内容预览
第一部分 课后习题
第1章 导 言
1. How do you interpret the followingdefinition of linguistics: Linguistics is the scientific study of language.
Key: Linguisticsis a scientific study of language because it follows the methodology of otherscientific study:
First of all, it is based on full and systematic collectionand investigation of linguistic data, which display some similarities, andgeneralizations are made about them.
Then linguists formulate some hypotheses about the languagestructure. The hypotheses thus formed have to be checked repeatedly against theobserved facts to fully prove their validity. In linguistics, as in any otherdiscipline, data and theory stand in a dialectical complementation, that is, atheory without the support of data can hardly claim validity, and data withoutbeing explained by some theory remain a muddled mass of things.
2. What are the majorbranches of linguistics? What does each of them study?
Key: Linguisticsincludes Micro-Linguistics and Macro-Linguistics.
(1) Branchesof Micro-Linguistics:
① Phonetics: itstudies the sounds used in linguistic communication;
② Phonology: itstudies how sounds are put together and used to convey meaning in communication;
③ Morphology: itstudies the way in which linguistic symbols representing sounds are arrangedand combined to form words;
④ Syntax: itstudies the rules which govern how words are combined to form grammaticallypermissible sentences in languages;
⑤ Semantics: itstudies meaning conveyed by language;
⑥ Pragmatics: itstudies the meaning in the context of language use.
(2) Branches of Macro-Linguistics:
① Psycholinguistics:it studies language and its relation with psychology.
② Sociolinguistics: itstudies all social aspects of language and its relation with society form thecore of the branch.
③ Applied linguistics:it studies the applications of language to the solution of practical problems.Narrowly, it is the application of linguistic theories and principles tolanguage teaching, especially the teaching of foreign and second languages.
④ Other branches, such as computationallinguistics, neurolinguistics.
3. In what basic waysdoes modern linguistics differ from traditional grammar?
Key: Modernlinguistics differs from traditional grammar in several basic ways.
(1) Modern linguistics is descriptive while traditionalgrammar is prescriptive.
(2) Modernlinguistics regards the spoken language as primary, not the written.Traditional grammarians, on the other hand, tended to emphasize, orover-emphasize, the importance of the written documents especially the Greek orRoman Classical works, partly because of its permanence.
(3) Modernlinguistics differs from traditional grammar also in that it does not forcelanguages into a Latin-based grammar framework.
4. Is modern linguisticsmainly synchronic or diachronic? Why?
Key: In modernlinguistics, a synchronic approach seems to enjoy priority over a diachronicone. Because people believe that unless the various states of a language indifferent historical periods are successfully studied, it would be difficult todescribe the changes that have taken place in its historical development.
5. For what reasons doesmodern linguistics give priority to speech rather than to writing?
Key: Speechand writing are the two major media of linguistic communication. Modernlinguistics regards the spoken language as the natural or the primary medium ofhuman language.
Modern linguistics gives the spoken language priority forsome obvious reasons:
(1) From the point ofview of linguistic evolution, speech is prior to writing. The writing system ofany language is always “invented” by its users to record speech. Even intoday's world there are still many languages that can only be spoken but not written.
(2) In everydaycommunication, speech plays a greater role than writing in terms of the amountof information conveyed. People use much more oral language in daily life thanusing written language.
(3) Speech is alwaysthe way in which every native speaker acquires his or her mother tongue, whilewriting is learned and taught later, when he or she goes to school.
(4) For modernlinguists, spoken language reveals many true features of human speech whilewritten language is only the “revised” record of speech. Thus their data, forinvestigation and analysis are mostly drawn from everyday speech, which theyregard as authentic.
6. How is Saussure’s distinctionbetween langue and parole similar to Chomsky’s distinction between competenceand performance?
Key: ① In Saussure’s definition, langue refers to theabstract linguistic system shared by all the members of a speech community, andparole refers to the realization of langue in actual use.
