语言学与应用语言学2004[试卷+答案]

北京外国语大学2004年硕士研究生入学考试语言学与应用语言学专业试卷IMPORTANT!!!AllthequestionsaretobeansweredinEnglishontheanswersheetsprovided．1．ShakespearehasJulietsay：What’sinaname?ThatwhichwecallaroseByanyothernamewouldsmellassweet．Whatdotheabovelinessaytoyouabouttherelationshipbetweentheform(sounds)andmeaning(concept)ofawordinspokenlanguage?ExplainwithpositiveevidenceaswellasexceptionsfromtheEnglishlanguage．(15points)2．Howmuchdoesourlanguageinfluencethewaywethink?Howdeeplydolanguageandcultureinterpenetrateandinfluenceoneanother?Thesequestionsaboutlanguagehavefascinatedthinkersthroughouttheages．Forexample，JohannGottfriedHerderandWilhelmyonHumboldtintheGermanRomantictraditionregardedlanguageasaprismaorgridspreadoverthingsintheworldsothateachlanguagereflectsadifferentworldview．Writeashortessaytoexplainyourpositiononthisview．(35points)3．IsEnglishalanguagethatusesaphoneticalphabetsystem?Explainbrieflywhyorwhynotwithexamples．(15points)4．Supposeyouweregivenfourcards，eachofwhichhadadifferentphonemeofEnglishprintedonit：kblINowarrangethesecardstoformallthepossiblewordsthatthesefourphonemescouldform．Discusswhatrulesyouhavefollowedt0comeupwiththesewords．(20points)5．Paraphraseeachofthefollowingsentencesintwodifferentwaystoshowthatyouunderstandtheambiguityinvolved：(10points)a．Dickfinallydecidedontheboat．b．Theprofessor'sappointmentwasshocking．c．Thegovernorisadirtystreetfighter．d．TerryloveshiswifeandsodoI．e．Nosmokingsectionavailable．6．Itisarguedthatgrammaticalityjudgmentsdonotdependonwhetherthesentenceismeaningfulornot,asshownbythesentenceColorlessgreenideassleepfuriously”，whichdoesnotmakemuchsensebutissyntacticallywellformed．Howwouldyourespondtothisargument?(25points)7．TOEFLoftenrequirestheexamineestospecifythesituationalcontextafterlisteningtoaconversation．Seeforexampleatape-scriptbelowforanexamitem．VoiceA(male)：Howmuchisthistie?VoiceB(female)：FortyVoiceC(male)：Wheredoesthisconversationmostprobablytakeplace?WhatdoyouthinkistheTOEFLpeople’sbeliefaboutwhatconstituteslinguisticcompetenceandhowlinguisticcompetencecanbetested?(30points)参考答案：北京外国语大学2004年硕士研究生入学考试语言学与应用语言学专业试卷IMPORTANT!!!AllthequestionsaretobeansweredinEnglishontheanswersheetsprovided．1．ShakespearehasJulietsay：What’sinaname?ThatwhichwecallaroseByanyothernamewouldsmellassweet．Whatdotheabovelinessaytoyouabouttherelationshipbetweentheform(sounds)andmeaning(concept)ofawordinspokenlanguage?ExplainwithpositiveevidenceaswellasexceptionsfromtheEnglishlanguage．(15points)Thelinessaidaboveshowthattherelationshipbetweentheform(sounds)andmeaning(concept)ofawordinspokenlanguageisarbitraryinnature.Thatmeansthereisnologicalconnectionbetweenforms(sounds)andmeaning(concept).Differentsoundsareusedtorefertothesameobjectindifferentlanguages.Soundsarejustsymbols;theyareassociatedwithobjects,actions,ideas,etc.byconvention.Inthisexample,therosecanbecalledbymanynamesindifferentlanguagesbutitssmellneverchanges.Anotherexample,differentlanguageshavedifferentformsforreferringto‘dog’inEnglish,suchasChinese‘狗（gou）’,French‘chien(n.m.)’.Whilelanguageisarbitrarybynature,therearesomeexceptionsaswell.ThebestexamplesinEnglisharetheonomatopoeticwordsandcompoundwords.Forexample,someonomatopoeticwords‘rumble’,‘crash’,‘crackle’‘bang’areutteredlikethesoundstheydescribe,thusseemtohaveanaturalbasis.Besides,somecompoundwordsarealsonotentirelyarbitrary.Forexamplewhile‘photo’and‘copy’arebotharbitrary,thecompoundword‘photocopy’isnotentirelyarbitrary,thusseemtobemotivated.Anyhow,non-arbitrarywordsmakeuponlyasmallpercentageofthevocabularyofalanguage.2．Howmuchdoesourlanguageinfluencethewaywethink?Howdeeplydolanguageandcultureinterpenetrateandinfluenceoneanother?Thesequestionsaboutlanguagehavefascinatedthinkersthroughouttheages．Forexample，JohannGottfriedHerderandWilhelmyonHumboldtintheGermanRomantictraditionregardedlanguageasaprismaorgridspreadoverthingsintheworldsothateachlanguagereflectsadifferentworldview．Writeashortessaytoexplainyourpositiononthisview．(35points)Humanshaveauniquelinguisticsystemforcommunicationthatservesastheprimaryvehicleforexpressingthoughts.Languageandthoughtmaybeviewedastwoindependentcirclesthatdevelopalongtwodifferentroutesbutoverlapinsomeparts,wherelanguageandthoughtareconsistentwitheachother.Butlanguageisnottheonlymeansofexpressingthought.Asfortherelationshipbetweenlanguageandthethought,wethinkthatlanguagedoesnotdeterminethewaywethinkbutinfluencethewayweperceivetheworldandrecallthings,andaffectstheeasewithwhichweperformmentaltasks.Thatis,languagemaybeusedtoprovidenewideas,bringaboutachangeinbeliefsandvalues,solveproblems,andkeeptrackofthingsinmemory.Forexample,awell-developedvocabularymaywellassistusinlearningtheconceptsthelexiscovers.Werecallthingsmoreeasilywhentheycorrespondtoreadilyavailablewordsorphrases.Itiscertainlyeasierforustomakeaconceptualdistinctionifitneatlycorrespondstoaparticularlexicalitemavailableinourlanguage.Whenwelabelourexperiencewithlinguisticsymbols,ourlanguagewillinfluencehowwerememberandthinkaboutthoseexperiences,otherwisetherelationshipbetweenlanguageandperception,memoryorthinkingwillbegr