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一、Essay-question

1． Can you make a brief introduction to Systemic-Functional Grammar?

【答案】 Stemming from Firth‟s theories in the London School, Halliday‟s Systemic-Functional （SF ） Grammar is a socially oriented functional linguistic approach and one of the most influential linguistic theories in the 20th century , exerting a strong impact on various disciplines related to language , such as language teaching , sociolinguistics , discourse analysis , stylistics , and machine translation.

It actually has two components : Systemic Grammar and Functional Grammar. They are two inseparable parts for an integral framework in Halliday^ linguistic inquiry. Systemic Grammar aims to explain the internal relations in language as a system network, or meaning potential. And this network consists of subsystems from which language users make choices. Functional Grammar aims to reveal that language is a means of social interaction, based on the assumption that language system and the forms that make it up are inescapably determined by the users or functions which they serve.

2． What , in your view , makes a text a text , rather than a series of unconnected utterances? What are the implications of your answer for second language teaching?

【答案】 The factor to distinguish connected texts which make sense from those which do not is usually described as coherence. Coherence is traditionally described as the relationships that link the ideas in a text to create meaning for the readers, apart from cohesive devices. It should be noticed that cohesion by itself would not be sufficient to enable us to make sense of what read or hear; it is quite easy to create a highly cohesive text which has a lot of connections between the sentences, but which remains difficult to interpret. And coherence , as the invisible net of a text , performs a function of “connectedness” which makes the text interpretable to people.

Regarding the importance of coherence to a whole text, it seems necessary for a teacher of SFL to help students develop coherence in writing. Research has found that in their writing, ESL/EFL students focus almost exclusively on the word and sentence levels rather than the level of the whole discourse, that is , textual coherence. A pedagogical focus on coherence can shift students' attention from sentence-level grammar to discourse features such as textual structuring and propositional unity, which are crucial to creating meaning in texts. Indeed, helping students improve the coherence of their writing ought to be a significant aspect of L2 writing instruction.

To help students focus on coherence in writing , it is essential that teachers have a thorough understanding of what makes a text coherent. As is shown in the composition text books , it seems common to regard coherence simply as connectedness between sentences , use of explicit cohesive devices at the paragraph level, and use of connective devices such as pronouns, repetitive structures, and transitional markers. However , coherence should not be narrowed in terms of sentence-level connectedness and paragraph unity rather than discourse unity.

Thus , to help students create coherence in their writing, it is necessary for teachers to pay more attention in the broader sense of coherence.

3． Advantages and Disadvantages of Immediate Constituent Analysis （IC Analysis）.

【答案】 Through IC analysis, the internal structure of a sentence may be demonstrated clearly, and if there is any ambiguity, it could be revealed. For example, how the sentence “Leave the book on the shelf” is ambiguous could be shown after the IC analysis.

However , there are also problems in IC analysis. First, at the beginning, some advocators insisted on binary divisions, that is, any construction, at any level, will be cut into two parts. But this is not always possible. For example, in the phrase “men and women”，it is not appropriate to combine “and” with only the preceding part or only the succeeding part. Second , constructions with discontinuous constituents will pose technical problems for tree diagrams in IC analysis. For example, in “make it up” the phrasal verb “make up” is separated by a pronoun. Third，which is also the most serious problem; there are structural ambiguities which cannot be revealed by IC analysis, as shown in “the love of God”. In IC analysis，the different relations of “God” to the word “love” cannot be shown which makes the expression ambiguous.

二、Short-answer-questions

4． What is the purpose of studying language and mind?

【答案】 The study of language and mind aims to model the workings of the mind in relation to language ; for example, it helps explain how the language production and perception is achieved. Since structures and connections in the mind are inevitably unobservable, researchers put forward hypotheses based on fragmentary clues. The label most usually given to the study of “language and mind” is psycholinguistics ，a term which is often perceived as being trendy. Psycholinguistics is concerned primarily with investigating the psychological reality of linguistic structures.

5． What is reference?

Reference means what a linguistic form refers to in the real, physical world; it deals with 【答案】

the relationship between linguistic elements and non-linguistic world of experience.

Reference in its wider sense would be the relationship between a word or phrase and an entity in the external world. For example, the word tree refers to the object “tree”.

Reference in its narrower sense is the relationship between a word or phrase and a specific object, e.g. a particular tree or a particular animal. For example, Peter's horse would refer to a horse which is owned , ridden by, or in some way associated with Peter.

6． 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.

7． What are the four obvious barriers to adult L2 acquisition?

【答案】 A variety of explanations have been put forward for the apparent decline in adults:

Physical factors such as the loss of “plasticity” in the brain and “lateralization” of the brain; social factors such as the different situations and relationships that children encounter compared to adults ; cognitive factors such as the interference with natural language learning by the adulfs more abstract mode of thinking; and input factors that adults spend only a few hours each week of school time, rather than via the constant interaction experienced by a child, with a lot of other occupations.

三、Synthesis

8． Define the following terms.

design features （2）function （3）synchronic （4）diachronic （5）prescriptive （6）（1）

descriptive

arbitrariness （8）duality （9）displacement （10）phatic communion （11）metalanguage （7）

（12）macrolinguistics （13）competence （14）performance （15）langue （16）parole

【答案】 （1）the distinctive features of human language that essentially make human language distinguishable

from languages of animals.

（2） the role language plays in communication or in particular （e. g. to express ideas, attitudes）

social situations （e. g. religious, legal）.

（3）said of an approach that studies language at a theoretical “ point” in time.

（4）said of the study of development of language and languages over time.

（5） to make authoritarian statement about the correctness of a particular use of language.

（6）to make an objective and systematic account of the patterns and use of a language or variety. （7）the absence of any physical correspondence between linguistic signals and the entities to which they refer.

（8） the structural organization of language into two abstract levels: meaningful units （e. g. words ） and meaningless segments （e. g. sounds, letters）.

（9） the ability of language to refer to contexts removed from the speaker s immediate situation.

（10）said of talk used to establish atmosphere or maintain social contact.

（11） a language used for talking about language

（12） a broad conception of linguistic enquiry, including psychological, cultural, etc.

（13）unconscious knowledge of the system of grammatical rules in a language.

（14）the language actually used by people in speaking or writing.

（15）the language system shared by a „„ speech community”.

（16）the concrete utterances of a speaker.