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一、Explain-the-fllowing-terms

1． Syllable

【答案】 Syllable : It refers to a unit of spoken language that is bigger than a speech sound. It consists of one or more vowel sounds alone or of a syllabic consonant alone or of either with one or more consonant sounds preceding or following.

2． Polysemy

【答案】 Polysemy means a single word having several or many meanings. According to Crystal: Polysemy is a term used in semantic analysis to refer to a lexical item which has a range of different meanings. Polysemic words are signs of an advanced culture. Polysemy is also an essential feature of a language‟s economy and efficiency.

3． CAI and CAL

【答案】 Computer-assisted instruction （CAI ） means the use of a computer in a teaching program. This includes:

a. A teaching program which is presented by a computer in a sequence. The student responds on the computer , and the computer indicates whether the responses are correct or incorrect.

b. The use of computers to monitor student progress, to direct students into appropriate lessons, material , etc. This is also called computer-managed instruction.

Parallel to CAI , there is CAL （Computer-Assistant Learning ） . The former aims at seeing educational problems on the part of the teacher, whereas the latter emphasizes the use of a computer in both teaching and learning in order to help the learner achieve educational objectives. The first kind of CAL programs which were developed reflected principles similar to programmed instruction. The computer leads the student through learning task step-by-step, asking questions to check comprehension. Depending on the studenfs response, the computer gives the student further practice or progresses to new material （see branching ）. In more recent CAL courseware students are able to interact with the computer and perform higher-level tasks while exploring a subject or problem.

4． Prefix

【答案】 In linguistics, a prefix is a type of affix that precedes the morphemes to which it can attach. Prefixes are bound morphemes （they cannot occur as independent words ） . While most languages employ both prefixes and suffixes, prefixes are less common. Some languages employ mostly suffixes and almost no prefixes at all. The use of prefixes has been found to correlate statistically with other linguistic features, such as a verb-object word order and the use of prepositions.

5． Phonetics

Phonetics is the study of how speech sounds are produced, transmitted, and perceived. It 【答案】

can be divided into three main areas of study articulatory phonetics , acoustic phonetics and perceptual/auditory phonetics.

6． Interlanguage

【答案】 It refers to the type of language constructed by second or foreign language learners who are still in the process of learning a language. It‟s a language system between the target language and the learner‟s native language, and imperfect compared with the target language, but not mere translation from the learner^ native language. For example, when the Chinese student is learning English, he may make errors like “to touch the society”.

7． subordination

【答案】 Subordination refers to the process or result of linking linguistic units so that they have different syntactic status, one being dependent upon the other, and usually a constituent of the other. Thus the subordinate constituents are words which modify the Head. Consequently, they can be called modifiers. In the phrase swimming in the lake , swimming is the head and in the lake are the words modifying the head.

8． Register

【答案】 It is a speech variety used by a particular group of people , usually sharing the same occupation （e.g. doctors, lawyers） or the same interests. A particular register often distinguishes itself from others by having a number of distinctive words, by using words or phrases in a particular way, and sometimes by special grammatical constructions （e.g. legal language）.

二、Essay-question

9． A discussion on Saussure as the father of modem linguistics.

【答案】 Saussure was the first to notice the complexities of language. He believed that language is a system of signs. To communicate ideas, signs must be part of a system of signs, called conventions. He held that the sign is the union of a form （signifier ） and an idea （signified ） , and it is the central fact of language.

By providing answers to questions concerning many aspects of language, Saussure made clear the object of study for linguistics as a science. Saussure exerted two kinds of influence on modem linguistics. First , he provided a general orientation , a sense of the task of linguistics which has seldom been questioned. Second, he influenced modem linguistics.

Many of the developments of modem linguistics can be described as his concepts, i. e. his ideas on the arbitrary nature of sign, on the relational nature of linguistic units, on the distinction of langue and parole and of synchronic and diachronic linguistics , etc. Saussure^ fundamental perception is of revolutionary significance, and it is he that pushed linguistics into a brand new stage and all linguistics in the twentieth century is Saussurean linguistics. That‟s why Saussure is considered being the father of modem linguistics.

10．In interpreting utterances such as（1）and （2），the hearer generally treats the events described in the two sentences in each group as causally related even though such relationship is not encoded in the meanings of the sentences. That is . the hearer tends to think that Helen fell on the ground because of Torn's pushing and that the vase broke because it was dropped. Explain why.

（1）Tom pushed Helen. Helen fell on the ground.

（2）Peter dropped the vase. It broke.

【答案】 The phenomenon described can be illustrated by the theory of cohesion and coherence in discourse analysis , especially the conjunctive kind of cohesive relation. Text processing requires inferences for establishing coherence between successive sentences. The achievement of coherence partly relies on the cohesive relationships within and between the sentences. Cohesion occurs where the interpretation of some elements in the discourse is dependent on that of another.

It is realized partly through grammatical device and partly through lexical cohesion. Conjunction is one of the grammatically cohesive relations. It is based on the assumption that there are forms of systematic relationships between sentences in the linguistic system. Conjunction can be realized by some conjunctive words and some adverbs , such as so , but , furthermore , and so on. But in fact , the conjunctive relation between the discourses need not be realized by conjunctive words, as can be seen in these two examples.

Yet it is not enough for the text to have connections between elements, there is also the coherence which distinguishes connected texts which make sense from those which do not. It enables people to make sense of what they read and hear, and then try to arrive at an interpretation which is in line with their experience of the way the world is. In fact, our ability to make sense of what we read is probably only a small part of that general ability we have to make sense of what we experience or perceive in the world.

Therefore , by the coherence which helps us to connect the discourse with the world we experience, we the hearers will tend to make the discourse fit some situation which could accommodate all the details , and just as in the two examples, the causal conjunctive relations are established.

11．How do you understand the role of linguistic research in social and economic development?

【答案】 To see the role linguistics plays in social and economic development , we could specifically consider the integration of linguistic research with other fields of social life , such as computational linguistics, psycholinguistics, applied linguistics, anthropological linguistics.

As to the applied linguistics , it is undeniable that linguistic research has greatly influenced the language teaching and learning. For example , various linguistic schools have shed insight into the methodology of language teaching , especially foreign language teaching. Those different models of language teaching are all aimed at a more successful and effective language teaching.

As is known , for a human being in the society , communication is very important. In the social communication , linguistic research also made some important interpretations and explanations. Such as Grice‟s Cooperative Principle, Brown& Levinson‟s face and politeness theory, etc, those theories have good inspirations as to how to create a successful communication , and how to avoid and deal with miscommunication

In a word, although without linguistic research society and economics could still develop in their own way , yet linguistics with its effort to explain what is the nature of the activities concerning language , and how these activities works, has undoubtedly made it easier for the social and economic development.

12．It has been observed that women tend to approximate more closely to the standard language than men do. Why do you think this is so?

【答案】 Language is a social, value-loaded practice, which reflects an intricate network of social, political , cultural, and age relationships within a society.

Women‟s speech closely approaches the stand ard variety than the speech of men , this has been explained in terms of a greater consciousness of status on the part of women. Women are more usually more status-conscious than men in the English-speaking world , they are aware of their low status in society and, as a result, use more standard speech forms in their attempt to claim equality or achieve