胡壮麟语言学第一章练习(1)

Chapter One Exercise 1 (1.1-1.4) I. Define the following terms: 1. design feature 2. arbitrariness 3. duality 4. displacement 5. language 6. linguistics Ⅱ. Beneath each sentence there are 4 choices marked A, B, C and D. Choose the one which is the best answer. 1. Which is the commonly accepted definition of “linguistics” ? A. The scientific social science of language B. The scientific learning and teaching of language C. The scientific study of language D. The prescriptive study of language 2. ______ is considered as “father of modern linguistics”. A. Bloomfield B. Jackobson C. Aristotle D. Saussure 3. “______” is a word in English which is onomatopoeic. A. Walkman B. Waterloo C. Ticktack D. Seesaw 4. Which of the following is not a design feature of human language? A. Arbitrariness B. Displacement C. Duality D. Meaningfulness 5. Language is a system of arbitrary vocal symbols for human ________. A contact B communication C relation D community 6. which of the following words is entirely arbitrary. A tree B crash C typewriter D bang 7. In modern linguistics, speech is regarded as more basic than writing, because _________. A. in linguistic evolution, speech is prior to writing B. speech plays a greater role than writing in terms of the amount of information conveyed. C. speech is always the way in which every native speaker acquires his mother tongue D. All of the above 8. Language is first and foremost a ______ . A. system of words B. system of grammar C. system of vocal symbols D. system of meanings 9. When a dog is barking, you assume it is barking for something or at someone that exists hear and now. It couldn’t be sorrowful for some lost love or lost bone. This indicates the design feature of __________. A. cultural transmission B. productivity C. displacement D. duality 10. Unlike animal communication systems, human language is A. stimulus free B. stimulus bound C. under immediate stimulus control D. stimulated by some occurrence of communal interest. Ⅲ. Fill in the blanks. 1. Language, broadly speaking, is a means of _____ communication. 2.In any language words can be used in new ways to mean new things and can be combined into innumerable sentences based on limited rules. This feature is usually termed __ ___. 3. Theory that primitive man made involuntary vocal noises while performing heavy work has been called the _____ theory. 4.The theory that language arose from instinctive emotional cries, expressive of pain or joy has been called the _____ theory. 5. One general principle of linguistic analysis is the primacy of _____ over writing. 6. Language is p________ in that it makes possible the construction and interpretation of new signals by its users. In other words, they can produce and understand an infinitely large number of sentences which they have never heard before. 7. P_____ means language is resourceful because of its duality and its recursiveness. 8. Language has two levels. They are _____ level and ___ level. 9. Language is _______ because every language consists of a set of rules which underlie people’s actual speech or writing. 10. By saying “language is arbitrary”, we mean that there is no logical connection between meaning and ____ . Ⅳ. Decide whether the following statements are true [T] or false [F]. 1.Duality is one of the characteristics of human language. It refers to the fact that language has two levels of structures: the system of sounds and the system of meanings. 2. Language is a means of verbal communication. Therefore, the communication way used by the deaf-mute is not language. 3.Arbitrariness of language makes it potentially creative, and conventionality of language makes a language be passed from generation to generation. As a foreign language learner, the latter is more important for us. 4. General linguistics is generally the study of language as a whole. 5. Language change is universal, ongoing and arbitrary. 6.Language is a system of arbitrary, written signs which permit all the people in a given culture, or other people who have learned the system of that culture, to communicate or interact. 7.The relation between form and meaning in human language is natural. 8.Most animal communication systems lack the primary level of articulation. 9. Every language has two levels: grammatically —meaningless and sound —meaningful. 9.10. Modern linguistics is mostly prescriptive, but sometimes descriptive. Ⅴ. Answering the questions 1.Can you think of some words in English which are onomatopoeic? 2. A story by Robert Louis Stevenson contains the sentence “As the night fell,the wind rose.” Could this be expressed as “As the wind rose,the night fell?” If not, why? Does this indicate a degree of non-arbitrariness about word order? 3. A discussion on Saussure as the father of modern linguistics. Direction: You can try to answer this question from the following points for answer:1) Saussure’s great achievements in different fields. 2)Saussure’s linguistic views 3) Saussure’s influence on modern linguistics. 4.How do you understand arbitrariness in human languages? Answers for exercise 1-1 I. Define the following terms: 1. design feature:the distinctive features of human language that essentially make human language distinguishable from languages of animals. 2. arbitrariness: One design feature of human language, which refers to the fact that the forms of linguistic signs bear no natural relationship to their meaning. 3. duality: One design feature of human language, which refers to the property of having two levels of structures, such that units of the primary level are composed of elements of the secondary level and each of the two levels has its own principles of organization. 