东北师范大学 语言学考试题库

I. Brief Introduction of Linguistics

1. Why is linguistics a vast field of study?

Linguistics is a broad field of study, because language is a complicated entity with many layers and facets. It is hardly possible for a linguist to deal with all aspects of language at once. There are a number of divisions of linguistics, which can be put into two categories.

1) Intra-disciplinary divisions: the study of language in general is often termed general linguistics. It is based on the view that language as a system is composed of three aspects: sound, structure and meaning.

2) Inter-disciplinary divisions:

a) Sociology deals with language and culture.

b) Psycholinguistics deals with the relation between language and mind

c) Applied linguistics is concerned with the application of linguistic theories and descriptions in other fields.

All above three belong to sociolinguistics.

2. How is linguistics different from traditional grammar?

1) Traditional grammar is prescriptive, while modern linguistics is descriptive.

2) Traditional grammatical categories are merely based on European language, while modern linguistics

studies all languages.

3) Traditional grammar lacks a theoretical framework, while modern linguistics is theoretically rather than

pedagogically oriented.

3. What are the two main schools of contemporary western linguistics? What are the fundamental differences between them?

TG grammar v.s systematic-functional grammar

TG based on UG, studies the general principles while systematic-functional grammar studies language functions.

4. On what basis do linguists regard human language as species-specific (unique to humans)? Language is a system of arbitrary vocal symbols used for human communication. Many philosophers and linguists believe that language is unique to man. Language is a human trait that sets us apart from other living creatures. They spell out a number of features of language which are not found in animal communication systems. These features: creativity, duality, arbitrariness, displacement, cultural transmission, interchangeability and reflexivity. These are universal features possessed by all human languages. Although some animal communication systems possess, to a very limited degree, one or another of these features except creativity and duality, none is found to have all the features. On this basis linguists tend to conclude that human languages are qualitatively different form animal communication systems.

5. What is the difference between linguistic competence and communicative competence?

The term linguistic competence is applied to account for a speaker’s knowledge of his language. While communicative competence is proposed to account for both the tacit knowledge of language and the ability to use it. There are four parameters that underlie a speaker’s communicative competence, namely the ability to judge: Whether (and to what degree) something is feasible/appropriate/formally possible/in fact done.

II. Phonetics 语音学

1. How are speech sounds described?

The study of speech sounds is phonetics which includes 3 parts: 1) articulatory phonetics 2) acoustic phonetics 3) auditory phonetics.

Articulatory phonetics is the primary concern in linguistics, in which speech sound is described within 3 sides: The description of consonants: a) place of articulation b) manners of articulation c) voicing d) aspiration

The description of vowels: a) monophthongs b) diphthongs c) lip rounding d) tensity

In more detailed transcription (sometimes referred to as narrow transcription), a sound may be transcribed with a symbol to which a smaller symbol is added in order to mark the finer distinctions. The smaller one is called diacritic.