语言学简答题

●Why is productivity unique to language?

The productivity of language is the property which enables its users to construct and understand an indefinitely large number of utterances, including the novel utterances that they have never said nor heard before. This feature is unique to human language because most animal communication systems appear to be highly restricted with respect to the number of different signals that their users can send and receive. For example, a gibbon call system lacks productivity, for gibbons draw all their calls from a limited repertoire, which is rapidly exhausted, making any novelty impossible; and bee dancing is used only to indicate nectar sources, which is the only kind of message that can be sent through the dancing.

●How is Saussure's distinction between langue and parole similar to Chomsky's distinstion between competence

and performance?

According to F·de Saussure, 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. Chomsky defines competence as the ideal user's knowledge of the rules of his language, and performance the actual realization of this knowledge in linguistic communication. From these definitions we find that both Saussure and Chomsky make the distinction between the abstract language system and the actual use of language. Their purpose is to single out the language system for serious study.

●What are the major branches of linguistics? What does each of them study?

The major branches of linguistics include phonetics, phonology, morphology, syntax, semantics, pragmatics, sociolinguistics, psycholinguistics and applied linguistics.

Phonetics studies how speech sounds are produced and classified. Phonology studies how sounds form systems and function to convey meaning. Morphology studies how morphemes are combined to form words. Syntax studies how morphemes and words are combined to form sentences. Semantics studies meaning (in abstraction). Pragmatics studies meaning in context of use. Sociolinguistics studies language with reference to society. Psycholinguistics studies language with reference to the workings of the mind. Applied linguistics studies the application of linguistic principles and theories to language teaching and learning.

●Why is syntax regarded as a system of rules?

As a major component of grammar, syntax consists of a set of abstract rules that allow words to be combined with other words to form grammatical sentences. A sentence is considered grammatical when it conforms to the grammatical knowledge in the mind of native speakers. If, on the other hand, a sentence violates a rule according to which words are organized, then native speakers will judge it to be an impossible sentence of that language. Universally found in the grammars of all human languages, syntactic rules comprise the system of internalized linguistic knowledge of a language speaker. For any natural language, it is the set of rules that makes it possible for the speakers to produce, comprehend and memorize the vast number of sentences of their native language.

●What makes modern linguistics different from traditional grammer?

Traditional grammar is based on “high”(religious, literary) written language. It is prescriptive. It sets models for language users to follow. It tells the learner what he should say, or what is supposed to be correct usage. On the other hand, modern linguistics is mostly descriptive. Modern linguistics is supposed to be scientific and objective and the task of linguists is supposed to describe the language people actually use, be it "correct" or not. Its investigations and analysis are based on authentic, and mainly spoken language data.

●What is a free morpheme? What is a bound morpheme? And how are they different from each other?

Free morphemes are morphemes which are independent units of meaning and can be used freely all by themselves, such as help, table, able, etc. Bound morphemes are morphemes that cannot be used by themselves, but must be combined with other morphemes, either free or bound, to form a word, such as “-en”in “enlarge”, “dis-”in “disable”, “im-”in “impossible”.

●What do langue and parole mean respectively?

According to F·de Saussure, 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 abide by; it is abstract. Parole is the concrete use of the conventions and the application of the rules; it is concrete.

●Why is the word order in Modern English more rigid than that in Old English?

The word order in Modern English is more rigid than that in Old English. This is because in Modern English there are no longer the elaborate morphological system used in Old English, such as the case marking system, to help to indicate grammatical relations. Therefore, it is no longer possible to identify the functional roles of nouns by their inflectional endings. The functional notions of subject and object have to be indicated largely by the syntactic position of nouns in a linear order, resulting in a system with stricter constraints on word order.

●What characteristics of language do you think should be included in a good, comprehensive definition of

language?

a. Language is a rule-governed system.

b. Language is basically vocal.

c. Language is arbitrary.

d. Language is used for human communication.

●What are suprasegmental features? How do the major suprasegmental features of English function in conveying

meaning?

The phonological features that occur above the sound segmental level are called suprasegmental features. The major suprasegmental features of English include word stress, sentence stress and intonation. The suprasegmental features distinguish meaning.

●What is Broca's area and what would happen if any damage were inflicted upon it?

In 1861, a French surgeon and anatomist Paul Broca discovered that somewhere in the frontal lobe in the left cerebral hemisphere had something to do with speech difficulty. This place is now known as Broca's area. According to his claim in 1865, any damage to sites in the left cerebral hemisphere will result in a patient's language disorder, whereas destruction of corresponding sites in the right hemisphere leave linguistic capacities intact. Therefore if any damage is inflicted upon this area, it will result in word finding difficulties and problems with syntax.

●State briefly your understanding of the differences between the term acquisition and the term learning in

language acquisition study?

The distinction between acquisition and learning was proposed by the American SLA scholar Stephen Krashen on the assumption that they are different processes. Acquisition refers to the gradual and subconscious development of ability in the first language by using it naturally in daily communicative situations. Learning, however, is defined as a conscious process of accumulating knowledge of a second language usually obtained in school settings. It is recognized that children acquire their native language without explicit learning, while a second language is more commonly learned but to some degree may also be acquired, depending on the environmental setting and the input received by the L2 learner. A rule can be learned before it is internalized(i.e. acquired), but having learned a rule does not necessarily preclude having to acquire it later.

●Why is language defined as a system of arbitrary vocal symbols used for human communication?

Short as it is, this definition has captured the main features of language. First of all, language is a system, i.e., elements of