语言学概论_课后参考答案__杨信彰

Charpter1 1.1.1 1. a. This sentence may have three interpretations: 1) He rolled from side to side in his grave. 2) He returned his grave. 3) He handed in his grave. b. There are two interpretations to this sentence: 1) They gave preference to both young men and young women. 2) They gave preference to women and young men. 2. Units that have reference: I, saw, Mary, went, the library. Units that indicate structure: when, to. 3. a. This sentence is grammatical, but is nonsensical. b. This sentence is ungrammatical and nonsensical. c. This is a good sentence. d. This is a good sentence. 1.1.2 1. a. This sign is a symbol. It means we will have good luck. I know it from my cultural background, because the Chinese character "福" means "luck" and the color red symbolizes "goodness". The Chinese meaning of "upside down" is "倒", which has the similar pronunciation of "到(arrive)". Thus, when the character "福" is put upside down, it means that luck arrives. b. This sign is an icon. It means no smoking, and I know it from the picture. c. This sign is a mixture of a symbol and a icon. It means that "parking" is only allowed for disabled people. 2. I think the house is on fire because smoke is a index of fire. 3. To the physician, it means that the man has got a fever. 4. I think so, but not exactly, because the difference of the consonants does not mean the bird in different places cries differently. 1.1.3 1. according to the arbitrariness theory, the forms of linguistic signs bear no natural resemblance to their meaning. The link between them is a matter of convention. Thus, the name Xiao Long is just a label for the son. However, in Chinese culture dragon was the symbol for the emperor. Thus, the name may have certain associative meanings. 2. No. The speaker of a language, based upon the convention established in the speech community, associates linguistic signs with things and concepts. In people's mind, "pig" stands for foolishness and laziness. If I name it Pig Hair Shampoo, no one will buy it. 3. Words are arbitrary in form, but they are not random in their use. Although the link between form and meaning is arbitrary, there existed certain relationship between them, which can be called rules. The individual does not have the power to change a sign in any way once it has become established in the linguistic community. 1.1.4 1. I prefer to use the spoken language. In a supermarket, the spoken language is much more convenient for people to communicate with each other. People do not have the time and necessity to use written language in communication. 2. I think listening and speaking should come first. The primary medium of language is sound, and language is primarily vocal. What's more, children can learn to listen and speak a foreign language more quickly than they read and write. 1.1.5 1. No, I don't agree with this point of view. Language is human specific, so humans and dogs can not communicate with each other. 2. A parrot only can say what it is taught. It can not form an infinite set of utterances from a finite use of units. So, a parrot talking can not be equated with human language. 3. That is only the result of the stimulus-response training. 4. Human language is primary over animal communication in the following aspects: 1) Human has the ability to refer to things far remote in time and space. In contrast, it may be impossible for an animal to convey such ability. 2) Human has the ability to produce and understand an indefinite number of novel utterances, but no animal can communicate creatively with another animal. 3) Learning is much more important as a factor in human language than in animal communication. 4) Human language structure and language use are vastly more complex than any animal communication system. 5) Animal communication systems are closed-ended, whereas human languages are open-ended. 1.1.6 1. The advanced technology such as telephones and the Internet makes human communication become much more convenient and frequent. People can communicate with others in remote places freely. 2. There may exist several causes: 1) The sender can not express himself or herself clearly. 2) The receiver can not understand what the sender said. 3) The receiver is unwilling to communicate with the sender. 4) There exists misunderstanding because of the different cultural background of the sender and the receiver. 3. We must pay key attention to learning the knowledge of the ways of thinking, acting and speaking of a language, for differences in this kind of knowledge may cause trouble in intercultural communication. 1.2.1 1. a. Physiological function b. Performative function c. Phatic function d. Informative function 2. People like poetry because people can enjoy the rhythm and the melody of certain combinations of sounds in the poetry. And most creative uses of language in the poetry can provide people considerable pleasure through the generation of puns, paradoxes, ambiguities and metaphors. 