimed that originally a set of physical gestures was developed as a means of communication. The patterns of movement in articulation would be the same as gestural movement; hence waving tongue would develop from
语言学的资料很少，看完书后想找些习题或往年试题做做，可以起到练兵，巩固所看书本知识的作用。我收集了一些高校语言学的往年试题供大家参考，讨论，交流一下做题的感受，也希望大家可以把自己所考学校的往年试题发表在上面，给大家一起讨论。 1 One of the main features of our human language is arbitrariness .Can you briefly explain what is this feature refers to ? Give examples if necessary(10 points). < 北师大2003年试题） 2 In english we can describe a story as "a successful story" or "a success story ".Do you think they mean the same ? Please explain and give your reasons(10 points) ,< 同上》 3 Expain the following terms ,giving examples where necessary.(50 points) <中山2003》 design feature macrolinguistics vowel minimal pair folk etymology aspect anopho r error analysisr metaphor 4 Language can change through blending ,metanalysis ,back-formation, analogical creation and borrowing.Give two english words for each of them ( 5 points) 清华 2000年试题 5 Answer the following question briefly.clearly,grammatically and correctly.(10 Points ) 湖南师大2003年 What is it wrong to assume that the meaning of a sentence is the sum of the meaning of the words which compose it ? 7 Define the following terms.(10 points) 中国海洋大学1999 Phoneme ,consonant,morpheme,lexicon,syntax,endocentric construction,semantics,hyponymy ,language ,design feature 8 Define the following terms .(20 points) 苏州大学1997 allophone morpheme assimilation internal authority interlanguage phatic communion closed-class word government semantica triangic lingua franca
《英语语言学概论》复习纲要 1.复习的基本原则：第一，理解和吃透各章的重点内容。第二，以 各章的题目为统领，理解各章节下的具体内容。第三，动手书写和记忆重要内容，部分语言学理论会应用到实际中。 2.各章节复习要点如下 Chapter 1 Invitations to Linguistics Definitions of the following terms: language, linguistics, arbitrariness, duality, creativity, displacement, descriptive VS prescriptive, synchronic VS diachronic, langue VS parole, competence VS performance Study of the origin of language What are the functions of language Which subjects are included in macrolinguistics Chapter 2 Speech Sounds Definitions of the following terms: articulatory phonetics, acoustic phonetics, auditory phonetics, phonetics, phonology, consonants, vowels, allophones, broad transcription VS narrow transcription Analyze the complementary distribution, free variation with examples The classification of English consonants and English vowels and the features involved in the classification Understand some processes of phonology: nasalization, dentalization, velarization
I. Fill in the blanks. 1. The features that define our human languages can be call ed ______ features. (北二外2006研) 2. Linguistics is usually defined as the ______study of language. (北二外2003研) 3. Language, broadly speaking, is a means of______ communication. 4. In any language words can be used in new ways to mean new things and can be combined into innumerable sentences based on limited rules. This feature is usually ter med______ 5. Linguistics is the scientific study of______. 6. Modern linguistic is______ in the sense that the linguist tries to discover what language is rather than lay down some rules for people to observe. 7. One general principle of linguistic analysis is the primacy of ______ over writing. 8. The branch of linguistics which studies the sound patterns of a language is called ______. (北二外2003研) 9. The branch of grammar which studies the internal structure of words is called______ . (北二外2004研) 10. ______mainly studies the characteristics of speech sounds and provides methods for their description, classification and transcription. (北二外2005研) 11. Semantics and ______investigate different aspects of linguistic meaning. (北二外2007研) 12. In linguistics, ______ refers to the study of the rules governing the way words are combined to form sentences in a language, or simply, the study of the formation as sentence. (中山大学2008研) 13. ______can be defined as the study of language in use. Sociolinguistics, on the other hand, attempts to show the relationship between language and society. 14. The branch of grammar which studies the internal structure of sentence is called _______. (北二外2008研) 15. Saussure distinguished the linguistic competence of the speaker and the actual ph enomena or data of linguistics (utterances) as and . The former refers to the abstract linguistic linguistic system shared by all the members of a speech community, and the latter is the concrete manifestation of language either through speech or through writing. (人大2006研) 16. The description of a language as it changes through time is a ______ study. 17. Linguistic potential is similar to Saussure’s langue and Chomsky’s______. 18. One of the important distinctions in linguistics is ______ and parole. The former is the French word for “language”,which is the abstract knowledge necessary for s peaking，listening， writing and reading. The latter is concerned about the actual use of language by peop le in speech or writing. Parole is more variable and may change according to contextu al factors. 19. One of the important distinctions in linguistics is and performance. (人大2006研) 20. Chomsky initiated the distinction between ______ and performances. (北二外2007研) II. Multiple Choice 1.Which of the following is NOT a frequently discussed design feature? (大连外国语学院 2008研) A. Arbitrariness B. Convention C. Duality of the following words is entirely arbitrary? (西安交大2008研) A. tree B. crash C. typewriter D. bang