4. displacement: One design feature of human language, which means human languages enable their users to symbolize objects, events and concepts which are not present (in time and space) at the moment of communication. 5. language:“Language is a means of verbal communication.”It is instrumental in that communicating by speaking or writing is a purposeful act. It is also social and conventional in that language is a social semiotic and communication can only take place effectively if all the users share a broad understanding of human interaction including such associated factors as nonverbal cues, motivation, and socio-cultural roles. 6. linguistics: Linguistics is the scientific study of language. It endeavors to answer the question–what is language and how is represented in the mind? Linguists focus on describing and explaining language and are not concerned with the prescriptive rules of the language. Ⅱ. Beneath each sentence there are 4 choices marked A, B, C and D. Choose the one which is the best answer. 1-5 C D C D B 6-10 A D C C A Ⅲ. Fill in the blanks. 1. verbal 2. creativity/productivity 3. yo-he-ho 4. pooh-pooh 5. Speech 6. potential 7. Productivity 8. Primary , secondary 9. Conventional 10. form Ⅳ. Decide whether the following statements are true [T] or false [F]. 1. T 2. F 3. T 4. T 5. F 6. F 7. F 8. F 9. F 10. F Ⅴ. Answering the questions 1.Can you think of some words in English which are onomatopoeic? creak: the sound made by a badly oiled door when it opens. cuckoo: the call of cuckoo. bang: a sudden loud noise. roar: a deep loud continuing sound. buzz: a noise of buzzing. hiss: a hissing sound. neigh: the long and loud cry that a horse makes. mew: the noise that a gull makes. bleat: the sound made by a sheep, goat or calf. 2. A story by Robert Louis Stevenson contains the sentence “As the night fell,the wind rose.” Could this be expressed as “As the wind rose,the night fell?” If not,why? Does this indicate a degree of non-arbitrariness about word order? This sentence couldn’t be expressed as “As the wind rose,the night fell”, if so, the original intention of writer is distorted. That means the focus and the meaning of the sentence is forced to change, and we can feel it effortlessly by reading. Based on systemic functionalists and American functionalists, language is not arbitrary at the syntactic level ,because clauses occurring in linear sequence without time indicators will be taken as matching the actual sequence of happening. Therefore, to a certain extent, we can see a degree of non-arbitrariness about word order. 3. A discussion on Saussure as the father of modern linguistics. 1)T he three lines along which Saussure’s ideas were developed:linguistics, sociology, and psychology. A. In linguistics, Saussure was greatly influenced by the American linguist W.D. Whitney, who insisted on the concept of ARBITRARINESS of the sign to emphasise that language is an institution. B. In sociology, following the French sociologist E. Durkheim, Saussure held that language is one of the “social facts”, which are ideas in the “collective mind” of a society and radically distinct from individual psychological acts. C. In psychology, Saussure was influenced by the Austrian psychiatrist S. Freud, who hypothesized the continuity of a collective psyche, called the unconscious. 2) Saussure’s ideas A. Saussure saw human language as an extremely complex and heterogeneous phenomenon and believed that language is a SYSTEM OF SIGNS. The sign is the union of a form and an idea, which Saussure called the SIGNIFIER and the SIGNIFIED. The signifier and the signified exist only as components of the sign, which is the central fact of language. B. For Saussure, langue is “absence” in the virtual world and parole is “presence” in the actual world. Absence/ virtual systems are considered stable and invariable, while presence/ actual systems are considered unstable and variable. 3) Saussure’s influence on modern linguistics. A. He provided a general orientation, a sense of the task of linguistics which had seldom been questioned. B. He influenced modern linguistics in the specific concepts. Many of the developments of modern linguistics can be described as his concepts, i.e. his idea of the arbitrary nature of the sign, langue vs. parole, synchrony vs. diachrony, syntagmatic and paradigmatic relations, etc.All linguistics in the twentieth century are Saussurean linguistics. 4.How do you understand arbitrariness in human languages? When we are discussing arbitrariness in human languages, we have to put it on the different language levels. First of all, as one of the design features, arbitrariness exists in human language popularly, so we can find out so many supportive evidences of the relationship between sound and meaning. For example, an object is definitely arbitrarily named as “book” in English while “书” in Chinese. Secondly, language is not always arbitrary at the syntactic level based on systemic functionalists and American functionalists, because clauses occurring in linear sequence without time indicators will be taken as matching the actual sequence of happening. When the two parts interchange, the focus and the meaning of the sentence is forced to change, Then t he writer’s original intention is distorted, and we can feel it effortlessly by reading. So there is a degree of non-arbitrariness about word order. At last, we shouldn’t be ignored of the relationship between arbitrariness and convention. Arbitrariness of language makes it potentially creative, while convention leads language to normal and grammatical. Both of arbitrariness and conventionality develop language in parallel.