② Similar to Saussure’s distinction, Chomsky’s definitionabout competence is the idealuser’s knowledge of the rules of his language, and performance is the actual realization of this knowledge inlinguistic communication.
③ Both the notion of langue and competence referto the abstract and ideal nature of language within a human being, and paroleand performance point to the actual language use. Similar to Saussure, Chomskythinks that what linguists should study is the ideal speaker’s competence, nothis performance.
7. What characteristics of languagedo you think should be included in a good, comprehensive definition oflanguage?
Key: Languageis a system of arbitrary vocal symbols used for human communication. The definitionof language should include five essential factors of language: systematic,arbitrary, vocal, symbolic and most importantly human-specific.
First of all,language is a system, i.e., linguistic elements are arranged systematicallyrather than randomly.
Second, language isarbitrary in the sense that there is no intrinsic connection between alinguistic symbol and what the symbol stands for.
Third, language is vocal because the primary medium for alllanguages is sound or speech.
Fourth, words arejust symbols; they are associated with objects, actions, ideas, etc. by convention.
Fifth, language ishuman-specific, i.e., it is very different from the communication systems otherforms of life possess.
8. What are the main features ofhuman language that have been specified by C. Hockett to show that it isessentially different from animal communication system?
Key: (1) Arbitrariness
This means that there is no logical connection betweenmeanings and sounds. A good example is the fact that different sounds are usedto refer to the same object in different languages. But it is not entirelyarbitrary at all levels. Some words, such as the ones created in the imitationof sounds by sounds are motivated in a certain degree.
(2) Productivity
Language is productive or creative in that it makespossible the construction and interpretation of new signals by its users. Thisis why they can produce and understand an infinitely large number of sentences,including sentences they have never heard before.
(3) Duality
Language is a system, which consists of two sets ofstructures, or two levels. At the lower or the basic level there is a structureof sounds, which are meaningless by themselves. But the sounds of language canbe grouped and regrouped into a large number of units of meaning, which arefound at the higher level of the system.
(4) Displacement
Language can be used to refer to things which are presentor not present, real or imagined matters in the past, present, or future, or infar-away places. This property provides speakers with an opportunity to talkabout a wide range of things, free from barriers caused by separation in timeand place.
(5) Cultural Transmission
Language is culturally transmitted. It cannot betransmitted through heredity.
(6) Interchangeability
Interchangeability refers to the fact that man can bothproduce and receive messages, and his roles as a speaker and a hearer can beexchanged at ease.
9. What are the majorfunctions of language? Think of your own examples for illustration.
Key: Thethree major functions of language are the descriptive function, the expressivefunction and the social function.
The descriptive function is also referred to as thecognitive, or referential function. It is assumed to be the primary function oflanguage. It is the function to convey factual information which can be assertedor denied, and in some cases even verified. E.g. “The disaster is the mostserious one the country has ever seen.”
The expressive function is also called the emotive orattitudinal function. It supplied information about the user's feelings,preferences, prejudices and values. The example is “I will never go there forthe rest of my life.”
The social function is also referred to as theinterpersonal function. It serves to establish and maintain social relationsbetween people, e.g. “How are you doing recently?”
第2章 音位学
1. What are the twomajor media of linguistic communication? Of the two, which one is primary andwhy?
Key: Speech and writing are the twomedia used by natural languages as vehicles for communication. Many languagesin the world today are both written and spoken. Of the two, speech is morebasic than writing.
Modern linguistics regards the spokenlanguage as the natural or the primary medium of human language for someobvious reasons. From the point of view of linguistic evolution, speech is priorto writing. The writing system of any language is always “invented” by itsusers to record speech when the need arises. Even in today’s world there arestill many languages that can only be spoken but not written? Then in everydaycommunication, speech plays a greater role than writing in terms of the amountof information conveyed.