语言学考研笔记整理 一、语言和语言学 1．语言的本质 （1）自然属性：语言从本质上来说是一套符号系统。 （2）社会属性：是人类最重要的交际工具。 （3）心理属性：是人类进行思维的工具。 语言的自然属性从本质上来说是一套符号系统。 2．什么是符号？语言符号和其它符号的不同特点。 符号：用甲事物指代乙事物，甲即乙的符号。 语言符号的特点：①有声的；②成系统的；③分层次的装置，语音→音素→音节→语素→词；④音义结合是任意的，是约定俗成的（不可论证，无理据）；⑤线条性：语言符号在输出时是一个接一个的，不能全盘端出。 语言符号与客观事物的关系。 3．语言最基本的社会功能：交际功能。 文字：是在语言的基础上产生的，是记录语言的书写符号。 符号：是形式和内容（意义）的统一体。 （1）语言符号的形式：声音（语音）是语言的物质外壳，听觉可感知。 （2）语言符号的内容：意义（语义）是人们对现实现象的概括反映。 （99年填空） 4．语言符号的特点：①任意性和强制性；②线条性；③系统性。 人的语言和动物语言有何不同？ 简要说明语言符号的任意性和强制性。 答：①任意性：语言符号的音与义之间没有必然的、本质的联系，它们的结合是由社会“约定俗成”的。表现：某种具体语言的音义结合关系；形成人类语言多样性的一个重要原因。②强制性：符号的任意性知识是就创制符号时的情形说的。符号一旦进入交际，也就是某一语音形式与某一意义结合起来，表示某一特定的现实现象以后，它对使用它的社会成员来说就具有了强制性。任何人不能借口任意性而随意改变音义之间的结合关系。符号的音义结合是社会约定俗成的，它们之间的关系改变也要由社会来决定。
Linguistics Chapter 1 Invitations to Linguistics 1.1 Why study language? 1. Language is very essential to human beings. 2. In language there are many things we should know. 3. For further understanding, we need to study language scientifically. 1.2 What is language? Language is a means of verbal communication. It is a system of arbitrary vocal symbols used for human communication. 1.3 Design features of language The features that define our human languages can be called design features which can distinguish human language from any animal system of communication. 1.3.1 Arbitrariness Arbitrariness refers to the fact that the forms of linguistic signs bear no natural relationship to their meanings. 1.3.2 Duality Duality refers to the property of having two levels of structures, such that units of the primary level are composed of elements of the secondary level and each of the two levels has its own principles of organization. 1.3.3 Creativity Creativity means that language is resourceful because of its duality and its recursiveness. Recursiveness refers to the rule which can be applied repeatedly without any definite limit. The recursive nature of language provides a theoretical basis for the possibility of creating endless sentences. 1.3.4 Displacement Displacement means that human languages enable their users to symbolize objects, events and concepts which are not present (in time and space) at the moment of conversation. 1.4 Origin of language 1. The bow-wow theory In primitive times people imitated the sounds of the animal calls in the wild environment they lived and speech developed from that. 2. The pooh-pooh theory In the hard life of our primitive ancestors, they utter instinctive sounds of pains, anger and joy which gradually developed into language. 3. The “yo-he-ho” theory As primitive people worked together, they produced some rhythmic grunts which
Chapter 1 Introduction Teaching objectives To define language and its defining features ◆To distinguish the distinctive terms in linguistics ◆To master functions of language Teaching difficulties 3 origins 4 scholars’ viewpoints 5 defining features 6 distinctive terms 7 functions of language What is language? Sapir’s definition (1921) “Language is a purely human and non-instinctive method of communicating ideas, emotions and desires by means of voluntarily produced symbols 语言是人类所独有的，用任意创造出来的符号交流思想、感情和愿望的非本能的方法。——撒皮尔，1921 Hall’s definition (1968) Language is “the institution whereby humans communicate and interact with each other by means of habitually used oral-auditory arbitrary symbols.” 语言是人们通过惯用的任意口头—听觉符号进行交际 和互动的惯例。——霍尔，1968 Chomsky’s definition (1957) “From now on I will consider language to be a set of (finite or infinite) sentence, each finite in length and constructed out of a finite set of elements.” 从现在起，我将语言看作是一系列（有限的或无限的）句子，每个句子的长度有限，并由有限的成分组合而成。——乔姆斯基，1968 许国璋先生认为把语言定义成交际工具不够科学,至少不够严谨.他对语言的定义做了如下概括:语言是一种符号系统. 当它作用于人与人之间的关系的时候,它是表达相互反应的中介; 当它作用于人与客观世界的关系的时候,它是认知事物的工具; 当它作用于文化的时候,它是文化的载体. Language can be generally defined as a system of arbitrary vocal symbols Used for human communication. 语言是一个用于人类交际的、具有任意性的语音符号系统。 The design/defining features (识别性特征) Arbitrariness （任意性） Productivity/Creativity（创造性） Duality （双重性） Displacement （空间移位性） Cultural transmission（文化传递） Arbitrariness means that there is no logical connection between meanings and sounds.
[考研类试卷]英语专业（语言学）历年真题试卷汇编20 一、填空题 1 As the lexical words carry the main content of a language while the grammatical ones serve to link its different parts together, the lexical words are also known as content words and grammatical ones______. (中山大学2008研) 2 In traditional grammar, ______is the only word class which can function as a substitute for another item. (中山大学2006研) 3 In terms of the meaning expressed by words, they can be classified into______words and ______words. (南开大学2007研) 4 The______is the minimal distinctive unit in grammar, a unit which cannot be divided without destroying or drastically altering the meaning, whether lexical or grammatical. (北二外2008研) 5 There are two fields of morphology: the study of______and the study of______. (人大2006研) 6 A______morpheme is one that cannot constitute a word by itself. (北二外2003研) 7 ______ is a branch of linguistics that studies the interrelationship between phonology and morphology. (南开大学2007研) 8 ______is a relatively complex form of compounding in which a new word is formed by joining the initial part of one word and the final part of another word. For example, the English word smog is made from______and______. (人大2006研) 9 Back-formation refers to an abnormal type of word-formation where a shorter word is derived by deleting an______affix from a longer form already in the language. (中山大学2006研) 10 ______is a unit of expression that has universal intuitive recognition by native speakers, whether it is expressed in spoken or written form. It is the minimum free form. (中山大学2005研)