语言学教程考试

第一题 名词解释

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

2. Phonetics： The study of sounds which are used in linguistic communication is called

phonetics。

3. Phonology： The study of how sounds are put together and used in communication is called

phonology。

4. Morpheme： Morpheme is the smallest meaningful unit of language.

5. Reference： Reference means what a linguistic form refers to in the real,physical world;it deals

with the relationship between the linguistic element and the non—linguistic world of experience.

6. Semantics: The study of meaning in language is called semantics.

7. Pragmatics ：The study of meaning in context of use is called pragmatics.

8. Free morpheme： Free morpheme are the morphemes which are independent units of

meaning and can be used freely all by themselves or in combination with other morphemes.

9. Componential analysis： Componential analysis is a way to analyze word meaning.It was

proposed by structural semanticists.

10. Cooperative principle： It is a general principle which all participants are expected to

observe。There are four maxims under the cooperative principle:the maxim of quantity the

maxim of quality，the maxim of relation and the maxim of manner。

第二题 填空

1. Chomsky defines “competence" as the ideal user's knowledge of the rules of his language.

2. Of all the speech organs,the tongue is the most flexible，and is responsible for varieties of

articulation than any other.

3. “A rose by any other name would smell as sweet”. This quotation from Shakespeare illustrates

that language has the design feature of arbitrariness.

4. The difference between a consonant and a vowel lies in whether there is air obstruction in the

production of them.

5. Phonology is a discipline which studies the system of sounds of a particular language and how

sounds are combined into meaningful units to effect linguistic communication.

6. A sentence is a structurally independent unit that usually comprises a number of words to form a complete statement，question or command.

7. Major lexical categories are open categories in the sense that new words are constantly added.

8. There are often intermediate forms between the two members of a pair of gradable

antonyms。

9. An illocutionary act is the act of expressing the speaker’s intention;it is the act performed in

saying something。

10. There are four maxims under the cooperative principle：the maxim of quantity the maxim of

quality,the maxim of relation and the maxim of manner。

第三题 阐述题

1. Language is generally defined

as a system of arbitrary vocal symbols used for human

communication Explain it in detail。

First of all，language is a system,because elements of language are combined according to

rules.Secondly，language is arbitrary because there is no intrinsic connection between form and

meaning,or between the sign and what it stands for.Different languages have different words for

the same object in the world。This fact is a good illustration of the arbitrary nature of

language.This also explains the symbolic nature of language:words are just symbols;they are

associated with objects，actions,ideas,etc。 by convention.Thirdly，language is vocal because the

primary medium is sound for all languages，no matter how well-developed their writing system

are.

The term “human” in definition indicates that language is owned by human beings and is very

different from the communication systems of other living beings.The

term “communication”

means that language can make user talk to each other and fulfil their communicative needs。

2. What are the design features of human language Illustrate them with examples。

1） Arbitrariness

the arbitrariness of language means that there is no logical connection between meanings and

sounds. For example, there is no necessary relationship between the word elephant and the

animal it symbolizes。 In addition, different sounds are used to refer to the same object in

different languages， and even within the same language, the same sound does not refer to the

same thing. However, language is not entirely arbitrary. There are words which are created in the

imitation of sounds by sounds, such as crash, bang in English. Besides, some compound words are

also not entirely arbitrary. But the non-arbitrary words are quite limited in number. The arbitrary nature of language makes it possible for language to have an unlimited source of

expressions。

2) Productivity

Language is productive or creative in that it makes possible the construction and interpretation of

new signals by its users。 This is why they can produce and understand an infinitely large number