And also, speech is always the wayin which every native speaker acquires his mother tongue, and writing islearned and taught later when he goes to school. For modern linguists, spokenlanguage reveals many true features of human speech while written language onlythe “revised” record of speech. Thus their data for investigation and analysisare mostly drawn from everyday speech, which they regard as authentic.
2. What is voicing andhow is it caused?
Key: Voicing is a qualityof speech sounds and a feature of all vowels and some consonants in English. Itis caused by the vibration of the vocal cords. If the vocal cord vibrates, thenthe sound is said to be voiced, as /d/, /b/ and /g/; while if the vocal corddoes not vibrate, then the sound is said to be voiceless, such as /t/, /p/ and/k/.
3. Explain with exampleshow broad transcription and narrow transcription differ?
Key: The transcription withletter-symbols only called broad transcription. This is the transcriptionnormally used in dictionaries and teaching textbooks for general purposes.
The latter, i.e. the transcription withletter-symbols together with the diacritics is called narrow transcription.This is the transcription needed and used by the phoneticians in their study ofspeech sounds. With the help of the diacritics they can faithfully represent asmuch of the fine details as it is necessary for their purpose
In broadtranscription, the symbol [l] is used for the sounds [l] in the four words leaf [li:f] , feel [fi:l] , build [bild], and health [helθ]. As a matter offact, the sound [l] in all these four sound combinations differs slightly. The[l] in [li:f], occurring before a vowel, is called a clear [l], and nodiacritic is needed to indicate it; the [l] in [fi:l] and [bild], occurring atthe end of a word or before another consonant , is pronounced differently fromthe clear [l] as in “leaf”. It is called dark [l] and in narrow transcriptionthe diacritic [~ ] is used to indicate it. Then in the sound combination[helθ], the sound [l] is followed by the English dental sound [θ], itspronunciation is somewhat affected by the dental sound that follows it. It isthus called a dental [l], and in narrow transcription the diacritic [l] is usedto indicate it. It is transcribed as [helθ].
4. How are the Englishconsonants classified?
Key: English consonants can be classified in two ways: one is in terms ofmanner of articulation and the other is in terms of place of articulation.
In terms of manner of articulation the English consonants can beclassified into the following types: stops: [p, b, t,d, k, g]; fricatives: [f, v, θ, e, s, z, ?, ?, h]; affricates: [t∫, d?];liquids: [l，r]; nasals: [m, n, ?]; glides：[w，j].
In terms of place of articulation, it can be classified intofollowing types: bilabials: [p, b, m，w];labiodentals :[f, v]; dentals: [θ, e]; alveolars: [t, d, n, s, z, r, l ];palatal: [j，?，?，t∫，d]; velars: [k, g, ?]; glottal: [h].
5. What criteria areused to classify the English vowels?
Key: Vowel sounds are differentiated by a number offactors:
① According to the position of the tongue in themouth: front, central, back
② According to the openness of the mouth: closevowels, semi-close vowels, semi-open vowels, and open vowels
③ According to the shape of the lips: rounded vs.unrounded
④ According to the length of the vowels: tense vs.lax or long vs. short
6. Give the phoneticsymbol for each of the following sound description:
1) voiced palatal affricate
Key: [d?]
2) voiceless labiodental fricative
Key: [f]
3) voiced alveolar stop
Key: [d]
4) front, close, short
Key:
5) back, semi-open, long
Key: [?:]
6) voiceless bilabial stop
Key: [p]
Give the phonetic features of each of the following sounds:
1) [d]
Key: voiced alveolar stop
2) [1]
Key: voiced alveolar liquid
3) [t?]
Key: voiceless palatal affricate
4) [w]
Key: voiced bilabial glide
5) [J]
Key: back, close, short
6) [?]
Key: front, open
7. How do phonetics and phonologydiffer in their focus of study? Who do you think will be more interested in thedifference between, say, [I]and[?], [ph]and[p], a phonetician or a phonologist? Why?