3. I may not say anything, but move the desk away. 1.2.2 1. General functions refer to the particular individual uses of language whilst metafunctions refer to the larger, more general purposes underlying language use. 2. No. According to Halliday, every sentence in a text is multifunctional and has three metafunctions simultaneously: ideational, interpersonal and textual functions. 3. Halliday's functional theory emphasizes the relationship between language structure and the language functions in social life, while the traditional grammar emphasizes the forms of the sentence. 1.3.1 1. I agree to the evolutionary theory which tends to believe that man evolved from lower forms of life, and so did language. This is a scientific approach to the origin of language as it is based on a wide range of studies over years by biologists, anthropologists, psychologists, neurologists, primatologists and linguists. With many significant changes since its early introduction, the evolutionary theory shows us the origin of language from various aspects, such as the organic evolution, environmental factors. 2. 轰隆、乒乓、叽叽嘎嘎、叽里咕噜、汪汪 3. Onomatopoetic words are imitations of the sounds of nature, and emotional ejaculations of pain, fear, surprise, pleasure, anger, etc. According to the invention theory, onomatopoetic words form the basis of language, or at least the core of the basic vocabulary. 1.3.2 1. Usually, there are two main ways of classifying languages: the genetic (or genealogical) and the typological. The historical classification is based on the assumption that languages have diverged from a common ancestor. This criteria is to research into the history and relatedness of languages. On the other hand, the typological classification is based on a comparison of the formal similarities which exist between languages. It is an attempt to group languages into structural types, on the basis of phonology, grammar, or vocabulary, rather than in terms of any real or assumed historical relationship. 2. Currently, we cannot say that all languages in the world derived from one common ancestor. It might be true that some languages have diverged from one common ancestor, for example, French, Spanish, Italian and other Romance languages were clearly descended from Latin, but no evidence show that all languages in the world have the same origin. As research shows, there are at least 29 language families in the world. However, this problem will be solved when we have enough evidence to show that human beings have one common ancestor. 3. The major causes for the language diversity in the world include grammatical structure, historical factors, social factors, intercultural contact, etc. 1.4.1 1. The two sentences perform the same function of requesting. However, The two sentences have different choices of words and syntax structures. Sentence (a) is structurally an imperative sentence, while Sentence (b) takes the form of a question and the word 'please' is added. So, the effects of the two utterances are different. Sentence (b) would sound more polite. When we are decoding them, we would take into account such factors as choice of words and syntactic structures, the principle of politeness and the context. 2. As a science, linguistics demands a scientific outlook upon language. To conduct a study of language scientifically, we must take an objective view of language and all linguistic phenomena and study language and reflect on it in a detached and unbiased way. Even a local variety with few native speakers may also fall within our investigations. Moreover, we should adopt the general principles of empirical research procedures to observe and analyze data found in natural languages. 3. The real object of linguistics is to find out fundamental rules that underlie all the languages in the world. We need to look into the common features of all languages, the range of variations among languages, the difference of human languages from animal communication, the change and evolution of language, the relation of language to mind and society, and so on. 1.4.2 1. It is very important to study speech in linguistics, because language is primarily vocal. As we know, no community has a written form only, though many have a spoken language only. Children learn spoken language first and most easily. Earlier in the 20th century certain linguists began to doubt the priority of writing. Bloomfield argued that writing was not language but merely a way of recording language. The contemporary linguistics maintains that the spoken language is primary and that writing is essentially a means of representing speech in another medium. Linguistics has stressed the priority of speech because it is the "natural," or primary, medium in which language is manifest, and written language derives from the transference of speech to a secondary, visual medium. 