语言学简答题

Whyisproductivityuniquetolanguage?Theproductivityoflanguageisthepropertywhichenablesitsuserstoconstructandunderstandanindefinitelylargenumberofutterances,includingthenovelutterancesthattheyhaveneversaidnorheardbefore.Thisfeatureisuniquetohumanlanguagebecausemostanimalcommunicationsystemsappeartobehighlyrestrictedwithrespecttothenumberofdifferentsignalsthattheiruserscansendandreceive.Forexample,agibboncallsystemlacksproductivity,forgibbonsdrawalltheircallsfromalimitedrepertoire,whichisrapidlyexhausted,makinganynoveltyimpossible;andbeedancingisusedonlytoindicatenectarsources,whichistheonlykindofmessagethatcanbesentthroughthedancing.HowisSaussure'sdistinctionbetweenlangueandparolesimilartoChomsky'sdistinstionbetweencompetenceandperformance?AccordingtoF·deSaussure,languereferstotheabstractlinguisticsystemsharedbyallthemembersofaspeechcommunityandparolereferstotherealizationoflangueinactualuse.Chomskydefinescompetenceastheidealuser'sknowledgeoftherulesofhislanguage,andperformancetheactualrealizationofthisknowledgeinlinguisticcommunication.FromthesedefinitionswefindthatbothSaussureandChomskymakethedistinctionbetweentheabstractlanguagesystemandtheactualuseoflanguage.Theirpurposeistosingleoutthelanguagesystemforseriousstudy.Whatarethemajorbranchesoflinguistics?Whatdoeseachofthemstudy?Themajorbranchesoflinguisticsincludephonetics,phonology,morphology,syntax,semantics,pragmatics,sociolinguistics,psycholinguisticsandappliedlinguistics.Phoneticsstudieshowspeechsoundsareproducedandclassified.Phonologystudieshowsoundsformsystemsandfunctiontoconveymeaning.Morphologystudieshowmorphemesarecombinedtoformwords.Syntaxstudieshowmorphemesandwordsarecombinedtoformsentences.Semanticsstudiesmeaning(inabstraction).Pragmaticsstudiesmeaningincontextofuse.Sociolinguisticsstudieslanguagewithreferencetosociety.Psycholinguisticsstudieslanguagewithreferencetotheworkingsofthemind.Appliedlinguisticsstudiestheapplicationoflinguisticprinciplesandtheoriestolanguageteachingandlearning.Whyissyntaxregardedasasystemofrules?Asamajorcomponentofgrammar,syntaxconsistsofasetofabstractrulesthatallowwordstobecombinedwithotherwordstoformgrammaticalsentences.Asentenceisconsideredgrammaticalwhenitconformstothegrammaticalknowledgeinthemindofnativespeakers.If,ontheotherhand,asentenceviolatesaruleaccordingtowhichwordsareorganized,thennativespeakerswilljudgeittobeanimpossiblesentenceofthatlanguage.Universallyfoundinthegrammarsofallhumanlanguages,syntacticrulescomprisethesystemofinternalizedlinguisticknowledgeofalanguagespeaker.Foranynaturallanguage,itisthesetofrulesthatmakesitpossibleforthespeakerstoproduce,comprehendandmemorizethevastnumberofsentencesoftheirnativelanguage.Whatmakesmodernlinguisticsdifferentfromtraditionalgrammer?Traditionalgrammarisbasedon“high”(religious,literary)writtenlanguage.Itisprescriptive.Itsetsmodelsforlanguageuserstofollow.Ittellsthelearnerwhatheshouldsay,orwhatissupposedtobecorrectusage.Ontheotherhand,modernlinguisticsismostlydescriptive.Modernlinguisticsissupposedtobescientificandobjectiveandthetaskoflinguistsissupposedtodescribethelanguagepeopleactuallyuse,beitcorrectornot.Itsinvestigationsandanalysisarebasedonauthentic,andmainlyspokenlanguagedata.Whatisafreemorpheme?Whatisaboundmorpheme?Andhowaretheydifferentfromeachother?Freemorphemesaremorphemeswhichareindependentunitsofmeaningandcanbeusedfreelyallbythemselves,suchashelp,table,able,etc.Boundmorphemesaremorphemesthatcannotbeusedbythemselves,butmustbecombinedwithothermorphemes,eitherfreeorbound,toformaword,suchas“-en”in“enlarge”,“dis-”in“disable”,“im-”in“impossible”.Whatdolangueandparolemeanrespectively?AccordingtoF·deSaussure,languereferstotheabstractlinguisticsystemsharedbyallthemembersofaspeechcommunity,andparolereferstotherealizationoflangueinactualuse.Langueisthesetofconventionsandruleswhichlanguageusersallhavetoabideby;itisabstract.Paroleistheconcreteuseoftheconventionsandtheapplicationoftherules;itisconcrete.WhyisthewordorderinModernEnglishmorerigidthanthatinOldEnglish?ThewordorderinModernEnglishismorerigidthanthatinOldEnglish.ThisisbecauseinModernEnglishtherearenolongertheelaboratemorphologicalsystemusedinOldEnglish,suchasthecasemarkingsystem,tohelptoindicategrammaticalrelations.Therefore,itisnolongerpossibletoidentifythefunctionalrolesofnounsbytheirinflectionalendings.Thefunctionalnotionsofsubjectandobjecthavetobeindicatedlargelybythesyntacticpositionofnounsinalinearorder,resultinginasystemwithstricterconstraintsonwordorder.Whatcharacteristicsoflanguagedoyouthinkshouldbeincludedinagood,comprehensivedefinitionoflanguage?a.Languageisarule-governedsystem.b.Languageisbasicallyvocal.c.Languageisarbitrary.d.Languageisusedforhumancommunication.Whataresuprasegmentalfeatures?HowdothemajorsuprasegmentalfeaturesofEnglishfunctioninconveyingmeaning?Thephonologicalfeaturesthatoccurabovethesoundsegmentallevelarecalledsuprasegmentalfeatures.ThemajorsuprasegmentalfeaturesofEnglishincludewordstress,sentencestressandintonation.Thesuprasegmentalfeaturesdistinguishmeaning.WhatisBro