Key: (1) Phonology and phonetics differin their approach and focus. Phonetics is of a general nature; it is interestedin all the speech sounds used in all human languages: how they are produced,how they differ from each, other, what phonetic features they possess, how theycan be classified, etc. Phonology, on the other hand, aims to discover howspeech sounds in a language form patterns and how these sounds are used toconvey meaning in linguistic communication.
(2) A phonologist will be more interested init. Because one of the tasks of the phonologists is to find out rule thatgoverns the distribution between [l]and[?],[ph]and[p].
8. What is a phone? Howis it different from a phoneme? How are allophones related to a phoneme?
Key: A phone is a phonetic unit orsegment. The speech sounds we hear and produce during linguistic communicationare all phones.
A phoneme is notany particular sound, but rather it is represented or realized by a certain phonein a certain phonetic context.
The differentphones which can represent a phoneme in different phonetic environments arecalled the allophones of that phoneme. For example, the phoneme [l] in Englishcan be realized as dark[?], clear [l], which are allophones of the phoneme[l].
9. Explain with examplesthe sequential rule, the assimilation rule, and the deletion rule.
Key: (1) Rules that govern thecombination of sounds in a particular language are called sequential rules. Thereare many such sequential rules in English. For example, if a word begins with a[l] or a [r], then the next sound must be a vowel. That is why [lbik] [lkbi]are impossible combinations in English. They have violated the restrictions onthe sequencing of phonemes.
(2) The assimilation rule assimilates onesound to another by “copying” a feature of a sequential phoneme，thus making the two phones similar.Assimilation of neighboring sounds is, for the most part, caused by articulatoryor physiological processes. For example, the [i:] is nasalized in words like bean, green, team, and scream. This isbecause in all these sound combinations the [i:] sound is followed by a nasal[n] or [m].
The assimilationrule also accounts for the varying pronunciation of the alveolar nasal [n] insome sound combinations. The rule is that within a word, the nasal [n] assumesthe same place of articulation as the consonant that follows it. We know thatin English the prefix in- can be added to an adjective to make the meaning ofthe word negative, e.g. discreet indiscreet, correct incorrect. But the [n]sound in the prefix in- is not always pronounced as an alveolar nasal. It is soin the word indiscreet because the consonant that follows it, i.e. [d], is analveolar stop, but the [n] sound in the word incorrect is actually pronouncedas a velar nasal, i.e. [?]; this is because the consonant that follows it is [k],which is a velar stop. So we can see that while pronouncing the sound [n], weare “copying” a feature of the consonant that follows it.
(3) Deletion rule tells us when a sound is tobe deleted although it is orthographically represented. We have noticed that inthe pronunciation of such words as sign,design, and paradigm, there is no[g] sound although it is represented in spelling by the letter g. But in there corresponding forms signature, designation and paradigmatic, the [g] represented by theletter g is pronounced. The rule canbe stated as: delete a [g] when it occurs before a final nasal consonant. Giventhe rule, the phonemic representation of the stems in sign—signature, resign—resignation, phlegm—phlegmatic, paradigm—paradigmaticwill include the phoneme /g/, which will be deleted according to theregular rule if no suffix is added.
10. What are suprasegmental features?How do the major suprasegmental features of English function in conveying meaning?
Key: Suprasegmental features refer tothe phonemic features that occur above the level of the segments. The mainsuprasegmental features include stress, intonation, and tone.
The location of stressin English distinguishes meaning. There are two kinds of stress: word stress andsentence stress. For example, a shift of word stress may change the part ofspeech of a word from a noun, to a verb although its spelling remainsunchanged. The word desert is an excellentexample.
Tones are pitch variations which can distinguishmeaning just like phonemes. They are caused by the differing rates of vibration of thevocal cords.
Intonation plays an important role in the conveyance ofmeaning in almost every language, especially in a language like English. Spokenin different tones, the same sequence of words may have different meanings.
