语言学问题

第一章、绪论Introduction1、语言学的主要分支是什么。

每个分支的研究对象是什么？Linguistics mainly involves the following branches:General linguistics, which is the study of language as a whole and which deals with the basic concepts, theories, descriptions, models and methods applicable in any linguistic studyPhonetics, which studies the sounds that are used in linguistic communicationPhonology, which studies how sounds are put together and used in communicationMorphology, which studies the way in which morphemes are arranged to form wordsSyntax, which studies how morphemes and words are combined to form sentencesSemantics, which is the study of meaning in language.Pragmatics, which is the study of meaning not in isolation, but in context of useSociolinguistics, which is the study of language with reference to societyPsycholinguistics, which is the study of language with reference to the workings of mind.Applied linguistics, which is concerned about the application of linguistic findings in linguistic studies; In a narrow sense, applied linguistics refers to the application of linguistic principles and theories to language teaching and learning, especially the teaching of foreign and second languages.Other related branches are anthropological linguistics, neurological linguistics, mathematical linguistics, and computational linguistics.2、现代语言学与传统语法有什么区别？Traditional grammar is prescriptive; it is based on "high "(religious, literary) written language . It sets models for language users to follow. But Modern linguistics is descriptive; its investigations are based on authentic, and mainly spoken language data. It is supposed to be scientific and objective and the task of linguists is supposed to describe the language people actually use, whether it is "correct" or not.3、什么叫共时研究？什么叫历时研究？The description of a language at some point in time is a Synchronic study; the description of a language as it changes through time is a diachronic study. A synchronic study of language describes a language as it is at some particular point in rime, while a diachronic study of language is a historical study; it studies the historical development of language over a period of time.4、人类语言的甄别性特征是什么？1) Arbitrariness 。

It means that there is no logical connection between meanings and sounds. For instance, there is no necessary relationship between the word dog and the animal it refers to. The fact that different sounds are used to refer to the same object in different languages and that the same sound may be used to refer to different objects is another good example. Although language is arbitrary by nature, it is not entirely arbitrary. Some words, such as the words created in the imitation of sounds by sounds are motivated in a certain degree. 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 an infinitely large number of sentences, including those that they have never said or heard before.3) Duality 。

It means that language is a system, which consists of two sets of structure, or two levels, one of sounds at the lower level and the other of meanings at the higher level. At the lower or the basic level, there is the structure of individual and meaningless sounds, which can be grouped into meaningful units at the higher level. This duality of structure or double articulation of language enables its users to talk about anything within their knowledge.4) Displacement 。

It means that language can be used to talk about what happened in the past, what is happening now, or what will happen in the future. Language can also be used to talk about our real word experiences or the experiences in our imaginary world. In other words, language can be used to refer to contexts removed from the immediate situations of the speaker.5) Cultural transmission 。

While we are born with the ability to acquire language, the details of any language are not genetically transmitted, but instead have to be taught and learned anew.5、Chomsky的语言能力和语言使用各指什么？American linguist N. Chomsky in t he late 1950’s proposed the distinction between competence and performance. Chomsky defines competence as the ideal user’s knowledge of the rules of his language. This internalized set of rules enables the lan guage user to produce and understand an infinitely large number of sentences and recognize sentences that are ungrammatical and ambiguous. According to Chomsky, performance is the actual realization of this knowledge in linguistic communication. Although the speak er’s knowledge of his mother tongue is perfect, his performances may have mistakes because of social and psychological factors such as stress, embarrassment, etc.. Chomsky believes that what linguists should study is the competence, which is systematic, not the performance, which is too haphazard.6、Saussure 是如何区分语言和言语的？The distinction between langue, and parole was made by the famous Swiss linguist Ferdinand de Saussure early this century. Langue and parole are French words. Langue refers to the abstract linguistic system shared by all the members of a speech community, and parole refers to the realization of langue in actual use. Langue is the set of conventions and rules which language users all have to follow while parole is the concrete use of the conventions and the application of the rules. Langue is abstract;It is not the language people actually use, but parole is concrete; it refers to the naturally occurring language events. Langue is relatively stable, it does not change frequently; while parole varies from person to person, and from situation to situation.7、什么是语言学？Linguistics is generally defined as the scientific study of language. It studies not any particular language, but languages in general.8、口头语与书面语Speech enjoys priority over writing in modern linguistics study for the following reasons:1) speech precedes writing in terms of evolution2) a large amount of communication is carried out in speech than in writing3) speech is the form in which infants acquire their native language9、几个术语Prescriptive: aims to lay down rules for "correct" behaviour.Descriptive: describe and analyzes the language people actually use.Synchronic: the description of a language at some point in time.Diachronic: the description of a language as it changes through time .Synchronic study seems to enjoy priority over diachronic study.Langue: the abstract linguistic system shared by all the members of a speech community.Parole: the realization of langue in actual use.Competence: the ideal user's knowledge of the rules of his language.Performance: the actual realization of this knowledge in linguistic communication.10、Do you think human language is entirely arbitrary? Why?Language is arbitrary in nature, it is not entirely arbitrary, because there are a limited number of words whose connections between forms and meanings can be logically explained to a certain extent, for example, the onomatopoeia, words which are coined on the basis of imitation of sounds by sounds such as bang, crash, etc.. Take compounds for another example. The two elements“photo” and “copy” in “photocopy” are non-motivated, but the compound is not arbitrary.第二章、语音学Phonetics1、语言交际的两大媒介是什么？哪一个是基本的交际媒介？为什么？Modern linguistics regards the spoken form of language as primary, but not the written form, because the spoken form is prior to the written form and most writing systems are derived from the spoken form of language.2、语音学的三个分支是什么。