2. There is no absolute standard of correctness because linguistics is descriptive, not prescriptive. Different groups of people may use different varieties of language. The correctness in language use should not be prescribed grammatically. 3. In reality, it is impossible to have a standard language. The reason is that linguistics is descriptive, not prescriptive. There is no absolute standard of correctness. What's more, as we know, with the passage of time, all languages are subject to change. All living languages are there to serve the different social needs of the communities that use them. As these needs change, languages will tend to change to meet the new situations. Thus, a standard language is not possible. 1.5.1 1. There are many external factors related to language. Cultural factors influence the full meaning of the language conveys. Social factors include the social backgrounds of both the speaker and the addressee (i.e. their age, sex, social class, ethnic background, degree of integration into their neighborhood, etc.), the relationship between speaker and addressee and the context and manner of the interaction. Psychological factors have effects on people's behaviors. 2. Though there are many translation softwares in the market, translations done by machines are full of errors and require much post-editing. The key problem is the lack of a good linguistic theory to provide a frame of reference for machine translation. It is unlikely that machines will replace human translators. 3. Foreign language learning and teaching involves several interrelated factors. These are: linguistic theories, situational factors, input and interaction, learner differences, learner processes, linguistic output, curriculum and syllabus design, teaching methodology, learner and teacher roles, textbook writing, language planning, and so on. 1.5.2 1. Linguistic studies have gone through many changes. Since the 1930s down to the present, the expansion of knowledge in so many directions have led to several attempts to make synthesis and to develop a unified theory of language. Several schools of thought have emerged round a few prominent linguists such as Firth, Halliday, Hjelmslev and Chomsky, major centers of linguistic study like Prague School, Geneva School, Copenhagen School, and leading concepts such as structuralism, functionalism, tagmemics, systemic functional grammar, transformational generative grammar, speech act theory. 2. I think discourse analysis is a proper way to study language. Traditional linguistic analysis has concentrated on the internal structure of sentences, but discourse analysis is interested in the analysis of units larger than sentences. Thus, the term discourse or text refers to all linguistic units with a definable communicative function, spoken or written. It stresses the need to see language as a dynamic, social, and interactive phenomenon. 3. A corpus is always needed in linguistics. Over the past few years, the study of language in actual use has required a corpus-based research. Scholars need a corpus to analyze patterns of use in natural texts. The importance of corpus to language study is aligned to the importance of empirical data because empirical data enable the linguist to make objective statements, rather than those based upon the individual's own subjective perception of language. So, corpus linguistics should be seen as a subset of the activity within an empirical approach to linguistics. Charpter 2 2.1.1 1. Articulatory phonetics deals with the identification and classification of individual sounds. It attempts to provide a framework of the nature of speech sounds and how they are produced. Acoustic phonetics focuses on the analysis and measurement of sound waves. It studies the physical characteristics of speech sounds as they are determined and measured by machines, and attempts to deduce the acoustic basis of speech production and perception. 2. The speech chain consists of three stages: the production of the message, the transmission of the message and the reception of the message. According to Ball and Rahilly, there are a series of activities in the speech chain. First, there is physiological activity in the brain of the speaker. Then the brain sends instructions to a variety of muscles of vocal organs. The result is a range of muscle contractions and physical movement of structures such as the rib cage, the larynx, the tongue and so on. In turn, these movements give rise to an aerodynamic phase of the speech chain, whereby air flows through the vocal tract. This airflow interacts with continued movement of structures such as the vocal folds, tongue, lips and soft palate to produce the different features of speech. This modified airflow through the vocal tract impinges on the air surrounding the speaker. 3. Spelling is not the same as pronunciation in English. For example, in pronunciation, the "h" in the word "hour" is silent. "ph" in the word "elephant" is pronounced as [f], which seems to have nothing to do with its spelling. Another example might be a pair of words like "meet" and "meat", who have the same pronunciation but different spellings and meanings. 