1、英语语言学概论自考1. What are the difference between general linguistics and descriptive linguistics and what sis the relationship between them? A: Differences between general and descriptive linguistics:(1) They have different goals: General linguistics deals with language; descriptive linguistics study one
2、 particular language;(2) They have different aims:General linguistics aims at developing a theory that describes the rules of human language in general;Descriptive linguistics attempts to establish a model that describes the rules of this particular language.Relationships between general and descrip
3、tive linguistics:General and descriptive linguistics depend on each other:(1) General linguistics provides descriptive linguistics with a general framework in which a particular language can be analyzed and described;(2) The resulting descriptions of particular languages supply empirical evidence wh
4、ich may confirm or refute the models put forward by general linguists.2. What is the nature of language? (P7)Language is a system of arbitrary vocal symbols, which is creative, double-structured and changeable.3. What is the difference between langue and parole? (P2/P24)a. Langue is the system of la
5、nguage. Parole is the speakers speech.b. Langue refers to the abstract system of a language, while parole refers to the concrete act of speaking in a definite time, place and situation.c. Langue underlies parole and parole, in turn, is a manifestation of langue.4. What is the difference between comp
6、etence and performance? (P2)a. Competence is the speaker-hearers knowledge of his language.b. Performance is the actual use of language in concrete situations.c. Competence is abstract, while performance is concrete.5. Why do linguists maintain that language is primarily speech? (P4)Linguists mainta
7、in that language is primarily speech, and not the written form. This view may be justified by the following reasons.a. Biologically speaking, children begin to learn to speak much earlier than to learn to read and write.b. Functionally speaking, the spoken form is used more frequently than the writt
8、en form in our daily life.c. Historically speaking, all human languages were spoken before they were written and there are still many languages in the world today which have not been written down.The emphasis on the spoken form indicates that linguistic study is primarily based on the data collected
9、 from living speech.6. What does it mean by saying that language is arbitrary, creative and double-structured? (P4-5)A. The relationship between the sounds and their meaning is arbitrary.B. Language is creative.a. Every language contains an infinite number of sentences, which, however, are generated
10、 by a small set of rules and a finite set of words.b. The length of a sentence has no limit in theory.c. The rules with recursive properly can account for the creative aspect of language.C. Language is double-structured. There are two levels: grammatically-meaningful and sound-meaningless.7. What fe
11、atures of language can differentiate human languages from animal communicative systems? (P7)Human language is a system of arbitrary vocal symbols, which is creative, double-structured and changeable. Those unique features like creativity, duality of structure and changeability can differentiate huma
12、n languages from animal communicative systems and enable human languages to be the most efficient, flexible and versatile means of communication in the world.8. How many stages does the scientific method have? What are they? (P9)There are four stages of scientific method:a. collecting data,b. formin
13、g a hypothesisc. testing the hypothesisd. drawing conclusions9. What are the three linguistic biases? (P9-10, P7)a. One common linguistic bias is that some languages are primitive and some languages are advanced.b. Another deep-rooted bias is that only the standard variety is the pure form of a lang
14、uage.c. Change is not natural for all living languages and such a language is a sign of corruption and decay.10. How is a rule constructed? (P15)a. To construct a rule, the linguist starts with collecting data.b. Based on the data collected, he may construct a very simple rule as a tentative version
15、.c. Then he examines the tentative rule against further data. If the additional data do not agree with it, he has to modify it.d. He keeps on testing the rule and, accordingly, revising the rule until the rule can account for all the relevant data collected.Thus, the rule formed is open to further m
16、odifications.11. Give examples to illustrate the two features of an adequate model of competence: explicitness and generativeness. (P15-16/P6)a. By saying a linguistic model is explicit, we mean that the rules the model contains are clearly and precisely defined. Even a computer can produce all and
