Report：《语言学练习题》Unit 1

《语言学练习题》Unit 1
■ Exercises
Task 1: Reference Search
Find in the library or online some information about the following themes:
a. Esperanto
understanding between people with different regional and/or national languages.
learned Esperanto from their parents as one of their native languages. Esperanto is spoken in about 115 countries. Usage is particularly
1905. Since then congresses have been held in various countries every year with the exception of years in which there were world wars.
language that adhered to the "Common European Framework of Reference for Languages: Learning, Teaching and Assessment
that learning Esperanto may provide a superior foundation for learning languages in general, and some primary schools teach it as preparation for learning other foreign languages
Goals of the movement
Zamenhof's intention was to create an easy-to-learn language to foster international understanding. It was to serve as an international auxiliary language, that is, as a universal second language, not to replace ethnic languages. This goal was widely shared among Esperanto speakers in the early decades of the movement. Later, Esperanto speakers began to see the language and the culture that had grown up around it as ends in themselves, even if Esperanto is never adopted by the United Nations or other international organizations.
from fina venko, meaning "final victory", or pracelistoj, from pracelo, meaning "original goal".Those who focus on the intrinsic value of
and the value of Esperanto culture was made at the International Youth Congress in 1980. These categories are, however, not mutually exclusive.
Esperanto Association
b. phatic communion
Small talk is an informal type of discourse that does not cover any functional topics of conversation or any transactions that need to be addressed. Small talk is conversation for its own sake, or "…comments on what is perfectly obvious." The phenomenon of small talk was initially studied in 1923 by Bronisław Malinowski, who coined the term "phatic communication" to describe it. The ability to conduct small talk is a social skill, hence small talk is some type of social communication. Early publications assume networked work positions as suitable for social communication.
In spite of seeming to have little useful purpose, small talk is a bonding ritual and a strategy for managing interpersonal distance. It serves many functions in helping to define the relationships between friends, work colleagues, and new acquaintances. In particular, it helps new
acquaintances to explore and categorize each other's social position. Small talk is closely related to the need for people to maintain positive face — to feel approved-of by those who are listening to them. It lubricates social interactions in a very flexible way, although the desired function is often dependent on the point in the conversation at which the small talk occurs.
c. Ferdinand de Saussure
Ferdinand de Saussure (26 November 1857 –22 February 1913) was a Swiss linguist whose ideas laid a foundation for many
linguistics. However, most modern linguists and philosophers of language consider his ideas outdated. Some philosophers of language, though mainly literary theorists, believe that these critics are themselves applying outdated argumentation to portray Saussurean ideas as
d. Language acquisition device (LAD)
The Language Acquisition Device (LAD) is a postulated "organ" of the brain that is supposed to function as a congenital device for
capacity which enables an infant to acquire and produce language. It is component of the nativist theory of language. This theory asserts that humans are born with the instinct or "innate facility" for acquiring language. Chomsky has gradually abandoned the LAD in favor of a parameter-setting model of language acquisition (principles and parameters).
Chomsky motivated the LAD hypothesis by what he perceived as intractable complexity of language acquisition, citing the notion of
emphasized the importance of the interaction between biological and social (nature and nurture) aspects of language acquisition. Differing from the behaviorists who emphasize the importance of social interactions in language acquisition, Chomsky (1965) set out an innate language schema which provides the basis for the child‘s acquisition of a language. Th e acquisition process takes place in an infants mind because of this mental organ which enables him/her to speak despite the limited nature of the Primary Linguistic Data (PLD, the input signals received) and the degenerate nature (frequent incorrect usage, utterances of partial sentences) of that data. Given
this poverty of the stimulus, a language acquisition model requires a number of components. Firstly, the child must have a technique for representing input signals and, secondly, a way of representing structural information about them. Thirdly, there must be some initial delimitation of the class of possible language structure hypotheses. Fourthly, the child requires a method for determining what each of these hypotheses implies with respect to each sentence. Finally, an additional method is needed by which the child can select which hypothesis is compatible with the PLD.
Equipped with this endowment, first language learning is explained as performed by a Language Acquisition Device progressing through the following stages:
1.The device searches the class of language structure hypotheses and selects those compatible with input signals and structural information drawn from the PLD.
2.The device then tests the compatibility using the knowledge of implications of each hypothesis for the sentences.
3.One hypothesis or ‗grammar‘ is selected as being compatible with the PLD.
4.This grammar provides the device with a method of interpreting sentences (by virtue of its capacity for internally representing structural information and applying the grammar to sentences).
