当前位置：问答库＞考研试题

一、Explain-the-fllowing-terms

1． 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.

2． Conceptualism

It is the view which holds that there is no direct link between a linguistic form and what it 【答案】

refers to; rather, in the interpretation of meaning they are linked through the mediation of concepts in the mind.

3． Speech community

【答案】 Speech community is a group of people who share a set of norms and expectations regarding the use of language. Speech communities can be members of a profession with a specialized jargon , distinct social groups like high school students or hip-pop fans. In addition, online and other mediated communities, such as many internet forums, often constitute speech communities. Members of speech communities will often develop slang or jargon to serve the group's special purposes and priorities.

4． basic level category

【答案】 Basic level category is the most economical level at which you can find the most relevant information. The information on our interactions with objects in the real world are stored at this level. It is at this level that we conjure up the general gestalt of the category.

5． Achievement test

【答案】 Achievement test is a test which measures how much of a language someone has learned with reference to a particular course of study or program of instruction.

6． Hyponymy

Hyponymy. It refers to the sense relationship between a more general, more inclusive and 【答案】

a more specific word. The word which is more general in meaning is called the superordiante, and the more specific words are called its hyponyms. For example , the hyponymy relationship could be established between “animal” and “rabbit”.

7． 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.

8． Coarticulation

Coarticulation refers to the phenomenon of sounds continually show the influence of their 【答案】

neighbors. For example , as in lamb , when a is followed by m , the velum will begin to lower itself during the articulation of a so that it is ready for the following nasal. When such simultaneous or overlapping articulations are involved, we call the process coarticulation. If the sound becomes more like the following sound, it is known as anticipatory coarticulation. If the sound displays the influence of the preceding sound, it is preservative coarticulation.

二、Essay-question

9． What is communicative competence? How should we develop it in our foreign lauguage learning?

【答案】 Communicative competence is what a learner knows about how a language is used in particular situations for effective and appropriate communication. Communicative competence includes knowledge of the grammar and vocabulary, knowledge of rules of speaking, knowledge of how to use and respond to different types of speech acts and social conventions , and knowledge of how to use language appropriately.

In order to develop communicative competence in our foreign language learning, language learners are encouraged to deal with accomplishing actions, which are believed to help them acquire the target language. Two types of tasks are usually required to be performed by the learners: real-world tasks and pedagogical tasks. For example, students may be asked to work or discuss in groups.

Besides , teachers can adopt the communicative syllabus which aims at the learner‟s communicative competence. It teaches the language needed to express and understand different kinds of functions, and emphasizes the process of communication.

10．Read the following quote from Chomsky. What do you think about Chomsky^ criticism and the revival of corpus linguistics?

It seems clear that the description which is of greatest psychological relevance is the account of competence , not that of performance, for anyone concerned with intellectual processes, or any question that goes beyond mere data arranging, it is the question of competence that is fundamental. ...

These rather obvious comments apply directly to study of language, child or adult. This it is absurd to attempt to construct a grammar that describes observed linguistic behaviour directly ，…a direct record —an actual corpus —is almost useless as it stands , for linguistic analysis of any but the most superficial kind. ...

【答案】 Regarding linguistics as a branch of psychology, Chomsky insisted that what should be

studied is linguistic competence , not performance. As he has claimed , the description of language performance only tells what is there, and is very inadequate in telling why language performs in the way as it does, or rather, how the intellectual processes affects it.

What ＇s more, language performance is more than often degenerated; there are false statements, hesitations , and so on. Therefore, the corpus linguistics which is based on the language performance is somewhat distorted from the goal of linguistics. Because, according to Chomsky, what linguistics is aimed for , should be the discovering of the constants , the general principle which all languages are constructed and operated as systems of communication in societies in which they are used.

Therefore , he suggested the construction of universal grammar, which is the ideal knowledge of language , is what linguists should be concerned with , and the postulation of grammar based on the observed behavior is also a distortion.

11．Illustrate “Immediate Constituent Analysis”.

The relation between a sentence and its component elements is generally referred to as the 【答案】

relation between a construction and its constituents , in which a very important notion is immediate constituent analysis, IC Analysis for short.

The immediate constituent analysis may be defined as： the analysis of a sentence in terms of its immediate constituents—word groups （or phrases ） , which are in turn analyzed in to the immediate constituents of their own, and the process goes on until the ultimate constituents are reached.

The immediate constituent analysis of a sentence may be carried out with brackets or with a tree diagram. The criterion for the immediate constituent analysis is substitutability: whether a sequence of words can be substituted for a single word and the structure remains the same. Through IC analysis, the internal structure of a sentence may be demonstrated clearly, and ambiguities, if any, will be revealed.

For example: the IC structure for the sentence “The boy ate the apple.” is:

1）

Tree diagram

12．What are the unique features of Halliday’s systemic linguistics?

【答案】 Halliday‟s Systemic Grammar is different from other linguistic theories in the following aspects. First, it attaches great importance to the sociological aspects of language.

Secondly , it views language as a form of doing rather than a form of knowing. It distinguishes linguistic behavior potential from actual linguistic behavior.

Thirdly , it gives a relatively high priority to description of the characteristics of particular languages and particular varieties of languages.

Fourthly , it explains a number of aspects of language in terms of dines （i.e. ungrammatical —>more unusual —> less unusual—>less usual —> grammatical）.

Fifthly , it seeks verification of its hypotheses by means of observation from texts and by means of statistical techniques.