2012英语考博试题

语言学：

1. The definition of language.

Explain to what extent you agree or disagree with them. Raymond Williams/ Edward Spair/ Noam Chomsky/ David Crystal 2. The words given below consists of a prefix, “im- or “in-”. Account

as economically as possible for the variation in pronunciation of the prefix.

Imbalance/immobile/impatient/incredible/inedible/input/influx/invari able

3. What changes can occur to the pronunciation of a word stem

when a derivational morpheme is added to the stem? Explain three types

4. Formal Grammars and Functional Grammars have different

views on the subject matter.

5. How relevant are theories of first language learning when

considering adults learning a second (foreign) language?

6. Halliday proposes several ways in which spoken discourse

differs from written discourse. How would you use these differences either to decide whether a police statement was forged or to evaluate the authenticity of dialogue in a play or to evaluate the quality of dialogues in a language teaching book?

7. Recently, the national curriculum for primary school children has

included much more explicit, formal information on language, especially in the areas of phonology and grammar. What do you think is the reason for the change? Do you think the change is for the better?

8. Explain one language teaching method you have been used or

you have used. Explain the language and psychological basis and the influence of it.

9. “Cockney is not a language, only a slang.” How do linguists

come up with a better way to characterize language varieties? 10. Ob servation suggests parents do not correct children’s mistakes.

They acquire language anyway. Why? Explain the significance of children’s mistakes.

会话分析及语用学：

1. Ever since the 1970s, conversational repair has been one of the

major issues in the area of conversational analysis. You are expected to review relevant literature and discuss its definition, major types, main features, research perspectives, preferably with examples.

2. CA has been widely applied to the study of the talk in institutional

settings. This type of CA is called institutional CA. You are expected to discuss the issue by referring to some important studies as you know, and discuss the significance, applications, advantages, research prospect in this area, preferably with examples.

3. Politeness has been an important issue for research in

pragmatics. You are expected to review important literature in this field and discuss related theories, approaches for research and research applications.

4. Write a research proposal of what you intend to work on if you

are permitted as a PhD student. You are expected to follow the general format of a research proposal. The part of methodology should be detailed enough to indicate your well-thought research design, including research questions, potential participants, sources of data, data collection procedure and modes of data analysis.