Through this process the device constructs a theory of the language of which the PLD are a sample. Chomsky argues that in this way, the child comes to know a great deal more than she has ‗learned‘, acquiring a knowledge of language, which "goes far beyond the p resented primary linguistic data and is in no sense an 'inductive generalization' from these data."
and that it becomes unavailable after a certain age.
e. Innate Hypothesis
children and adults) of additional languages.
groups.
which a child is born prepared in some manner with these capacities, as opposed to the other theories in which language is simply learned. Task 3: Study Questions
2. Can our pets learn human languages? Why or why not?
They can learn several simple words, but they can‘t learn human language. The key difference between human language and animal‘s language is whether they can be used to describe unknown concepts. We human-beings can introduce something to others and they can easily understand, even though they have never heard of the object before. However, animals lack the ability to imagine unknown things. Therefore, though our pets, such as dogs, can reach an intelligent level as high as a 4-year-old child, which means they can master several words, they can never truly acquire human language.
3. What role does body language have in language communication?
Body language works as subsidiary role, helping others to understand our attitude better. When we communicating, our body language can show our feelings, convey our emotion and indicate our attitude. However, it means we may unconsciously betray our ideas which we don‘t want to tell others.
4. The naturally occurring ―experiments‖ with so-called ―wolf-children‖, ―bear-children‖, ―Mowgli‖ or ―monkey-children‖ and other such feral youngsters have been widely reported for hundreds of years. None of them could speak or understand speech and, indeed, most efforts to teach them language ended in failure. How world you account for such phenomena?
The acquirement of language is a special ability, which is firmly related to both innate talent and postnatal practice. Most importantly, it becomes unavailable after a certain age. Therefore, the reason that those feral children can’t learn human language is that they haven’t received enough education and practice of speaking, which did harm to their language abilities. 6．Iconicity of language is an aspect of language where form echoes meaning. Onomatopoeia, also known as ―sound symbolism‖, is one type of iconicity. Some researchers have found other evidence of iconicity. For example, words beginning with the sound combination sl- in English often have an unpleasant sense, as in slithering, slimy, slugs. Here are some questions:
a. Is the ―unpleasant‖ sense actually true of all, or even most, words beginning with sl- in English?
Yes, most English words beginning with the sound combination sl- contain negative meanings.
b. Are there any other sounds or sound combinations that you associate with particular meanings? (Hint: slide, slip, slippery; tumble, crumble, stumble)
-ash与猛烈撞击有关(clash冲突,bash怒殴,smash打碎,crash坠毁,splash飞溅,lash鞭打,gnash咬,mash捣碎)
fl-表示运动(如flutter慌乱,fly飞翔,flit掠过,float漂浮,flap拍打,flip挥动,fling扔)
gl-与光线和视觉有关(如glitter闪光,glisten闪光,glow发光,glimmer闪光,glint闪闪发亮,gleam闪烁,glare闪耀等) c. How about the vowel sounds in words that identify near-to-speaker concepts (this, near, here) versus far-from-speaker concepts (that, far, there)? What is the difference? Is it a general pattern distinguishing terms for things that are near versus far in English? What about the case in Chinese?
近指词含有/:i/或/i/，远指词含有/a/或/a:/
与水有关的“滴di、池chi、溪xi、河he、湖hu、潭tan、海hai、洋yang”等词表示的概念由小及大,其元音亦相应变化：由i至a
7. In many of the world‘s languages there are so-called nursery names for parents. In English, for example, corresponding to the word mother is the nursery name mama, to the father one finds dada and papa. There is remarkable similarity across different languages in the form of these nursery names for parents. For example, in Chinese and Navajo ma corresponds to English mama. Why do you think that this is the case?
It shows that there are some amazing similarities among different languages. As different as English and Chinese, which belongs to two families of languages, there are such similarities. The similarities of two languages spoken by people from remote places indicate that languages might be firmly related to some human natures.
Task 4: Comment Work
In this century it (the Whorfian Hypothesis) was given special attention through the work of Edward Sapir and, more importantly, Benijamin Lee Whorf. Working on American Indian languages, especially Hopi, the language of the Pueblo Indians of Arizona, Whorf became acutely aware of the inadequacies of traditional grammatical techniques built on Indo-European languages, especially Latin, Greek, and Sanskrit, for dealing with non-Indo-European languages. Experience of American and Hopi culture suggested to Whorf that the cultures and thought processes were different because their languages were so different. This led him to establish:
… what I have called the ―linguistic relativity principle,‖ which means, in informal terms, that users of markedly different grammars are pointed by their grammars toward different types of observation, and hence are not equivalent as observers but must arrive at somewhat different views of the world.