2.1.2 1. In the production of speech, the vocal tract sets a column of air into motion, and then modifies this moving air-stream in a number of ways to produce the sounds of speech. 2. When describing individual sound segments, phoneticians and linguists often employ two parameters to examine how sounds are articulated: manner of articulation and place of articulation. In terms of manner, sounds are classified into plosives, nasals, fricatives, affricates, approximants, trills and taps. When examined from view of place of articulation, sounds are divided into groups like bilabials, dentals, post-alveolar, retroflex, uvular, glottal, labiodentals, alveolar, palatal, velar and pharyngeal sounds. 3. Bilabial, dental and labiodental sounds are different from one another in terms of place of articulation. Bilabials are articulations made with the upper and lower lips brought together. In bilabial stops they form an air-tight seal producing the plosives [p, b] or, if the velum is lowered, the nasal [m]. Dentals are produced by the front of the tongue touching the back of the upper front teeth. Dental sounds are generally apical. Dental fricatives occur in English as pronunciations of the 'th' spellings. The voiceless dental fricative is the sound of 'th' in 'thin', whereas its voiced counterpart is the sound of 'th' in 'then'. Labiodentals are articulations produced with the lower lip approximating to the underside of the upper front teeth. For example, in English the [f] in fat and the [v] in vat are labiodental fricatives. 2.1.3 3. First of all, vowels and consonants appear in different places in English words. Secondly, vowels and consonants are produced differently. Vowels are made by egressive pulmonic airflow through vibrating or constricted vocal folds and through the vocal tract, and the sound is modified in the oral cavity. Consonants are made by constricting the vocal tract at some point thereby diverting, impeding, or completely shutting off the flow of air in the oral cavity. 2.1.4 1. Narrow transcription captures the exact articulatory details of each sound. It records as many features of an utterance as can be ascertained by the person doing the recording. On the contrary, broad transcription is a less subtle transcription. It omits many of the irrelevant and predictable details of pronunciation and is perfectly suitable for many users. 2. Omitted. 2.2.1 1. Phoneme is the minimum phonemic unit that is not further analyzable into smaller units susceptible of concomitant occurrence. In other words, a phoneme is a block that cannot be broken down into smaller parts; it is the smallest element relevant to phonemic analysis. Allophone is the phonetic variant of a phoneme. 2. Omitted. 3. [p] and [b] are different phonemes because they represent distinctive sounds. In addition, if we substitute one sound for the other, it results in a change of meaning. 2.2.2 1. When two different forms are identical in every way except for one sound segment that occurs in the same place in the string, the two words are called minimal pairs. For instance, "deed" and "seed" are minimal pairs, but "deed" and "dog" are not because the vowel and final consonant in these two sounds are different. 2. a) /p/-/b/: pig-big; gap-gab; b) /k/-/g/: coat-goat; back-bag; c) /f/-/v/: life-live; fife-five; d) /m/-/n/: meat-neat; time-tine; e) /r/-/l/: right- light; sear-seal 3. 2.2.3 1. Distinctive features can be used to distinguish one phoneme from another or one group of sounds from another group. Thus, "distinctive" means serving to identify, distinguishing. 2. The distinctive features for each group of sounds are: a) [p, t, b, d]: [-high, -back] b) [j, w, i, u]: [+voiced, +high] 3. a) life, lives: similarities: [-high, -back], differences: life [f]: [-voiced]; lives[v]: [+voiced] b) choice, choose: similarities: [-high, -back]; differences: choice[s]: [-voiced], choose [z]: [+voiced] c) deduce, deduction: similarities: [+back]; differences: deduce: [-high, -round], deduction: [+high, +round] 2.3.1 1. Edinburgh, Wednesday, Thames are words in which pronunciation does not match the spelling. 2. These words are not permissible in English. All languages have constraints on the permitted sequences of phonemes. *tpray, *btry, *tgharg do not sound like an English word because it does not conform to the restrictions on the sequencing of phonemes. When three consonants occur, the first must be [s]. 2.3.2 1. When two or more sounds never occur in an identical phonemic context or environment, they are said to be in complementary distribution. That is to say, complementary distribution refers to the case in which one of two or more sounds occur in a context to the exclusion of other sound(s), i.e. in a context in which the other sound(s) never occur(s).