语言学第8章

Decide whether each of the following statements is True or False:

1. Sociolinguistics is the sub-discipline of linguistics that studies social contexts. F

2. Language as a means of social communication is a homogeneous system with a homogeneous group of speakers. F

3. Language use varies from one speech community to another, from one regional group to another, from one social group to another, and even from one individual to another. T

4. The goal of sociolinguistics is to explore the nature of language variation and language use among a variety of speech communities and in different social situations. T

5. The linguistic markers that characterize individual social groups may serve as social markers of group membership. T

6. From the sociolinguistic perspective, the term “speech variety ” can not be used to refer to standard language, vernacular language, dialect or pidgin. F

7.Functional speech varieties are known as regional dialects. F

8. The most distinguishable linguistic feature of a regional dialect is its grammar and uses of vocabulary. F

9.Geographical barriers are the only source of regional variation of language. F

10. A person’s social backgrounds do not exert a shaping influence on his choice of linguistic features. F

11.Two speakers of the same language or dialect use their language or dialect in the same way. F

12. Every speaker of a language is, in a stricter sense, a speaker of a distinct idiolect. T

13. The standard language is a better language than nonstandard languages. F

14. A lingua franca can only be used within a particular country for communication among groups of people with different linguistic backgrounds. F

15.Pidgins are linguistically inferior to standard languages. F

16. A pidgin usually reflects the influence of the higher, or dominant, language in its lexicon and that of the lower language in their phonology and occasionally syntax. T

17.The major difference between a pidgin and a creole is that the former usually has its native speakers while the latter doesn’t. F

18.Bilingualism and diglossia mean the same thing. F

19.The kind of name or term speakers use to call or refer to someone may indicate something of their social relationship to or personal feelings about that individual. T

20.The use of euphemisms has the effect of removing derogatory overtones and the disassociative effect as such is usually long-lasting. F

II. Fill in each of the blanks below with one word which begins with the letter given:

21. The social group isolated for any given study is called the speech c___ community _____.

22. Speech v_____ variety ____ refers to any distinguishable form of speech used by a speaker or group of speakers.

23. From the sociolinguistic perspective, a speech variety is no more than a d_____ dialectal _____ variety of a language.

24. Language standardization is also called language p___ planning ____.

25. Social variation gives rise to s__ sociolects _______ which are subdivisible into smaller speech categories that reflect their socioeconomic, educational, occupational background, etc. 26. S_____ Stylistic __ variation in a person’s speech or writing usually ranges on a continuum