A more succinct version of this claim: ―We dissect nature along lines laid down by our native language,‖ came to be known as the ―Whorfian hypothesis.‖ Language influences thought, it was claimed; mind is in the grip of language.
(Elizabeth Traugott and Marry Pratt, Linguistics for Students of Literature, p.106) Questions:
a. Do you buy the contention that language determines the way we think?
Yes, I believe at least to some extent, language can influence the way we think
b. Germany is a country rich in great philosophers. Do you think that has to do with the language Germans speak?
Yes, I think so.
****************************************************************************
Language acquisition is a creative process. Children are not given explicit information about the rules, by either instruction or correction. They must somehow extract the rules of the grammar form the language they hear around them, and their linguistic environment does not need to be special in any way for them to do this. Observations of children acquiring different languages under different cultural and social circumstances reveal that the developmental stages are similar, possibly universal. Even deaf children of deaf signing parents go through stages in their signing development that parallel those of children acquiring spoken languages. These factors lead many linguists to believe that children are equipped with an innate template or blueprint for language –Universal Grammar(UG) –and this blueprint aids the child in the task of constructing a grammar for her language. This is referred to as the innateness hypothesis.
(Victoria Fromkin, Robert Rodman and Nia Hyams, An Introduction to Language, pp.347-348) Questions:
a. Do you think the inborn device can work independently of the environment?
No, I don‘t think so. Anyhow, the only source of the language we are learning is the environment. The ones without an appreciate environment, such as feral children, will surely fail to master human language.
b. Collect some examples from Chinese infants that prove the creative nature of language acquisition.
Task 5: Mini-Project
Randomly select 10 most commonly used words and 10 infrequently used words from English vocabulary list. Compare and find if there is a possible correspondence between the size of words and the frequency of usage (e.g. the more common the word, the smaller it is). If so, can you work out any plausible explanation?
The simpler a word is, the easier it is to be used. So a commonly used word must be a more simply used one. Also, if a word is widely used, it would be transformed into a simpler form.
■ Recommended Readings
Reading 2
Recent experiments with chimpanzees suggest that certain animals can not only learn individual symbols (in this sense manual rather than vocal signs), but can also learn to combine them in ways reminiscent of sentences like Give me key. However, as far as we know, they cannot do certain things which all human speakers can –they do not appear to be able to learn sign language without specific instruction, and they cannot, on the basis of a small number of elements and relations between them, create an infinite number of messages.
When linguists speak of the ―creativity‖ of human language, they are usually referring to these two characteristics. Anyone who knows a language is able, without specific instruction, to produce and understand utterances which have never been heard before but which are possible within the system. You are using this ability right now to read this book, and you rely on it nearly every time you talk. Certainly, language does include some fixed routines like greetings, farewells, toasts, and a wide variety of other relatively fixed utterances which function in the society as gestures of group solidarity, somewhat like the mutual grooming of monkeys. But obviously, humans are not limited to such routines. The number of sentences possible in a human language is infinite in principle, for there is no limit on how long a sentence can be. it makes no sense to say, for example, that the longest sentence in English (or any other language) is a thousand words long,
since, for any longest sentence, someone can propose another even longer. The easiest way to lengthen a sentence is to add parts introduced by and. More complex, but equally infinite structures can be created using subordinating relations, as in I expect you to force Bill to leave. Structures of this sort can be recycled, as in this line from Thom Gunn‘s poem ―Carnal Knowledge”, which theoretically could go on forever:
You know I know you know I know you know.
To sum up, the creativity of language consists in this fact: The number of elements and rules in the system is finite, while the number and length of utterances the system can produce is infinite. In this respect, linguistic systems are somewhat like the number system. given any number, one can always construct a larger number by addition or multiplication. In practice, we are limited, of course, by space, time, memory, interest, and many different factors, so that no actual sentence will ever be infinitely long. But what is important is that the system has this potential.
(Elizabeth Traugott and Marry Pratt, Linguistics for Students of Literature, pp.8-9) Food for Thought:
a. The technical term for describing the property of structures like ―I know you know I know …‖is recursion. Apart from those types of recursive use, can you think of other types in English?
b. Does Chinese have similar devices for recursive construction of sentences?
Yes，你知我知你知我知……
c. Can traffic signals employ recursion for more powerful functions?
No, recursion is really hard for ordinary people to understand and can cause much delay, which will bring lots of trouble to the traffic system.
Reference: 《论语音象征》——吴汉
Wikipedia。