2018年中国地质大学(北京)外国语学院841综合英语之语言学教程考研核心题库
● 摘要
目录
2018年中国地质大学（北京）外国语学院841综合英语之语言学教程考研核心题库（一） ... 2
2018年中国地质大学（北京）外国语学院841综合英语之语言学教程考研核心题库（二） ... 5
2018年中国地质大学（北京）外国语学院841综合英语之语言学教程考研核心题库（三） ... 9 2018年中国地质大学（北京）外国语学院841综合英语之语言学教程考研核心题库（四） . 12 2018年中国地质大学（北京）外国语学院841综合英语之语言学教程考研核心题库（五） . 15
一、Short-answer-questions
1． What are the major concerns of the Prague School theory?
【答案】 Three points of the Prague School theory are of special importance.
First , it was stressed that the synchronic study of language is fully justified as it can draw on complete and controllable material for investigation.
Second , there was an emphasis on the systemic character of language.
Third , language was looked on as functional in another sense. Based on these ideas, the Prague School practiced a special style of synchronic linguistics, and made great contribution to phonology and the distinction between phonetics and phonology. Its most important contribution is that it sees language in terms of function.
2． How would you describe the oddness of the following sentences, using semantic features?
（a ）The television drank my water.
（b ）His dog writes poetry.
【答案】（a ） The verb drink represents a behavior of the animate beings, therefore, it is required that the subject of this verb should have a semantic feature as （+ANIMATE） , however, the word television , which is in position of subject, has an opposite feature:（-ANIMATE ） . That’s why such a collocation results in oddness.
（b ） The action of writing poetry is normally one which only human beings could do, therefore, the subject is required to have a semantic feature as （+HUMAN） ; however, the word dog in the subject position is featured as （-HUMAN ） . Therefore, the sentence is odd.
3． A number interesting word-formation processes can be discerned in the following examples. Can you identify what is going on in these?
（a ） The deceased’s cremains were scattered over the hill.
（b ） He's always taking pills, either uppers or downers.
【答案】 The words “deceased” “upper” and “downer” have undergone a process of class shift. By shifting the word class one can change the meaning of a word from a concrete entity or notion to a process or attribution. This process of word formation is also known as zero-derivation, or conversion. In the sentences above, “deceased”，“upper” and “downer” are originally adjectives, meaning “dead”，“higher” and “lower” respectively; in the sentences above, however, they mean “dead people”，“a drug used as a stimulant.” and “a depressant or sedative drug”，which are nouns.
4． How would you describe this short exchange in terms of the ardors performed by the speakers?
Motorist : My car needs new exhaust system.
Mechanic : Fll be busy with this other car all day.
【答案】 In the motorist’s utterance ，there are two types of speech acts performed , namely representative and directive，and as to the latter one, it is recognized as an indirect speech act, which is performed through the performance of the former one. Thus, by stating that his car needs new exhaust system , the motorist has in fact asked the mechanic to equip a new exhaust system for him.
Similarly ，in the mechanic’s utterance , there are two types of speech acts performed ; one is representative , the other commissive. The commissive speech act in fact is an indirect one since it is recognized through the performance of representative action. That is to say, by stating that he will be busy with another car all day, the mechanic has in fact told the motorist that he could not repair his car right away.
二、Essay-question
5． How do you compare the traffic light system with a human linguistic system?
【答案】 Both the traffic light system and human linguistic system can symbolize some information in communication whereas the linguistic system is more complicated. However , the linguistic system has several distinctive features no other systems have , including the traffic light system.
（1）Language is arbitrary which means that there is no logical connection between meanings and sounds. But in traffic light system , there are direct logical connections between the light signals and their meanings.
（2）Language is hierarchical, thafs to say linguistic system has 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. However, the traffic light system has no hierarchical system and the structure is composed by a single level.
（3）Language is productive. By creativity we mean language is resourceful because of its duality and its excursiveness. Because of duality, speaker is able to combine the basic linguistic units to form an infinite set of sentences, most of which are never before produced or heard. But there is no recursive nature in traffic light system which means that it can not produce new meaning.
6． Why do you think that, all other things being equal, women use more standard variants of stable sociolinguistic variables than men?
【答案】 Language is a social, value-loaded practice, which reflects an intricate network of social, been explained in terms of a great political, cultural, and age relationships within a society.
Womens speech closely approaches the standard variety than the speech of men , this has 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 high social status. In a sense, they are up in arms against men's society. The status of men has been traditionally defined by their occupation and wealth, while women have had to find other ways of establishing their position and one of these has been their speech.
A second explanation relates to the ways in which society treats women. Women are expected to
behave better than men, traditionally, just as society has been harsher on women with regard to such vices as promiscuity and drunkenness，a better standard of language may have been required.
A third explanation is that, by using standard or polite forms, a woman is trying to protect her face. In other words , a woman claims more status in society. Her greater use of standard forms may also imply that she does not attend solely to her own face needs but also to those of the people she is interacting with, thus avoiding disagreement and seeking agreement and rapport.
7． 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 s tandard 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 high social status. In a sense , they are up in arms against men's society. The status of men has been traditionally defined by their occupation and wealth , while women have had to find other ways of establishing their position and one of these has been their speech.
A second explanation relates to the ways in which society treats women. Women are expected to behave better than men, traditionally, just as society has been harsher on women with regard to such vices as promiscuity and drunkenness，a better standard of language may have been required.
A third explanation is that, by using standard or polite forms, a woman is trying to protect her face. In other words , a woman claims more status in society. Her greater use of standard forms may also imply that she does not attend solely to her own face needs but also to those of the people she is interacting with, thus avoiding disagreement and seeking agreement and rapport.