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2018年东北农业大学文法学院828英语语言文学综合知识之语言学教程考研核心题库

  摘要

一、Fill-in-the-blanks

1. _____ is concerned with the inherent meaning of the linguistic form.

【答案】Sense

【解析】涵义是指语言形式的内在意义。

2. Affix is the collective term for the type of formative that call be used only when added to another morpheme.Affixes are limited in number in a language, and are generally classified into three subtypes, namely , prefix, suffix , and_____.

【答案】infix

【解析】词缀是那些只能附着于另一个语素(词根或词干)上的一类语素的总称。词缀都是粘着语素,可分 为前缀、中缀和后缀三种。

3. The term _____ originates from Malinowski’s study of the functions of language performed by Trobriand Islanders. It refers to the social interaction of language.

【答案】phatic communion

【解析】寒暄功能是指那些有助于确立和维持人际关系的表达,最先由Malinowski 提出。

4. MT can be divided into two types:_____and_____.

【答案】unassisted MT, assisted MT

【解析】机器翻译可以分为两类:不需要帮助的和需要帮助的。

5. A_____is a mixed and limited language used for some practical purposes by groups of people who do not know each other’s languages.

【答案】pidgn

【解析】“洋泾浜”语的定义

6. Semantics and_____ investigate different aspects of linguistic meaning.

【答案】pragmatics

【解析】语义学研究词作为词的意义,语用学是在语境中研究意义。

二、Explain-the-fllowing-terms

7. 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.

8. Lingua franca

【答案】 It is language that is used for communication between different groups of people, each speaking a different language , lhe lingua franca could be an internationally used language of communication (e. g. English) , it could be the native language of one of the groups, or it could a language which is not spoken natively by any of the groups but has a simplified sentence structure and vocabulary and is often a mixture of two or more languages.

9. Idiolect

【答案】 Just as every speech community has a dialect, every speaker has his own pet words and expressions and special way of expressing his ideas in language. This language variety of individual users is called “idiolect”

10.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”.

11.Textual function

【答案】 Textual function : The textual function is one of the three meta-functions language is composed of. It refers to the fact that language has mechanisms to make any stretch of spoken or written discourse into a coherent and unified text and make a living message different from a random list of sentences.

三、Essay-question

12.Make comments upon the relationship between arbitrariness, convention, and motivation.

【答案】 Arbitrariness of language makes it potentially creative ; a conventionality of language makes a language be passed from generation to generation, and makes learning a language laborious. The link between a linguistic sign and its meaning is a matter of convention.

The terms motivation and constraint describe the extent to which the signified determines the signifies The form of the signifier of a generalized car or a traffic sign is determined by the convention that is accepted by the users of the code.

Motivated signs are iconic signs; they are characterized by a natural relation between signifier and signified. A portrait or a photograph is iconic , in that the signifier represents the appearance of the signified. The faithfulness or the accuracy of the representation —the degree to which the signified is re-presented in the signifier —is an inverse measure of how conventionalized it is. It is important to recognize that (i ) in signs of high motivation, the signified is the determining influence, and (ii ) in signs of low motivation, convention determines the form of the signifier. Therefore, convention plays a

key role in our understanding of any sign. Convention serves as the social dimension of signs. We may not understand the unmotivated verbal sign for car the French use, but we understand the road signs in France in so far as they are iconic.

13.Semantic change plays a very important role in widening the vocabulary of a language.

【答案】 Semantic change plays a very important role in widening the vocabulary of a language. Since language is symbolic, each word serves as a symbol in relation to a specific meaning. In this sense, we need infinite numbers of words or symbols to code the physical entities and our experiential concepts. But this is impossible for communication. Therefore, users give a new concept to an old form, thus the meaning of a form is multiplied. There are three kinds of semantic changes , namely , broadening , narrowing , and meaning shift. Class shift and folk etymology also contribute to change in meaning.

Semantic broadening refers to the process in which the meaning of a word becomes more general or inclusive than its historically earlier denotation. For example, the word holiday used to mean “holy day” in religious English. It means “a day for rest” today regardless of its religious nature , and hence its meaning is widened.

Semantic narrowing is a process in which the meaning of a word becomes less general or inclusive than its historically earlier meaning. For example, the Old English word “hund” (“hound”)was once used for any breed of dog; whereas in Modem English its meaning has been narrowed to a particular kind of dog.

Semantic shift is a process of semantic change in which a word loses its former meaning and acquires a new , sometimes related ,meaning. For example , the word “silly” meant “happy” in Old English , and “naive” in Middle English,but “foolish” in Modem English.

14.Read the following sentence and illustrate the ideas behind this statement: "'Register is the term used in linguistics to describe the relationship between a particular style of language and its context of use.99

【答案】 The register is what you are speaking at the time, depending on what you are doing and the nature of the activity in which the language is functioning. A register can be defined as a configuration of meanings that are typically associated with a particular situational configuration of field, mode , and tenor. Therefore, a register must also include the expressions, the lexico-grammatical and phonological features , which typically accompany or realize these meanings. Text can be seen as an instance of a register.

Register is seen as the linguistic consequence of interacting aspects of context , which Halliday calls “field, tenor, and mode.” Field refers to the topics and actions which language is used to express. Tenor denotes the language users, their relationships to each other, and their purposes. Mode refers to the channel through which communication is carried out. These three contextual variables are intended to help the linguist tie linguistic analysis to the relevant contextual variables. By understanding the semiotic properties of a situation (i.e. , the values for field, tenor, and mode) , language users can predict the meanings that are likely to be exchanged and the language likely to be used. And while people are communicating they make predictions by using the values of field , tenor and mode to understand register and that their assessment facilitates their own participation.