17、only the grammatical sentences if the rules are fed to the machine.b. By saying the model is generative, we mean that the model contains only a small set of rules which, however, can generate an indefinitely large number of sentences.c. For example, “sothat” is explicit, but they can generate infini
18、te sentences.eg. He is so fat that he could not ran fast. He was so lazy that he never washed his clothes.12. What are the four types of linguistic knowledge? (P18-19)The four types of linguistic knowledge are phonological, morphological, syntactic and semantic.a. Phonological knowledge is a native
19、speakers intuition about the sounds and sound patterns of his language.b. Morphological knowledge is a native speakers intuition about how a word is formed.c. Syntactic knowledge is a native speakers intuition about whether a sentence is grammatical or not.c. Semantic knowledge is a native speakers
20、intuition about the meaning of language.13. Why is Saussre regarded as the former of modern linguistics? (P21-22) a. The obvious reason is that the book under his name “A Course in General Linguistics” is the first real essay on linguistic theory.b. In this book, quite a few theoretical distinctions
21、 introduced have become foundations of linguistic study and exerted great influence on the later development linguistics.c. Chief among them are the distinctions between synchronic and diachronic, syntagmatic and paradigmatic, langue and parole.14. Give examples to illustrate the difference between
22、synchronic and diachronic. (P22)a. If we study the changes in the Chinese language that took place between the 1940s and the 1960s, it would be a diachronic study. b. But if we study the Chinese language in the 1940s, then it would be a synchronic study.c. The major difference between these two appr
23、oaches is the former is concerned with the historical development of a language and the latter is concerned with the “state” of a language at a particular point of time.15. Give examples to illustrate the difference between syntagmatic and paradigmatic. (P116-118/P22-23)a. A syntagmatic relation ref
24、ers to the sequential characteristic of speech.b. A paradigmatic relation is a relation between a linguistic element in an utterance and linguistic elements outside that utterance.c. We can go tomorrow syntagmatic relation She may come soon I will ask next You could sleep now paradigmatic relation16
25、. What is a consonant and what is a vowel? (P30)a. A consonant is a speech sound where the airstream from the longs is either completely blocked, partially blocked or where the opening is so narrow that the air escapes with audible friction.b. A vowel is a speech sound in which the airstream from th
26、e lungs is not blocked in any way in the mouth or throat, and which is usually pronounced with vibrations of the vocal cords.17. Is the spelling of words a reliable means of describing English sounds? Why or Why not? (P30-31)No, it isnt.a. Sometimes a single letter may represent different sounds.b.
27、Sometimes, different letters or combinations of letters may r4epresent a single sound.c. The advantage of this system is that within the system, one symbol represents one sound and every symbol has a consistent value.18. What is the difference between plosives and affricates? (P37)a. Plosives are su
28、ddenly separated and the airstream goes out with a plosion.b. Affricates are brought together to form a complete closure but not followed by a sudden release, rather by a low release with audile friction.19. What is the difference between phonetics and phonology? (P20, P53)a. English phonetics is co
29、ncerned with all speech sounds that occur in the English language. It studies how those sounds are produced, transmitted and perceived, and how they re described and classified.b. Different from English phonetics, English phonology does not deal with the actual production of English sounds, but with
30、 the abstract aspects: the function of sounds and their patterns of combination.20. What are the three conditions of a minimal pair? (P54)a. They are different in meaningb. They differ only in one sound segment.c. The different sounds occur in the same position in strings.21. Give examples to illust
31、rate the differences between phonemes, phones and allophones. (P90)a. Phonemes are said to be minimal distinctive units in the sound system of a language.b. Phones are the realizations of phonemes.c. Allophones are the realizations of a particular phoneme.d. For example,22. Give examples to illustra
32、te the differences between contrastive distribution, complementary distribution and free variation. (P59-60)a. If two or more sounds can occur in the same environment and the substitution of one sound for another brings about a change in meaning, they are in contrastive distribution.b. If two or more sounds never appear in the same environment, they are said to be in complementary distribution.c. If two or more sounds can occur in the same environment and the
